Morris tells Balls to reform Sats

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Ed Balls should not resign over the Sats problems - but he should use them as an opportunity to overhaul the testing system, says Estelle Morris.

An "inept" contractor was not an issue for ministerial resignations, said Baroness Morris - the last Labour education secretary to quit the job.

She went in 2002 following a furore over A-level marking problems.

Seeing what her successor faces, she says Mr Balls and his ministers "should be judged on how they sort it out".

Political test

The problems with private contractors and government agencies over the failures with this year's Sats illustrate how difficult it is for political figures to exercise oversight over such an unwieldy system, she says.

Ed Balls should be judged on how he sorts the problem, says Estelle Morris

"The real problem is that it's so big. It has become a huge industry. I'm not sure that it was ever meant to get this big. It's all so high risk," said Baroness Morris.

"I had nothing to do with the A-level mis-marking. I felt at the time, 'This isn't fair, I couldn't possibly have controlled this'. But this is politics and I accepted that."

Rather than stepping down, and once the current crisis is over, she said Mr Balls should face up to the problems with testing in schools.

"My conclusion is that it gives the government an opportunity to look at testing again," she said.

Baroness Morris supports the principle of external tests for 11-year-olds - but she believes that the tests in their current form are having a distorting and disproportionate impact on schools.

Sampling

"There's a mismatch between what's required of schools and what's actually happening - teachers are teaching to the test even though they shouldn't, they are doing practice tests, even though there's no need.

"The government needs to look at the ground and see what is actually happening."

This might mean considering only using a sample of pupils or schools for external monitoring, she says.

Baroness Morris says the "argument has been won" over the need for accountability and testing.

"We can't go back to not putting school performance in the public domain."

But she argues that the government should have the confidence to "open up the debate and ask whether how we test is right".

She says that the recent schools select committee report on assessment and testing had been worthy of more acceptance from government.

'Keep cool'

But as someone who had been caught in an earlier row over marking problems, she says that it can be very difficult for ministers to manoeuvre when under such scrutiny, with any shifting of position characterised as an admission of fault.

The political importance attached to tests, with the government setting targets for improvement, have added to the difficulty in making changes, she says.

This can leave secretaries of state in an isolated position, she says.

"You can get stuck. If you don't watch it you can become the only person defending the status quo."

Even launching an inquiry, as Ed Balls has, can make it difficult for ministers under attack, she says.

In a 24-hours news culture, the delay in waiting for an outcome is filled with speculation and more negative stories.

Her advice to the present schools secretary is to "keep calm, keep cool, keep waiting for the report".

"My only question to him would be: 'Are you absolutely sure that you have set in train a report which will really tell you what happened and which will prioritise getting this year's problems sorted out?'"