UTU DEMANDS END TO ‘BACK DOOR’ INCAS ACADEMIC TESTING

Teachers are urging the Department of Education to outlaw the controversial InCAS tests as a ‘back door’ to academic transfer at 11.

Members of the UTU, Northern Ireland’s only locally-based teaching union, were due to discuss the issue at their annual conference this year (March 18 and 19) in Newcastle’s Slieve Donard Hotel.

The InCAS tests – online assessments undertaken by years 4-7 pupils in schools – hit the headlines last year when two batches of scores were found to be inaccurate.

The InCAS assessment is primarily designed to produce age-related outcomes and show whether a child is on target in terms of their reading or maths abilities in terms of their age.

“However, because of the unregulated nature of this year’s transfer procedure some parents may have found themselves referring to the InCAS results in a bid to secure a grammar school place for their child,” explained Avril Hall Callaghan.

“Where a child’s performance in the GL or AQE grammar transfer tests was deemed to have been affected by an outside factor eg illness, parents were allowed to lodge evidence of special circumstances – and this could include InCAS scores.

“We demand that the Department of Education removes the statutory reporting to parents of InCAS scores until such time as all partners might agree on the validity of test scores.

“Similarly we continue to urge the Department to apply the InCAS as internal assessment tools for use in individual schools and not for the purpose of transferring pupils at age 11.”