[LINK] Dumb Americans slow to catch on

[Jan Whitaker]

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/
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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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