Government's "moral purpose" is to help children succeed

David Miliband said tests that set standards and targets that tackled low expectations had played a "vital role" in making England's school improvement an international success story.

The school standards minister was responding to the proposed boycott of the tests for seven and 11 year olds being organised by the National Union of Teachers.

Writing in the Times Educational Supplement, Mr Miliband said a boycott would put this success at risk.

Poorer children

The first "myth" he identified was that testing added nothing to the education process.

Without tests, he said, the evidence of post-war education was that children in poorer areas were "damned by low expectations".

The second myth was that testing limited teaching to pre-set levels.

But a third of pupils were now reaching, by the age of 11, the level expected of 14 year olds - "well beyond the alleged 'glass ceiling'."

The education watchdog, Ofsted, had said schools with the highest standards of achievement combined them with outstanding creativity in teaching and learning - giving the lie to "myth three ... that testing and creativity are incompatible".

"I understand the concern of parents that testing should not overwhelm schooling, but three tests in nine years is not excessive."

Further, far from tests discriminating against poor children, it was the schools with the highest proportion of pupils entitled to free meals that had made the greatest progress in the past six years.

So abandoning or boycotting tests would mostly hit children from poor backgrounds.

"We will not do that. It is our moral purpose to help them succeed."

'Action wrong'

Myth five - other countries did not do it - was not true, he said. Look at the Netherlands, Australia and France, for example.

Finally, "the government refuses to listen".

But he said it was as a result of a dialogue with primary school head teachers that the tests for seven year olds were being changed, with a pilot running next year on giving greater weight to teachers' assessments of children's progress.

Mr Miliband says he believes it is not right to decide national policy through industrial action by "a minority of union members" - which apart form anything else would damage teachers' reputation, he said.

He says plenty of people want to run down the professionalism and achievements of English teachers and pupils.

"Let us not score an own goal in the drive to prove them wrong."

'Biggest myth'

The National Union of Teachers is currently balloting its members on the proposed boycott.

The result is due in mid-December.

In response to Mr Miliband's article, a spokesperson for the union said the biggest myth that the government insisted on perpetuating was that testing improved standards.

"It doesn't. What improves pupils' performance is teaching and learning and teachers' assisting pupils to establish their strengths and weaknesses so their development can be encouraged," she said.