Page 1883 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 22 August 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I acknowledge—and this is why I want to debate next week the issue that Mrs Dunne has raised—that there is a need to look at the moderation process within our college system, and we are doing that. It is part of the reforms of the BSSS introduction of a new chair and a renewed focus for that organisation. There is a need to update the technology that we use for the generation of scores within colleges. It dismays me that we have at our fingertips access to a variety of technology that will assist college teachers in their day-to-day marking tasks, and just the simple raw data entry of hundreds of students’ scores into the system and to get the scaling right and to get the technology right to assist teachers in this process, because it takes days.
My mother and my brother have been involved in college assessment for probably 20 years between the two of them. I know what assessment period is like—certainly the data entry period within the colleges, within each individual subject area and in each individual faculty. We could do better there. That is a clear task that I set the BSSS. We have provided funding for IT upgrades in that area. I would like to see year 11 and 12 students being able to access their scores on line, and I would like to see a removal of the unnecessary duplication of data entry that is occurring at the moment in generating year 11 and 12 scores.
Mrs Dunne has alluded to other issues about how our UAIs are calculated. It is one of those things—when did you stop beating your wife, effectively—the imputation that Mr Drummond is putting forward. I have to continually disprove each one of his new claims, unless there is a perception that there is a huge shadow over everything that has transpired with the BSSS. That is unfair, but it is something we should be debating, and I am happy to do so. (Time expired.)
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra): Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to explain words in accordance with standing order 46.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: You may proceed, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I thank members. In his remarks just now, Mr Barr has misrepresented my words and my views by saying that the position I take today in relation to the senior secondary colleges is different from the position I have taken in the past. What I have done today is extol the virtues of looking closely at the Atelier review of senior secondary colleges, which is what I did last year when he quoted from the review.
It is only now that this government has come to the situation where it is really taking this report seriously, and only because it has been brought to their attention by this discussion here today and in the wider arena about what we do to ensure that we stay ahead of the game in relation to senior secondary education. This is on the table as our guidepost forward. It is what I urged the government to do last year, and that is what I am urging the government to do now.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister for Industrial Relations): Under the same standing order, Mr Deputy Speaker, Mrs Dunne has just misrepresented my position and the actions of the government in relation to the college review. I seek that she—
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .