Queensland Teachers Union expected to vote on boycotting NAPLAN
Queensland powerful teachers union will next week vote over whether to boycott NAPLAN in 2021 after the Federal Government has doubled-down on keeping the testing, thwarting the proposed overhaul of the controversial assessment.
Education
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THE state’s Education Minister has slammed the federal government for blocking an attempt to replace NAPLAN, as the Queensland Teachers’ Union ramps up efforts to boycott the test next year.
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Education ministers today met to debate the proposed replacement for NAPLAN, The Australian National Standards Assessment, which was recommended by an independent review commissioned by the Queensland, Victorian, New South Wales and ACT governments.
But there was no agreement on replacing the testing regime, with the federal government holding firm on keeping NAPLAN while Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace, among other states and territories’ ministers, supported the overhaul.
“Despite being presented with an expert report about how to improve standardised testing in Australia, the federal government have not agreed to progress the review to the next stage,” Ms Grace said.
“Even though the Federal Education Minister has publicly said there are things in the review that are worth looking at.”
But Ms Grace reiterated her promise to continue advocating for the replacement of NAPLAN.
After the Education Council meeting Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said the federal government was happy to build on NAPLAN but not diminish it.
“All Education ministers have previously committed to the full transition to NAPLAN online by 2022,” he said.
He said the Morrison Government was committed to ensuring NAPLAN moved online and that more students are taking the test before “sensible changes” are considered.
The Palaszczuk government this year promised the powerful Queensland Teachers’ Union it would advocate for the replacement of NAPLAN in a bid to placate its anger over pay-rise deferrals amid COVID-19.
The review proposed overhauling the standardised assessment to have a new test with a broader scope, including testing creative and critical thinking in STEM, and assessing Year 10 students instead of Year 9.
While NAPLAN was cancelled because of COVID-19 this year, since 2008 it has assessed the literacy and numeracy Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9, and administering the test is a condition of school funding.
The Courier-Mail revealed the Queensland Teachers’ Union has already warned the new replacement for NAPLAN would be worse, and “compound the suffering” of students.
Queensland Teachers’ Union president Kevin Bates today said the union was prepared to ballot its 48,000 members next week about boycotting NAPLAN next year.
“In the absence of a decision, we have to respond on the basis that NAPLAN will continue in its current form,” he said.
He added that could mean schools would be confronted by the “same broken NAPLAN, the same problematic online process.”