Page 1878 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 22 August 2007
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MRS DUNNE: That is not true, Mr Barr.
MR SPEAKER: Do you want to move that amendment?
MRS DUNNE: I will move that amendment again to remove any doubt. I thought I had moved it before.
MR SPEAKER: You said you would like to.
MRS DUNNE: Okay. I will not be so equivocal any more. I move:
Omit all words after “Assembly”, substitute:
“(1) notes the report of the Review of Government Secondary Colleges entitled Government Secondary Colleges in the Australian Capital Territory: Challenge, Opportunity and Renewal of December 2005 by Atelier Learning Solutions Pty Ltd; and
(2) calls on the Government to fully implement all the recommendations of the Review to ensure that the ACT college system can fully and effectively meet the 21st century educational needs of all young people in the ACT.”.
I move this amendment so that we can have a proper debate to ensure that the assessment system and every other aspect of our college system is the best for our students now and for the next 30 years.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (4.50): I am in a bit of a quandary here because I think I could support both the motion and the amendment. I do not think that the amendment necessarily replaces the motion but it is something that needs to be done. It is hard to see it as an amendment to the motion; however, that is what we have. Speaking to both the amendment and the motion, of course the ACT education system is not perfect—although we have heard a couple of times today that it is—but mandating external exams is the solution to a problem that does not exist. It is hard to judge how seriously I should engage with the argument over the introduction of standardised external testing, as it is not about delivering outcomes to students; it is about our federal government choosing to pursue an ideological agenda and wanting to pick political fights with the states.
The United States is the ideological home of the federal government’s education plan. That is ironic given the poor performance of US schools compared with others around the world, including Australian schools which still do very well in comparison. The devices put in place in the US to address their problems and which this government appears to be keen to adopt are compounding the problem. The US-based Education Week website carried this report a few weeks ago on legislative requirements that link funding to externally determined proficiency outcomes.
A new study of Chicago students suggests that the federal No Child Left Behind Act may indeed be leaving behind students at the far ends of the academic ability spectrum—the least able students and those who are gifted.
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