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Stoopid Hendo

So every schoolkid in Australia had their English literacy tested and of course NT did pretty crap - to be expected really given how many ESL kids we have (who go 'untreated' in the classroom, i.e. no ESL methodologies employed) and how thin resources get spread. Our Chief Minister Paul Henderson said something rather disturbing about it (as reported on ABC news website):

Henderson talks up NT education results

The Northern Territory Education Minister, Paul Henderson, says national testing results represent a small step forward in the performance of NT students, and shine a light on areas that need improvement.

The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy, or NAPLAN, results show the Northern Territory has performed the worst of all Australia's jurisdictions.

But Mr Henderson, who is also the Chief Minister, says he sees encouraging signs of improvement in the Territory compared with last year's results.

He says it is not necessarily appropriate to draw a direct comparison with other states and territories.

"There have been slight improvements this year, but they have been improvements.

"To compare the performance of the Territory as a whole - with 33 per cent of our students Indigenous and 80 per cent of those students in very remote schools - with the performance of urban Sydney is somewhat anomalous."

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Um, excuse me can we just look at that last bit again...

"To compare the performance of the Territory as a whole - with 33 per cent of our students Indigenous and 80 per cent of those students in very remote schools - with the performance of urban Sydney is somewhat anomalous."

Is he saying the NT does bad on these tests because one third of our students are Indigenous????? WTF!

Comments

zebragirl said…
So I am sitting here in my classroom in Accra, Ghana looking for some photos of School of the Air for our UN Day. I am in charge of the Oceania room and planning some awesome displays to teach everybody about my country... and I search google images and find your photo peering at me. :)
the wonder of the internet hey. :P
6:20 pm
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