Photo: © 2010 AAP/ALAN PORRITT

In what is shaping as the biggest stoush between workers and the government since 1998's waterfront dispute, Julia Gillard has lashed out at the teachers' union, which has voted to boycott next month's national literacy and numeracy testing of students.

Teachers are worried the results of the NAPLAN test, which will be used on the MySchools website, will unfairly rank schools and undermine disadvantaged schools.

They are also worried schools will begin to focus on getting good scores, rather than providing a well-rounded education.

But the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister is making no concessions and says the testing will go ahead, even if parents are used to supervise.

"I know that they [the union] have never been fans of this transparency and this transparency puts pressure on … all of us to deliver better for kids in schools," Gillard told Fairfax Radio.

"I just think it is ridiculous to talk about stopping national testing, stopping individual kids getting report cards and stopping this new transparency."

Opposition leader Tony Abbott has hit out at the proposal to use parents.

"Don't try to shove parents in to do jobs which should be done by teachers."