The multiplication-tables check (MTC) is planned to become statutory for all Year 4 children from 2020 and a national optional pilot is happening next year.

The big question is, do we actually need it? There’s been no evidence presented by the Department for Education to show that standards of children’s knowledge of multiplication tables are unacceptably low.

Children should, and do, learn their times tables. They are already part of the curriculum; every primary school is teaching them and every child is learning them. Every primary school in the country probably has regular tables tests, and every teacher – and every child’s parents – could tell you which tables each child already knows and which they are working on. So we certainly don’t need a national test – sorry, “check” – to tell teachers what they already know.

And if we do have this national test, what exactly will it tell us? The DfE is clear that it is to test fluid recall of times tables. But knowledge of the multiplication tables is already tested in SATs papers in Year 6 and, more importantly, SATs assess how children can apply this learning. The MTC is arguably a memory test. Children who find memorising difficult will be disadvantaged.

If this test isn’t going to tell teachers or parents anything that they don’t already know, then it is an enormous waste of money in the context of a funding crisis in schools. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show the government expects to have spent more than £5.26 million developing and implementing this new test, which isn’t actually needed. Investment in teacher training and development, and in resources to support teaching and learning strategies in the classroom, would be a better use of money.

The DfE, however, seems determined to press ahead with this. So how could it be made better for schools, teachers and children?

If the test remains a national summative test for all Year 4 children, then a change to the planned use of the data from the test would help. The DfE says that the check is not an accountability measure, but a tool to help teachers monitor a child’s progress and identify those who need extra support. To fulfil this purpose it’s unnecessary for school-level data to be automatically accessible to Ofsted and others outside of the school. We all know that high stakes are attached to schools data available to external organisations – this is what makes it a test, and not a check. The results from this test should be held by the school and used to support children in their learning; shared with governors, Ofsted and others in the context of a discussion about numeracy across the school.

Even better, don’t make it a national Year 4 summative test. As the online test has already been developed, it could be a great resource for teachers to use to assess children on their times tables – easy to use, instant results, no marking. And allow schools to use it when children are ready to take it – for many children this will be in Year 4, but for others it might be later, when they have had the support that they need to get to that point. Provide a function where teachers could select which times tables they want included in the test, and it becomes a differentiated tool where all children can show what they can do throughout their primary years, rather being faced with something they can’t.

The National Association of Head Teachers has made this case to government, strongly and consistently over the past 18 months. The question is, has it been listening?

Sarah Hannafin is senior policy adviser at the NAHT