The right to know !

A nasty fight is brewing because the National Assessment Survey of schools may result in a " League's table " of winners - and losers !

Teachers promise that if this happens as a result of this years survey, 70,000 teachers will walk out of their classrooms to ensure that it doesn't happen in further years.

Unfortunately, both sides of the argument have a point !

If schools are listed in order of merit, those at the top of the list will be rewarded by parent's competing to enrol their children - but the school's at the bottom will be avoided - and will have problems attracting gifted teachers.

But parents have a right to know how each school is performing when they face the choice of where to enrol their children !

Years ago they were denied that choice. The Education department allocated children to the school nearest their address - and that was the end of the matter. It was a long, hard fight to break that deadlock - and now a system that has worked well is being compromised by the suggestion of grading schools publicly.

Obviously a school located in an underprivileged area will not be likely to be as academically prominent as one in a rich suburb, but parents will also want to know if it has a full complement of teachers - and whether there are high truancy rates and any ongoing drug or violence problems.

The state of the school buildings will also be a measure of concern, and so far no indication has been given on exactly what criteria a listed evaluation of schools will provide.

The obvious outcome should be some sort of compromise. It may be unfair to list in order of academic excellence but parent's certainly have a right to some sort of evaluation on which to base their choice.

Unfortunately any negotiation is in the hands of three uncompromising entities. The teachers oppose any form of assessment - and on the other side of the argument there are differing requirements by the state and Federal government education departments.

It looks like the sort of argument where nobody wins !