Heads urge end to 'three Ts' regime

The Government's obsession with the three Ts – testing, targets and exam league tables – must be jettisoned, a senior head teachers' leader said yesterday.

Gareth Matthewson, president of the National Association of Head Teachers, told his association's annual conference in York that the Government's testing regime was "damaging the education of youngsters".

Ministers urged head teachers to be creative and take risks with the curriculum. But Mr Matthewson said the regime of tests at seven, 11 and 14, and GCSEs, AS and A-levels at 16, 17 and 18, as well as targets for each test and exam, and league tables meant "the Government only seems interested in heavy-handed accountability".

Delegates will today debate a call for head teachers to follow the National Union of Teachers in balloting for a boycott of the tests of seven, 11 and 14-year-olds next year. But a more moderate motion, calling for tests for seven-year-olds and league tables to be abandoned, is likely to receive more support.

Mr Matthewson, who is head teacher of Whitchurch comprehensive in Cardiff, also criticised ministers who said poverty was no excuse for low academic performance.

Delegates will also vote to urgeGovernment to give more money to modernise the profession. But experts said £3bn of "new money" would amount to £500m aftercosts of running schools were met.