TEACHERS are threatening to boycott new standardised national school tests if councils press ahead with plans to make all pupils sit them at the same time.

Under the new Scottish National Standardised Assessments pupils will be tested four times throughout their school life in P1, P4, P7 and S3 to help judge progress in reading, writing and numeracy.

Guidelines state that teachers, in consultation with schools and councils, should decide when, within each year, is the most appropriate time "to understand how individual children are progressing".

Herald View: Pupil testing row has done little to help our schools

However, teaching unions have warned that at least 12 local authorities are telling schools when they expect pupils to sit the tests - raising concerns they are being used to judge teachers rather than help pupils.

The row blew up as John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister and Education Secretary, prepares to announce that the Scottish Government does not intend to collect pupil data from the tests.

Mr Swinney will tell the International Conference on Improvement in Glasgow today that national trend data will be collected from the assessments, but not sufficient detail to create school league tables.

The Scottish Government will continue to publish school by school information on the levels pupils have reached in literacy and numeracy within the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) based on wider teacher judgements.

Herald View: Pupil testing row has done little to help our schools

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), warned councils that intended to force schools to implement blanket testing faced local disputes, with ultimate sanctions including a boycott.

He said: "We have concerns around standardised tests being used to compare schools and we have worked hard with the Scottish Government to make these assessments classroom focused so they help pupils.

"The Scottish Government has issued clear guidelines around not testing whole groups of pupils together at a fixed time of the year.

"However, the concern that is now developing is that a number of councils are reinterpreting the guidance in a way that we would find unacceptable."

Mr Flanagan said around a dozen councils had suggested a "window" within which they expected the tests to be implemented.

For some authorities this was being considered at the end of the school year - which unions believe is too late if the tests are to be used to help teachers "diagnose" pupils' strengths and weaknesses.

Herald View: Pupil testing row has done little to help our schools

Mr Flanagan added: "We are pressuring Scottish Government to make clear what is expected and I will be writing to all council directors of education.

"The advice to our local associations is that, if necessary, a dispute should be lodged with the ultimate sanction being a boycott."

A government spokesman confirmed the scheduling of tests was up to schools.

He said: “Schools will do them at the time of their choosing within the auspices of local authority guidance. We are not prescribing that.

“This is not a set of primary exams or tests that will all be sat at the one time across the country.

“This is to help teachers and it could be done diagnostically in the early part of the year or towards the later part of the year to gather evidence. That is a choice for teachers.” 

The tests were introduced because the Government does not believe different standardised assessments used by schools provide sufficient national evidence to establish whether progress is being made in basic skills.

In addition, school level CfE levels published for the first time last year showed a significant disparity across Scotland in the way in which teachers were interpreting the performance of pupils.

However, critics fear introducing any standardised assessment that compares pupils in different schools encourages teachers to “teach to the test”.

Herald View: Pupil testing row has done little to help our schools

There are also fears it could lead to the publication of league tables.

Earlier this year, the EIS approved a motion put forward by its East Renfrewshire local association at its trade union’s annual general meeting in Perth.

It ratified a boycott of the administration of tests if the union believed them to be “detrimental to learning and teaching”.

The tests were introduced because the government does not believe different standardised assessments used by schools provide sufficient national evidence to establish whether progress is being made in basic skills.

In addition, school level CfE levels published for the first time last year showed a significant disparity across Scotland in the way in which teachers were interpreting the performance of pupils.

However, critics fear introducing any standardised assessment which compares pupils in different schools encourages teachers to ‘teach to the test’ and could lead to the publication of league tables.

Earlier this year the EIS approved a motion at its annual general meeting which ratified a boycott of the administration of tests if the union believed them to be "detrimental to learning and teaching".