Children across Wales are sitting their year 6 Sats exams this week, but the real stress may be felt by parents forced to revisit long division and grammar rules they thought they had left behind. Emma Brockes reflects on how these exams expose deeper anxieties about the role of education in an era of AI and shifting job markets.
The Parental Burden of Sats Preparation
Called on to help with long division, many parents find themselves struggling. Brockes admits she could not do it the first time and, four decades later, the situation has not improved. For a moment, she considered using AI, but it proved as confusing as street directions. While parents offer sympathy to their 11-year-olds, the real victims may be the adults who must revisit multi-stage maths problems they deliberately avoided in life.
Do Exams Still Matter?
Of course, Sats "don't matter," or so some liberal parents claim. But as AI disrupts entry-level jobs and university degrees become increasingly expensive and misaligned with needed skills, the value of traditional testing is questioned. Brockes wonders if old education systems are fit for purpose and what should replace them. This joins existing doubts about whether being exam-smart, with its narrow definition of intelligence, should determine a child's future success.
The pendulum on educational philosophy swings back and forth. Brockes recalls her own school days when coursework was emphasized, then Michael Gove's reforms pushed back to 1950s-style testing. Now, she finds herself helping her child with past progressive tense, crying, "I'm literally a writer and I don't know what this means!" The overuse of "literally" does not ease the frustration.
Alternative Assessments Fall Short
Brockes would rather not be revisiting these topics, but alternative assessment systems often disappoint. Her children did most of primary school in New York, where gentle parenting and "prizes for all" meant state tests had no upper time limit. One child took this literally, returning after a leisurely lunch, only surrendering when a teacher howled, "You're killing me here."
Despite these experiences, Brockes believes meeting deadlines under pressure is a useful skill to learn early. So is moving on from disappointing grades and harnessing adrenaline. She is too lazy to be a tiger mom but never loved approaches that neutralize all pressure around children. Now, gentle parenting is waning, and more robust assessments of what children can handle are returning. Sats serve a ritualistic purpose, marking an end and a beginning.
Exams as Life Experience
This view makes a case for exams as life experience rather than learning tools, much like university education now offers value as an expensive developmental stage. Brockes recalls writer Don DeLillo, who left advertising seeking time "to smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and look at the world." Financially, if avoiding obsolete training systems makes sense, what else gives young people time to grow and think?
None of this helps with the KS2 maths sheet featuring multi-stage questions about sweets in bags. Brockes tries to set a good example by concentrating and controlling her temper, but soon finds herself crying, "This literally doesn't make sense." On the bright side, this may teach a life lesson about adult emotional limitations versus children's maturity. Her child pats her arm: "It's OK."
