Page 1874 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 22 August 2007
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That comes from somebody who, if these changes were implemented, would be directly affected by the changes. He is a bright student; so he would probably cope, but it would cause disruption. This sums up exactly what the sentiments of the community are. External examinations have little support. The Howard government’s intervention in the ACT education system is unnecessary and completely unwarranted. I believe it is important for members in this place to formally record their opposition to this intervention, and I ask them to do so.
Continuous assessment is a useful tool for ongoing course monitoring and evaluation. Students’ weaknesses can be identified, worked on and improved during the course of their college life. This system provides long-term, deep learning, unlike external examinations, which rely on memory and regurgitation of facts. In some cases it depends on how you are actually coping on the day.
Given the excellent outcomes achieved in the ACT under the continuous assessment model, the argument should not be whether the ACT should change its very successful system to fall into line with the Howard government’s antiquated view of education; rather, it should be whether there may be merit in the ACT’s model being implemented elsewhere. Our college system is a great success and we are leading Australia in educational outcomes, training and lifelong learning. It is time to support our system and not succumb to the Howard government’s purely political stunt. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (4.35): Again the Labor Party is taking every opportunity to beat the federal government, and trying to drive a wedge where there is no necessity to do so. I am pleased that Ms MacDonald at least made some passing reference to the report of the review of secondary school colleges which is called Government secondary colleges in the Australian Capital Territory: challenges, opportunity and renewal and which was commissioned by the previous Minister for Education and Training and came out in December 2005. It seems, however, that in doing so Ms MacDonald did not read the report closely, in the same way as her colleague the Minister for Education and Training did not read it closely or refer to it accurately during the school closures debate, as was pointed out on a number of occasions. We have here selective quotation.
Let us put on the record that much of what Ms MacDonald has said no-one would disagree with. The ACT education system is regarded as the best in the country. For the most part our students excel in a range of subjects and we have above-average outcomes in almost all of our endeavours. There are problems with the education system, and these are problems that we should address. Problems identify that although we do very well at the top range there is a long tail of underachievement in some areas of numeracy and literacy which we have not addressed in our education system. There are pockets of disadvantage where those issues will become intergenerational issues and problems, not just for our current children but for their children as well.
The approach taken by Ms MacDonald here is a standard one of drawing broad brush strokes and making vast generalisations. Let us start with the vast generalisation that has been made in this debate in relation to what is being proposed. What is being
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