The education writer at The Australian newspaper has revealed that Victorian teachers will have to prepare their pupils for the Naplan test. Shock horror!!!

The purpose of the National Assessment Program or Naplan is to test the numeracy and literacy of school pupils at various stages in their downward slide towards graduation from school. The Teachers Union is against the publication of the results of these tests for obvious reasons. Here, in Australia, the Education Union does not like being accountable to anyone for its method and “efficiency” in teaching.

So the latest ploy is to reveal to the media that teachers have been told to prepare their pupils for these tests. Which apparently is a scandal! It means that teachers will have to teach spelling, reading and punctuation, counting without a calculator and all that useless stuff. They will be asked to provide extra teaching for those pupils who are having difficulties with spelling and numeracy. What an imposition!

This is all too much for the poor Teachers Union. I actually doubt that some teachers even know how to spell and count and they certainly wouldn’t know how to teach language and syntax. After all, we got rid of all that silly business years ago when grammar became a dirty word.

Next, they will be asking teachers to actually teach and I have to admit that being an ex-high-school teacher myself who has seen many teachers in action, and I mean inaction, this is a big ask.