ALL Scottish pupils will sit new standardised national tests in literacy and numeracy by 2017, the First Minister has announced.

Nicola Sturgeon said primary pupils would be tested when they start school, after four years and before they leave to go to secondary in P7.

They will be piloted in a number of target schools in 2016 and be mandatory for third year secondary pupils.

It came as the First Minister unveiled her final programme for government

before the next Holyrood election in May.

She revealed eight new pieces of legislation but also indicated how she planned to use soon to be devolved new tax and welfare powers. Police Scotland will also undergo a root and branch review after a series of controversies.

On the school tests, Ms Sturgeon said the results would be published annually to show where the system needed to improve, raising the possibility of unpopular league tables.

Schools will also be tasked with making year on year improvements leading to concerns teachers will be under pressure to secure better test scores regardless of the academic ability of their pupils.

Ms Sturgeon said it was not her intention for the new test results to be seen as the most important measure of pupil progress under the existing Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).

She said: "These new assessments will introduce greater consistency to CfE. They will provide reliable evidence of a child's performance or progress, but they will not be the sole measurement.

"This is not about narrowing the curriculum or forcing teachers to teach to a test. It is not a return to the national testing of old and the assessments will inform teacher judgment and not replace it.

"They will provide robust and consistent evidence to help teachers judge whether or not a child is achieving the required level of CfE."

Ms Sturgeon said the workload on teachers would also not be increased because the tests would replace those already used by local authorities.

She said that, over time, the new assessments would replace the current Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy, which recently identified a fall in standards leading to the current plans for a new testing regime.

As The Herald reported yesterday, Ms Sturgeon confirmed national assessments would be developed in partnership with teachers, parents and councils.

The move to introduce national tests, scrapped in Scotland in 2003 by the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition, is highly controversial.

Critics fear the introduction of a single test allowing direct comparison between schools serving different communities undermines the education system because primaries which do not perform as well are automatically seen as "failing", even though they may be doing an outstanding job for their pupils.

There are also fears councils use test results to judge teacher performance rather than pupil progress, which leads to school staff focusing all their efforts on "teaching to the test" to get as many pupils through at the expense of their wider education.

Stephanie Primrose, education spokeswoman for council umbrella body Cosla, said: "The announcement could be an extremely positive step for education or, if we are not careful and despite assurances, could turn the clock back to national testing and, whether intended or not, league tables.

"We share the concerns that if not handled correctly this risks being a retrograde step for Scottish education that heaps more pressure on pupils and teachers and leads to inaccurate and unfair comparisons between schools."

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) teaching union said: "The Scottish Government’s intention..... would appear to be designed to build on the ethos of CfE rather than undermining it. It is essential..... safeguards are put in place to avoid the misuse of data generated through the proposed assessment changes."