Click here to download the media release in PDF format.

The Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) representing all education sectors today expressed its concern that the Federal Government’s My School website is being launched prematurely.

APPA has always supported the principle of transparency as long as it enhances what we do in primary schools.

“No one can argue against parents accessing good information about their child and schools”, said APPA President, Ms Leonie Trimper.

However, Ms Trimper said that there are currently two pieces of crucial information missing from the My School website.

The first one is the absence of school finance data which constitutes a huge gap and undermines the comparison of like and neighbourhood schools. “APPA is concerned that the lack of this vital piece of information is a real risk and acquiring the data from school systems will be too hard and may never happen.

“Our second concern is that the Government has no firm guidelines about the misuse of the NAPLAN results.

“The Government, while deploring the potential misuse of NAPLAN results, should have issued clear protocols for system authorities, school principals and the media to prevent misuse from occurring. “We know various forms of misuse will happen based on the experiences in the US and UK. APPA has previously called on the Government to form a working party to develop a set of protocols for the use of the NAPLAN data. We again call on the Government to do so. In the mean time, APPA is forming a group of noted educators to accelerate the development of these protocols. APPA will offer these to Governments once developed.”

Ms Trimper said that APPA would continue to provide feedback to the Government about the My School website from its members.