Madam, - Education Minister Mr Noel Dempsey proposes testing children at seven and eleven years - to what end?
I was teaching in England in 1990 when the Tory government initiated national testing in schools for the purposes of raising standards.
It has not done so, though it has shown in which schools the pupils fare worst and best. Testing here may do the same but it will not tell us why.
Mr Dempsey and his colleagues in Cabinet know why large numbers in some schools are performing badly but he does not want to offer any remedies. Poverty and inequality will not be eliminated by testing at seven and eleven.
What about drawing up a table of what resources each school can draw on outside of teachers' salaries and capitation grants? What about testing class sizes?
What about publishing a list of schools where the principals have to spend every Monday morning calling on repairs and security to deal with vandalism and destruction of materials over the weekends?
What about showing parents in a disadvantaged area what kind of building their children could be enjoying if they were in a different geographical area?
How will Mr Dempsey allow for the fact that, in some schools, by the time they are seven and after three years at school, the children may not have had the benefit of a trained teacher?
Standards have to be raised indeed.
Testing will not do it, rather it will vindicate the inequalities embedded in our educational system.
Mr Dempsey needs to get together with his colleagues from welfare, health and especially, finance, to provide an equitable primary education to all our citizens and to ensure that parents can be fully informed and assured of their children's progress. - Yours, etc.,
ANNE McCLUSKEY, Avonbeg Park, Tallaght, Dublin 24.