As a parent there is nothing more useful and informative than your child’s report card because it lets you know where your offspring are succeeding and more importantly what part of their education needs further effort. As such I welcomed the introduction of NAPLAN testing because its nationally consistent methodology and its easy to comprehend reporting does a good job of telling parents where our children stand in relation to their fellows on the all important skills of literacy and numeracy I also like the fact that this is a test for which there can be no “cramming”. Which is why I found the piece in today’s Age rather strange:
click for source
I can’t help but think that Kevin Pope is entirely divorced form the real world and far too hung up with the ideology of multiculturalism which seeks to accommodate new arrivals from other cultures rather than help them become part of the greater Australian society. Kevin clearly needs to realise the same simple truth that my late father in law used to enunciate to his mother when she would speak to him in their native Dutch “This is Australia, we speak ENGLISH here” because there is no escaping the fact that all new arrivals and for that matter all indigenous people for whom English is a second language, will not find a fruitful life unless they are competent in English. Language competency is the core business of our schools and If Kevin Pope can’t deliver that or at least give delivering that his best shot then surely he has no business being in the teaching game at all.
Cheers Comrades
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 
Pop’es problem is that he (and other teachers) are now being made accountable for their performance. Like most, he doesn’t like it!
Sadly I think that you are right deknarf, one would think that having worked for such a long time in “disadvantaged schools” that Pope would have some idea how to focus his efforts in the core business of education but that seems to have eluded him.