I believe children should not be assessed and tested just for the sake of attaining marks. It should be done purely to observe if a child had acquired the skills that id appropriate for his age. And to help the child to achieve it if he/she is not really there yet.
In Malaysia, where I come from, school going children are heavily assessed by exams. There is a very unhealthy competition going on in the school. It is has been weaved into their mind that scoring more marks on the test or exams is the ultimate goal in their school life because that will determine how successful they will be in their adult life. There is no room at all for developing other areas of a child's healthy growth for example their social emotional skills.
I am currently living in the Scandinavian region. From what I have observed, the school going children here are not pressured into making it to the top of their class. They are exposed to much more interesting activities such as connecting to the nature by studying and being involved in it. I think children should be relieved from the pressure of reading and memorizing facts from a text books for the sake of attaining higher marks in their exams. This itself is stress for their developing brain.
First I want to say, I do agree with you. but if I were to play the advocate, I would ask, why is competition considered unhealthy? and I would be interested in learning how the lives of these children turn out. But I am only looking at research, I know that results do not carry more weight than the journey !
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