Editor:
Re: the letter to the editor from the president of the Teachers' Union of our Sunshine Coast (Coast Reporter, Jan. 22).
It is admitted that such tests should not be the sole tool for the assessment of education in our school district. What is often pushed to the background in the discussion of test results is the fact that this is practically the only assessment of the accountability of teachers to the parents and taxpayers for the $39 million spent in educating our 3,500 pupils. With a pupil to teacher ratio well below the provincial average, we should expect that all our schools score above the provincial average. Not many do so.
In every sphere of adult life, performance assessments play a major role in retention and promotion of employees. Why should it be different in the education industry?
Jakob Knaus
Wilson Creek
