THE current debate around the reintroduction of national testing for primary pupils in Scotland dates back to the publication of a survey of literacy in April this year.

The biennial Scottish Survey of Literacy - ironically introduced after the scrapping of national tests - found standards of reading and writing were falling despite the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence, which was expected to raise basic standards.

The decline set alarm bells ringing in Bute House and also provided a ready source of material for opposition parties to attack the Scottish Government, even though education is the responsibility of local authorities.

No government likes to be criticised for its record on education and any decline in basic standards is seen as especially toxic, particularly for a First Minister who has prided herself on making education her number one priority.

Against a growing clamour for the reintroduction of national testing from the Scottish Conservatives, Nicola Sturgeon initially refused to rule such a move out and yesterday moved a step closer stating that a national system would "allow us to measure clearly where we're succeeding and where we need to do more".

This, she conceded, would be done even if it meant the construction of league tables of schools which are seen as so damaging to the education system because they take no account of the difficulties experienced by schools with greater numbers of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

But despite Ms Sturgeon's comments on a new national performance framework, we still don't know exactly what that system would look like.

One option would be to mirror the system in England where a series of national curriculum assessments are sat by pupils at key stages in primary and secondary, the results of which are published by the government, but that sort of highly bureaucratic system would be fought tooth and nail by teaching unions.

Another option would be to require all councils to use approved testing materials to establish what levels pupils have reached, but with greater flexibility for teachers to make a judgement about when pupils were ready for them.

The issue with this is that discussions around the assessment regime in primary schools are not born just of a desire to raise standards, but have been provoked by the Scottish Government's view that it needs to have a detailed national overview of the system in order for improvements to be made.

With political accountability resting with national government rather than the councils that run schools that is understandable, but there are a number of issues of concern that need to be thought through carefully.

Rather than operating in an assessment vacuum, thirty out of 32 local authorities in Scotland already use standardised tests which they buy in from universities in England - and which they have been using over the period in which there has been a reduction in standards.

In addition, experience tells us that when the emphasis for improvement is vested in test results teachers start coaching pupils simply to pass the tests. If that happens they cease to be a measure of progress, or a teaching tool, and instead become the raison d’etre of the educational journey.

It is likely a compromise will be reached that will see some form of national tests reintroduced to Scottish primary schools.

The published results, whether in league table form or not, will tell us what we already know that middle class pupils in leafy suburbs outperform those from more disadvantaged backgrounds. Whether testing will also address that unhappy situation is another thing entirely.