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Doubts continue over My School website

By SHAUN BENNETT
THE Australian Education Union is still unsatisfied with the My School website and feels its concerns have not been considered by the ACT Government.

ACT President Penny Gilmour believes the website doesn’t offer any new information to the public and will put too much pressure on teachers and students.

“I think the assistance [on the website] is minimal because it doesn’t really tell parents or students any information they couldn’t already get access to,” she says. “It’s not particularly surprising to find that an elite private school has better attendance rates and fewer indigenous students than a public school in a lower socio-economic area.”

However, ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr says that the website has information that the public has never seen before.

“I think the AEU are wrong on a couple of points of fact there,” he said. “The level of information that is available through My School has never before been available and certainly not in an accessible form like it is on the My School website.”

Mr Barr has defended the website claiming it is the most sophisticated tool we’ve ever had in this country. He says that the data on the website enables governments to direct money to where it is needed in education.

“It’s more than just publishing information on a website,” he said. “Teachers now have a smart tool to assess their student’s results against the national benchmarks and this is something our teachers have never had before. Overall the My School website shows that some schools are doing very well and others need support.”

However, the union feels that the website unfairly compares schools and that the data can be used to form league tables.

“We’re not against a website measuring a school’s performance; we’re concerned about the use of the data to form league tables, which is already happening with schools results being ranked in the newspaper for everyone to see,” Ms Gilmour says.

She says that the website will put too much pressure on teachers and students to perform, which will create a greater competitive environment in schools.

However, Mr Barr believes that added pressure on schools will encourage them to succeed.

“Well, I think there should be pressure on teachers and students to perform,” he said. “You only get one chance at education and I think it is important that our schools deliver the sorts of outcomes that students expect and that the public expects.

“I think the AEU’s campaign has spiralled out of control. They claimed that public education was failing, but My School has shown that there have been very good results in public education and that’s a story the AEU weren’t telling prior to My School being set up.”

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