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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 4 Hansard (29 March) . . Page.. 1187 ..

MR STEFANIAK: I am pleased to present the second six-monthly report on the government's performance on indigenous education. Improving educational outcomes for indigenous students is core business in the department. This government is continuing its commitment to improve these outcomes for indigenous students. We are now able to report on the year 2000 performance results for indigenous students in government schools. I table that report for the convenience of members. Whilst acknowledging that we still have not closed the gaps in the educational outcomes for our indigenous students, I would like to draw members' attention to information that indicates a trend towards achieving our goal.

The indigenous students reading benchmark result for year 3 in 1999 was 67.2 per cent. In 2000, it was 87.7 per cent. For year 5, it was 69 per cent in 1999 and 80.9 per cent in 2000. The general student reading benchmark results for year 3 were 89.9 per cent for 1999 and 94.8 per cent for 2000. For year 5, they were 90.4 per cent for 1999 and 90.8 per cent for 2000. The size of the indigenous sample was small, so the results should be treated with some caution. but it is very pleasing that, quite clearly, we are achieving an improvement.

As I indicated in my first report six months ago, the special forums for school principals and the indigenous community held in August 2000 are yielding results. One result is that a draft compact is currently being circulated across a wide range of participants for final consultation, with the intention of launching the final agreed compact in Reconciliation Week in May of this year. It is expected that the compact will have major significance for the work being undertaken to improve outcomes for indigenous students.

The compact will ensure that the indigenous community is included as an intrinsic component of our overall strategy, demonstrating a shared commitment between schools and the indigenous community. This commitment will direct much available knowledge and expertise towards improving both educational and social outcomes for indigenous students and to ensuring that schools are more culturally inclusive.

The report I have presented today notes that a new and better data collection mechanism has been established in the Department of Education and Community Services, along with improved procedures to report this data. In addition, as members can see for themselves by reading the report, the strategies we have implemented across my department are improving outcomes for indigenous students. The indigenous unit and the literacy and numeracy team are working with schools as part of an explicit commitment in each school to improve the literacy of indigenous students.

The work of the indigenous education unit with schools and the indigenous community has resulted, amongst other things, in a decrease in absentee days for indigenous students-from an average of 31 per student per year in 1998 to 24 per student per year in 1999, to 16 per student per year in 2000. My department has presented a report to the Commonwealth government's Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs detailing the outcomes resulting from the expenditure of DETYA funding for indigenous students. That report will lead to the setting of targets over a four-year period to bring indigenous students up to the same level of achievement as their non-indigenous counterparts in the ACT.

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