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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4121 ..

and numeracy are the basic skills our children need to progress in life. Their future is often determined by the skills that they have in these two areas.

We are all concerned about indigenous student truancy and retention rates in schools and work on these areas needs greater attention. It is pleasing to note as well the improvements we are seeing in indigenous student writing skills. That is a measure of improvement; it is an important performance measure. But in order to push this improvement further, we need to strengthen our intervention program to keep our indigenous students in schools. The government needs to try harder in this area. It needs to strive harder to ensure that the compact with the indigenous families program—an initiative for which I commend the government—is improved upon. Clearly, if that program is further developed, if it is value added, then one imagines that indigenous writing skills and numeracy skills will continue to develop.

The former Liberal government allocated funds in 2001-02 to reduce class sizes from kindergarten to year 2. This program was introduced in an effort to improve results in the earlier learning years. The Liberal opposition also recently announced that, if elected to government in October, it would allow schools to implement single-sex classes in an effort to further improve the literacy and numeracy results of both boys and girls.

Large problems in learning are related to behavioural issues in the classroom, and I alluded to this just a short while ago. Let us get those learning environments improved. In Western Australia, school behavioural problems were cut by 60 per cent with the introduction in some schools of single-sex classes. If we can get similar results in the ACT by implementing such programs here, the literacy and numeracy skills of students must improve. This would not apply to all schools but it could apply to some. If the principals and school boards of those schools determined that they would like to introduce those types of programs then you can bet London to a brick that their literacy and numeracy skills would be improved.

While I would like to congratulate all students and teachers for the good results of recent assessment programs, we can always do better when it comes to literacy and numeracy by working together with students, teachers, parents and the community. We have one of the best education systems in Australia but, like all the others, the ACT system too is under pressure and some standards are deteriorating. That is simply a result of the nationwide pressures that all schools and all schooling systems are facing.

To ensure that we maintain the pleasing improvements that we are seeing in academic standards, as listed by Ms MacDonald, we need to see our education system further develop the pastoral care, character development and value side of education. If this were done, our children, imbued with stronger values and consequently developing a stronger sense of personal discipline, would be educated in a more attentive and well behaved learning environment. As a result, they would achieve even higher academic standards as well as develop into better citizens. This should be our aim. It should be the aim of government, the department and the community—all of us. All of us should be aiming to achieve a good balance between academic and personal development. The dividend from upgrading the personal development of our students is that they will also improve their academic standards.

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