EAST Lancashire teachers will be balloted on abandoning the only national primary school tests.

The National Union of Teachers will ballot its 250,000 members -- half the work force -- on sabotaging the SAT tests on basic Maths, English and Science, in the autumn.

They claim the tests for seven, 11 and 14-year-olds are too much to take and want them ditched. It would mean the end of primary school league tables as of May 2004 and would also jeopardize the Government's policy on target-setting.

The decision was made after a unanimous vote at the NUT conference in Harrogate over the Easter weekend.

Simon Jones, Blackburn with Darwen secretary and a national executive member, said: "We will be highlighting how teaching will be more creative, more responsive to the needs of pupils and, therefore, better for their education."

The conference also decided to impose a permanent ban on disruptive pupils after they are expelled.

Delegates voted to restrict the power of independent appeal panels who hear pupils' cases. At present, a school can be ordered to take back a violent youngster.