'Sats damage education'

MPs have said that national Sat tests are putting pupils off education, which may interest those seeking teaching vacancies.

The Children Schools and Families Select Committee has the system which could encourage schools to become overly focused on hitting government targets at the expense of achievement in other areas.

Barry Sheerman, the committee's chairman, said: "In an effort to drive up national standards, too much emphasis has been placed on a single set of tests and this has been to the detriment of some aspects of the curriculum and some students."

The findings were backed by teaching unions, including the National Union of Teachers (NUT).

Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the NUT, told the BBC that the report had correctly identified the "poisonous effect" that testing has on education.

However, on BBC Radio Four's Today Programme, schools minister Jim Knight defended the use of national tests in monitoring the progress of pupils, schools and the education system in general.

He also said that Sats are "here to stay".

The Children Schools and Families Select Committee was established in 2007 to oversee the operations of the Department for Children, Schools and Families and other non-departmental bodies, such as Ofsted.