Gillard defends My School website

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the federal government's My School website will bring greater transparency to education helping the government target areas of most need.

The internet site will go live on January 28, the second day of the new school year.

It has drawn criticism from principals who believe they haven't had enough time to prepare for its introduction.

The Australian Education Union has campaigned against the site over concerns it will allow for schools to be ranked in league tables.

Ms Gillard said it was understandable that some school teachers, principals and parents would question what the government's initiative would mean to them.

"But at the end of the day there's a really simple point here," she told ABC radio on Tuesday.

"Kids only get one chance at school education and the worst thing in the world is for a kid to be in a school that is underperforming and for no one to know about that and no one to recognise it and no one to do anything about it.

"So through these new transparency measures we are going to have more information and we will be able to use that to bring these new resources and new reforms they can make the most difference."

The My School site will include information on about 10,000 schools across the country giving details on the number of students, the number of teachers, attendance rates and the school's social-economic profile.

But it will also include results from national literacy and numeracy testing allowing for the performance of a particular school to be compared to similar schools and to the national average.

Ms Gillard said the information would not lead to schools being ranked in simplistic league tables.

"What I expect it will show for schools is that they are going well in some parts and could do better in others," she said.

"So there's not one number or one letter that summarises the school performance or enables you to rank schools in a league table."

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