The idea of spending a lot of time testing and measuring elements of a system when there are evidently fundamental flaws in the system as a whole is clearly an attempt to distract attention away from the flaws. This is true in any setting but in a place where the impact of the testing will not be resolved for fifteen years, and where the decision makers stay in post for 2-3 years it is simply a great excuse for ignoring the problems knowing that in due course someone else much further down the list of ex-incumbents will be held accountable for the failings that you ignored. In 2015 The Government began to examine ways of testing children as they enter education and after several failed attempts to utilise testing mechanisms they decided to try again and their current arrangements are due to be piloted in 2019 with an intention of rolling out the tests across the country by 2020. The testing of the same children as they leave Primary Education will not then take place until 2027. Making a rough guess the likelihood is that it will take until 2030 before any policies are introduced to improve the learning environment. The good news for the Government is that every time they are criticised for failing to invest in primary and early years education, they will be able to point towards these tests as their excuse for not doing anything meaningful, and in effect their lack of focus on this aspect of education will have gone on for around 15 years.

The much more fundamental failing is not that the excuses will last for 15 years or even that the education policies are preventing the best education techniques and resources from being introduced, but that the children being tested will begin their formal education with a sense of being measured and tested and having to perform. That fact that this will damage the children concerned from their first few months in school has been identified by educators as explained in this article. Frustratingly and depressingly there are many much simpler ways of testing learning environments and assessing different approaches without carrying out individual tests on every child. However the problem with such approaches from a Governmental perspective is that the results come back about 14 years quicker when those who asked for the information are still in positions of power and responsible for decision making!