IF the National Union of Teachers had hoped to send an unequivocal message to the Government yesterday about primary school tests, it failed.

Although eight out of ten of those who voted were in favour of a boycott of the SATS tests, the turnout of only a third left the ballot invalid and the signal weak.

The National Union of Teachers, of course, put a brave face on the result, insisting it provided no comfort for the Government, with general secretary Doug McAvoy saying it showed the extent to which teachers are willing to go to rid themselves of the tests.

With due respect to Mr McAvoy, if two-thirds of the union's members couldn't be bothered to vote either way, it hardly points to a passionate protest.

We welcome the fact that classrooms will not be thrown into chaos by an NUT boycott of the tests.

But we do believe there is an urgent need for a more balanced, constructive campaign to make the Government see that it has to review primary school testing.

Causing youngsters unnecessary stress at such an early age is not our principal objection because there is undoubtedly room for improvement in the way the tests are implemented in certain schools.

Some schools manage it so skillfully that the pupils don't realise they have been tested and stress is therefore not an issue. But others make such a song and dance of it that anxieties are bound to be stirred in young minds.

Our main concern is that, in striving to get pupils through the tests, the curriculum becomes too narrow at a time when the imaginations of our children should be fired by variety.

Despite what Mr McAvoy says, the Government can take comfort from a ballot result which prevents schools being afflicted by industrial action.

But the underlying concerns of many parents and teachers - that primary school children should be given space in which to flourish - have not gone away and need to be addressed.