Page 216 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 2019
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I move:
That the Assembly take note of the paper.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Future of education implementation plan
Ministerial statement
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women) (10.37): In August 2018 I released the government’s future of education strategy, the product of an extensive conversation with children and young people, parents, teachers, school leaders, other educators, experts and community organisations about how education will be delivered to meet the needs of the next generation.
The strategy sets the overarching policy direction and guiding principles for how the government will deliver and improve school education over the coming decade. It provides a road map that will be supported by rolling implementation plans and a continuation of this government’s long-term substantial investment in school education.
The strategy is based on four foundations and four principles for implementation. The four foundations are:= to place students at the centre of their learning; to empower teachers, school leaders and other professionals to meet the learning needs of students; to build strong communities for learning; and to strengthen systems to focus on equity with quality.
The strategy was developed through a deep conversation with the ACT community, with some 5,000 individual contributions, half of which were from children and young people. This journey is summarised in a consultation report that I have released alongside the strategy. The strategy is also backed by robust research evidence about what is required to provide every child with a great start in life. The evidence underpinning the government’s direction in the future of education strategy is clear and reflected in a wide range of sources, a synopsis of some of which is included in the research report that I released last year. It seems that every week more evidence confirms that the government is on the right path.
As I have said time and again, against the protests of the Liberal opposition, the strategy is unashamedly driven by a belief in educational equity. The ACT government believes that every child deserves a great education and the life chances which flow from it. We believe this because of the power of education to level out all of the things that are going on in the lives of children so that children have the opportunity to reach their potential. This does not happen by accident. It does not happen by ignoring the needs of each individual or ignoring that some children face prejudice from the start.
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