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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Wednesday, 30 June 2004) . . Page.. 3029 ..

sets the goals of improving equity in education by improving completion rates to Year 12 and increasing literacy and numeracy achievement of students “at risk”. None of the new Budget programs directly address these goals.

There are many students in government schools who have not reached crisis point, but are at the risk of not achieving adequate school outcomes to sustain them in adult life and further learning.

The major area of learning needed in the government school system is in high school. Over 10 per cent of Year 9 students are not achieving adequate literacy standards. There is a large disparity in outcomes between the highest and lowest performing students. About 50 per cent of high school students do not like being at school. Some 20-30 per cent of students drop out of school before completing Year 12.

The letter finishes in this way:

It is very disappointing that, after three years, the Government has failed to act in any significant manner.

Mr Speaker, at least 46½ per cent of the students in high schools are no longer in government schools; they have gone to the non-government sector. I heard it said the other day that something like 2,000 to 3,000 students do not finish year 12. You have to say in that regard that there is a problem out there. It is the sort of problem that Ms Tucker is bringing to our attention in her amendment. That is why we do need strategies that address long-term unemployment, underemployment and the needs of groups in our community that are particularly disadvantaged in the labour market.

Mr Hargreaves made the point that this government has programs and previous governments have had programs. That is a true statement, but you have to keep reassessing those programs and remodifying them to make sure that they are meeting current needs. We know that a large number of students are not finishing year 12. Where are they going? What is happening with the kids at risk?

There is an acknowledgement that these problems exist in the fact that the government is implementing a program for putting youth workers into every high school. Why is the government doing that? It is because there are a growing number of kids at risk and often one of the downsides of being a kid at risk and leaving school early is the inability to get a job, to hold a job and to have a long-term job. So there is a need there. I do not think anybody doubts that. If they do, obviously they are not talking to people out in the street.

Mr Hargreaves mentioned vocational education. Vocational education is very important. I think Ms Dundas mentioned it as well. There used to be an attitude that you had to go to university. I think we would all remember the push by the Keating government to the effect that there was some sort of need for every one of us to go to university. If you look at the marketplace, you will find that there is a huge lack of tradespeople. Being a plumber is a licence to print money these days. There is a shortage of them and a shortage of bricklayers. There is a shortage of finishers—the tilers, the plasterers and the carpenters who come in and finish a construction project, for instance. If we can link up with those kids who have difficulty with school, perhaps the stream they will really want to go into is vocational education. Mrs Burke has spoken long and hard in this place

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