OXFORDSHIRE teachers have pledged to lobby headteachers, governors and parents in the county in a bid to scrap national curriculum tests for primary school pupils.

If the tests are not abolished, members of the National Union of Teachers say they will boycott next year’s exams.

At the NUT’s annual conference in Cardiff yesterday, teachers voted to campaign to scrap Standard Assessment Tests for seven- and 11-year-old pupils by May next year and to replace the exams with a system based on assessment by teachers.

The National Association of Head Teachers will debate an identical motion at its conference next month.

Gawain Little, president of the Oxfordshire branch of the NUT and a delegate to the conference, said: “SATs are an ineffective, destructive and educationally unsound practice.

“Education must put the needs of children first. These assessments are bad for education and bad for children.”

NUT member Chris Blakey, a teacher at an Abingdon school, called on teachers to begin building support for the campaign in preparation for next year.

He said: “Teachers must be trusted to carry out their professional responsibilities and assess the children they teach – it’s part of our core training.

“Education should be stimulating and liberating, not stale.”

The NUT will also ask its members to vote on whether to take industrial action if ministers refuse to scrap SATs. If the ballot, which is likely to take place in the autumn, is successful, it could mean teachers refuse to prepare for tests next year.

The Government said industrial action would be unlawful as teachers have a statutory duty to administer the tests.

Last October, the Government announced the end of SATs for 14-year-olds.