Heads plan tests boycott

Head teachers are threatening to block the publication of primary school league tables by refusing to release national-test results for 11-year-olds.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) is expected to announce next week that it is advising heads to withhold test results.

Their action will alarm ministers who faced a storm two years ago when teacher unions boycotted national tests. By law, heads are obliged to send test papers to external markers who are under contract to send the results to the Government.

Governments are required also by law to submit results and heads have a legal duty to make results available to governors. Heads say tables will be misleading because they do not take account of pupils' social backgrounds, or differing abilities.

They are angry that Gillian Shephard, the Secretary of State for Education, who said originally that primary league tables would not be published until the tests had bedded down, changed her mind earlier this year. The results of this year's 11-year-old tests which begin on Monday will be published next March.

A spokesman for the Department of Education and Employment said secondary- school performance tables were established and well-used by parents, and the time was right for parents to compare primary schools' performance.