British politicians perform worse than 10-year-olds in maths and English Sats
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British MPs and peers who took a classroom test scored lower on average than 10-year-olds, The Guardian reported.
The Sats exam, invigilated by 11-year-olds, was organized by More Than A Score, which campaigns for scrapping the unnecessary tests.
MPs including Commons education select committee chair Robin Walker took part in the exams.
Only 44% of the cross-party group of parliamentarians were able to perform the expected standard in maths.
The report says that 50% of the MPs and peers achieved the expected standard in spelling, punctuation and grammar.
As for children, 59% of those aged 10 and 11 across the country hit the expected standard in the Sats tests of maths, reading and writing this year, according to the report.
Nevertheless they performed better than adults, the scores they achieved were still down from 65% in 2019, when the tests were previously taken.
More Than A Score hopes the pressure the politicians experienced at the test will convince them that "the exams only judge schools but do not help children's learning" at that age.
Politicians who took the test alongside Walker include his Conservative colleagues Flick Drummond and Gagan Mohindra; Labour MPs Ian Byrne and Emma Lewell-Buck with the Green party's Lady Bennett.
Byrne was later quoted as saying "The exams were absolutely terrifying," adding that impact of the mental pressure on young children is immense. Byrne said that Sats at this level must be scrapped.
Walker, who refused dropping the exam altogether, acknowledged the need to reform exams for 10 to 11-year-olds.
Drummond who welcomed Walker's comment said a lot of the terminology used in the grammar exam was "unnecessary", according to the report.
