Perth, Western Australia February 3, 2007 Home News Time Out Letters Write a Letter Classifieds Search Real Estate Trades & Services Submit About Contact Us Advertising Legal	The OBE works, says Barnett Liberal MP Colin Barnett, who was Education Minister when the Outcomes Based Education policy was launched, backed it again this week - and criticised the federal government and the West Australian newspaper for attacking it. His attack is a swipe at fellow Liberal and federal Education Minister Julie Bishop. Mr Barnett said the introduction of OBE had become a mess in recent years, but the concept remained good. He said the content needed to be more clearly defined and a more traditional way of examining applied. He was confident the OBE for this year's TEE students could be managed. He said: "The West has run a long and hard campaign against the OBE, but it has not been dropped and it should remain. "The last thing we want is the old unit curriculum. Children need to be learning to be more analytical. "Children learn at different rates and the basis of OBE is still there. The assessment needs to be ironed out." He said OBE had been driven by classroom teachers through the Curriculum Council. It had been developed by government, independent and catholic school educators working together; it had not been forced on to teachers. He said: "At least 10,000 teachers contributed to the process, but it has to be said that for Years 11 and 12 it has been badly handled. "The tragedy in all of this has been the campaign by the federal government for the past two years and The West. "Just rubbishing it has damaged the state school system and left it unfairly carrying the burden."He said government schools in the western suburbs - Shenton College, Perth Modern School and Churchlands - were doing very well. But in other areas, some well-meaning parents were being frightened into making ill-judged decisions to desperately enrol their children into private schools. He said: "This trend will hurt enrolments at some schools in lower income areas. It has unfairly damaged the confidence and standing of schools. "The attack at federal level and in parts of the media has been misplaced and unfair. "It will be a big job to restore credibility. Outer urban areas will be hurt. It is sad that the most vulnerable are the most damaged. "If it is allowed to continue, it will undermine the vitally important concept of a universal, free quality education for all. Enrolments will drop." He said the league tables of TEE scores did not reveal much that was useful. He said: "Government schools are outstanding in the higher income areas." He did a survey last year which confirmed the move for high schools to use Year 7 as their first year. He said: "All the private schools are moving to Year 7 as their entry year. "It is a change flowing from the change to the starting age, which I brought in, and it is not a bad thing with the move to set up middle schools. "I expect Shenton College and Churchlands will go this way in the near future." Do you have something to say? Write to us and we may publish your letter next week. BACK TO TOP < PREVIOUS - HOME - NEXT> Copyright © 1996 - 2009 Post Newspapers Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.