Page 287 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 2019
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Professor McIntosh had called out the failings in ACT schools and that serious work needed to be done to better understand what is going wrong in our teaching. The minister completely ignored the evidence from the Auditor-General about the failings in our academic standards. It was just another, “Aren’t we great”, and “We’ll come back in February to remind you how great we are”.
There are many quotes about learning from failure but, equally, if you never admit your mistakes you never learn from them. I cannot help but think that this is where the minister sits. The rhetoric in this paper is all well and good. We hear not for the first time and not as any original thought from the minister as the author that we need to place students at the centre of their learning and we need to empower teachers to meet the learning needs of all students. And down the line we go to the standard dot points and the same buzzwords of equity and strong communities.
I have said before and I say again, no-one will argue with the wording and the rhetoric behind these words. But the minister cannot continue to come into this place with speeches and statements prepared for her that provide no hard evidence of improvement in educational outcomes. She said more evidence confirmed that the government is on the right track. Well, minister, I challenge you to read Hansard of only this week and listen to the litany of failings in your ability to know what is going on in our schools and your inability to protect and keep our children safe in our schools. Is that the right track you refer to?
Ms Berry: A point of order. Madam Deputy Speaker, standing orders require that comments in this place are to be directed to you and not to me or any other member on the floor.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: I had not noticed that Ms Lee was not talking to me, but I remind members to direct their comments to the chair.
MS LEE: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Is that the right track the minister is referring to? Is that the strong community we are building here? We know there are changing demographics in ACT schools. We have a rapidly growing population, and this is evidenced by the significant number of schools that are at capacity. But that is almost the only clear assessment we have of school composition.
We have gifted and talented classes, but the information is not collected centrally so we do not know where those classes are. How do we know where the demand for more or less of them might be? How do we know which schools have students both years ahead of their peers and those years behind their peers if data about students in gifted and talented classes is not kept? Equally, students with complex needs and challenging behaviours are also not identified centrally if they do not also have a disability that triggers an NDIS or individual learning plan.
If the minister is serious about meeting the learning needs of all students surely that must include our talented students as well as our students who are struggling. The minister’s approach and belief is that the only relevant factor in a child’s learning pathway is where that child lives. Where you live is the only assessment the minister believes is valid and the only thing that matters. We hear somewhere in the statement
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