"Many teacher-training courses are failing to prepare newly-qualified teachers adequately in the essential skill of assessment - which lies at the heart of teaching itself," says Lord Sutherland, Chair of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA).

"And with some of these courses allocating only six short hours to assessment practice," he continues - " it is clearly an inadequate provision which will ill-equip teachers for the increased demands they will face as more assessment is destined to be done in the classroom at various levels - Diplomas, GCSE, Key Stage 2 and A levels. This is one of the big and crucial issues demanding attention now," he says.

"Critical to these developments," he continues, "is the consistency and uniformity of assessment on a national scale - so that the general public and the users of these qualifications and teacher assessments generally, might have every confidence in the level of award given.

That confidence is currently running high, according to a poll of 328 15-19 year olds conducted on behalf of the CIEA*. An overwhelming 61% of them were confident in their experience of coursework assessments done by teachers, only 9% had little or no confidence, and 29% sat between these two positions.

The solution to raise confidence in internal assessment was thought by 58% to be - further training or better initial teacher training whilst 38% thought qualifications and membership of a professional body would help.

But 84% agreed that having a Chartered Assessor in every school - to co-ordinate and ensure good assessment practice within each institution - would improve their confidence in the quality of teacher assessment in England - whilst only 14% did not agree with that statement.

"Assessment is the poor relation of teacher training and ongoing controversies over the quality of coursework and teacher assessment generally can be avoided in the future if a conscious effort is made to 'professionalise' the assessment element of teaching, by working towards having Chartered Assessors in every school. The Government already has plans to have a senior assessment specialist member of staff in every school as outlined in the DCSF's Assessment for Learning Strategy and the CIEA welcomes this positive move," Lord Sutherland concludes.

* The survey was conducted in July 2009 by BMRB on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors. It surveyed 328 15-19 year olds.