5 years on from vote to ban P1 testing more than 90,000 tests are still taking place each year

On 19th September 2018, the Scottish Parliament voted by 63 votes to 61 for a motion calling for the Scottish Government to halt the tests in P1. The Scottish Government immediately declared their intention to ignore the outcome of this vote.

Five years on, a parliamentary question from Mr Rennie has now revealed that 374,805 tests have been conducted since 2018, including 91,034 in 2022/23, the highest number since parliament voted to ban the tests.

In November 2022 the SNP’s own policy convenor Toni Giugliano describing the testing as "compounding pressures and mental health problems.”  

Ironically the figures have emerged just days before the Scottish Government lead a debate on “Protection of Scottish Parliament Powers.”

Mr Rennie said:

“Scottish Liberal Democrats and education campaigners won a hard-fought parliamentary victory to call for the scrapping of Thatcherite standardised testing of P1 pupils.  

“SNP ministers are hypocrites. When they think there is some political capital to be gained from whinging about UK government overreach they are happy to call for parliamentary debates on protecting the powers of the Scottish Parliament but when the Scottish Parliament gives them a direct order they don’t like, they tell it to get stuffed.

“Teachers have been quite clear that these tests are too stressful for four- and five-year-olds and tell them nothing that they do not know already.

“The Scottish Government are always complaining they don’t have enough money. Well here is an easy decision: Do what parliament asked, tear up the multi-million pound contract for conducting these tests and spend the money elsewhere.”