Kalashnikov47
Member
Yes, old news, but I think it is still worth discussing.
Source: Parents shut out by ban on school league tables
Background: the federal government wanted to introduce a scheme that would list down the academic performance of all schools in form of a league table and thereby rank them. The Liberal party of NSW, along with the Greens, amended legislation regarding this field to make it an offence to publish results of school academic performance on print media (the internet falls under federal jurisdiction).
Personally, I think we SHOULD have a league table that provides the academic performance of schools because I believe the general public, especially parents, have a right to know how well the schools of their kids is performing.
I understand there would be one or two problems. First, as the Greens MPs argued, the publication of a simple league table would be equal to public shaming of poor-performing schools and the children who attend those schools. I don't think this is a valid argument at all, because we cannot help the schools in trouble without knowing which schools we are talking about.
Second, the Greens also argued that such simplistic approach ignores the situations of certain schools, especially those populated by students from migrant background and those in rural areas. In my opinion, however, this is precisely the reason why we have to publish those results because the society must know the scale of the problem before it can provide greater support to students and schools in need.
Anyway, this incidence totally changed my impression on the Greens. Their logic is: whenever a piece of information that is leaked to the public, it would become "misinformation" and subjected to "misinterpretation"; by contrast, the government will always deal with it in an appropriate manner.
Source: Parents shut out by ban on school league tables
Background: the federal government wanted to introduce a scheme that would list down the academic performance of all schools in form of a league table and thereby rank them. The Liberal party of NSW, along with the Greens, amended legislation regarding this field to make it an offence to publish results of school academic performance on print media (the internet falls under federal jurisdiction).
Personally, I think we SHOULD have a league table that provides the academic performance of schools because I believe the general public, especially parents, have a right to know how well the schools of their kids is performing.
I understand there would be one or two problems. First, as the Greens MPs argued, the publication of a simple league table would be equal to public shaming of poor-performing schools and the children who attend those schools. I don't think this is a valid argument at all, because we cannot help the schools in trouble without knowing which schools we are talking about.
Second, the Greens also argued that such simplistic approach ignores the situations of certain schools, especially those populated by students from migrant background and those in rural areas. In my opinion, however, this is precisely the reason why we have to publish those results because the society must know the scale of the problem before it can provide greater support to students and schools in need.
Anyway, this incidence totally changed my impression on the Greens. Their logic is: whenever a piece of information that is leaked to the public, it would become "misinformation" and subjected to "misinterpretation"; by contrast, the government will always deal with it in an appropriate manner.
