Page 4707 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 19 October 2011
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deal with this day in, day out, on the ground. We have had this debate now for a long time in our community. We have had a lot of evidence. We have had a lot of submissions. What we have had an absence of is a lot of leadership, and we have seen very little leadership.
What we are seeing, similar to the Calvary debate, is a minister who starts a discussion, pushes an ideological agenda and then lets it drag on in the community, literally year after year, causing distraction and causing disruption. In that case, she then went weak-kneed. We are waiting to see whether she will go weak-kneed on this one. In this case, I hope she does, because I hope she comes to her senses and realises that, despite her ideological obsession, this is bad policy and will not actually achieve the outcomes that she seeks.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.
Education—NAPLAN testing
MS PORTER (Ginninderra) (5.23): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes:
(a) the importance of the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing for parents and teachers to receive feedback on students’ strengths and weaknesses;
(b) the importance of NAPLAN data in helping improve the educational outcomes in areas of weakness for students;
(c) the strong performance of ACT students NAPLAN testing since 2008;
(d) that ACT students have performed very strongly in the 2011 test results, ranked first or equal first in the nation in many categories, with improvements in other areas;
(e) that under the National Partnership agreements for education skills and workforce development and early childhood education, the ACT is receiving approximately $80 million of Australian government funding over seven years to deliver a range of reforms; and
(f) that the ACT government has also appointed specialist literacy and numeracy teachers as part of a strategy to build teacher capacity and improve student outcomes; and
(2) further notes:
(a) that the ACT Liberals voted against the specialist literacy and numeracy teachers; and
(b) that the ACT Liberals have voted against increasing education funding in successive ACT budgets.
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