SNP ignore Parliament with hundreds of thousands of ‘Thatcherite’ P1 tests

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP has today called on the SNP Government to finally end their “Thatcherite” testing of Primary 1 pupils after new research revealed thousands of tests are still taking place despite Parliament voting to ban the assessments six years ago.

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

Six years on, a parliamentary question from Mr Rennie has now revealed that 446,229 tests have been conducted since 2018, including 71,060 last year alone.

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

Mr Rennie said:

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

“But the SNP government is hell-bent on ignoring the will of parliament at every opportunity, effectively telling it to get stuffed.  If Westminster treated them like that, they would be up in arms.

“From the very beginning, teachers have been clear that these tests are too stressful for the four- and five-year-old children subjected to them. They tell teachers nothing they do not already know.

“Government is about choices, and this government have chosen to cut funding for mental health and school meals, all while maintaining a multi-million-pound contract on useless and cruel P1 tests. No wonder people don’t trust the SNP anymore.”