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Parents told kids can opt out of NAPLAN

More than 1 million students are currently sitting down to complete the NAPLAN test and one principal has come out with a message for parents. Mr Paul Marshall, principal at Emmaus Christian School in Canberra, has told parents they could withdraw their children from the exams. The principal stated on the school’s website, ‘I have several issues with the NAPLAN testing regime’. ‘One of them is that the results take so long to get back to us, so long that they do not benefir the teachers or students’. On average it takes six months for NAPLAN results to get back to schools. Mr Marshall had further advice for parents, stating that ‘the decision to allow your children to sit the NAPLAN tests rest with you’.

National rates of withdrawal from the NAPLAN tests have grown since it was first introduced in 2008, with the withdrawal rate for year 3 mathematics, for example, growing from 0.5% in 2008 to 1.9% in 2012. Another issue currently facing NAPLAN is that parents seem to view the tests as an assessment of the school’s performance, with Mr Marshall stating that this was ‘akin to judging the quality of a hospital on a snap check of the health of its patients’

Despite this a spokesperson for the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Austhority (ACARA) which runs the tests, said that participation rates remained high and it expected ‘all students to sit NAPLAN’.

 

 

Calls for Hindi to be included in Australian Curriculum

A vast untapped pool of skilled Indian migrants should be used to teach Hindi in Australian schools and universities, according to a report.

The report by Melbourne-based think tank Australia India Institute (AII) argues for the inclusion of Hindi in Australia’s school curriculum, saying it should be an essential part of the Commonwealth’s Asia policy.

Calls for Hindi to be included in Australian Curriculum

A vast untapped pool of skilled Indian migrants could be used to teach Hindi in Australian schools and universities, according to a new report.

The report, published by Australia India Institute, a Melbourne based think tank, argues for the inclusion of Hindi in the Australian school curriculum, saying that it should be an essential part of the Commonwealth’s Asia policy.

SA Teachers face new registration checks

Tighter screening checks are set to be introduced for those wanting to work in South Australian schools. Education Minister, Jennifer Rankine has said that people who have committed any of a wide range of offences will automatically be excluded from becoming teachers. While others may be banned on other grounds.

Currently people wanting to become a teacher have a criminal history check, but it is up to the Teachers Registration Board, whether they are registered. At present there are no offences that are prescribed as excluding someone from becoming a teacher. However a ‘prescribed offences list’ is to be established which would exclude people from teaching, while another list will presume exclusion, but appeals would be permitted.

South Australia close to signing up to Gonski

Gonski Review Update

South Australia is close to signing on to the Federal Government’s schools funding scheme, with Premier Jay Weatherill putting his support firmly behind the Gonski model. But as negotiations continue, the Labor leader is yet to commit the state to the plan.

Hoping to meet a June 30 deadline, the Premier declined to outline his concerns, but stated that he was ‘absolutely’ satisfied that South Australia would receive more money under the Gonski funding model.

NSW is so far, the only state to have signed on to the proposal. Which will provide an extra $14.5 billion in total over the next six years, plus indexation.