Keeping Schooling Honest
To The Australian Monday, February 12, 2007
I am writing to counter waffly objections to a national syllabus and assessment scheme. An Australian Certificate of Education (ACE) is a great idea. Instead of being stuck with 8 varieties of school syllabus as we do now, we should pick the best educational brains from across our small population to draft a no-nonsense, good quality ACE.
The national syllabus should be a clear and readily available document, periodically updated. Any person of any age - but especially schoolchildren - should be able to front up to an annual, nationally uniform, external assessment under exam conditions. Under these conditions, the ACE will be widely respected: parents will be keen to embrace it throughout the school industry.
What if a loony faction takes over Federal Education and destroys the credibility of the content or assessment of ACE? That's why schools and citizens should always have the right to engage other forms of assessment like the IB. Let public reputation, not backroom educrats, determine how widely the ACE is used.
Some critics point out that a pen-and-paper test does not reveal all that a child receives from schooling. Sure, but it does check whether core skills and knowledge are being delivered. And yes, the results should be sent straight home to the parents.
And no, a uniform national curriculum does not stifle innovation and diversity in schooling. Teaching methods and school management need to keep evolving. External assessment simply keeps the industry honest by indicating what is actually working for its captive customers and where improvement is needed.
There is wholesome evolutionary diversity, and there is unproductive, feather-bedding diversity which obscures true comparison and undermines equal opportunity.
Philip O'Carroll