It is tough these days being what the Prime Minister calls a kid. Panic attacks, eating disorders and sleeplessness are all symptoms of "examophobia", according to a joint survey by Professional Association of Teachers and the Children's Society. There are tests at seven, 11 and 14, some of which are being made more demanding, plus GCSEs at 16, expanded AS-levels and increasingly four A-levels.

It is tough these days being what the Prime Minister calls a kid. Panic attacks, eating disorders and sleeplessness are all symptoms of "examophobia", according to a joint survey by Professional Association of Teachers and the Children's Society. There are tests at seven, 11 and 14, some of which are being made more demanding, plus GCSEs at 16, expanded AS-levels and increasingly four A-levels.

Some education professionals want to stop the world and get off. Margaret Griffin, president of the Secondary Heads Association says: "School is about teaching and learning - we don't need to make it as uncomfortable as possible."

Modern pupils deserve our sympathy, but they will need a great deal more than mere sympathy if they are allowed to drift, "stress-free", through 11 years of compulsory schooling without any attempt to assess the quality of the education they are receiving. The idea that rigorous testing is somehow inimical to the great ideal of liberal education, the joy of learning for its own sake, was for much too long the excuse for neglecting the interests of the majority of school children.

Of course, good teaching should be enjoyable for its consumers, but it should also be challenging and sometimes require children to attempt things which they find difficult, or which require hard work.

The issue is not, therefore, one of too many or too few tests, but of the kind of tests and the expectations which surround them. One of the most worrying features of the schools reforms introduced by the last government and continued under Labour is the distorting incentives produced by the focus of attention on league tables. That means that young children can be put under excessive pressure to perform well, not in their own interests but in the interests of the school which wants to retain its place in a league.

David Blunkett, the Secretary of State for Education, has still not done enough to work on other ways of measuring the quality of teaching in schools, such as the so-called "value-added" measures, which take account of factors such as the number of pupils with English as a second language.

The other problem is parental attitudes: high expectations are important, but have a downside. The misery of the Japanese education system is vivid testament to that.

What matters is to strike the right balance. Above all, that means the balance between quality and quantity in education. Tests ought to be primarily about measuring the ability and understanding of pupils, rather than their Stakhanovite ability to put in hours of work. The pressure on children to do more and more homework, which comes both from parents and from Mr Blunkett, is crazy. If schools cannot teach children all they need to know between 9am and 3.30pm, they are not doing their job properly. Put pressure on the kids while they are on the school premises, Mr Blunkett, but then give them a break.