RELEASE
The NSW Teachers Federation welcomes the announcement by NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes that NAPLAN will be decoupled from the HSC.
While supporting the push for all students needing to reach minimum standards by the end of schooling, the Federation opposed the use of NAPLAN as a minimum benchmark.
"It was an inappropriate use of NAPLAN due to the extremely narrow focus of the tests and the lack of relevance to curriculum content," said NSW Teachers Federation President, Maurie Mulheron.
"Its use risked labelling students as failures early in their high school career," Mr Mulheron said.
Instead, the Teachers Federation maintains that there needs to be greater system-wide support for all public schools in order allow them to provide intensive and early intervention for those students in danger of not meeting minimum standards.
"Unfortunately, that has got much harder now that the Federal Government has torn up the previous funding agreements with the states resulting in the loss of $856 million in funding from NSW public schools over the next two years," he said.
Mr Mulheron said the NSW Teachers Federation looks forward to working with NSW educational authorities on the next stage of the plan to ensure all students meet minimum standards by the end of Year 12.
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