Scottish councils are spending more than £1 million a year on testing pupils in English and maths in primary and early secondary, TESS can reveal.

A TESS survey of Scotland’s 32 local authorities has found that standardised testing cost the councils at least £1,052,782 in the past year. The true cost to the Scottish purse is likely to be considerably higher, however, with four councils failing to respond.

The EIS teaching union condemned the seven figure spend, saying it “reflected an unwillingness to accept teachers’ professional judgement”.