The Education and Skills Select Committee's decision to investigate theissue comes after Ken Boston, the chief executive of the Qualificationand Curriculum Authority, said only a small proportion of pupils wouldneed to take key stage tests at age seven, 11 and 14 to give a nationalpicture of performance. "You could run sample tests alongside theNational Curriculum tests for perhaps three years before moving to a mixof national sampling and progress teaching," Boston said.
Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Sarah Teather welcomed theremarks and said "national tests should be scrapped so teachers canfocus on personalising their teaching".
But a spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "TheGovernment's clear policy is to retain externally marked tests for everypupil."
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