Categories: NewsEducation

School communities protest ‘failed’ new HSC tests

<h2>Protesters&comma; including mums&comma; dads&comma; grandparents&comma; teachers and students from H&period;O&period;P&period;E – &lpar;HSC&comma; Opportunity&comma; Potential 4 Everyone&rpar; met outside Parliament House in Macquarie Street in September to protest the new HSC policy&comma; which will deny students from sitting the HSC based on test results from year nine&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><em><i>School News<&sol;i><&sol;em> caught up with Martine Beaumont&comma; who has been leading the campaign and she said the protest was a great success&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The protest was about hearing from the children&semi; we heard amazing speeches from eloquent year nine students&comma; from both public and private&semi; and regional schools&comma; about what this policy means for them and how it was impacting them&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Their other main focus was to get a meeting with education minister&comma; Rob Stokes to present some 15000 comments from families&period; Finally&comma; they were granted a meeting and were able to present their case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ms Beaumont says something people seem to be missing is that NSW system&comma; which is modelled on the WA reforms&comma; has some vital differences&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She says WA students were given support and training to help them meet the standards&comma; while NSW students have received none of this support&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She added that all the funding directed at early literacy and early intervention&comma; began once the current year nines were in late primary&colon; &OpenCurlyQuote;They have had no benefit from any of this funding in early literacy &&num;8211&semi; yet are being asked to meet the same standard&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>HOPE representatives discussed alternatives with the minister and advisors&comma; including a separate literacy and numeracy qualification to sit alongside the HSC&period; Talks continue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Suzy Barry

Suzy Barry is a freelance education writer and the former editor of School News, Australia.

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