Page 276 - Week 01 - Thursday, 9 December 2004
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The government will continue to provide additional resources to indigenous students and school communities and to students with disabilities. For our indigenous students, we are continuing to work to improve learning outcomes and to engage their interest. Literacy and numeracy rates for indigenous students in the ACT are among the best in the country, but more can be done. We want, and Canberra as an entire community expects, that indigenous students will have outcomes equal to those of their non-indigenous peers. As part of our work towards this goal, the government will be providing increased support for indigenous early childhood education. This work will see improved literacy and numeracy outcomes and recognises that achievement in the early years of schooling has a major impact on retention and attainment in later years.
For students with disabilities, the government is increasing funding and services to meet the complex needs of a growing number of students. The implementation of the student centred appraisal of need in both the government and non-government sector will allow us to more fully understand and resource the learning support needs of children who have a disability.
The government continues to value the CIT as the premier public training institution in the ACT and surrounding region. The CIT is an essential part of our public education system. We will continue to value the work of the CIT in ensuring that Canberrans, young and old, are given the opportunity to learn skills and vocations and improve their life skills.
Work in the high school and college years to provide people with information and early vocational skills is needed to meet what is now recognised as a national skills shortage. The ACT government continues to actively address skills shortages with new and innovative programs. In the previous term we were responsible for introducing major initiatives like Skilling ACT and the training pathways guarantee. In this coming term we will work to improve on training options for older Canberrans, with a strong emphasis on the updating of skills and on retraining.
The ACT government will work progressively to implement these initiatives and vision over the coming year and over the next four years. We will always prioritise, providing the best for children and young people in the territory, with a strong emphasis on fairness and equity in the distribution of funding and resources. We fundamentally believe that a quality education provides children and young people with a fair start to life and the ability to achieve their full potential. Our public education system is central to that goal, as are the valued teachers and school communities which support it.
Education policy has been one area where the government has consistently delivered good outcomes to the children and young people of the territory. This was the case in the last term in office, and it will continue to be so over the next four years. The government invested considerable time and resources in listening to children about their views and priorities. We also invested resources into identifying where problems existed, in areas like child protection and child safety.
The future development of improved services for children, young people and families will be guided by the successful implementation of the children’s plan, the young people’s plan and the government’s responses to the Territory as parent report and the
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