16 March 2020

 
The QTU is demeaning the teaching profession with its attack on NAPLAN and threats of boycotts.
 
We at the Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland know that NAPLAN is not perfect, but relentless attacks from the QTU are not helpful to teachers or students. We understand the need for national standardised testing to inform resource allocation. We support the State Education Minister Grace Grace and the review process that she has committed to. The QTU is jumping the gun. We should wait and see the results of the review before we take drastic action.  
 
In fact, we would love teachers feedback about how NAPLAN can be improved.
 
Ms Grace has linked QLD to NSW and VIC for a Tri-state review. Is the QTU trying to stop this review? See more on the NAPLAN review here.
 
We are still a small union but have a steady growth. This is because the TPAQ is about you, not politically motivated union officials' careers. 
 
The QTU published in their newsletter (click here) plans to destroy NAPLAN. They even give TPAQ a good plug at the end. We are fascinated by what they think we think. None of it is true. Nor are we a business. 
 
The services to TPAQ members (our union) are provided by the same group of legal specialists who have done such a cracker job for the nurses at NPAQ. They don’t own TPAQ. We pay them and they provide a service - at a lower cost with no party politics. You get a better service for the true cost of providing the services.
 
NAPLAN is our first real issue on a matter of principle. 
 
We think that the QTU plans to run an old fashioned industrial action to destroy NAPLAN is redolent of the ultimately unsuccessful tactics of the  “builders labourers'' or the “wharfies” unions. Traditional trade unions have always protected the weaker workers, often at the expense of the better workers. It is short-sighted and demeaning to the teaching profession and ultimately counterproductive. More importantly, it won’t work. 
 
It takes about 8 or 10 years of grinding academic and supervised work to become a professional teacher. Let’s use our brains. There are better ways to get results. NAPLAN is not perfect but the information it can provide to professional educators (teachers) is invaluable. 
 
If anyone is interested in giving us a hand on this we would love your input. Please email hotline@tpaq.com.au.

UPDATE: 20 March 2020 

NAPLAN has been cancelled for 2020. While all professional educators should continue to support a national standardised testing measure in normal circumstances, this is a sensible public health approach to protect teachers during the coronavirus pandemic.