Many teachers are sceptical about national tests

The government wants to see 85% of 11 year olds in England reach the level expected for their age in both subjects by 2004.

But 59% of the 1,000 teachers surveyed said the target for English would not be achieved and 54% thought schools would not meet it for maths.

In total, 80% of the teachers surveyed wanted national tests for seven year olds to be abolished, while just 15% were in favour.

And just over half (53%) would welcome the abolition of tests at 11(children are tested then in English, maths and science) while 38% would keep them.

The findings come at a time when some educationalists are asking whether school children in England are exposed to too many tests and exams.

Burden

Plans to abolish the tests in Wales and Northern Ireland have already been approved and Scotland has a more flexible system of testing children.

The largest teachers' union, the National Union of Teachers (NUT), recently voted in principle to boycott primary school tests.

Its general secretary Doug McAvoy said the survey was "more evidence of the inappropriateness of these tests and the burden they bring to teachers and the pressure they put on young people without having any clear value".

Measuring progress is fundamental to raising standards and increasing choice

Department for Education

The survey also found many teachers were losing confidence in exam boards' marking after recent problems with GCSE and A-level marking.

It found nearly a third (31%) of secondary school teachers were less than confident that marking standards could be relied on, while 41% of primary teachers were also sceptical.

However, the majority of those surveyed thought the literacy and numeracy strategies had helped improve standards in primary schools.

And 77% thought GCSEs should not be abolished.

The Department for Education has showed no sign of bowing to pressure to drop its policy of testing primary age children, saying it was an important means of measuring progress.

Progress

"Measuring progress is fundamental to raising standards and increasing choice," the spokeswoman said.

"Primary standards have seen the biggest single leap in their history since 1997.

"We are not about to compromise our mission to raise standards further in primary and secondary schools," she said.

And on the survey's prediction that schools would fail to hit the government's national test goals, the spokeswoman said: "We remain confident that together we can achieve the targets."

"Let's not forget that over the last three years English results have shown a 10% point improvement, and the maths results a 12% point improvement."