A meeting of education ministers in Sydney today is a chance to get a breakthrough in the dispute over the misuse of student test data, according to the Australian Education Union.

AEU Federal President, Angelo Gavrielatos said the solution to this dispute rests in the hands of the education ministers.

“The ministers should dump divisive plans to recruit parents to conduct the national tests next month and instead agree to negotiations with the union to address the concerns of teachers,” Mr Gavrielatos said.

“A number of state ministers have indicated their support for negotiations. This is a good sign. The tests can go ahead uninterrupted if the concerns of the profession are addressed.

“For more than 12 months, parents, teachers and principals have appealed to the Education Minister Julia Gillard to address concerns related to the misuse of student data and the creation and publication of league tables.

“Independent polling shows 85 per cent of public school parents want the Federal Minister Julia Gillard to negotiate with the union. We have beentrying since January to get a meeting with her without success.

“Teachers cannot hand out the tests knowing that the results can be misused to unfairly brand students and schools as failures in league tables.

“We have repeatedly tried to get the Government to do two things: improve the My School website so it contains accurate and meaningful information for parents and protect students and school communities from league tables.

“Ms Gillard promised 12 months ago that education ministers would ensure that safeguards would be put in place to guard against the misuse of student data. So far they have not delivered.”