A LEADING charity has attacked new tests for Scottish primary and secondary pupils calling them "inappropriate" and "detrimental".

The accusation from Children in Scotland comes as the controversial plans for testing are to be debated in the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday.

Jackie Brock, the charity's chief executive, said: "There is clear evidence that high stakes standardised testing as proposed.... can have a detrimental affect on all children’s wellbeing. We have particular ethical concerns about this policy.

"Testing P1 children is simply not appropriate for their age or stage of development and we also have serious doubts about the quality of evidence that will be obtainable from pupils in P1.

"Testing of the kind proposed is similarly unsuitable at the other end of the scale in S3 when young people are already under significant exam pressure."

Ms Brock said the charity recognised that assessment was "central" to teaching, but said arrangements should be made by teachers rather than pupils being tested at a set time.

She added: "National standardised testing would be inappropriate and detrimental to pupils and must not be introduced until it can be demonstrated that pupil wellbeing will be unaffected."

The row follows the publication in January of the Scottish Government's flagship National Improvement Framework, which includes the plans for new tests.

The Scottish Government wants the "heart" of the framework to be new national standardised assessments for children in P1, P4, P7 and in the third year of secondary, focussing on progress in literacy and numeracy.

Ministers have decided not to publish the data from the assessments and will instead publish wider attainment levels pupils have reached in literacy and numeracy under existing benchmarks, which are currently based on the professional judgement of teachers.

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union, said "We remain unconvinced of the efficacy of the proposed new standardised assessments and are resolutely opposed to any system of national testing which would introduce benchmarking of the type introduced by the UK Government in English schools."

However, Angela Constance, the Education Secretary, said the National Improvement Framework would ensure the right information about children’s progress was available across Scotland.

She said: "The framework will look at a range of existing and new evidence which will tell us how we are progressing and where support is required for improvement purposes.

"Parents will have access to more information about their children’s education and progress than ever before, on what they are doing well and where they might need extra help.

"One source of data will be a new standardised assessment, focusing on reading, writing and numeracy, but we have no interest in a return to high stakes testing."

Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, announced last year that standardised testing for primary and secondary pupils was to be reintroduced after the biennial Scottish Survey of Literacy found standards of reading and writing were falling despite the introduction of a new curriculum, which was expected to raise basic standards.

Although most councils use standardised tests, the Scottish Government was concerned there was no national picture of how well different schools are performing. In addition, some councils do not collate the existing CfE levels.