Leading article: Testing is not the answer for everything

English teachers looking for an example of an oxymoron to offer their pupils could do worse than point to the Government's new White Paper on education. The Secretary of State, Michael Gove, has made great fanfare of how he plans to sweep away the "culture of compliance" in our schools and replace it with more freedom for teachers to teach what, and how, they want.

That is a laudable aim. The last government adopted an over-controlling attitude to education which weighed teachers down by bureaucracy. When they should be teaching, or preparing lessons, they are instead ticking boxes to comply with government initiatives or prepare for the next school inspection. Examinations have replaced education; inspection has driven out inspiration.

It is paradoxical, therefore, that one of the first things Mr Gove says he intends to do is introduce another test. He wants six-year-olds to be given a reading assessment after one year of formal schooling, to check their progress on the system of synthetic phonics he wants to make compulsory – so that children are taught to read by learning individual sounds in words and blending them together.

Philosophically, Mr Gove's instincts are correct. The running of schools should be in the hands of teachers, not bureaucrats. Education, like so much else, would benefit from some bottom-up re-ordering. The trouble is that, like so many of those in power, Mr Gove can't resist a bit of top-down instruction. So the White Paper will require schools to ditch modular coursework assessment and return to traditional end-of-year exams.

And if it seems sensible to give universities more say in the setting of A-level papers – to give pupils a chance to answer more taxing questions – there is irony in the decision coming not from schools, or exam boards, but from Whitehall.

Good teachers will assess the ability of their pupils without the need for another test. You don't fatten a pig, as farmers say, by constantly weighing it. Mr Gove must be careful he is not simply giving headteachers the freedom to do whatever it is he tells them.