Don't create failures at HSC, principals warn

8/08/2008

UP to 15 per cent of students would fail to gain a higher school certificate and be branded as failures if minimum standards of literacy and numeracy were introduced for year 12 students, NSW high school principals say...

Dorothy Hoddinott, the principal of Holroyd High School, which has many refugee students, said she saw no point in having benchmarking tests in year 12. "It is closing the gate after the horse has bolted," she said.

... She said refugee children often improved their English literacy as they moved through TAFE or university.

"The aim is not to have a totally alienated underclass in society," she said. "The aim is to increase the education levels for everybody."

Don't disturb the delicate immigrant.