Gosh, I just realised it’s been two weeks since my last blog – it’s really flown by! More talk of exams has been buzzing through our house lately, as my son has been doing the dreaded SAT’s. Actually I think a bit the old block has chipped off, because he seems to be one of those people who finds exams easy – he’s got the exam knack. I was going to give him a bit of a boost with a couple of sessions of hypnosis, but in the end I never got around to it, and he was still fine!

The SAT exams have been in the news lately, because of suggestions that UK children are among the most ‘examined in the world’. I’m not sure if that includes China, where the pressure in education from primary to postgraduate seems to be ferocious, if various documentaries are to be believed. However, there is a growing concern in the UK that the frequency and extent of exams in schools are becoming more of a distraction from education than a contributor to it.

As I’ve said before, exams can have several functions – measure of potential, measure of achievement, predictor and motivator. However, exams, especially pen and paper ones, do only measure a small proportion of a child (or adults) abilities. And in the ‘industrial scale’ education system we have now there is a great tendency to measure what is measureable, rather than measure what matters. As schools find themselves under pressure to perform in league tables, they push (this verb could be anything from ‘encourage’ to ‘demand’) teachers to take time to prepare children for the test. And for what? To increase standards, we are told. And how are these standards judged – by test results of course. Mmmm – tautology anyone?