Gillard defiant on school reform plans
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Defending plans: Julia Gillard (AAP: Mark Graham)
Education Minister Julia Gillard has defended the Government's new education reforms, saying doing nothing is not an option.
The Government says it will make federal education funding conditional on the publication of details about schools' performances, with teachers and other staff facing the threat of dismissal if their schools consistently underperform.
"What's not smart is having under-performing schools year after year, decade after decade, not even measuring it, not even recognising it's happening, and not doing anything about it," Ms Gillard told Lyndal Curtis on ABC's AM program.
She also moved to dispel concerns that schools across the country will be unfairly compared, saying only similar schools will be grouped together for comparison.
"Our whole plan is to analyse student population and to compare like schools with like schools," she said.
"If you saw differences with outcomes then that is to do with the quality of what is happening with that school.
"And you'd get the best practice from the highest-achieving schools and take it to the schools that were falling behind to make sure every kid got the best education."
She admits that negotiations to get the states and territories to agree with the plan will be tough, but the Government is willing to stump up significant funding.
"We are standing here ready to make extra resources available to the schools that are falling behind but we want to make sure we understand exactly what's going on," she said.
'Corrupt'
However Wollongong Kiera High School principal Maurie Mulheron has told AM the comparisons will be unfair.
"How do you compare two schools to come up with a sort of ranking?" he said.
"It's an absolute nonsense. It's more than unfair, it's actually corrupt.
"It's a misuse of Government policy to say that we will give money that is owned by the public to their own schools and to say we will give it to some schools more but not to others based on how we determine who we're going to give it to.
"That's not fair, or unfair, that's just plain corrupt."
Mr Mulheron says his school teaches children with disabilities and those with non-English speaking backgrounds as well as those with a disability, and questions how that work can be quantified.
"How do you measure the success of that school in simplistic testing terms and then bully the school by saying 'unless you reach this artificial benchmark we're going to withdraw funding to you and punish you?'" he asked.
Coalition Senator Barnaby Joyce says the plan will end up becoming meaningless and irrelevant.
"Once the teachers' union gets a hold of this they'll tear it to pieces," he said.
"He says he's not naming and shaming but he is going to sack principals, which one would you prefer?"
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