Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (23 May) . . Page.. 1696 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Mr Speaker, the fundamental goal of the ACT government schools is to improve learning outcomes for all students. This is stated, clearly and unequivocally, up front in the Education Plan for ACT Government Schooling 1995-1997. The education plan focuses on outcomes-based education. Outcomes-based education allows teachers, students and parents to have a clear idea of what has been learnt and what is expected to be learnt. This is what the education plan says, Mr Speaker, and that is what this Government wants. That is what, I think, we all want. To achieve this in terms of literacy and numeracy, we need to have effective practices in early literacy and numeracy teaching. We also must develop arrangements for monitoring literacy and numeracy. Again, Mr Speaker, I am quoting from the education plan.

As we all know, the ACT government schools have an impressive history of school-based curriculum development and implementation. The success of our government system can be measured, in part, by the high proportion of our students who complete their schooling to Year 12, as well as by the proportion of students who then go on to post-secondary education. Yet, despite this undoubted success, we are unable to provide data on how our students are achieving at other points in their schooling - and this is particularly true in relation to how well children are performing in literacy and numeracy.

Mr Speaker, the ACT is the only one of the eight Australian States and Territories unable to provide its community with accurate information as to the effectiveness of the school system in terms of student learning outcomes. Yes, you heard me correctly - the only one. Our current arrangements for collecting information about student performance through the learning assistance assessment are not adequate. The learning assistance testing process has not been subjected to rigorous trialling to ensure the validity of the data that is provided. The learning assistance assessment provides some information on an interim basis. It was never designed to give a total picture of the performance of the students in our schools. We must have a system of data collection to provide some form of objective measurement of student performance. We need this information so that students, parents, teachers and all of us who are interested in the welfare of our children can be quietly confident that our students are learning the right things at the right time and so that our schools are confident that they are doing a great job. This is what I would like to see, Mr Speaker, and I am sure that I speak for the majority of parents.

Each one of the larger States has developed its own system of assessment and reporting using a reliable, standard assessment instrument across all its schools. They use the information collected to inform parents, the Government and the school system about the performance of students and schools. Mr Speaker, I want to emphasise that this Government believes that the ACT community, parents and students have the right to know how effective our government school system is, and parents have a right to information about the learning performance of their children. Parents are also entitled to a detailed knowledge of their child's ability in literacy and numeracy. It is also vital for government to have accurate data on the learning outcomes of our students. Once this data is available, the Government will be in a much stronger position to plan resource allocations to meet the learning needs of all our students. In addition, the data concerning student performance will be invaluable to schools in planning their curriculum and confirming their decisions on priorities in the teaching and learning processes.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .