OBE in WA, Where to now?
Outcomes based education in Western Australia has taken a battering over the last year.
The nearly endless stream of consultants,” experts”, spin-doctors and management crisis support teams employed by the department of education and training and the curriculum council delivered a system of education that nobody wants, nobody can use and nobody can understand.
The cost to the community is estimated at $250 million (1)
For this price no additional schools were built, no additional teachers were employed, class sizes were not reduced and the standards in literacy and numeracy in WA fell. (2)
However, the government employed 157 specialists to help children with the basics of reading, writing and maths. Obviously this is not the solution. (3)
For $250 million all the public received were some web-sites and television commercials all trying to sell the supposed “benefits” of outcomes based education. Schools received and tsunami of documentation that is completely worthless trying to prop up a system of education that is inherently flawed.
The endless stream of empty rhetoric used by Ljiljanna Ravlich and her fellow OBE-apologists when they described OBE as “worlds best practice (4)”, “an educational approach that caters to all students” (5) and “future-proofing students” (6) and “OBE is simply good teaching.” (7) is now, more frighteningly, being used by Kevin Rudd.
Rudd has stated “"The government I lead will be one firmly in the reformist tradition. The reformist tradition that we bring to bear on education is the same that we will bring to bear on climate change ….” (8)
Could Rudd possibly believe that OBE is educational reform? Is Rudd as deaf as Ravlich?
Will Labor make the same mistakes federally as they have in WA?
Rudd had best spell out his “reform agenda” and focus very clearly on curriculum issues rather than pork-barrelling. Labor is still suffering in WA as a result of its ill-fated venture with outcomes based education.
The new minister of education in WA, Mark McGowan, has taken one very important step in abolishing levels (9) in senior school classes (except for English and two others) which were found to be “unsuited for reporting to students and parents.”(10).
This begs the question: Why use levels in any year group?
Mr McGowan has admitted that they are clearly unsuitable for assessment and has listened to parents and teachers on this issue. Anti-OBE lobby groups such as PLATOWA have continued to pressure the government about abolishing levels completely. Mr McGowan has taken a first step in the direction that parents and teachers want but he must now complete his journey and dismantle the unworkable OBE system in WA entirely.
(1) “The West Australian” 23rd Jan 2007
Outcomes based education in Western Australia has taken a battering over the last year.
The nearly endless stream of consultants,” experts”, spin-doctors and management crisis support teams employed by the department of education and training and the curriculum council delivered a system of education that nobody wants, nobody can use and nobody can understand.
The cost to the community is estimated at $250 million (1)
For this price no additional schools were built, no additional teachers were employed, class sizes were not reduced and the standards in literacy and numeracy in WA fell. (2)
However, the government employed 157 specialists to help children with the basics of reading, writing and maths. Obviously this is not the solution. (3)
For $250 million all the public received were some web-sites and television commercials all trying to sell the supposed “benefits” of outcomes based education. Schools received and tsunami of documentation that is completely worthless trying to prop up a system of education that is inherently flawed.
The endless stream of empty rhetoric used by Ljiljanna Ravlich and her fellow OBE-apologists when they described OBE as “worlds best practice (4)”, “an educational approach that caters to all students” (5) and “future-proofing students” (6) and “OBE is simply good teaching.” (7) is now, more frighteningly, being used by Kevin Rudd.
Rudd has stated “"The government I lead will be one firmly in the reformist tradition. The reformist tradition that we bring to bear on education is the same that we will bring to bear on climate change ….” (8)
Could Rudd possibly believe that OBE is educational reform? Is Rudd as deaf as Ravlich?
Will Labor make the same mistakes federally as they have in WA?
Rudd had best spell out his “reform agenda” and focus very clearly on curriculum issues rather than pork-barrelling. Labor is still suffering in WA as a result of its ill-fated venture with outcomes based education.
The new minister of education in WA, Mark McGowan, has taken one very important step in abolishing levels (9) in senior school classes (except for English and two others) which were found to be “unsuited for reporting to students and parents.”(10).
This begs the question: Why use levels in any year group?
Mr McGowan has admitted that they are clearly unsuitable for assessment and has listened to parents and teachers on this issue. Anti-OBE lobby groups such as PLATOWA have continued to pressure the government about abolishing levels completely. Mr McGowan has taken a first step in the direction that parents and teachers want but he must now complete his journey and dismantle the unworkable OBE system in WA entirely.
(1) “The West Australian” 23rd Jan 2007
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