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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 9 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2589 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

I am very anxious about the level of downtalking of our system in this paper. We do not have a crisis in literacy and numeracy. We have a crisis with the management of a few children - and they are serious problems. We do not have an absence of data. You only have to walk into any classroom in the ACT. The data is there. We do not have a problem with the teaching of literacy and numeracy. We have well-trained teachers.

We need to come to grips with the other problems that make a teacher's life impossible, that make it difficult for them to deal with the day-to-day problems that are there in front of them. We need to deal with those problems humanely, instead of finger pointing and saying that the system has somehow failed. It has not. I would like to hear from the Minister about a far deeper and more thorough appraisal of the real difficulties that beset some of our students, not a grand statement about how three sets of tests are going to improve literacy and numeracy in the ACT.

MR MOORE (12.00): Mr Speaker, the point that Ms McRae makes most validly is that it is a question of priorities. We are always being told by this Government that we have to set our priorities and spend our money in the most appropriate place. Very eloquently, Ms McRae pointed out that when we are spending money on testing we are not spending money in other areas that will actually assist students with their literacy and numeracy.

That having been said, I would like to spend some time in dealing with the Minister's statement and working out just what we would find if these testing procedures were carried through. There is no doubt that the data that comes out of such testing will be useful. Ms McRae correctly points out that there is data available in schools at any given time. That data is focused on the children and the individuals involved. Of course, that is exactly what teaching is about. It is about enhancing the learning of every individual as opposed to improved overall standards. However, none of us are so naive as not to seek ways to improve the overall standards in our education system, provided we do not limit ourselves to simple questions of literacy and numeracy. We expect much more of our schools and our education system than literacy and numeracy.

When we are looking at testing, it is very important that the testing be focused on the children. There is always a risk that testing can have a negative effect on individual children. The handful of people who do extremely well in tests will have their self-confidence enhanced and their self-concepts improved and go on to learn further. For the other 80 per cent of the students, testing could well have a negative effect, depending on how the results are handled and whether the results are focused on individuals or the data is collected generally to be used generally. Most important in the testing are the students. I think the Minister would agree that the whole reason for doing it in the first place is to provide an enhanced environment for the students so that we can be sure that we are improving their literacy, numeracy and a series of other skills that the Minister mentioned in his statement. I think it is very important to keep that in perspective.

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