Benson-Pope should stick with fish

Tuesday 15 Mar 2005

Deborah Coddington - Press Releases - Education

David Benson-Pope is proving to be a disgrace as Associate Education Minister and should go back to trying to regulate fish, ACT Education spokesman Deborah Coddington said today.

"Despite repeated claims that parents will be able to compare NCEA results between schools, his answer to my latest written Parliamentary Question proves that this will be impossible," Miss Coddington said.

"Mr Benson-Pope doesn't actually say that. Oh no, the Minister would never admit that the whole aim of standards-based assessment is to eliminate competition both between schools and between individual students.

"Instead he fudges the entire question. On the one hand he says yes, comparisons will be possible at the end of April, when results are made public.

"Then he goes on to say parents will be able to 'use over 200 functionalities' to compare schools. Those 'functionalities' include 'gender, ethnicity, learning area, decile grouping' and a number of other meaningless phrases that a parent would have to have a degree in gobbledegook to understand.

"Parents pay the taxes that keep the Minister and his education bureaucrats in the style in which they've become very happy - putting out meaningless blather.

"The least they expect is some clear, precise information in language everyone can understand.

The answer you should have given to my question as to whether parents can compare schools' NCEA results, Mr Benson-Pope, is 'NO'. Even a fish can see that," Miss Coddington said.

ENDS

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