Teachers lift test boycott threat in blow to activists

A threatened boycott of national curriculum tests for 1.2 million children was lifted by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) yesterday, after members delivered a crushing blow to union activists.

A ballot of the union's 103,729 members in primary schools failed to deliver enough votes in favour of the action, which would have wrecked next year's tests for seven to 11-year-olds.

Of the 35,327 who voted, 86.2 per cent backed a boycott, but the size of the turnout failed to meet a requirement in the union's rule book that more than 50 per cent of the electorate had to back the action.

Doug McAvoy, the union's general secretary, who had campaigned for a "yes" vote, said the result sounded a warning bell for union activists.

He said: "Those [who] clamour and call for industrial action after industrial action need to think more carefully before they make these claims."

He said the vote showed that "we're not an organisation that's hell bent on disruption".

But he warned the Government against assuming that opposition to the tests, which the union claimed were too stressful for pupils, would die down. "The result we've got... is fantastic [the 86.2 per cent voting in favour] but it doesn't deliver what we need, so there will be no boycott," he said.

The NUT will now seek to campaign with other teachers' unions and parents to persuade ministers to follow in the footsteps of the Welsh Assembly, which has scrapped tests for seven-year-olds and is reviewing those for 11-year-olds.

Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education, described the vote as "welcome", adding: "A boycott could have been very disruptive. It would have let down pupils and parents. This is also an important moment for the NUT. I hope that they use it to move forward, not back."