The State School Teachers’ Union of WA (SSTUWA) returned to the WA Industrial Relations Commission today, seeking a final determination in the matters relating to NAPLAN testing.

Last week, the Commission handed down Interim Orders to prevent the union from maintaining a National Moratorium on the implementation of the 2010 NAPLAN testing.

The union has complied with the ruling.

The move to request a final determination will require the Department of Education to provide proper evidence as to why the union should not be permitted to continue the National Moratorium.

SSTUWA President, Anne Gisborne, said today that the union’s serious and professional concerns about the misuse of NAPLAN data in the preparation of “league tables” and the MySchool website – and the damage they do to students and the school community – have not dissipated by the issuing of the interim orders.

“We still have massive professional concerns about critical parts of the Western Australian curriculum being set aside, while teachers are pressured to just concentrate on Math and English so that their schools will look good when the NAPLAN results are released,” she said.

“We are also very concerned that a school’s performance is being judged, and being nationally ranked, based on two narrow tests with a complete disregard for all other subjects – as well as completely ignoring other contributing factors including the facilities available at the school, the teacher/pupil ratio and so many other factors that, when combined, create a complete picture of a school,” she added.

“Parents, and the community, are being misled about their local schools because the data used to compile these tables is flawed and the information is too limited,” said Ms Gisborne.