Primary schools have found out in the last few days that their targets for this year's KS2 SATs tests are to be upped by 5%, just a few weeks before the tests are to actually take place. Anyone with any common sense would accept that waiting until just 8 weeks before the tests is a ridiculously late time to change school targets, but that is not the worst of it.
In know there are some target nuts who think that by raising targets schools will suddenly achieve more, but that assumes that teachers, or anyone for that matter, only respond to targets and actually don't care about doing the very best job they can anyway. Changing my target at school wont make me do more for the simple reason that I am already doing as much as I can. Nobody actually becomes a teacher for an easy life, but the government seem to think we do it to meet targets, not to teach children.
But for many schools, and this is the real kick in the teeth, the government have not only changed this year's targets, they have also backdated the targets, meaning that schools who achieved their target last year are now being written to and being told that they have not achieved their target after all because the government have backdated the new target to last year's results.
Considering the SATs tests last year were carried out the week after the General Election, there will many people in the education sector, and society as a whole, we will be wondering if they can backdate and retrospectively change their vote. I doubt the government would see this as fair, so why is it okay for them to do this to the education sector ?
