Page 5210 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 27 October 2010
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“(1) notes the significant achievement of ACT students in the 2010 National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy tests;
(2) commends ACT teachers and schools for their commitment to improve student achievement in literacy and numeracy; and
(3) calls on the Government to address the achievement gap and ensure that those students whose results are falling behind their peers including students from a lower socio economic background, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students or students who have a language background other than English are properly supported to improve their level of educational achievement.”.
We are pleased to be able to speak to this motion today and I thank Mr Hargreaves for bringing it to the attention of the Assembly. There is no doubt that, on the summary of NAPLAN test results, ACT students have performed above average in the 2010 NAPLAN tests. All students, teachers and families are to be highly commended for these results.
The ACT economy, we have heard this week, has received very positive results for its performance. We know that the key to that is qualified people, educated people, being able to pick up the jobs to keep that economy ticking over. We know that the key to pursuing, as I said, further education and training and getting a job is a good education that is provided from kindergarten until year 12.
Looking at these results, our students, with the support of their families and teachers, appear to be heading in the right direction so that we will have a very well-educated population, a population of young Canberrans who will be able to contribute to the ACT in many ways. Some of those ways will be paid; some will be unpaid. But all of them will contribute to having a strong social fabric here, a strong economy and all of the other things that underpin a healthy and happy community.
It is important to note that this is only the first stage of the NAPLAN summary report that has been released. I am anxious to see the full national report which will be released at the end of the year. This will give us a better picture of where all ACT students stand in relation to their national counterparts. This report will include detailed results by gender, Indigenous status, language background other than English status, parental occupation, parental education and location at each year level.
I say this because I raised in question time yesterday my concerns about the findings of the 2009 COAG report, released last Friday, on the NAPLAN testing. It showed that some of our students, in particular our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, have the largest gap for year 7 reading between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. The report also states that these students, the non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders students aged up to 24 years, are half as likely as other Australians to finish year 12 and half as likely to work or study full time.
In addition, it was shown that participation rates in the ACT NAPLAN testing for all students—and Minister Barr acknowledged this—do need to improve. I think I noted
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