Tes Scotland broke the news in February 2021 that the Scottish government was still planning to collect data on primary pupils’ literacy and numeracy performance despite Covid-19 disruption.
The EIS teaching union said at the time that continuing to require schools to gather the information in the 2020-21 school year was “a bureaucratic imposition” that would “detract from schools supporting young people”.
And Sue Palmer, chair of Upstart Scotland, pointed out, as a result of the pandemic, P1s had missed the final term of nursery and had only attended school for one term. She said that the focus when they returned should be on building relationships, not testing them on their literacy and numeracy.
To top it all, the equivalent tests in England - the Standardised Assessment Tests or Sats - were cancelled. Later, in May, the Scottish government bowed to pressure and agreed to suspend the collection of data on whether S3 students were attaining the expected level for their age and stage in English and maths - but it pushed ahead with the primary testing regime.
Now, after the publication of the response to a freedom of information request, figures on the uptake of the Scottish tests have come to light.
They show that, overall, 79 per cent of eligible pupils took part in the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSAs) last year, against 94 per cent in 2017-18, 93 per cent in 2018-19 and 41 per cent in 2019-20, when the school year was, of course, badly affected by Covid.
An update from the education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville, that coincided with the end of the 2020-21 school year, said: “This is slightly higher than anticipated given the move to remote learning in January to March: the assessments can only be taken in school.
“P4 and P7 rates are now within a few percentage points of what would have been expected in an uninterrupted year, while P1 rates are slightly depressed by local decisions in Fife (not to use SNSA for P1) and Glasgow (to devolve decision making on P1 presentations to headteachers) so are otherwise not much below ‘normal’ expectation.”
Overall, the figures show that 78 per cent of P1s sat the tests last year; 92 per cent of P4s; 93 per cent of P7s; and 52 per cent of S3s.
The Scottish government does not publish the results of SNSAs. Rather, teachers are expected to use the assessments to inform their judgement about whether or not pupils are hitting the expected level for their age and stage.
The figures on the proportion of pupils reaching the expected level are published every December.
Last month, the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels figures showed that primary literacy and numeracy attainment hit its lowest level last year.
