Stick with Naplan

IT IS a welcome result that as a state Victoria is top of the class in the national NAPLAN results. But what would otherwise be happiness at this report card is crueled somewhat by two factors.

Firstly, the general slide in the nation’s academic standards over the years means being top of a terrible class may not be worth bragging about.

Secondly, the bungling that has gone on in the implementation of online testing resulting in those tests not necessarily being comparable to the ‘paper and pen’ tests.

The usual suspects — namely the Australian Education Union — will use this bungling as a reason to once more seek to get rid of the only meaningful transparency project that has been introduced in our education sector in a generation.

To its eternal shame, the education union and its members have opposed NAPLAN from the get-go.

Opposed it when it was being ushered in by then federal education minister Julia Gillard. Opposed it in its infancy. Opposed it even after it was used to show that some state schools were outperforming expectations and some private schools were not living up to their reputations.

Does NAPLAN make life a little harder for teachers? Probably yes.

Does it make staffrooms and principals more accountable? Definitely.

Does it provide the community with some transparency about how a school is going? Yes.

Can this lead to better outcomes for students? Yes.

Anyone who thinks education in Australia is the best it can be is not paying proper attention.

Our leaders would do well to iron out the wrinkles in the implementation of online testing.

But they should not accede to the AEU’s latest fatwa on NAPLAN. Not, at least, until they come up with a replacement transparency model. Without that, it’s just an AEU plan to go back to the shuttered workshops.