Page 4709 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
was equivalent to the national mean score. While this represents equal second of all states and territories, there is definitely room for improvement here. Likewise, with year 5 spelling, which I mentioned before, while there was significant improvement on previous results, there is more work to do obviously.
That is why the ACT Labor government continues to invest in the education of young people in the ACT. We have delivered on a promise to lower class sizes and we have delivered better facilities for our schools across the ACT. We have appointed specialist literacy and numeracy teachers, known as field officers, to build teacher capacity and improve student outcomes in literacy and numeracy.
As members know, we have implemented new gifted and talented programs to help foster our best and brightest. We have worked with federal Labor to deliver building the education revolution capital works and national partnership reforms. The ACT has been acknowledged as having the best implementation of the BER of any state and territory. I can say, after visiting many of these schools in relation to the BER programs, that the results are very impressive and well received by teachers, students, parents and the whole school community.
We need to pay tribute to the hard work of students and teachers, to those parents and those schools communities, to the ACT government officials involved and to all the contractors involved in the BER programs. We need to pay tribute to all of the people that have contributed to these fantastic results. We all should know how important it is for all children to get the best start in life that is possible. This is obviously the pathway for them to reach their full potential. We should congratulate all those who have worked so hard to achieve these results. I call on the whole Assembly to support policies that will allow our students to continue to excel and to make improvements where necessary.
However, it is disappointing to note that in the past members of this place, particularly those opposite, have put political opportunism in front of good education policy, voting against successive ACT budgets that delivered funding for all schools. This Labor government will continue to support our education system. It will continue to invest in an education system that gives all our children the best start in life and the best opportunities.
We will continue to make sure that our children and our young people are given quality teaching and the best facilities so that we continue to see these results and see improvement to those areas where they need improvement, because we know that we will get those pleasing results that we have this year.
I again take this opportunity to congratulate the ACT students, teachers, parents and all our school community and all those that work behind the scenes in the directorate. I also congratulate the minister on these excellent results and I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (5.31): I rise to speak in this debate with a sense of outrage and disappointment. Mr Barr—my apologies: Ms Porter—
Mr Barr: You are so outraged you have forgotten who has moved the motion.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video