Page 4719 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 19 October 2011
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have been in the public realm and been debated by education ministers in recent years and months around the means to improve teacher effectiveness by providing professional opportunities that will attract and retain the best teachers in the classroom.
One of those key findings from the Grattan Institute is that the teacher evaluation process in Australia is fundamentally broken and needs substantial reform. The focus on salaries is clearly important in terms of attraction and retention, particularly as we look to the future to seek to attract those year 12 graduates who are achieving in the top third of their cohort as they emerge from their education into teacher education at a university level.
It is also the opportunity for accelerated advancement, the opportunity to work within a dynamic education system and to be able to work directly in schools where it makes a difference that will appeal to the younger generation of teachers. Taking a leading role in curriculum implementation and acting as mentors to other teachers are a critical part of the career progression that we are seeking to achieve. We want to target our promotional classroom teacher positions into the schools that most need them so that these teachers will work with the students that need their skills the most.
In the budgets of 2009, 2010 and 2011 the government have allocated significant additional funds into the education portfolio. We have employed 70 additional teachers who commenced in the ACT public system in 2010. Fifty of those 70 are in ACT public high schools, with an additional 10 positions in the primary sector and 10 in colleges. These measures see the student-to-teacher ratio in the ACT the lowest in the country, with the exception of the Northern Territory. As we know, there are some specific circumstances in relation to the Northern Territory and their rural and remote schools.
I think it is important to put on the record that the Gillard government is doing its part as well. Under the variety of national partnership agreements for education, skills and workforce development and early childhood education, the ACT government will be receiving approximately $80 million in additional Australian government funding. This is a level of commitment from the federal government to education that we have not seen for decades. This funding is being used for a range of programs. Through the smarter schools national partnership, the ACT is focusing on meeting a range of specific reforms to address educational disadvantage, improve student literacy and numeracy outcomes and focusing importantly on improving teacher quality.
The early childhood reform partnership aims to achieve universal access for early childhood education for all children in the year before schooling by 2013. Under the digital education revolution, the ACT aims to achieve a one-to-one ratio of computers to students by 31 December this year for secondary school students in years 9 to 12. I can report to the Assembly that as at June of this year 100 per cent of the required computers have been deployed to schools in the ACT.
It is fair to observe, though, that our efforts to provide the best education possible to the ACT’s students have met with some opposition. As Ms Hunter correctly identified, and the minutes of proceedings for the Assembly of 26 June 2009, 2 July 2010 and 1 July 2011 will confirm, the Canberra Liberals have voted against all of those additional appropriations in Education and Training.
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