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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (14 June) . . Page.. 1775 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

might be worried about this: it might reveal a teacher that is not doing so well or a group of teachers that are not doing so well.

Mr Osborne: It's really over now, isn't it? The marriage is over now, isn't it?

MR MOORE: Mr Osborne has indicated that the marriage is over You mean, with the P&C Council? Mr Morgan is up there, he knows my view. I happen to have a difference of opinion on this particular issue, and there is a huge range of issues that I agree with them on. On this particular issue I think the P&C Council got it wrong. It really is as simple as that.

I believe that people will be able to interpret the information that I have seen-there is nothing particularly tricky about it-and make very sensible decisions. But would it mean that schools close? I doubt it. Would it mean that pressure is put on the department to put more funds into one or two schools? Yes, I think it probably would. Would it show that most of our schools are actually doing extraordinarily well? Yes, it would show that.

Mr Berry: Not sure.

MR MOORE: Not sure? I am telling you-

Mr Berry: No, I am saying you are not sure on most of the other things. Would it lead to school closures? No, probably not.

MR MOORE: It has nothing to do with "not sures"; it has to do with the fact that ordinary people are capable of making sensible decisions when they have proper and full information in front of them. The thing about the London style league tables that Mr Berry talked about is that they are a very simplistic ranking. They talk about one small area of a school. A school is a lot more, and I understand that better than most, both after 17 years of teaching and having my children go through schools.

It is a lot more than a simple matter of literacy and numeracy. Of course, they are about a lot more than that, and so they should be. Parents know that and can take that into account. They still want the literacy and numeracy, but they also want the computing skills. They also want our kids socialised in a reasonable way in their schooling. There is a whole range of things that we expect of our schools, and these things can help us understand what is going on and how we can bring pressure on our schools.

I cannot understand what you are frightened of. The motion that Mr Berry put starts by moving that the Assembly:

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