When the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy or NAPLAN was introduced in 2008 I thought it was about addressing this inequality. So, when my child sat the test I joked that we should have given the kids chocolate for breakfast so they did badly and the school would get more money. Some mothers laughed, many more were horrified. Because what I failed to realise is that the NAPLAN is picking up on parents’ greatest strength and their greatest weakness. The desire for their child to do the best they can. While the test is at best a blunt instrument in measuring educational achievement, some parents are treating it with all the reverence of a religion.
Some kids are being prepared for NAPLAN like it’s a mini HSC. I know of children attending special weekend colleges where they do tests from previous years for $50 an hour. I know of coaching after school and people purchasing access to special websites. One clever businesswoman tells parents she ‘NAPLAN nannies’ so the children don’t get anxious about tests. I hope you’re laughing. The poor kids wouldn’t be anxious if they weren’t wasting their weekends studying! It’s the parents’ anxiety that’s the problem. A middle-class anxiety.
via NAPLAN.
If you think NAPLAN is bad, try the Australian Early Development Index AEDI for children just starting Kindergarten. I am an early childhood teacher & Director of an Early Childhood Care & Education Centre (that’s right EDUCATION it starts at birth). I have parents wanting us to prep their children so they ‘pass’ the AEDI test.I then explain that children ‘prep’ themselves through engaging in play activities which are inviting, engaging, complex & supportive of their level of development as well as scaffolding their child’s innate skills in reading, writing & arithmatic! This reduces some of the anxiety
So may I suggest that children are already ‘under the pump’ before they start school to prove they are the bestest, smartest kids?