Page 372 - Week 01 - Thursday, 16 February 2012
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However, I do acknowledge that careful and well thought out infrastructure can support this by providing positive recreational opportunities, creative learning environments and experiences, and safe and stimulating places to learn. To engender the best possible place for our children and young people to play and learn, to provide systems that engage with and to provide opportunities for all young people to extend their knowledge and capabilities in ways that enrich their lives requires strong links between schools and their communities. It requires and needs real and genuine consultation with parents, teachers and a sometimes forgotten group—that is, the children and young people themselves.
There is a lot of debate in Australia at the moment about schools funding, and 2012 is looking to be one of the most exciting and important years for education in Australia in decades. With the recent reviews into nearly every aspect of education—primary, secondary, tertiary and higher education—we stand on the edge of a significant period of change, both nationally and locally.
The ACT cannot afford to be passive in these times, nor can we afford to rest on the laurels of past successes. As I have stated already, we do have a lot to be proud of. But we must all take an active role in developing and implementing best practice approaches to education and ensure that we continue to have a system that is fair and equitable, a system that we can continue to be proud of.
I am sure we are all in our own ways looking forward to the Gonski review of funding of schools, anticipated to be released by the end of this month. I would hope that whatever the recommendations, the ACT continues to aspire to have an excellent education system and public education system and that we can feel confident that this will continue into the future.
As I have said, while the ACT does, in fact, already have much to be proud of in terms of educational achievement, parental satisfaction and in other domains, we are failing some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in our community. The recent NAPLAN results do indicate that we are performing well in most areas, except in the gap between high and low socioeconomic status student outcomes.
It is no secret that, broadly, student outcomes can often be correlated with a number of social indicators. It is further no surprise that many students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds are being left behind in the crucial indicators of literacy and numeracy proficiency. It is hard to overestimate the importance of being able to read and write in modern society. It is of grave concern that we appear to be failing some students and those who may need support in multiple areas.
The Greens are committed to providing significant investment in high schools and colleges to improve school coordination and administration, innovative teaching and student-teacher relationships and ending the educational achievement gaps that currently exist. This is, of course, why we put into the Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement the need for the inquiry into the achievement gap as well as an inquiry into students with a disability. We look forward to continuing to see the recommendations progressed. There is still a lot of work to be done in those areas.
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