Media Release: Reforms Receive Qualified Support

The Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) today gave qualified support to the latest reforms announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard though expressed concerns about the system of reward payments to schools that were proposed.

Click here to download the media release in PDF format.

“The availability of an online assessment tool and Prime Minister Gillard’s commitment to a Learning Bank are both very welcome advances,” APPA President Leonie Trimper said.

APPA also supports Labor’s proposals to develop a national system of bonus payments that recognise teachers who make an outstanding contribution to their school. “Obviously there needs to be a lot more consultation with principals about how to put such a system into effect,” Ms Trimper said. “It is essential that the proposed consultation is broad and open and that considerable care is taken to ensure that the reward system does not undermine the team work that successful primary schools rely on. The proposal to reward 1000 schools that show the most progress on attendance and Literacy and Numeracy results is not supported by APPA at this stage, Ms Trimper said. APPA is very concerned that such a scheme would have unintended harmful effects.”

Setting up a competition for schools could see NAPLAN testing becoming the ‘be all and end all’ which we must avoid at all costs. Many of the schools facing the greatest challenges would be hard‐pressed to compete in such a scheme. We would rather see the Government concentrate on fixing the funding formula so that the poorest schools got the help they needed.

There is also the issue of the differential funding level being made available to reward improved performance in primary and secondary schools. Primary schools would receive less than secondary schools under this scheme.

“Learning problems become entrenched early in a child’s schooling and the sooner they are tackled the better,” Ms Trimper said.

Overall, there were many positive features in the Governments reform program, Ms Trimper said, but there were also some aspects that could well undermine Labor’s good intentions.