Minister "rules out" return to national testing

The reintroduction of the controversial national tests was suggested as one way of improving the education system after official surveys of literacy and numeracy showed standards slipping.

But speaking at the annual general meeting of the EIS in Perth Mr Flanagan said Ms Constance had given him a "categorical assurance" that was not the case.

He said: "She was at pains to reassure me that they weren't talking about reintroducing national testing.

"They want to look at what data is in the system and use it more effectively and they want to look at the role of different assessment and we have no difficulty with that.

"As long as it is part of the teaching and learning process and if it is about supporting schools rather than how you benchmark the system."

The comments came as the first strikes over pay and working conditions in Scottish schools for nearly 30 years came a step closer.

The EIS backed the use of industrial action unless progress on salaries is made with local authority employers.

EIS members staged a walk-out in 2011 as part of a wider public sector protest over changes to pensions, but the last time the sector held a strike on pay was in 1986.

The union is demanding a pay increase of 5% to redress an erosion in salary levels over the past few years, but councils offered 2.5% over two years instead, which has been rejected.

Delegates at the agm backed a motion from the union's Dundee local association calling for a campaign for a "restorative" pay deal, adding: "If no satisfactory outcome is forthcoming, members are to be balloted for industrial action up to and including strike action."

David Baxter, from the Dundee local association, told delegates: "We believe that a true restorative pay rise for teachers should be in the region of 13%.

"Teaching is a graduate profession, professionals should be paid professional wages and right now our profession is being under-valued."

However, council umbrella body Cosla called for a "large dose of realism" from teaching unions and urged them to accept a "more than fair and appropriate pay offer in the current financial climate".

Teachers also backed calls for a boycott of internal assessment and marking work undertaken as part of new qualifications introduced by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

The move follows ongoing concern over the amount of additional workload facing teachers following the roll-out of National 4 and National 5 exams, which replaced Standard Grade last summer.

Delegates backed a joint motion from Highland and West Dunbartonshire local associations which called for a ballot of secondary teachers by December 2015 on industrial action "amounting to a boycott of cooperation with SQA..... until such time as the SQA reduces the enormous burden and reforms the nature of internal assessments".

Alison MacDonald, from the Highland local association, said the SQA had "grossly abused the professional trust of teachers".

She added: "We are all aware of the appalling bureaucracy. We are all aware of the detrimental impact on pupils. We now propose to draw a line in the sand because we really cannot have another year like this."

Graham Boyd, from East Ayrshire, said: "Pupils are being bombarded with assessments and are becoming ill. The SQA has become a bureaucratic monster that needs slayed."

Mr Flanagan's intervention on testing came after it was suggested ministers were considering a return to the practice in primary schools.

A system of standard tests for five to 14-year-olds was scrapped in 2003 by Labour's then education minister, Peter Peacock.

The decision followed complaints that teachers were "teaching to the tests" at the expense of giving pupils a broader education. Councils were also frustrated that the tests allowed league tables to be drawn up.

At present, local education authorities have their own separate systems for measuring primary pupils performance.