Aus News: Fears schools may cheat to improve test performance

NSW high school principals are expecting the teacher ban on NAPLAN tests to affect the ''vast majority'' of secondary schools next week.

The president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Jim Mc Alpine, said Australia was in danger of becoming a ''nation of cheats'' unless the national literacy and numeracy tests were monitored by external supervisors.

Mr. Mc Alpine said the federal government's reward payments for improved NAPLAN results would tempt schools, which administer the tests, to alter results to improve performance. He said the federal government should pay for external supervisors for the high-stakes NAPLAN tests given to students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

''Julia Gillard should pay for external exam supervision in every school to ensure the results are fair and genuine, in the same way we do the HSC. It is ludicrous these tests are done in a classroom with a teacher,'' he said. ''There is no way to control the alteration to answers and yet these results are being used to make judgments on school performance.

''We don't want Australia to become a nation of cheats.''

Mr. Mc Alpine said the vast majority of his members had indicated that they will be supporting the Australian Education Union's moratorium on the NAPLAN test.

The Department of Education has said that its feedback suggested NAPLAN tests would be delivered at 85 per cent of primary and high schools on May 11, 12 and 13.

The NSW Primary Principals Association said it was unsure what proportion of schools would be affected by the teacher ban next week.

The president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Bob Lipscombe, said the union was considering its advice to schools that attempted to use untrained people to supervise the tests. He ruled out any violence but would not say whether the union would consider setting up picket lines outside schools.

Mr. Lipscombe refuted Department of Education advice that NAPLAN tests would be delivered to the majority of students. ''We remain unconvinced that they can deliver the tests in all schools,'' he said.

The NSW opposition spokesman on education, Adrian Piccoli, said the federal government was looking for a fight with the national teacher union.

''Julia Gillard wants to fight to prove to big business that she is not beholden to unions. That is what this dispute is about. She could resolve this dispute and students could do the NAPLAN tests.

''The NSW government is doing all the head kicking on her behalf and ultimately it is the kids who miss out on the tests.''

A spokesperson for Ms Gillard said the government was committed to providing information on core skills and that the test results guided decisions on financial assistance for schools.
Yesterday the state government established a hotline for parents with concerns about the NAPLAN tests.

The line will be open from 8am to 7pm on weekdays and 9am to 6pm at the weekend. The number is 1300388246.

My comments:

For your information, NAPLAN stands for National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy commenced in Australia. Every year, all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed on the same days using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. However, recently, the teachers association in Australia have banned the NAPLAN tests. This is because the schools may cheat to improve their results to get financial aid from the government. They suggested that the NAPLAN tests should be monitored by external supervisors instead of the teachers of the schools themselves. In my opinion, there are so many irresponsible person cheat for their own benefit. There is even a country that cheated on their financial status just to attract more investors. However, this kind of act cannot be kept secret for a long time as there must be one time where people will know about it and things may get worse than what they can imagine. So, do not cheat to anybody as it is not a good act and it can bring harm to other people and yourself.