Garrett slurs teachers for NAPLAN pressure

Schools Minister Peter Garrett has today blamed teachers for putting pressure on students in the lead up to the national testing, said the Shadow Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne.

A recent survey conducted by the University of Melbourne found that students are being driven to illness due to concern over the national testing regime.

Today Mr Garrett said on Sky News Lunchtime Agenda that ‘teachers should exercise some common sense, don’t put too much pressure on these kids’.

“For Mr Garrett to slur teachers for pressuring students is another embarrassing gaffe in line with Mr Garrett’s claim earlier this year that teachers don’t need to be ‘smart or academically gifted’,” Mr Pyne said.

“However, the reason teachers, students and parents are feeling pressure over NAPLAN testing is because the Prime Minister made the decision to publish the results on the My School website,” he said.

“Since this change was made a spate of cheating has occurred, students have been asked to stay home and parents are withdrawing their children from testing entirely.

“This may well have skewed NAPLAN results. It has certainly undermined NAPLAN as a diagnostic tool for teachers and parents.

“Only the Coalition is offering a solution to this very concerning problem, by removing raw NAPLAN results from the My School website and only publishing the improvement,” Mr Pyne said.

November 28, 2012