League Tables - Our 2nd Letter to Julia Gillard & Other Ministers

Click here to download the following letter in PDF format.

29 June 2009

To:

The Hon. Julia Gillard MP, Minister for Education
Mr Andrew Barr MLA, Minister for Education and Training, ACT
The Hon. Bronwyn Pike MLA, Minister for Education, Victoria
The Hon. Geoff Wilson, Minister for Education and Training, QLD
The Hon. Dr Jane Lomax-Smith MP, Minister for Education, SA
The Hon. Dr Elizabeth Constable MLA, Minister for Education, WA
The Hon. David Bartlett MP, Minister for Education and Skills, Tasmania
The Hon. Paul Henderson MLA, Minister for Education and Training, NT

Dear Minister,
Along with other peak associations in education, we wrote to you in March this year to express our deep concerns about the potential misuse of school and test data to be published as a result of MCEETYA’s national testing and data collection program. We urged you to take legislative action prohibiting the creation and publication of league tables flowing from the collection of student and school performance data.

Since our previous letter, two significant events have occurred in relation to this issue.

The first is that our predictions have been borne out through the publication of spurious league tables by the Hobart Mercury (6 May, 2009) and Brisbane’s Courier Mail (23 May, 2009).

The second significant event was the passing of new legislation in NSW [Education Amendment (Publication of School Results) Bill 2009]. Aimed at stopping the creation and publication of league tables, it introduces penalties should any ranking or other comparison of particular schools according to school results, except with the permission of the principals of the schools involved, be published.

While there may still be some reservations about whether the legislation will be fully effective in preventing the misuse of the national data in the media, we welcome the NSW Parliament’s action to prevent the creation and publication of simplistic league tables to which you have repeatedly stated your opposition.

Given the lead of the NSW Parliament, we renew our call to the Federal and all other state / territory governments, at the very least, to enact similar legislation at the earliest possible date.

Yours sincerely,
Angelo Gavrielatos, Federal President, Australian Education Union

Leonie Trimper, President, Australian Primary Principals Association

Andrew Blair, President, Australian Secondary Principals Association

Vin Feeney, President, Catholic Secondary Principals Australia

Chris Watt, Federal Secretary, Independent Education Union of Australia

c.c. The Hon. Verity Firth MP, Minister for Education and Training, NSW