Page 2925 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 August 2008
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The available evidence indicates that improvement in the quality of the teaching workforce is central to any overall improvement in student performance. The evidence goes on to suggest that improving the quality of teachers will almost certainly involve a range of incentives, such as strengthened professional learning, career structures, recognitions and rewards.
The government has made a considerable and sustained investment in improving the capacity of all our teachers. The government is investing in quality teaching at all levels of the teaching profession, from primary schools through to our high schools and colleges. The 2008-09 budget provided over $2.3 million for additional professional staff and expert consultancy support for our schools to implement the quality teaching model. The government is investing in a comprehensive package of education reforms and significant infrastructure investment to ensure that the ACT’s education system is well placed to meet the teaching and learning needs of the 21st century. This investment will improve outcomes not just for primary school students but for all ACT students.
These reforms and initiatives include programs to improve teacher capacity and to provide excellence in early childhood education, Indigenous education, literacy and numeracy, languages education, and student health and wellbeing, including physical education and pastoral care. This is a well-rounded and comprehensive approach to ensure quality teaching and learning in every classroom, every day for every student.
Let me begin with our early childhood schools. Students in those schools, the youngest of whom will be leaving school in around 2020, will benefit from quality, well-structured, integrated early childhood education services and programs to optimise learning and development outcomes for children, and that will have longer term benefits for individuals, families and the community. For this reason the ACT government has committed to establishing four purpose-built early childhood schools to open throughout 2009. These schools will join the very successful O’Connor cooperative school, and, indeed, will encourage and draw on family and community participation to ensure that students are provided with the best possible comprehensive care and education.
Along with the new model of amalgamating preschools with primary schools, these schools provide a coherent approach to early childhood learning and wellbeing for all ACT children. By providing integrated education, health and family support services, there is a greater opportunity for early identification of learning needs, intervention and prevention to enable students to achieve their full potential.
Early childhood is just the beginning of the government’s investment in our students’ education. It is a matter of great pride that school students in the ACT achieve the highest levels of academic performance as measured against national and international reading, writing and numeracy benchmarks. The ACT government is committed to maintaining our high national and international education ranking. The government is providing nearly a million dollars over four years to build capacity within the teaching workforce to improve the literacy and numeracy outcomes of all students, providing targeted professional development for literacy and numeracy coordinators in every school that has been identified as an effective way of building teacher capacity.
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