NAPLAN highlights need for Gonski reforms

AEU Tasmanian Branch President Terry Polglase said the results of the latest NAPLAN was encouraging with incremental improvements in some areas but on the whole results were comparable to previous years.

Mr Polglase said a concern was that our Year Seven and Year Nine students were consistently placed sixth or seventh in all areas, compared with other states and territories.

“There are incremental improvements in some areas which are welcome but when compared with national improvements we’re basically treading water,” said Mr Polglase.

“Tasmania has closed the gap in some areas which is testament to the efforts of public school educators who continue to do more with less.”

“We are in general doing much better in Years Three and Years Five where we are placed either fourth or fifth nationally.”

“It’s no surprise that we continue to be below the national average because we have the highest proportion of low Socio Economic Status (SES) students of any state or territory.”

“These results show that it is critical for more investment in public education and implementing the Gonski recommendations for Tasmanian students is urgently required.”

“The Federal Government must do the heavy lifting on funding Gonski reforms but the Tasmanian Government needs to play its part.”

“The Launch into Learning State Government initiative has delivered excellent results for children up to the age of four years and proves that investment in public education works.”

“The State Government should be applauded for this initiative but we cannot shy away from the fact that state budget cuts have had a detrimental impact on students across the board.”

The AEU’s comprehensive public education survey — Public Education 2012: through the eyes of educators — revealed significant adverse impacts of state budget cuts on Tasmanian schools.

“Almost 70 per cent of members believed state budget cuts were adversely affecting a schools’ capacity to run a full range of learning programs,” said Mr Polglase.

“Almost 70 per cent of members believe that students with disabilities are not receiving the support they need and 86 per cent of kindergarten teachers believed there was a chronic shortage of support.”

Mr Polglase said the NAPLAN assessment tool itself remained a concern and that not too much weight should be placed on its results.”

“NAPLAN is a very narrowly focussed assessment tool and does not encompass or test the broader range of skills and learning that a child achieves at school.”