Page 1887 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
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MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women) (6.06): Thank you, Mr Coe, and the Canberra Liberals for bringing this motion on today as it gives me a chance to clarify the public apology I made. For the information of members, I will read the full text of what I sent as a result of some media inquiries about this issue:
I used a poor form of words, and I apologise. I have not and never would call any person dumb. The point I have consistently made is that NAPLAN in its current form has too many students forming negative perceptions of themselves and their schools. Since I became Education Minister I have continually worked to try to move NAPLAN away from its high-stakes nature—particularly the stress and anxiety it can cause.
My record on this issue is very clear—the risks and inequities of the current high-stakes NAPLAN regime were raised with me repeatedly through the future of education process and other engagements with students, teachers and parents from both public and private schools.
In March last year my op-ed clearly articulated my views, and they have not changed. Every year since 2010 at around the beginning of March the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, ACARA, publishes school-level NAPLAN data on the My School website and around the beginning of March each year there is a flurry of commentators who analyse the data to identify the winners and losers and publish league tables even though the federal government was adamant this would not happen when NAPLAN and My School were introduced.
The more I get to know Canberra school leaders and teachers, the more I realise our current approach to NAPLAN gets in the way of schools and teachers getting on with their job and educating children without an army of overnight experts looking over their shoulder. The fact that NAPLAN has become a trigger for stress, anxiety and depression among young people fearful of letting someone down, as opposed to a constructive tool for learning, is in itself a reason to question the culture we have allowed to emerge. This high-stakes culture may be doing more harm than good.
I first took these concerns to the Education Council in late 2017. In the course of numerous meetings I managed to gain consensus around the need for a review of how NAPLAN is reported. That review is being conducted by the ACT government on behalf of education ministers from every other state and territory around the country as well as the federal education minister. That says a lot for how the consensus was reached amongst education ministers about a way forward to remove the harmful effects of reporting from the NAPLAN process. That review is being completed, and I expect to take it up to the next Education Council meeting, scheduled for June.
Although I used a poor choice of words, they sadly reflect how many young people feel, and this is because of how NAPLAN is reported right now. To be clear, the government is not opposed to standardised testing, and the ACT’s early adoption of NAPLAN online proves that. What we object to is any process which puts our young people under unreasonable pressure or stigmatises those who might not enjoy the
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