Teacher email accounts opposed

-Media Release-

By Wendy Currie
Research Officer

The NSW Teachers Federation totally opposes the roll-out of email addresses to all students and teachers in NSW public schools, announced by the NSW Premier today.

The Government should focus on more important priorities in Public Education.

Technology infrastructure in schools is not adequate to implement this project.

In some staff rooms up to ten teachers share access to only one computer.

In many schools, the infrastructure is old and deteriorated. It is not unheard of for the power to fail when too many power points are turned on.

There is no real technical support for schools. Technical problems are dealt with by teachers who are self-taught. Because there is no support, these teachers are often taken away from their classes to deal with an emergency when computers and networks fail.

The DET's 'Webservices program' is currently being piloted in a limited number of schools. The pilot is not complete, mainly because of the significant technical problems that have occurred, the cumbersome nature of the program and the time it takes for schools and the DET to fix the problems.

The incomplete pilot has not even been evaluated. Plans of an agreed evaluation framework have not progressed beyond the preliminary stage. Outstanding issues relating to privacy, child protection, workload, technical support and training have not been yet been addressed.

If it is rolled out to schools now it will be a 'white elephant'. The government has failed to meet any commitments to teachers relating to this project.

This is a premature move by the Premier. He is clearly attempting to shift the focus away from the real issues of concern to people in NSW, such as diminishing resources to public schools and TAFE colleges.

For further information