The Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) will not be going digital this September, the government has said in “frustrating” delay.
The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) previously said that the RBA would be carried out digitally from September 2024, but this has been delayed until September 2025.
The delay has been called “frustrating” by one school leaders union as schools will have spent time preparing for the testing change, which was initially set to go digital in the 2024-25 autumn term.
Leaders had previously warned the move to digital assessment could hit stretched budgets and put some pupils at a disadvantage.
The RBA, designed to measure pupils’ English and maths skills when they start primary school, became compulsory in 2021.
Delay is ‘frustrating’ but presents ‘opportunity’
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “It is very frustrating that having spent time preparing for this change, schools are now being told that it will be delayed.”
However, Ms Hannafin added that NAHT members did not feel consulted about the previous changes to the test, and were concerned about how accessible a digital format would be.
“It is better to delay than to go ahead without proper development, testing and user research with schools,” Ms Hannafin continued.
“This delay provides an opportunity for transparency from the STA to share what the user testing shows about children’s and teachers’ experiences of the assessment.”
Digital RBA will need two devices
Under the latest changes, from September 2025, schools will need two devices to administer the RBA.
One device will be used by the teacher to administer the assessment and the pupil will need to use a separate touchscreen device to respond to some of the questions.
Schools must ensure their devices meet the criteria within this guidance to successfully administer the RBA from the 2025-26 academic year, the STA has announced.
The latest changes come after a Teacher Tapp survey revealed that only 3 per cent of Reception teachers think the RBA provides accurate information.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have decided to delay the implementation of the two-device solution to allow us to have more time to develop and test this approach, including by conducting further user research with schools.”
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