Why school assessment matters

In Saturday’s paper, NSW educator of the year, Greg Whitby, the executive director of Catholic Education in Parramatta, railed against national literacy and numeracy testing, the HSC and students having “to sit down and do as you’re told when you’re told’’. Instead of a rigid curriculum, he said, learning was about being “able to express your point and it doesn’t matter whether that point is about indigenous culture or European invasion’’.

Such thinking, alas, has helped undermine education to the point Australian students have fallen behind those in comparable nations, despite billions of extra dollars being spent. The problem, as parents and employers know, but some education bureaucrats do not, evidently, is that reading, writing, maths, science and history matter in an increasingly competitive world. Encouraging students to debate is good — provided their arguments are based on facts, not teachers’ ideologies. Testing and reporting provide accountability and transparency.

As Rowan Callick wrote from China on Saturday, US writer Lenora Chu found the rigorous Shanghai school system, including memorisation and mental arithmetic, did her son no harm in mastering “the basics’’ at a young age. Nor did a strong academic focus quash creativity, critical thinking and self-expression. Chu believes Chinese schools are too extreme at secondary level. Australians would never support pushing children to excess. But balance is important. Australian children deserve the chance to excel. They must not be shortchanged by mediocrity.