Page 3379 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 20 September 2005
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Those are statistics of which the ACT and this government can be enormously proud, with 95 per cent of ACT year 3 students achieving at or above the benchmark standard for reading and numeracy. Our year 7 benchmark results are the highest in Australia. As I say, just this month, with the release of the results of the year 6 national science assessment measuring scientific literacy, our students shone. Our students achieved a mean score of 430. Canberra is the only place in Australia, the only jurisdiction, with a performance above the national mean.
In the national science assessment, 70 per cent of students achieved a proficiency level against the national average of 58. These are staggering achievements by the ACT education system. In the ACT, 13.6 per cent exceeded the proficiency level against a national average of 7.7, almost twice the average. Schools, students and teachers in the ACT are achieving absolutely fantastic results, and we get motions such as this from an opposition that is continually bagging the enormous results that our children are achieving. They are led by the best teaching service that we can possibly provide.
The results confirm the excellent ACT achievements in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study of 2002-03, in which ACT year 4 students were ranked equal first in science with Singapore and Chinese Taipei. In the Program for International Student Assessment in 2003, 15-year-olds in the ACT were significantly above the OECD mean in the scientific literacy domain. These results are a tribute to the hard work, skills and dedication of teachers, parents and students. They show that the ACT is performing outstandingly against international standards and is the envy of Australia.
We should reflect on the diatribe against education in the ACT just delivered by the opposition spokesperson and calmly consider the facts. How did the ACT compare with every other jurisdiction in the world in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in 2002-03? The ACT led the world. We are not here talking about leading Australia. We are talking about leading the world. We all know that we lead Australia. Perhaps it is something of a reality check to compare ourselves with the world. In the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in 2002-03, ACT year 4 students ranked equal first in science with Singapore and Chinese Taipei.
We have just been subjected to a diatribe by the opposition spokesperson on education, out there again bagging our children, our teachers and our education department. What did our kids do? They achieved the best year 4 science results in the world. The opposition spokesperson cannot face this. She cannot face the fact that we have here a jurisdiction, an education system that is producing world best results in science and maths. Why cannot she face it? Why would she talk it down? Why would she cast these aspersions on our students, our children?
She is out there saying they are not performing, that they cannot perform, that our teachers are hopeless, our schools are no good and that we do not know about curriculum development. Why would the opposition adopt that attitude when we lead the nation by far and we can match it with the best in the world? What is to be gained from talking down our schools? What is to be gained from rubbishing our schoolteachers? What is to be gained from belittling our education department and our education officials? What is it that the opposition seeks to achieve in talking down the quality of education in the
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