Our children need more teaching and less testing

For many years exams have been used to determine the intelligence of students and their subsequent destiny in life. However, the education system now requires a plethora of exams, often taking place solidly for months on end, by which time students, staff and invigilators must be tired, overworked and disenchanted.

Presumably this is to determine the rank of the school in educational league tables. Given that the purpose of education is to produce sensible, responsible and productive adults, this must be contrary to the needs of society.

Wouldn’t it be better to use that time actually teaching instead of testing?

Intelligence is determined mainly by nature rather than nurture. The main component required to pass exams isn’t necessarily intelligence.

It is simply to have a good memory. In that context, the school has virtually no control over the results of exams, so ranking schools according to exam results is ludicrous.

It is the parents and pupils that change every year who define the school not the previous year’s exams.

Therefore the focus should always be on the students, not on schools. The only beneficiaries of the current system are exam boards and educational quangos.

Michael Cliff, Wall Heath