We need NAPLAN so Queensland Teachers’ Union, back off
Boycotting NAPLAN is another sign the leftist Queensland Teachers’ Union is out of touch with educators, writes Kylie Lang, as a rival union addresses real workplace issues for its members.
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Instead of boycotting NAPLAN, meddling in curriculum and pushing its leftist agenda, how about the State Government’s puppet union focus on protecting teachers?
Scrapping NAPLAN would be a mistake and there are bigger issues facing educators.
Queensland Teachers’ Union members vote to boycott NAPLAN
P&C’s say children’s education should be put first, NAPLAN ban
But the Queensland Teachers’ Union is pushing its weight around again, using a small survey of 8000 members, only one-sixth of its base, to demand the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy gets the boot.
For years it’s been saying NAPLAN is too much work for teachers, and while there is general agreement the model needs revising, canning it would be wrong.
For a start, killing off NAPLAN would void years of useful data collected on students and schools since its inception in 2008.
Sitting exams is an important life skill, and the right kind of testing helps kids learn better and develop resilience. Formative assessments also expose gaps in knowledge to help educators teach better.
Moreover, having a benchmark for evaluating students across the country is a necessary tool for allocating resources and improving outcomes.
However, as a result of the QTU’s mini-poll, the union is directing all of its 48,000 members to cease activities associated with NAPLAN for the remainder of this year and for 2021.
This includes participation in professional development, practice tests, school readiness testing, data analysis, and administering the test either online or in paper format.
Never mind that having years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit NAPLAN is a condition of federal funding, and that private schools are earnestly preparing for the assessment, including its full transition online in 2022.
Way to widen the chasm between private and public education outcomes, QTU.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan’s response to the union’s latest bulldozer tactics should be correct. It’s not.
“The Queensland Teachers’ Union doesn’t run the schools in Queensland,” Mr Tehan says, displaying a regrettable lack of understanding of how things work here.
This year, it was the QTU calling the shots on when students should be allowed back in classrooms after forcing their closure during the height of the pandemic.
Last year, it was supporting strikes by children to protest against climate change, and previously it’s backed sanctions by Palestinian trade unions against Israel. Outside its ambit, much?
It’s not surprising, though long overdue, that a rival union has been formed to advocate for educators.
The Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland launched in December and is run by teachers, not union officials.
As such, it promises no party politics, and consequently has much lower fees.
TPAQ secretary Jack McGuire reckons the latest stoush over NAPLAN comes at the expense of tackling issues teachers really care about.
“Why isn’t it running a big campaign about workplace violence? When a teacher gets hit or stabbed, that’s what they should be striking about, not whether they do NAPLAN,” Mr McGuire says.
“A teachers’ union should advocate for workplace matters, not dictate curriculum, and we reject trendy social issues, climate change student strikes, fuss over unisex bathrooms.
“QTU members basically now run the (education) department, and nothing is being done to stop violence against teachers and principals.
“Kids aren’t being expelled for punching teachers, very few cases are referred (by the QTU) to the police, and instead victim teachers are being transferred to other schools.
“The QTU is more interested in covering it up, and the department is complicit in that because they are one and the same.”
As for NAPLAN, Mr McGuire says it “needs to stay”.
“How else do you find out which schools are struggling and how to allocate resources? The teachers who’ve left the QTU to come across to us are sensible and want to keep it.
“Certainly, it can be tweaked, but you can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
I do have to wonder what’s next for the QTU. In boycotting NAPLAN, what is its alternative to help teachers arrest the decline of literacy and numeracy in Queensland’s underperforming schools?
Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail
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