An assessment not worth

There has been a proposal in UK to have an assessment of all four year old school going children during their first week in school to check their abilities in language and math. The aim of the assessment is to check how much impact the school really has on the overall development of the child. The results of the test would not be released to the teachers and would in no way be beneficial for the children. While the purpose of the assessment is to check the school quality, it will put unnecessary burden both on the children as well as their guardians. In order to have their wards pass the quality test, the guardians might end up putting them in special coaching classes so that they pass the test. Not passing the test might even put the child with the stigma of being below average and hence, put an extra pressure on the child in the very beginning of his childhood. A similar pattern of entrance tests in India has put tremendous pressure on the parents with children as young as three years of age going for special coaching classes just to pass the test. As there is no data to suggest that four year olds can be tested in tested reliably in their ability, the whole purpose of the assessment is illogical with resulting in no useful information.