From here:
http://dsl.optusnet.com.au/news/story/abc/20050924/16/domestic/1467691.inp
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Nelson's priorities back to front: union
2:32 PM September 24
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The Australian Education Union says a Federal Government decision to conduct a comparative analysis of year 12 assessments in the states and territories shows poor judgement.
Education Minister Brendan Nelson says a nationwide perspective on the rigour of exams will provide a meaningful comparison of education standards around the nation.
But the president of the Australian Education Union, Pat Byrne, says Dr Nelson's priorities are wrong.
"He's focussing on measuring outcomes instead of putting into the system and working with the states and territories to find out what it is and how best we can improve literacy outcomes across the board," Ms Byrne said.
Ms Byrne says the focus should be on funding.
"Changing the way that you measure literacy outcomes or any other outcomes is not necessarily going to change the outcome itself," she said.
"Brendan Nelson should focus more on providing the resources that will help literacy and numeracy improvement rather than simply talking about how we're going to measure it."
'Fundamental defects'
Dr Nelson says the study of year 12 tests will examine the content, curriculum and standards across a range of subjects.
He says there are significant differences between curriculums.
"Students that do very well in Queensland mathematics are struggling in universities in New South Wales mathematics," he said.
"I am also deeply concerned that too many of our children are leaving the education system with fundamental defects in terms of their ability to read, write, count and communicate."
Dr Nelson hopes to have a national year 12 exam available by the end of next year but says until that exam is introduced, an analysis is needed to compare the states.
"It's time that we had a much clearer idea of what is actually happening in our schools, the standards that are being applied and also how are kids are being assessed before they come out of the school system in year 12," he said.
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Source: ABC
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http://dsl.optusnet.com.au/news/story/abc/20050924/16/domestic/1467691.inp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nelson's priorities back to front: union
2:32 PM September 24
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Australian Education Union says a Federal Government decision to conduct a comparative analysis of year 12 assessments in the states and territories shows poor judgement.
Education Minister Brendan Nelson says a nationwide perspective on the rigour of exams will provide a meaningful comparison of education standards around the nation.
But the president of the Australian Education Union, Pat Byrne, says Dr Nelson's priorities are wrong.
"He's focussing on measuring outcomes instead of putting into the system and working with the states and territories to find out what it is and how best we can improve literacy outcomes across the board," Ms Byrne said.
Ms Byrne says the focus should be on funding.
"Changing the way that you measure literacy outcomes or any other outcomes is not necessarily going to change the outcome itself," she said.
"Brendan Nelson should focus more on providing the resources that will help literacy and numeracy improvement rather than simply talking about how we're going to measure it."
'Fundamental defects'
Dr Nelson says the study of year 12 tests will examine the content, curriculum and standards across a range of subjects.
He says there are significant differences between curriculums.
"Students that do very well in Queensland mathematics are struggling in universities in New South Wales mathematics," he said.
"I am also deeply concerned that too many of our children are leaving the education system with fundamental defects in terms of their ability to read, write, count and communicate."
Dr Nelson hopes to have a national year 12 exam available by the end of next year but says until that exam is introduced, an analysis is needed to compare the states.
"It's time that we had a much clearer idea of what is actually happening in our schools, the standards that are being applied and also how are kids are being assessed before they come out of the school system in year 12," he said.
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Source: ABC
Post your comments here.
