Unhappy anniversary

We will be stuck with this evil, unethical, immoral, expensive, unnecessary evil unless the Senate Committee of Inquiry strongly suggests that NAPLAN and any other forms of SBT be banned forthwith. An adjunct to this decision should be the proposal to establish an Integrity Commission, headed by parents and teachers – no measurers anywhere – to examine expensive government-led ‘revolutions’ of any kind. Surely, the Auditor-General’s report that the $540 million – yes, $540 million –spent on NAPLAN, is “as yet to make any statistically significant improvement in any state...” is reason enough to ban the financial monster.

At this stage – a few days before the publication of a report that could make a huge difference to the future of Australia – do you feel confident?

I shouldn’t…but I do feel that the party line will prevail in each of the committee members. I have trouble imagining that there is any genuine concern for kids at school amongst our political representatives or that it will come before party ‘loyalty’. They prefer to ignore than to be concerned. Dear God. Prove me wrong.

Have you ever heard of any noises from the party rooms about NAPLAN over the past five years? Have you heard of any MP or groups of MPs insisting that ‘Ban NAPLAN’ become part of party policy?

Have you seen any taxpayer paid full-page adverts in any of the dailies, screaming ‘Ban NAPLAN. Think of our children’ or that sort of thing?

The Courier Mail reported on Friday 22 June that, in their submission to the Inquiry, Queensland principals had complained about excessive crying in schools, the pressure NAPLAN imposes on teachers, the side-lining of important curriculum subjects during the lengthy preparation period, and the enormous pressure that parents are putting on their children. The Catholic Education Commission was concerned about anxiety in Year 3 during the testing period. What’s going on? Either party could stop this nonsense tomorrow. Either could say NO en masse. Campbell Newman would approve. By allowing this sort of turmoil to be imposed on the children who are attending their schools, shouldn’t professional ethics come into play? Clearly, NAPLAN is a nasty, nasty business.

It’s been five long years, kids.