Page 1329 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020
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Mr Coe: How many rough sleepers are there?
MS BERRY: The number of rough sleepers in the ACT has reduced as a result of the work that Housing ACT has done over the last six months to get them into housing with CatholicCare’s Axial housing program.
Education—COVID-19
MISS C BURCH: My question is to the minister for education. Minister, the Grattan Institute has released a report that shows that children from disadvantaged backgrounds learnt at only 50 per cent of their regular rate in remote online learning during the recent school shutdown and that the equity gap grows at triple the rate when schools are teaching remotely. In the ACT the gap is another 7.5 per cent, or nearly six weeks, wider because our schools had the second longest shutdown. Minister, what assessment have you done to determine how many students have been disadvantaged during the recent shutdown?
MS BERRY: I dispute some of the information that was provided in that report, particularly around the shutdown, because there were school holidays during that period and there was also remote education that was provided to children at home. We were in a much better place than the rest of the country because of the ACT government’s delivery of Chromebooks in the ACT to our senior secondary students.
Disadvantage and its impact on student learning is well understood in the ACT. Supporting students who are less advantaged in the ACT has been a priority, as is evidenced by the principle of equity which underpins the future of education strategy.
I have absolute confidence in our teaching profession. Along this journey, which has been a difficult one for everyone as we have navigated our way through an international health pandemic, their support for students and the wellbeing of students has absolutely been at the front of their minds. I understand and have confidence that they will be able to provide the wellbeing first and the learning will follow, which has been the advice from our school leaders and schoolteachers all the way through this.
While the report is not completely contradictory to another important one from one of the world’s most pre-eminent education thought leaders, it does go to a glass half-empty premise rather than a glass half-full one. A cautious diagnosis of quizzes and high-stakes evaluation is suggested, when what we are hearing from our teaching profession is that considered, formative, low-threat assessments of learning to reveal students’ strengths and needs is what actually should be occurring and has been occurring all the way through as we have navigated our way through this health pandemic together. We have done it all the way from the start of the year, working together to get through this. That is the way that we will get through this within our education systems as well: together.
MISS C BURCH: Minister, what additional support have you provided to teachers so that they may assist disadvantaged students to catch up?
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