MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday 6 May 2010

NAPLAN BREAKTHROUGH

POSITIVE FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

The Independent Education Union (IEUA) welcomes the establishment by ACARA of a working party that will include the IEUA and AEU to facilitate improvements to the My School website.

“We welcome this initiative as it is consistent with the approaches taken by IEUA to progress our members concerns,” Chris Watt, Federal Secretary said.

“It is imperative that stakeholders such as teacher unions are involved in dialogue about the MySchool website and any future developments to ensure that information available to parents is accurate and transparent.”

IEUA members did not implement bans on the supervision of NAPLAN testings.

IEUA members believe a strong emphasis on literacy and numeracy is fundamental to learning and support the collection of data and its proper use to identify and assist students and schools most in need.

Teachers in Catholic and Independent schools have had serious concerns about the quality and structure of the information provided on the MySchool website and do not support media outlets using student test scores to rank schools in “league tables”

“Our union has been in continued dialogue with ACARA over the past months to progress our members concerns,.” Chris Watt, Federal Secretary said.

“We welcome any determination to resolve the concerns held not only by teachers but by parents and the wider community.

“We look forward to continuing to be part of the discussions in order to ensure accurate and transparent data is developed in a way which positively supports teachers and their school communities,” he said.

Ends

Contact: 

Chris Watt, Federal Secretary IEUA, Ph  (02) 6273 3107  mobile 0419 259 143