HE: the Great Escape - Alan Harris-Reid - Page 4
If someone (child or adult) wishes to be tested, that’s fine, and even then it would only be if they were confident of passing, or to genuinely find out what they don't know about a subject. Unfortunately for most children in this country, they have to take exams at a fixed time in their life, whether they are ready or not, and are branded as failures or ‘low-achievers’ if they don't reach a certain standard in an exam that they hadn't themselves chosen to sit in the first place! It may sound strong, but in other aspects of life this could be seen as an abuse of human rights! It wouldn't be tolerated by adults, so why inflict it on children? How would we feel if we were expected to have a detailed knowledge of ten subjects and be tested on all of them within a three-week period (in June, of all the months to be stuck inside an examination room!).
You may be now be thinking "OK, so if exams aren't the answer, how do you measure a child's knowledge of a particular subject?". Why is this measurement necessary at all? To justify the positions of those employed within the education system?