SUBJECTING pupils to too many exams is harming their education and "casting a shadow" over Scotland's classrooms, experts warned last night.
Pupils aged 5-14 are sitting tests in three or more subjects set by some local authorities, often administered more than once during the academic year.
They may also be chosen to take part in the Scottish Survey of Achievement (SSA) sample during
which pupils can be tested up to six times a year with the tests repeated every couple of months to check if they have improved.
Furthermore, a number of teachers, feeling pressurised to achieve good results, are believed to be "prepping" pupils for the exams by setting even more tests.
A pupil could sit a minimum of 12 tests in a year, some without warning or preparation time.
Ronnie Smith, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, (EIS) said the blame lay with council education chiefs who were "addicted" to testing and league tables.
"Many authorities seem unable to cure their addiction to excessive testing in schools and continue to favour the flawed 'league-table' approach to measuring school success," Mr Smith said.
"This is in direct contradiction to current national educational priorities and has a negative impact on learning and teaching in schools."
Mr Smith said over-testing was leading to an "easy tick box" method of measuring attainment which failed to focus on what steps could be taken to rectify weaknesses identified.
"Local authorities have a big industry in over-simplified judgements being made about how well or how badly a school is doing. Understandably a lot of money is going into education but the result is that everything is reduced to an easy tick box.
"This hunger for simple statistics which can be easily digested is not capturing the complexity of the picture. We should be focussing on appropriate tests to assist youngsters and analyse where there are blocks."
Mr Smith added that the focus on subjects such as language, numeracy and literacy bypassed pupils who were less academic but doing well in areas such as music, physical education and a range of vocational studies.
"There is always the danger that teachers teach to the tests they know that the authorities will be concentrating on for their league tables meaning that other subjects may get less input."
The end of formal national tests in 2002-3 and the introduction of the SSA have not ended "excessive testing regimes" in many councils according the EIS.
The SSA takes a random sample of pupils in P3, P5, P7 at primary school and those in S2 at secondary school, up to age 14. They are tested in subjects such as English language and other core skills including numeracy.
The exercise usually involves up to 28,000 pupils in around 1,300 schools.
Bart McGettrick, formerly professor of education at Glasgow University, said the problem lay in finding a reliable indicator showing education expenditure gave value for money.
"But the absence of any other reliable assessment testing takes on an aura, the stakes become higher, and the deeper the shadow cast over teachers and pupils becomes," he said.
Professor McGettrick added: "This is all part of a widespread social malaise that everything has to be measured.
"We must not also not forget the pressure detrimental effect on a child who is not successful in doing well and is repeatedly tested."
QUESTIONS GALOREDIFFERENT tests are given to pupils depending on their level of ability.
Danny Melville, 12, from Edinburgh, was tested in reading, mathematics and writing in his final year at the Royal Mile Primary School.
"The maths test meant doing ten questions in your head and then you had to do another 25 written questions on your own.
"For the writing test we were given a story which was a quarter written and had to finish it keeping to the same style and bringing it to an appropriate end.
"We were given a story or non-fiction book for the reading test and then given 20-25 questions on things like "what kind of genre was it?" and "what was the author trying to achieve?"
