Teachers unions NASUWT and NUT are in loggerheads over whether to keep the tests for 11-year-olds, leaving educational minister Ed Balls facing industrial action on whichever policy he pursues. The controversial tests in English, maths and science are taken in the final year of primary school in England.

Representatives at the NASUWT conference in Bournemouth voted in favour of the SATs, arguing that the abolishment of them would cause intolerable workloads for teachers. NUT representatives unanimously voted to boycott the tests next year claiming them to be useless.

The national curriculum tests that are taken by seven, eleven and fourteen year olds began in 1993. Last year when the marking collapsed, the Government decided to scrap tests for 14-year-olds in England and launch a review on SATs.

The NUT dominates primary schools, while the NASUWT is stronger in secondary schools where teachers are now feeling the effects of dropping SATs at 14.

In response to criticism of SATs from teachers and parents, Balls has ordered pilots of an alternative system of ‘single-level testing’, carried out when teachers consider children are ready.