AEU to decide on NAPLaN ban

The Federal Executive of the Australian Education Union will today decide whether to
implement a professional ban on the national NAPLAN tests in May in response to the
Federal Government’s failure to protect students from damaging league tables.

The decision comes at the same time as the release of new independent polling which
shows a majority of public school parents believe a ban would be justified given the
concerns of teachers about the damaging impact of league tables on students and
school communities.

AEU Federal President Angelo Gavrielatos said the national poll of 1,000 people shows:

• 54 per cent of parents with children in public schools say action by teachers to
  ban the national NAPLAN test would be justified. (51 per cent of all respondents)

• 85 per cent of public school parents say the Education Minister Julia Gillard
  should meet with the union to try and avoid the threatened ban. (87 per cent of all
  respondents).

“We have been trying for months to get the Federal Government to act to protect
students from the damaging impact of league tables and the misuse of student data,” Mr
Gavrielatos said.

“Not only has the Government failed to act on the concerns of teachers, parents and
principals but the minister has refused to meet with the union since January.

“We have put forward a detailed proposal to improve the accuracy and relevance of
information provided to parents on the My School website and to stop league tables but
that has been ignored.

“The choice for the AEU Federal Executive will be whether to sit back and allow the
damaging misuse of student test data to continue or to take action to protect students.”