Page 3277 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 September 2014
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Again, on 8 May:
The ACT government has funded government schools above the national average for some years.
Mr Hanson, again, has gone on record to say:
We have got a great non-public and public school system. We support it.
So I am not quite sure how Mr Smyth can come in here and make comments that are completely at odds with other comments that have been made in this place.
For the benefit of those opposite, I will outline what we are doing to ensure that the ACT remains the best place for education in this nation and remains a global competitor. The priorities for education are around ensuring that parents and children are at the centre of our schools and education system, providing high-quality teaching, empowering school leadership and making sure all children and young people have access to learning experiences that enable them to grow and face the future with optimism and skills. I emphasise here that I am talking about all our schools—Catholic, public and independent.
I have also launched the preschool matters initiative which provides small grants to preschools to support parental engagement. Canberra families are already strong supporters of their schools and a range of new tools and resources will allow them to better engage with the local school.
Earlier this year I announced my goal for all new ACT public school teachers to have literacy and numeracy skills that sit in the top 30 per cent of the population. From next year the recruitment process for new public school teachers will include a literacy and numeracy test. We are currently working with the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership on an online assessment tool to implement this test.Again, in teacher quality, the ACT Teacher Quality Institute has implemented accreditation processes for professional development programs to ensure quality and relevance to professional needs is maintained. I have also asked the institute in the coming year to work with all sectors and with the universities in the ACT on quality assurance measures for professional experience of pre-service teachers.
We want our young people to leave school with the level of literacy they need to move successfully on to employment, training or higher education. Starting with our year 11 students next year, all students will be required to complete a course under the English course framework as a requirement of receiving a year 12 certificate. I also want consistent reporting across all our public schools so parents know that an A is an A no matter what school their child attends.
In terms of the school environment, it is obvious that where children learn has a big impact on how well they learn. We simply have to continue our investment in schools and it will not be easy as we move into a tighter fiscal environment. That is understood, but we will continue our investment in schools.
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