Gillard lays down MySchool gauntlet to union

By Ry Crozier on Jan 21, 2010 2:45 PM
Filed under Software

Won't rule out fines or docking teachers' pay.

Julia Gillard will not rule out issuing fines or docking the pay of teachers who boycott the national tests that feed data into the controversial MySchool website.

The admission came as the Gillard, the Federal Education Minister, was grilled for a third day on the MySchool website that launches next week. MySchool will publish online the grades and performances of schools across the country.

She all but issued a challenge to the Australian Education Union to back down over its threats to boycott national tests if the Government didn’t take steps to prevent MySchool being used as a league table to name and shame underperforming schools.

She had held meetings with the union in the past over the issue to make it clear that the Government would push ahead with its plans.

Her comments were criticised by the union's federal president Angelo Gavrielatos, who accused Gillard of "ignoring expert advice" and an "overwhelming body of research" on the damage that league tables caused schools.

"We have said that the course of action we've announced [to boycott national tests] can be averted and will certainly not be necessary if the Government introduces measures to stop the further creation and publication of league tables," Gavrielatos told iTnews.

"Unfortunately, rather than answering our concerns, Julia Gillard wants to go down the path of exploring legal options and the like."

Gillard yesterday dodged a question on whether she thought the union’s threats were a stunt.

“I’ll allow the AEU to speak to its own motivations,” Gillard said.

“I do note today that some of the spokespeople on behalf of the AEU are saying that they’re not opposed to national testing. Well if they’re not opposed to national testing, then they shouldn’t be boycotting, ensuring national testing goes ahead.”

She took steps to quell the row this morning by revealing that schools would receive a “comprehensive support package” before the website launched.

It included fact sheets and frequently asked questions.

Shadow Education Minister Christopher Pyne had earlier this week taken a swipe at the Government for not giving schools any information they could use to answer questions from concerned parents.

“The truth is that while Ms Gillard has adopted the Coalition’s policy to increase transparency within schools, her push to launch the Myschool website without giving principals the tools to address the inevitable concerns parents will raise is like asking a boxer to fight with one arm tied behind his back,” Pyne said.

But the time given to principals to review their report card before it was published on MySchool and Gillard leaving open the possibility of legal action against recalcitrant schools could escalate the row.

Gillard said today that “principals will have the opportunity to preview their school’s report card the day before the MySchool website goes live" next Thursday.

Although he welcomed the release of information to help schools and parents navigate MySchool, Gavrielatos said parents needed to be aware of MySchool's limitations.

He said that some of the information on the MySchool website was "inaccurate and misleading".

"While information will be available for parents on how to navigate the website, it's important for parents to understand there will be inaccuracies [in the information available] due to significant margins of error," Gavrielatos said.

Gillard lays down MySchool gauntlet to union

10 comments in this discussion

"Jeeze - don't know what happened here! Please delete my last three identical posts, Administrator."

By Mahony

Tags

myschool, australian, education, union, league, tables, gillard, row

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Comments: 10

Digger11 Jan 21, 2010 4:14 PM	Good on Gillard. My taxes pay for these teachers and they need to be accountable for their quality. Disgusting that they are acting like they will not do what they are told to do - if I did that I woudl get the sack. Once again - the union protecting the dud workers. Education is too important for these type of shenanigans.
ssmit Jan 22, 2010 8:53 AM	Let's see: ignore expert advice, shame schools/teachers/kids in public, sack teachers. What next? Vouchers? Performance-based funding? Privatisation? American education quality? You must have been reading the Milton Friedman playbook and drinking a bit too much of the cool aid. Anyone have any serious suggestions, rather than trollism? Yawn - next.
Daveh Jan 22, 2010 10:41 AM	Have to agree with Digger11 on one point. "My taxes pay for these teachers and they need to be accountable for their quality." Danm flipping strait. That said this system is a bad one and Gillards response is terrible. The union has raised fears, the same as the experts and she has gone strait to filibusting. She has not made an attempt to allay these fears nor made statement on their merits, simply said do it or else. Children are indeed the most valuable asset we have and we most certainly need a way to ensure that their education is of the absolute highest quality. But this will not solve that problem, publicizing the statistics will only create issues for those who are at the bottom and more demands for places at the top. Then we will simply wind up with everyone being dragged down. The bottom will rise a small amount due to less demand for them and the top will be inundated and sink as a result of. Common sense people
Ace Jan 22, 2010 11:35 AM	I can see it might be a good tool for government to determine which schools need more resources, but I can't see it being of any benefit to most parents, who already know which schools in their area perform well or don't perform well. Do you think parents (and media) would use the information to beat up on schools that are struggling - possibly due to reasons that cannot be published (ie: a hand full of disadvantaged or difficult kids, disabled kids etc etc), or would they simply use the information to praise schools that are doing well? My anecdotal evidence is that many, many parents believe even the best schools are holding back their brilliant kids potential. The idea seems flawed to me, and could be done in a better way.
ssmit Jan 23, 2010 9:00 AM	"My taxes pay for these teachers and they need to be accountable for their quality." Sounds like a case of blaming the victims. Anyone with actual experience of the system, and a bit of common sense, will know that most teachers are highly committed and are doing a decent job despite poor resourcing and clueless political interference in their profession. The privileged have got it a*se-about as usual. If you were really concerned about the effectiveness of your taxes, wield your baseball bat at Government IT projects, Defence projects, rich tax dodgers, the ETS subsidies for big coal/oil, the environment. And good luck getting "accountability" from them. Yawn.
Mahony Mar 10, 2010 12:08 AM	League tables miss the point, and are just a red herring from the core issue which is the lack of a high quality, dedicated national school inspectorate, similar to HM Inspectorate in England and Wales in its heyday (It’s now OFSTED and underfunded; Scotland has always had its own separate education system.) Here in Queensland we did have a school inspectorate, remarkably enough, who did a sterling job - at least in the state’s early years. Abolished of course (in the early 1990s from memory) with the mutual agreement of the Queensland Minister of Education and the teachers' unions. That must tell one something. Because there is no longer a school inspectorate here in Queensland, a number of schools have erroneously acquired the reputation for doing well when anyone who works in these schools knows that they are in fact a disaster. One example is Djarragun College here in FNQ - much touted as the way forward in indigenous education when the reality is that the school is failing its older students, despite continued and valiant efforts from many of its teachers. A school is like a ship – how well it functions comes down to one thing, the quality of its skipper. The real problem with most poorly performing Australian schools is not by and large the poor quality of the schools’ teachers but the execrable quality of so many school principals, who can’t teach, which is why they became managers, but can’t manage either - which is why they became teachers. A first class, national school inspectorate for Australia would have to be properly funded however - and would be a lot more expensive than centralised league tables. Hence Gillard's preference for the latter – it’s much cheaper.
Mahony Mar 10, 2010 12:08 AM	League tables miss the point, and are just a red herring from the core issue which is the lack of a high quality, dedicated national school inspectorate, similar to HM Inspectorate in England and Wales in its heyday (It’s now OFSTED and underfunded; Scotland has always had its own separate education system.) Here in Queensland we did have a school inspectorate, remarkably enough, who did a sterling job - at least in the state’s early years. Abolished of course (in the early 1990s from memory) with the mutual agreement of the Queensland Minister of Education and the teachers' unions. That must tell one something. Because there is no longer a school inspectorate here in Queensland, a number of schools have erroneously acquired the reputation for doing well when anyone who works in these schools knows that they are in fact a disaster. One example is Djarragun College here in FNQ - much touted as the way forward in indigenous education when the reality is that the school is failing its older students, despite continued and valiant efforts from many of its teachers. A school is like a ship – how well it functions comes down to one thing, the quality of its skipper. The real problem with most poorly performing Australian schools is not by and large the poor quality of the schools’ teachers but the execrable quality of so many school principals, who can’t teach, which is why they became managers, but can’t manage either - which is why they became teachers. A first class, national school inspectorate for Australia would have to be properly funded however - and would be a lot more expensive than centralised league tables. Hence Gillard's preference for the latter – it’s much cheaper.
Mahony Mar 10, 2010 12:10 AM	League tables miss the point, and are just a red herring from the core issue which is the lack of a high quality, dedicated national school inspectorate, similar to HM Inspectorate in England and Wales in its heyday (It’s now OFSTED and underfunded; Scotland has always had its own separate education system.) Here in Queensland we did have a school inspectorate, remarkably enough, who did a sterling job - at least in the state’s early years. Abolished of course (in the early 1990s from memory) with the mutual agreement of the Queensland Minister of Education and the teachers' unions. That must tell one something. Because there is no longer a school inspectorate here in Queensland, a number of schools have erroneously acquired the reputation for doing well when anyone who works in these schools knows that they are in fact a disaster. One example is Djarragun College here in FNQ - much touted as the way forward in indigenous education when the reality is that the school is failing its older students, despite continued and valiant efforts from many of its teachers. A school is like a ship – how well it functions comes down to one thing, the quality of its skipper. The real problem with most poorly performing Australian schools is not by and large the poor quality of the schools’ teachers but the execrable quality of so many school principals, who can’t teach, which is why they became managers, but can’t manage either - which is why they became teachers. A first class, national school inspectorate for Australia would have to be properly funded however - and would be a lot more expensive than centralised league tables. Hence Gillard's preference for the latter – it’s much cheaper.
Mahony Mar 10, 2010 12:11 AM	League tables miss the point, and are just a red herring from the core issue which is the lack of a high quality, dedicated national school inspectorate, similar to HM Inspectorate in England and Wales in its heyday (It’s now OFSTED and underfunded; Scotland has always had its own separate education system.) Here in Queensland we did have a school inspectorate, remarkably enough, who did a sterling job - at least in the state’s early years. Abolished of course (in the early 1990s from memory) with the mutual agreement of the Queensland Minister of Education and the teachers' unions. That must tell one something. Because there is no longer a school inspectorate here in Queensland, a number of schools have erroneously acquired the reputation for doing well when anyone who works in these schools knows that they are in fact a disaster. One example is Djarragun College here in FNQ - much touted as the way forward in indigenous education when the reality is that the school is failing its older students, despite continued and valiant efforts from many of its teachers. A school is like a ship – how well it functions comes down to one thing, the quality of its skipper. The real problem with most poorly performing Australian schools is not by and large the poor quality of the schools’ teachers but the execrable quality of so many school principals, who can’t teach, which is why they became managers, but can’t manage either - which is why they became teachers. A first class, national school inspectorate for Australia would have to be properly funded however - and would be a lot more expensive than centralised league tables. Hence Gillard's preference for the latter – it’s much cheaper.
Mahony Mar 10, 2010 12:13 AM	Jeeze - don't know what happened here! Please delete my last three identical posts, Administrator.