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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-03-10 Daily Xml
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NATIONAL LITERACY AND NUMERACY TESTS

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:11): My question is, again, to the Minister for Education. Why was one public school teacher at St Leonard's who interfered with last year's NAPLAN test sacked while another public school teacher who interfered at Elizabeth Vale was reappointed in a leadership position? The memo that went out to principals and staff at Elizabeth Vale Primary School states:

The teacher was found to have been negligent with regards to one of the allegations and to have behaved inappropriately in regards to two others.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Education, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (15:12): The simple answer for the member for Unley is that in one case the circumstances of the misconduct was more egregious. It is quite clear. In one case where the teacher was dismissed, there were deliberate and extensive changes to a number of the answers that were given by the students to the NAPLAN test.

Of course, it was offered by way of exculpation that somehow that was caused by some pressure that the teacher was under, but members need to remember that thousands of other teachers must have been experiencing the same pressure and they did not choose to transgress what are obviously matters of professional conduct. In this particular case, the teacher admitted to carrying out this cheating—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, it is as simple as that. That's right. It is as simple as that, that the—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No. We made findings. We investigated both cases. One made an admission, and we made findings about the other matter. The allegations, in fact, were not as serious in nature in relation to the second case concerning NAPLAN tests. Even the allegations were not as serious in nature. We carried out a proper investigation and found that they were proven in one case and not in another case. They were simply different cases which, of course, attracted different penalties.

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