Heads warn cash shortage could halt national tests

National curriculum tests may be cancelled this year even if teachers call off their boycott, head teachers warned yesterday.

The National Association of Head Teachers told its members to abandon the tests for 7-, 11- and 14-year-olds if the Government fails to provide enough money.

Ministers have promised £30m to pay for external markers for the 11- and 14-year-olds' tests and for supply teachers to cover for teachers carrying out tests.

The Government will provide 60 per cent of the money with 40 per cent coming from local authorities. Heads say some local authorities are warning schools that they may not receive all the money they need. Nottinghamshire may provide no money for supply teachers.

Money for external marking and supply teachers was agreed after a two-year teacher boycott in protest against the extra work involved in marking tests.

The National Union of Teachers, the only union still committed to a boycott, began a ballot of its members at the weekend over whether to lift the ban.

However, David Hart, general secretary of the head teachers' association, said: "The Government believes it is all over, bar the shouting, assuming that the ballot goes the way the union's leadership wants. We don't think it is.

"If the Government wants schools to deliver a full set of results this year then they and local authorities have simply got to put the money up in total. This is a perfectly reasonable position for a head or governing body to take in the best of times financially, never mind what looks set to be the worst of times."

Gillian Shephard, the Secretary of State for Education, has made clear that schools which do not return full test results will have to return the money they were paid for supply teachers. Heads are legally obliged to carry out the tests but the association is advising them to do so only if there is enough money available.

Eric Forth, Minister of State for Education, said: "In the light of widespread support for regular testing of pupils and the provision that has been made for external markers and supply teachers, it would be unacceptable to parents were head teachers unable to comply with their statutory responsibility."

A spokesman for Nottinghamshire county council said the council had bid for funds for supply teachers last year, but had not yet taken a final decision because of government spending cuts and representations from teacher unions.

Mr Hart said his association remained implacably opposed to league tables for 11-year-olds. "Ironically, the Government's arrangements for funding supply cover could lead to the cancellation of more tests than would have been the case purely on the grounds of industrial action."