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