The national exams sat by under-16s in England's schools should be scrapped, a teaching standards watchdog has urged.Because we're all, well, you know... the same.
The General Teaching Council (GTC) believes the tests are failing to raise standards and placing "added stress" on pupils, teachers and parents.
Every child in England takes a total of eight national curriculum tests, often known as standard assessment tests (Sats), at the ages of seven, 11 and 14, before GCSE and A-Level examinations.
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UPDATE: Canada's already on board
The recognition, coupled with a burgeoning body of research concluding that repeating grades is harmful and doesn't help children catch up, led the board to largely stop failing children in elementary and junior high schools.**********
At the Toronto District School Board, "very, very few" pupils repeat grades, said Tracy Hayhurst, central co-ordinating principal for elementary curriculum.
RELATED: And what's behind door number two?
# UNICEF this year ranked Britain bottom in the league of industrialized nations in terms of the well-being of children. This is a startling fact, given that child welfare has been one of Gordon Brown's chief preoccupations throughout his 10 years at the Treasury.
# Labour has also failed to meet its own targets on the reduction of child poverty, and this despite the extra billions in welfare targeted at parents and carers.
# Britain also has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe, the highest proportion of single mothers, and one of the highest divorce rates.
# Britain ranks top, with France, in western Europe in terms of sexually transmitted disease. It has the highest obesity rate in Europe, with nearly a quarter of inhabitants classified as obese.
# Britain has one of the highest rates of alcohol abuse in Europe, with a quarter of Britons indulging in the sort of binge drinking that every weekend transforms cities and market towns into Hogarthian hellholes.
# Britain also heads Europe in terms of drug abuse. Cocaine use is highest in the United Kingdom, and use among secondary school pupils has doubled in the last year.
# Along with Ireland and Holland, Britain has the highest crime rate in Europe. London has a higher violent crime rate than any other city in the European Union, higher than in Istanbul and New York City.
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