Page 4619 - Week 12 - Thursday, 15 October 2009
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The Greens have also raised questions regarding the national assessment program—literacy and numeracy testing, known as the NAPLAN testing. These tests, whereby all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed using common national tests, hold a real risk that teachers will be forced to focus most of their resources on teaching to the narrow curriculum that will deliver results against these tests. The Greens believe that this narrow approach will not allow schools to deliver a full education—an education that produces graduates with a range of abilities.
The Greens propose that the analysis regarding what education should be delivering should be broadened to consider that a school should be established as a cultural site, a focal point of community life and thought, to enact within a school the behaviours and relationships on which a community most directly depends—and in so doing to counter the loss of any community outside the school. And to appreciate that education is a major embodiment of a culture’s way of life, not just a preparation for it, and that school is a place of culture—that is, a place where a personal and collective culture is developed.
One of the key things in Ms Porter’s motion is the need for policy to assist all students. Only this week in the Assembly the Greens fought hard to ensure that the suspended and disadvantaged had the opportunity to re-engage with their schools rather than, too easily we believe, be given longer periods to be excluded from the education system. We argued, among other things, that two weeks, or even longer, as was proposed by the Liberal Party, without a proper check or balance would certainly not advance a student’s education.
Changes to policy to further exclude students from school through tougher suspensions, such as the one we saw proposed this week, is a challenge to reconcile against the introduction of amendments to the Education Act to increase the school leaving age under the “earn or learn” approach. Ensuring we have policies that assist in keeping all students at school or progressing towards a qualification is vital to advancing not only their education but their life and the lives of those they interact with in the community. It is a win-win for both the student and the wider society in social and economic terms.
We have an Assembly inquiry underway at present into the educational achievement gap here in the ACT, which is looking at the extent of existing socioeconomic differences in educational engagement and achievement in all ACT government and non-government schools. The terms of reference for that inquiry, as I said, will look at the extent of existing socioeconomic differences in educational engagement and achievement, but with particular reference to outcomes for certain groups from cultural backgrounds, including Indigenous and ESL students. It will also look at engagement and achievement rates within the ACT student population and comparing that to national and international assessments. Of course, it is very important in any of these inquiries, particularly this one, to have a look at the matter in a holistic way—to look at qualitative assessments of the educational experiences of students from different backgrounds.
This is a really important inquiry. It was negotiated through the Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement. We are pleased that it was an item that got into that
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