The Australian Education Union (AEU) national executive on Monday voted to impose a moratorium on the federal government’s National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) exams scheduled for May 11-13. The ban, however, is a hollow threat. The union has already made clear that it accepts the entire framework of Labor’s pro-market education reforms, including the compulsory student tests that are used to rank schools.
Less than an hour later, education minister and deputy prime minister Julia Gillard responded by again declaring that she would call on parents to help administer the NAPLAN tests if teachers proceeded with the national boycott. Gillard also warned that teachers who refuse to supervise the exams face heavy fines under state industrial laws.
Already, in New South Wales, Labor’s education minister Verity Firth has applied to the Industrial Relations Commission that a hearing be listed before Friday in a bid to outlaw any boycott.
Labor’s NAPLAN tests have been widely condemned by teachers and educational experts because they have little educational value and are utilised to name and shame “underperforming” schools. The tests feed into the government’s recently launched My School web site, which is effectively a government-sanctioned “league table”, pitting school against school, both nationally and across hundreds of local school areas.
Just like Arne's RTTT scheme.
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