Education union to fight league tables

August 16, 2009
Issue 

Australian Education Union national president Angelo Gavrielatos has condemned the federal government's plans to allow the creation of league tables that compare Australian school results. He spoke at the Victorian AEU branch conference on August 1.

Gavrielatos outlined plans for a new campaign to educate the public about the union's opposition to league tables.

The branch conference also discussed resolutions on "professional pay" — a scheme promoted by the AEU as an alternative to the Rudd government's "performance pay" model.
In debate, branch councillor and Teachers Alliance member Geoff Breen spoke against both performance and professional pay. He argued they were two sides of the same coin.

"All of these schemes function to divide workers into winners and losers and to increase pressure on all to work longer and harder for little or in most cases no reward", he said.

"Teaching students is a team effort and to reward some teachers or schools for perceived performance improvements is contrary to the essence of teaching. What public education needs is improved pay for all teachers, not scraps for a few."

Teachers Alliance is a rank-and-file group of Victorian teachers. It will contest the AEU elections later this year.

Teachers Alliance can be contacted at .

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