Education is an important tool to ensure sustainable development throughout the world, which is why UN¡¯s Sustainable Development Goal 4 is about ensuring equal access for all to quality education. However, a Gordian knot must be untied first if this goal is to succeed.

- In several parts of the world, the education systems hold a challenge when it comes to the intersection of testing and inclusion. On the one hand, there is a desire for tests rooted in ideals of holding schools, teachers and pupils accountable for their results and providing measurable degrees of success, thus making it possible to compare schools and their efforts when it comes to meeting teaching objectives. On the other hand, there is focus on inclusion in terms of creating an educational system that can support access to education and learning for all pupils. However, this may be challenged when using tests that may partly exclude some due to the way in which the test questions are framed, and may partly mean that some pupils do not feel included at school because they achieve poor test results, explains Professor with special responsibilities Christian Ydesen from the Department of Culture and Learning. He is concerned with this area in the current research project, "Access to education at the intersection of testing and inclusion", which is supported by the Independent Research Fund Denmark with DKK 5.9 million.

Lack of vision in relation to sustainability and inclusion

As part of the research project, data is collected in five countries - Argentina, Denmark, England, Israel and China - and the project will be completed in 2022 with a conference in Landstingssalen at Christiansborg and a book on the intersection of testing and inclusion. In that connection, Christian Ydesen has also looked at a new test system in the Danish primary school, the Folkeskole¡¯s National Skills Tests, adopted in autumn 2021 after an evaluation had previously suggested inaccuracies in the previous system, the so-called national tests. In future, the Danish primary school will only test mandatory in Danish and mathematics, the adaptive tests will be replaced by linear tests, tested at the beginning of a school year instead of at the end, and detection in relation to dyslexia and highly gifted pupils will be strengthened. The new test system has been adopted by a broad political majority and is supported by the interest groups within the field: The Danish Teachers¡¯ Association, The Danish Headmasters¡¯ Association, The National Association of Municipalities and The Danish Pupils.

- It is positive that both politicians and interest groups have agreed on a new model of testing in primary schools. However, I believe that the new system could be more visionary in terms of both sustainability and inclusion. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has recently published a report highlighting the global status of inclusion, calling for the progress and achievements of all pupils to be identified and appreciated so that everyone has the opportunity to show their capacities. At the same time, assessment must be made as a coordinated and coherent effort linked with other educational activities, based on the objective of supporting learning and teaching so that pupils are not labelled. In addition, pupils must have access to reliable and valid assessments that support their needs. This is difficult to achieve in a standardised test system.

At the same time, experiences from home schooling during Corona have not been utilised in the coming Danish test system, and I think this is a shame because here we saw a different dynamic between the teachers, the headmasters, the municipal authorities and the ministry in relation to tests and management; for one thing, because the national tests were suspended for a period of time, says Christian Ydesen.

Contact Professor with special responsibilities Christian Ydesen (link: cy@hum.aau.dk).