In Australia there’s a bit of a furor going on at present because of a new website the government has instituted. The website has teachers outraged, as it aims to give a picture of the school and a rating of its performance when compared with other schools. Parents on the other hand, have been logging on trying to find out how their child’s school rates.
The problem that concerns some people, and I admit to having some feelings about this too, is that if the school is rated below average it tends to cast a blight on that school, the teaching staff and the students. This is exactly the point I was getting at recently when I wrote my last blog.
It is precisely what happened to a Western Sydney school when they were virtually held up to public ridicule for their HSC results one year. Young people from that school then found it very hard to get jobs.
While I agree to some extent that parents have a right to know the standard of teaching in the school their child attends, it can be extremely unhelpful and negative to find out your child’s school is not performing as well as others. Yes, you have the option to move them to another school but sometimes for financial or other reasons this is not always possible.
Children can be cruel and there is no doubt that if one school performs better than another that point will be made known when children from other less well performing schools come in to contact with the better performing schools. It’s fine if your child is at the top performing schools but if they are not, it can be very detrimental to the education and make them think there’s no point in bothering. It can also be detrimental to the teachers and this will be reflected in the way they teach.
To date the demand seems to be so high it has rendered the site in-operational. I have been unable to get the site to bring up any schools, so I’m not sure exactly how it works.
I’d love to hear other’s thoughts on this idea of being able to check upon your child’s school – helpful or not?
Related blogs
Attitides and Responses in Education