❓ The Minister for Education addresses claims that schools, particularly in the non-government sector, manipulated literacy and numeracy assessment results by organising student absences. The Minister denies this occurs in government schools and outlines exemption policies.
AnsweredQoN 291Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
Will the minister please report on claims that Western Australian schools organised for poor performing students to be absent during the Western Australia literacy and numeracy assessments? Mr A.J. CARPENTER
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Bunbury for the question and for his advocacy. Anecdotal information has come to me that schools in the non-government sector have organised student absences during assessments so that they would not impact upon the literacy and numeracy figures for that school. Mr M.W. Trenorden: That also happens in government high schools in the bush. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, we are talking about primary schools and testing for years 3, 5 and 7. My understanding is that if that did occur at some stage in the past, it is no longer occurring. It certainly does not occur in government schools. Mr M.W. Trenorden: It does. It happens in regional areas. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: I thank the member for Bunbury for the question and for his advocacy. Anecdotal information has come to me that schools in the non-government sector have organised student absences during assessments so that they would not impact upon the literacy and numeracy figures for that school. Mr M.W. Trenorden: That also happens in government high schools in the bush. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, we are talking about primary schools and testing for years 3, 5 and 7. My understanding is that if that did occur at some stage in the past, it is no longer occurring. It certainly does not occur in government schools. Mr M.W. Trenorden: It does. It happens in regional areas. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
I thank the member for Bunbury for the question and for his advocacy. Anecdotal information has come to me that schools in the non-government sector have organised student absences during assessments so that they would not impact upon the literacy and numeracy figures for that school. Mr M.W. Trenorden: That also happens in government high schools in the bush. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, we are talking about primary schools and testing for years 3, 5 and 7. My understanding is that if that did occur at some stage in the past, it is no longer occurring. It certainly does not occur in government schools. Mr M.W. Trenorden: It does. It happens in regional areas. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr M.W. Trenorden: That also happens in government high schools in the bush. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, we are talking about primary schools and testing for years 3, 5 and 7. My understanding is that if that did occur at some stage in the past, it is no longer occurring. It certainly does not occur in government schools. Mr M.W. Trenorden: It does. It happens in regional areas. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, we are talking about primary schools and testing for years 3, 5 and 7. My understanding is that if that did occur at some stage in the past, it is no longer occurring. It certainly does not occur in government schools. Mr M.W. Trenorden: It does. It happens in regional areas. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr M.W. Trenorden: It does. It happens in regional areas. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: I thank the member for Bunbury for the question and for his advocacy. Anecdotal information has come to me that schools in the non-government sector have organised student absences during assessments so that they would not impact upon the literacy and numeracy figures for that school. Mr M.W. Trenorden: That also happens in government high schools in the bush. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, we are talking about primary schools and testing for years 3, 5 and 7. My understanding is that if that did occur at some stage in the past, it is no longer occurring. It certainly does not occur in government schools. Mr M.W. Trenorden: It does. It happens in regional areas. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
I thank the member for Bunbury for the question and for his advocacy. Anecdotal information has come to me that schools in the non-government sector have organised student absences during assessments so that they would not impact upon the literacy and numeracy figures for that school. Mr M.W. Trenorden: That also happens in government high schools in the bush. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, we are talking about primary schools and testing for years 3, 5 and 7. My understanding is that if that did occur at some stage in the past, it is no longer occurring. It certainly does not occur in government schools. Mr M.W. Trenorden: It does. It happens in regional areas. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr M.W. Trenorden: That also happens in government high schools in the bush. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, we are talking about primary schools and testing for years 3, 5 and 7. My understanding is that if that did occur at some stage in the past, it is no longer occurring. It certainly does not occur in government schools. Mr M.W. Trenorden: It does. It happens in regional areas. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: No, we are talking about primary schools and testing for years 3, 5 and 7. My understanding is that if that did occur at some stage in the past, it is no longer occurring. It certainly does not occur in government schools. Mr M.W. Trenorden: It does. It happens in regional areas. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr M.W. Trenorden: It does. It happens in regional areas. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: The information I have been given by the Department of Education and Training and the statistics it has given me to support that information leads me to believe that that does not happen in government schools. Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr C.J. Barnett: Are you going to check it out? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I checked it with the department today; ask the director general. The previous Minister for Education used to exempt entire schools. Is that not correct? Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr C.J. Barnett: Aboriginal schools, yes. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: He exempted entire schools, and I do not. Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr C.J. Barnett: I did for Aboriginal schools, you - Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I know. I am not criticising him. Exemptions were previously in place. However, they are no longer in place because I do not exempt those schools. I told the department to test everyone. The exemptions are for children with disabilities, children who are absent and do not come for the entire week of the testing period or children whose parents have withdrawn them. Around 1.2 or 1.3 per cent of children are exempt because of a disability, 0.2 per cent of children are withdrawn by their parents and across both sectors 2.4 to 2.6 per cent of children are absent. An interesting statistic is that the absentee rates in government and non-government schools are reported to be lower when testing is happening than at other times. I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
I want to put paid to the story that is going around in the media today that Western Australian government and non-government schools are in some sense rorting the results. I spoke to the Association of Independent Schools, which has assured me that all schools in the independent sector are required by the federal Government to sit kids for the test or otherwise to suffer recurrent funding penalties. The State Government does it as well. The Catholic Education Office does it for all its schools. In addition, Brendan Nelson is now offering a $700-a-head incentive, which is available when children cannot reach the benchmarks. I cannot see what incentive there would be for any schools to organise themselves in such a way that poor performing students do not sit the test. I am very confident that the State Government system is doing the right thing, as I was and am confident that it is doing the right thing with the tertiary entrance examinations and the league tables. I was very disappointed to see that the letter from the Carmel Adventist College reinforced anecdotal information about what other schools in the non-government sector were doing with the TEE and league tables. As a result of the publicity and the comments that I made, that practice, which I have been led to believe was more common than people were prepared to admit, will be stamped out.
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