CLP Backs Beazley On Education

Federal Labor Leader Kim Beazley's announcement that our best teachers should be paid a bonus to teach in our worst schools has merit, according to Terry Mills the Shadow Education Minister.

"Kim Beazley believes excellent teachers should be paid up to $100 000 to work in failing schools. However, the policy begs two questions, 'How do we determine whether a school is failing or succeeding?' and 'Do we have the means to objectively determine one teacher as more excellent than another?'” Terry Mills asked.

"Both of these questions are almost impossible to answer with the current curriculum which is broad, subjective, non competitive and feel good. The core business of a school is teaching and learning. The 'success' of an excellent teacher should therefore be measured by the teachers' consistent ability to inspire outstanding academic achievement in students. While the 'failing schools' referred to by Beazley would be those schools where students are generally failing academically; that is; failing to reach accepted academic standards.

"The problem is that the absence of regular testing of achievement against agreed standards in the basics, reading, writing and maths, means this can't be done objectively. Under an Outcomes Based Approach 'learning' is notoriously difficult to measure. A look at the language used in school reports confirms this. Parents of primary school students often complain that although their child seems to be enjoying the experience they don't know what they are learning or how learning compares to any objective standard.

"The curriculum must be overhauled to allow Mr Beazley's plan to work. We need to move away from a curriculum that is about process, to one that is about mastering key disciplines.

"Students are rarely given a realistic, objective measure of performance. In the Australian education system students rarely confront a competitive, high stakes examination until their twelfth year at school. We need a curriculum overhaul to reinforce academic standards by focussing on reading, writing and arithmetic as well as a reporting system that gives parents a clear picture of their child's academic progress.

"If the curriculum is focussed on basics, core knowledge is able to be measured through objective testing regimes, excellent teachers would then be easier to identify and struggling schools could be identified and assisted.

"Sadly without this Kim, we are dreaming.”

2006-10-31