Education in the right place

Terrific to see education on the front pages across the country, and the interest in our schools such that there were 1.5 million hits (this was way off- some reports suggest 4 million plus) on the My School website yesterday. Long may it continue, and lead towards a real "education revolution" through better informed communities, better and better targeted funding, and voice and action to improve the quality of teaching, things that should flow from breaking the hold of public servants, teachers and politicians over the details of what goes in our schools. More transparency should act as an incentive for all to lift their game. It's far from perfect, and opinions including expert those of experts differ on what should be measured and compared, but it's a start. Congratulations to Deputy Prime Minister Gillard for sticking to her guns on this one- her only mis-step throughout was to say the information should be used to badger teachers about performance, which wasn't quite the way to get the school year off to a good start.

As to the NSW law banning publication in newspapers and magazines of anything other than the stats as they appear on the website-brickbats to the NSW Opposition and The Greens who foisted this upon us, and bouquets to the NSW print media for taking no notice despite the prospect of a $50,000 fine.