Concerns over Government's new reading test

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/concerns-over-governments-new-reading-test-2220289.html

The Government's plan is for a 'phonics-based progress check,' aimed at helping those who are behind and need extra help. Phonics is based on the sounds rather than the site of the word, and many in the UK are concerned that this test is counter productive. Children would have to recognize 's-t-r-ee-t' versus 'street.' In my opinion, I think it is important for children to be able to not only recognize a word by seeing it, but by having to sound it out. I do not know if this test is the way to go about getting children extra help, but I do think it is important. During my field experience, I am working with a student who is far behind his classmates. He can easily recognize works such as 'job' 'dog' 'log' but when it came to me sounding the words out to him, he was not able to connect the sounds to form the words. In this case, he does need the extra help, and that is why I am working one-on-one with him, but not every child learns the same.