THE launch of the Federal Government’s My School website was met with mixed reactions locally yesterday.
The controversial website is designed to provide parents with information on how their child’s school is performing and ranked according to socio-economic status and national literacy and numeracy testing results.
The website received more than 2350 hits a second yesterday causing it to crash with an error message displayed to web users.
The website was functioning normally by 10.30am.
The NSW Teachers Federation and Regional Parents and Citizens body have publicly declared their opposition to the site.
They believe if the published and information is misused, it could label some schools as under-performing, which could see a decrease in enrolments.
P&C president Janet Tauheluhelu told The Leader the website did not promote equality among schools.
“The parents are not in favour of the use of this information to compare schools,” she said.
“All schools should be treated on an equal basis.
“We support the teachers’ federation on this.
“This (website) doesn’t reflect the true representation of quality education at our schools.
“We are concerned that it would become ostracising of some schools.”
Armidale Diocese Catholic schools director John Mula said he welcomed the website but was wary of the focus it had on specific performance measures, such as testing results.
He said he believed the results were “too simplistic” and feared it would pit schools against each other rather than building the quality of the education system for all students.
“It is important to remember that the educational ‘value’ of all assessment (testing) is that the information obtained from the results be used to provide students and parents with feedback on areas of student progress, inform teachers as to their students’ learning and teaching needs, and identify and act on opportunities for whole school improvement,” he said.
Mr Mula said parents wishing to compare schools before enrolling their child should make an appointment with the school principal to tour of the school and discuss their child’s individual learning needs.
* Our say, page 8 of today's Northern Daily Leader
* More reports, pages 4 and 5 of today's Northern Daily Leader
Email a friend