Key Stage tests for children aged 7, 11 and 14 should be replaced with a system that randomly selects only some pupils to take the national curriculum papers, the Government’s chief examinations watchdog will say today.

Ken Boston, chief executive of the Curriculum and Qualifications Authority, believes that key-stage school exams taken by whole year-groups should be phased out and replaced by a mix of random testing and teacher assessments that measure individual pupil progress.

All children in England currently sit national curriculum tests at Key Stages 1 (age 7), 2 (age 11) and 3 (14), which form the basis of school league tables. But critics say that these encourage teachers to drill children to pass tests, resulting in a narrow curriculum and undue pressure on pupils.

Mr Boston will call, instead, for 3 per cent of children in England to be randomly selected to sit the same test on the same day. He told The Times that national curriculum tests should be retained until random sampling had been introduced.

“Using the same paper on a sampling basis for ten years can give a finer-grain result than you get now. At the moment tests as they are should stay, but when progress tests come in with information on pupil performance being available throughout the key stage, we could look at getting the national information in another way.

“You could run sample tests alongside the national curriculum tests for perhaps three years, before moving to a mix of national sampling and progress testing,” he said.

Children would not be told that they would be taking random sample tests. Question papers would be locked away until the next year, when the same paper would be taken by a different 3 per cent in different schools.

Similar systems operate in other countries, such as the US.

At the same time, a system of measuring individual pupil progress should be introduced, based on teacher assessments and “no-stakes diagnostic tests”. Many tests could be taken online “at the pupil’s choice if he or she felt ready”, Mr Boston will say today.

The proposals come after the announcement by Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, of plans for children to be measured on individual progress, in response to concern that progress in the “three Rs” is stalling.

Progress testing would be achieved through a system of personalised learning, in which children focus on building up knowledge and individual target-setting through regular assessments and tests, taken when children feel ready.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association for School and College Leaders, welcomed the proposals. Random sampling produced better results than adding the scores of all 600,000 children from any year-group taking the same test on the same day, he said.

As teachers and pupils would not know who would be sitting it, it would become more difficult to “teach to the test”.

Times Recommends

• What makes the perfect mum?
• To keep me stress-free, no more awareness days, please
• What do lottery winners buy?