[LINK] Dumb Americans slow to catch on
Jan Whitaker
jwhit at melbpc.org.au
Thu Feb 25 11:12:51 AEDT 2010
At 10:49 AM 25/02/2010, Glen Turner wrote:
>I can't really see a common university+VET card just yet, although
>there's no doubt that a common proximity+smart card would be a
>wonderful thing.
Do you think the announcement today of a common student ID number
throughout the country will enable that?
From the story with the headline about inspectors:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/gillard-proposes-inspectors-for-schools-20100224-p3n9.html
Ms Gillard also promised the government would introduce
identification numbers for all school children, to help track the
progress of individual students between different schools, school
systems and states.
She said the ''unique student identifier'', which would be introduced
as soon as possible, would allow governments to evaluate the
performance of schools and teachers ''with full rigour''.
It could also be used to develop a measure of the value schools add
to students, which could be published on the My School website.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott suggested the scheme was a national
identity card by stealth.
''I think that children should have names, not numbers. And I'm
concerned about any proposal that seems to commodify our kids,'' he said.
But Ms Gillard said Mr Abbott was speaking before thinking.
''The reason we need the number is so as a government we don't need
the names. The number is a privacy protection.''
Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne suggested hackers
could gain access to the results and use them to bully children.
Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said
the idea raised serious issues about privacy and the ethical use of
student data.
''We are very disappointed that today we've seen another announcement
by the government made without any genuine or meaningful consultation
with the profession,'' Mr Gavrielatos said.
NSW Education Minister Verity Firth said she supported the idea, but
would seek ''appropriate privacy protections.''
[That's rich, considering how long it took NSW to even replace a
Privacy Commissioner instead of a series of 'acting'; hopefully it's
better now]
As an interim measure, Ms Gillard said she had asked the Australian
Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, which is responsible
for the My School website, to investigate how student progress could
be measured using existing national testing data.
''With the co-operation of education authorities, and without
identifying individual students, it should be possible to link
national testing records so that student progress can be identified
from year to year once the 2010 national tests have been taken,'' she said.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer
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