Page 2454 - Week 07 - Thursday, 3 August 2017
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As a final focus, the delegation looked at how these two systems build on the foundations of a rewarding life beyond school for every young person. Both countries are decreasing the emphasis on academic achievements and increasing emphasis on broader, general capabilities that will serve young people well in a life beyond school. In other words, you do not improve overall performance by focusing narrowly on tests. This was another area where I was happy to see the ACT lining up so well with these countries.
Like Canberra, both Singapore and Finland are increasingly reliant on the knowledge economy. This requires a different emphasis in teaching and learning. One of the main components of the Australian curriculum is the general capabilities, including critical and creative thinking, intercultural understanding and personal and social capability. This is a great start to preparing Canberra’s young people in a different way, and some of our ACT schools use this as part of the Australian curriculum really well. If Australian schools are going to make sure every young person has a rewarding life beyond school, then governments need to make sure that they more strongly emphasise this part of the curriculum.
Specifically in terms of IT use in teaching and learning, ACT schools are as advanced as any we observed in Singapore or Finland; again something to be celebrated and to build on. One further thing that struck me in both Singapore and Finland that contributes to their high levels of student achievement is the bilingual and multilingual nature of their populations and their school programs. This is not something that we can easily replicate in Canberra or Australia more broadly, but it reinforces for me the importance of fostering ongoing learning of home languages and continuing to emphasise quality language programs in our schools. The government’s commitment to language scholarships for teachers funded in this budget will help. The ACT has the highest proportions of students studying languages in years 3 to 8 in Australia, and we should continue to build on that.
This trip made clear the importance to the ACT government of continuing to invest in reform across a range of areas, such as needs-based funding, inclusive schools, quality teaching, school review and improvement, school leadership, modern infrastructure, digital education, community and parent engagement and the quality agenda in early childhood. It brought valuable lessons to my work and that of the ACT government across numerous portfolios, and I thank the many individuals and organisations in both countries that were so generous in meeting with us.
Madam Assistant Speaker, I present a copy of the statement:
Cross-portfolio delegation to Singapore and Finland—Ministerial statement, 3 August 2017.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the paper.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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