Not too testing

I agree with Hugh Reilly about educational psycho-babble ­(Perspective, 8 October), but I think it is unfair to say that: “Under Michael Gove, the English system is becoming a test-driven monster.”

There is a simple reading test for six-year-olds, a national curriculum test in English and maths for seven-year-olds and tests in English, maths and science for 11-year-olds.

At 16 years of age they sit their GCSE exams, but Gove is ending modular assessments that had pupils sitting tiresome interim tests throughout the two years of the course. Finally, 18-year-olds have ­A-level exams, but again Gove is abolishing the AS-level exam which blighted the first year of sixth-form study with an unnecessary assessment.

This is hardly a “monstrous” programme of testing and we could learn much from his attempt to drag schools out of their culture of low expectation and underachievement.

(Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews