Education – Helping to end the OBE debacle

Outcomes Based Education, or rather the version that was planned to be implemented in years 11 and 12 in Western Australia in 2007, was fundamentally flawed. It was based on the idiotic assumption that eight loosely described levels of achievement could describe and differentiate between the performance of all students in all subjects across 12 years of primary and secondary education.

Although it was obvious to me OBE would be a disaster if implemented, the momentum within government towards OBE’s rollout was considerable.  I lobbied quietly within government and along with a colleague, the former Member for Wanneroo Dianne Guise, eventually convinced the Premier Alan Carpenter of the need to change direction.

Prior to this time I had a number of private meetings with the founder of Anti-OBE lobby group PLATO, mathematics teacher Greg Williams.  Greg Williams and PLATO had been mistakenly regarded within government as anti-Labor and their concerns were dismissed as politically motivated.

As a former teacher I shared Greg William’s concerns and was instrumental in Premier Carpenter’s intervention in the issue which resolved the majority of Greg Williams’ concerns.¹