The pressure NAPLAN puts on students and teachers

Gabbie Stroud walked away from her teaching career in 2014 after watching her colleagues and student crumble under the pressure of standardised testing. 

In an extended interview she describes the pressure NAPLAN places on both students and teachers.

To watch 'Spitting the dummy' in full, see links below:

You don’t need to be Einstein to know there is something wrong in our classrooms. But we might need an Einstein to fix the problem. That’s because when it comes to quality education, the United Nations says Australia has free-fallen to 39th in a list of 41 advanced countries. The embarrassing fact is that if you want your kids to be smarter, they’d be better off studying in Lithuania, Slovakia or Kazakhstan. Much of the blame is directed at the controversial NAPLAN tests for primary and high school students. The results of this year’s exams will be released later this month, but one outcome is certain about NAPLAN: it’s causing more and more pupils – and teachers – to be stressed out and anxious. On 60 MINUTES, Tom Steinfort investigates why and asks if now is the time to spit the dummy and demand a change. 

Reporter: Tom Steinfort 

Producer: Alice Dalley

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Former teacher Gabbie Stroud has written a book about the troubles teachers face. For more information click here.