“The Federal Education Minister’s self congratulatory remarks about the commitment of States to National Testing, under the threat of withholding student funding, is still about posture and not about the needs of students” said Independent Education Union Acting Federal Secretary Chris Watt.
“We already know from years of national testing and despite the significant overall success in international performance on literacy and numeracy, that some Australian students are missing out on the opportunity to develop their skills.” he said.
“What we also know is that very often these students are from lower socio-economic backgrounds, from non-English speaking backgrounds and most unfortunately, far too often indigenous students.”
“Minister Bishop’s testing and reporting regime does nothing at all to address any areas of weakness of need in the first four years of a student’s schooling,” said Mr Watt. “Effectively Minister Bishop is asking students, teachers, schools and families to wait until after the testing and later reporting in late Year 3 before any targeted support is provided.”
“These early years of education are critical and yet they remain under-funded and under-resourced”
For too long the Howard federal government has failed to provide the necessary resources to support the work of schools and classroom teachers.
Socio economic disadvantage continues to impact detrimentally on student achievement.
“Unfortunately federal government policy and inaction over the last 11 years has failed to address these areas of significant concern for over a decade and indeed has exacerbated the disadvantaged faced by many,” said Mr Watt.
“What teachers want is a genuine commitment from the government to work collaboratively to improve the literacy and numeracy standards of all students but most critically for those students who are most at risk. Not rhetoric.”
Contact:
Chris Watt
Acting Federal Secretary Independent Education Union
Ph (03) 9254 1830