This is a potential vision of the future after the Scottish Government announced moves to assess all children in literacy and numeracy before the end of primary school.
Scotland is ranked below average for the teaching of several subjects, including maths, according to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Employers complain they are forced to recruit staff lacking basic literacy an
d numeracy skills and CBI Scotland has said business "begrudges training employees up to the basic standard".
Children already undergo informal assessment in these skills throughout their years at primary, judged on a ratings system rather than a pass or fail basis. But a debate in the Scottish Parliament saw the Scottish Government back a Conservative amendment demanding more rigorous assessment by the end of primary seven.
Formal testing of children in a national exam at the end of primary has proved perennially controversial in England. Teachers and parents south of the Border annually criticise the tests, saying they put too much pressure on youngsters too early.
In 2004 the Welsh Assembly scrapped these exams, known as key stage two tests, and the following year abolished those taken by 14-year-olds, saying ongoing assessment by teachers gave a better indication of children's progress.
In England, tests for 14-year-olds were also ditched earlier this year after a marking fiasco that meant some pupils still don't have results. Critics said the exams had lost their credibility. However, Schools Secretary Ed Balls has repeatedly said primary testing will not be scrapped, a decision that drew an angry response from teaching unions in England.
In Scotland, teachers are vehemently opposed to the idea of national tests. Scotland's biggest teaching union, the EIS, slammed the idea.
After a meeting of the union's national executive last week, its 25 members were unanimous in condemning such a proposal.
Ronnie Smith, EIS general secretary, said: "Any move to impose national tests on primary seven pupils would set Scottish education back 20 years. It would set pupil against pupil, school against school."
The Scottish Government said pupils, parents and teachers needed reliable information to ensure children were leaving school with these skills, and that did not need to come from the results of a national test. However, given that primary pupils are already subject to ongoing teacher assessment, testing seems the only way to make such assessment more rigorous.
Rhona Brankin, Labour's education spokeswoman, said a "big bang" test for all primary sevens was not the answer.
"We need much better information on where children are at with literacy and numeracy," she said.
"But we need ongoing assessment in primary school which actually diagnoses where the problems are."
She praised West Dunbartonshire Council's literacy programme, which wiped out illiteracy in the area at a stroke by investing in individualised learning, putting additional specialist literacy teachers into primary schools and adopting a methodical approach to assessment.
Ms Brankin added: "By the time children get to primary seven a lot of them should be functionally literate anyway. But the kind of assessment we need is ongoing formative assessment which informs the kind of extra support pupils should be having.
"The OECD report showed that by the time children reach primary five the gap is widening. If they brought in national testing whereby all children had to sit the same test in literacy and numeracy all you would be doing is labelling those pupils; we need a system that informs how we teach those pupils."
She said her party was appalled by the suggestion that children who failed literacy and numeracy tests should be held back a year in primary school.
And she added: "We also need better quality information going to secondary schools. They have a lot of information but it doesn't tell them whether a child is functionally literate or able to manage the literacy demands of secondary school."
At a meeting of the independent Literacy Commission in Glasgow last week, a group of educationists agreed there was no need to increase testing of children.
Commission chairwoman Judith Gillespie, policy development officer of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council
, said: "Currently youngsters are tested a lot on an ongoing basis. Teachers know the youngsters who are failing on literacy skills and they know what to do about it – the big trick is to get these two things together to overcome the problem.
"But for that to happen literacy has to become the priority and that has to involve a commitment from the Scottish Government and local authorities – it can't be left to individual schools."
She said previous successful programmes had shown the problem could be rectified but it was a question of finance. She added: "Sustaining them is the real problem. Resources have to be there, those youngsters who need extra support need extra staff, time and the right materials. We know we can do it, but we seem to find it difficult."
The commission hopes to publish its findings on the issue of literacy levels this year, but one thing seems sure, the prospect of subjecting Scottish children to even more testing at an ever younger age will be deeply unpopular with parents and teachers alike.
