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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (30 November) . . Page.. 3507 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

One thing which should please members was the improvement in our indigenous students. Members will recall that I was most concerned that of our year 3 students tested in 1999 only 67 per cent were above the benchmark, which was only 1 per cent above the national average at the time. That has improved; we now have 87.7 per cent of our indigenous students achieving the benchmark and above. That is a very substantial improvement.

Mr Stanhope: It is good to see that you pulled your finger out; about time.

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Stanhope, this is all about improving our performance; that is why we test. I must commend our teachers and their support staff who have worked so hard to achieve this fantastic improvement. It is not confined to the year 3 indigenous students. Our year 5 indigenous students have gone from 69 per cent in 1999 to 80.9 per cent this year.

I will issue a word of caution. The results we have gathered are only for two years and in the case of our indigenous students we are dealing with relatively small statistical samples. I do say that as a word of caution. However, the trends are positive, the trends are very good indeed, and I commend everyone involved. The challenge now, of course, is to keep up the good work.

The problem for those opposite, unfortunately, is that they seem to have no idea and no policies and there ideological position is now being undermined by their friends across the border. I think that that is rather sad.

Clearly, the results I have mentioned are excellent. Members may be aware that we actually spend about $10 million a year extra on improving literacy and numeracy standards in our schools. We have had testing for four years. The fact that we can now work out the areas where more emphasis is needed and target those areas, improve those areas, improve the methods of teaching and improve performances in the schools that we know are lagging behind is showing benefits. The results are particularly pleasing.

I conclude by again congratulating everyone involved in the government education system.

MR HIRD: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. I must congratulate the minister on that statement. Minister, will you be more secretive and follow the advice of the opposition and suppress this information on government schooling?

Mr Corbell: I rise to a point of order, Mr Speaker. Surely that is a hypothetical question.

MR SPEAKER: Yes, it is.

Mr Smyth: Mr Speaker, it can hardly be hypothetical when they have said that these lists should not be put together and released. It is not hypothetical; it is a statement of their policy. The question is totally in order.

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