Victory for School Communities on League Tables

25 June 2009

Shadow Minister for Education Adrian Piccoli today said he was proud that the Liberal/Nationals' changes to Government legislation would prevent the publication of crude, simplistic school league tables in NSW.

Yesterday, the Legislative Council passed the Education Amendment (Publication of School Results) Bill 2009, which allows the Commonwealth Government access to NSW school test results.

This overturns a regulation prohibiting the release or publication of school league tables using exam test scores, which has been in place since 1997.

The Liberal/Nationals Coalition, together with the Greens, passed an amendment to the Bill making it illegal to publish any list ranking the bottom 90 percentile of school results in a newspaper or other document.

Mr Piccoli said the Liberal/Nationals remained opposed to the publication of crude, simplistic school league tables that unfairly compared different schools.

"Nobody wants to see a repeat of what happened with the Year 12 Class at Mt Druitt High," Mr Piccoli said.

"However, we are comfortable that the amended legislation ensures the results of the top 10 per cent of students can still be published, without stigmatising the bottom 90 per cent of students.

"It means that we can still celebrate the achievements of our most successful students, without humiliating students and schools that did not achieve high marks.

"The amended legislation is a win for school communities across the State, as it will also ensure that NSW schools receive over $4 billion in crucial funds from the Commonwealth Government.

"The biggest problem with our education system is that it is highly inequitable. If we are to improve our schools, we need to improve the performances of the students at the lowest achievement bands, not humiliate them through publishing school league tables."