League tables

The headline in the Press is “Govt to fast-track school league tables“.

However reading on, it turns out the Government is not publishing any league tables – it just is not supressing information from the media.

Tolley said individual pupil achievement details probably would not go to the Ministry of Education, but each school’s performance would.

The Government could not stop the media from accessing the information and producing league tables, she said.

“We have a society that values freedom of information. Personally, I think the more information that’s out there the better,” Tolley said. …

“The best disinfectant is fresh air …”

What a refreshing attitude from a Minister. But no surprise the reaction:

Frances Nelson, the president of primary teachers’ union, the New Zealand Educational Institute, said there was strong resistance to league table”.

“When you get a league table it makes schools focus just on the things that are going to appear in the league table, and that’s what narrows the curriculum,” she said. “They are really disadvantageous to kids and we will continue to lobby against them.”

The institute wanted legislation to stop the information made public.

Of course it must be kept secret. Parents and prospective parents can not be trusted to have information on schools. That might then lead to them making a choice about what shcool to send their kids to, and choice is bad and evil. So bad and evil that we must legislate to supress information.