Whatever the merits of an ‘online’ NAPLAN, the simple fact is that there is an extraordinary imposition on schools to deliver this new platform.
Schedules and re-rooming arrangements impact the entire school.
‘NAPLAN coordinators’, a thankless task assigned to some poor souls in schools, have been busy in recent days and early mornings this week to try to ensure that the technology at the school is operational and ready.
Rescheduling of classes to access limited devices for the online test means interruption to teaching and learning across the school.
So, when the system fails through no fault of the school, there are significant stress and work intensification issues that confront school staff across Australia.
The goodwill of school staff, teachers and education support staff, is fundamentally abused when the system fails to work.
The failings in the last two days, no matter how limited, but certainly much broader than reported, cannot and should not be tolerated.
There seems to be little appreciation for the scale of additional work and internal re-organisation that is required in schools to deliver NAPLAN.
The IEUA Federal Executive meeting next week (Thursday 23 May) will consider a resolution that will demand a consistent and appropriate level of support and resourcing from employers and ACARA, or in the alternate a recommendation for schools to withdraw support for future NAPLAN testing.