PRIMARY schools should be provided with a national bank of tests as part of moves to close the attainment gap, according to a leading academic.

More than three-quarters of Scottish councils currently purchase standardised tests from England to identify how well pupils are progressing because similar resources are not available north of the Border.

Professor Sue Ellis, from Strathclyde University's school of education and the Joseph Rowntree research charity, said she supported standardised tests - but stressed pupils across the country should not be required to sit the same tests at the same time to avoid the compilation of league tables.

The intervention comes after the reintroduction of controversial national standardised tests was suggested as a way of improving standards, despite the fact critics argue the simply encourage school staff to "teach to the test".

Giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament's education committee, Professor Ellis said: "Having a national bank of surveys and tests which schools can decide when and which years they are going to test and how they are going to use that information... is actually one of the most useful things that you can do.

"We need a national banks of surveys and tests that schools can call on because you don't want to see that much money just walking south of the Border to buy things we could provide more cheaply and more responsively."

The call came as the committee took evidence on the Scottish Government's Education (Scotland) Bill which will place a statutory duty on councils to report to Holyrood on the progress they are making on closing the attainment gap every two years.

Iain Glennie, a professional officer with the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association, backed the legislation, but said greater levels of resources were needed.

However, Keir Bloomer, an advisory member of the Reform Scotland think tank, said the legislation would have a "negligible" impact on closing the attainment gap.

He said: "We will get lots of bureaucratic action, we will get lots of reports, most of them in competition with each other trying to demonstrate huge quantities of activity, but that is not, after all, the purpose of what is being put forward.

"What is being put forward is basically a statement of aspiration and looking through the evidence the only argument in favour of putting such an aspiration into law is that it will help to raise awareness, but that is addressing a problem we do not have.

"Scotland has been aware of this problem for the best part of half a century, successive governments in good faith have made all kinds of initiatives to tackle it but the success achieved has so far been negligible."