Rita Panahi and Steve Price clash over who’s to blame for poor NAPLAN results
Steve Price and Rita Panahi have butted heads over whether poor teaching is to blame for this year’s poor NAPLAN results.
Students’ results have not improved in the 10 years since the tests were established, despite the government pouring more than $20 billion into school funding.
Rita Panahi says it’s time to look into holding teachers to account for their results, but the Education Union won’t allow it.
“We have poured billions and billions and billions of extra funding into the sector and the results have got no better, in fact, you could argue they’ve gone backwards.
“There is actually no reward for performance.”
She says the idea teachers don’t get paid much is “absolute nonsense”.
“Their pay is very healthy when you look at international pay for teachers. Australia is very, very generous.
“For years now people who could get into no other course went into teaching because the scores were so low, so let’s not pretend they’re on the breadline and we’re not paying them enough.”
But Steve Price argues teachers are simply an easy target and are not always to blame for poor results.
“It’s not an easy job.
“I don’t think you can sheet the problem home completely to the quality of the teaching. There is a busted system that needs to get fixed. We are obviously wasting money.”
Click PLAY below to hear their comments in full
RELATED