Parts of OBE scrapped - huge overhaul - huge waste of time

I won't get into much about how the WA minister for education has gone ahead and scrapped parts of OBE and allowed teachers to 'traditionally' grade their 11/12 students. This is because it's already received massive coverage in the news and press today and will continue to do so for the rest of the week/year.

I for one and disappointed because I am one of the few teachers who are in favour of OBE (don't have a go at me for that, we've already been involved in numerous debates on this blog and my other blog). I believe that the courses of study that were introduced were clear, concise and provided teachers with an easy guideline as to what content to teach. This is particularly good for me since I am a media studies teacher and the Media Production and Analysis course of study, which was finalised in 2005, is by far one of the easiest to follow courses there are for teachers.

Now that elements of OBE (and I'm confused as to what elements they are) are being scrapped, this means that eventually the courses of study will no longer have a place when a new syllabus is formed and adopted. (However we all know how long the CC takes getting their asses into gear)

And the changes only apply to year 11's and 12's anyway, so is this really a bold move? Why are they doing this?

McGowan obviously believes that swapping an unwanted and supposedly controversial education system for votes is for the best. Like any politician, he knows nothing about education and will always put the polls before TEE results in our state schools. No wonder the system is failing and suffering.

I was also peeved today at the very predictable tone that the West Australian took in reference to the story, their typical loudspeaker journalism from high up on their soapbox would appeal to the most ignorant of parents and the band-wagon full of anti-OBE teachers.

I just hope that one day the pollies sit down and put the kids first, think about setting an education system that won't get changed every 3 years and give them some consistency, let them actually know where they are academically and how they're doing, rather than having the bigwigs re-inventing the wheel.