Madam, - It is to be hoped that the announced introduction of formal literacy and mathematics testing in primary schools will be used to tackle inequalities in educational achievement and experience.
However, this will happen only if sufficient follow-up resources are invested to support children who are under-achieving.
Caution should be advised in light of international experiences which indicate that such testing can lead to a narrowing of curriculums and the reinforcement of social inequalities as parents choose schools on the basis of their average performance in such tests. - Yours, etc,
Dr DYMPNA DEVINE, School of Education and Lifelong Learning, UCD, Dublin 4.