Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4123 ..

is my understanding that students with ongoing disabilities are not ranked according to the same numeracy and literacy benchmarks as other students. I think work has to be done to support bringing those students more into the education system and to make sure that they progress a lot better than is happening at the moment.

A society should not be judged by how well the best in the community are doing but by how well the most disadvantaged are doing. When we look at those who are failing to meet the benchmarks and the reasons for that, we can see that there is more work to be done.

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Children, Youth and Family Support, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (11.35): The ACT community can be rightly proud of the achievements of our students, a large percentage of whom perform very well against national benchmarks in literacy, numeracy and writing.

Other members have spoken of the excellent results reported in the 2003 ACT assessment program, known as ACTAP. The ACT consistently ranks amongst the highest performing states and territories against the national benchmarks in literacy and numeracy. Since 2001 we have seen a steady increase in the number of students achieving above the benchmark. Year 3 reading shows that 96 per cent of students reached the benchmark in 2003, an increase from 95 per cent in 2001. The results for year 5 reading show a 3 per cent improvement from 2001, with 97 per cent of students at or above benchmark in 2003.

There has been improvement also in writing results, with 94 per cent of year 3 students and 93 per cent of year 5 students achieving the writing benchmark. A pleasing trend in 2003 was the closing of the gap between the results of boys and girls.

The improvement in results for indigenous students has been particularly significant, especially in year 5 writing. The percentage of indigenous students reaching the year 5 benchmark in 2003 was 85 per cent, a big improvement over the 2001 figures of 67 per cent. Whilst those figures are fantastic, the testing—and Ms Dundas alluded to this—relies on a small population of students and we could see those figures moving around in the next year’s testing, although we will be doing everything we can to improve on the 85 per cent result this year.

A number of important initiatives have supported these improvements in literacy, numeracy and writing achievements. The government has committed $747,000 in funding over the next four years for the indigenous education support program, which commenced in January 2003. A teachers of indigenous students network has been established to provide teachers with professional learning opportunities through the sharing of best practice.

The indigenous mentor pilot project was implemented over two terms in 2003 and has been successful in improving the engagement of indigenous students in learning. This program has also had a significant impact in addressing some attitude and behavioural issues.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .