Page 404 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 February 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Everyone relies on government services at different stages of their lives, and the services in this Report are particularly important for the more disadvantaged members of society. Improving government services is important socially, but also economically. Governments spent over $164 billion on the services covered in this year's Report, equivalent to around 12.5 per cent of Australia’s national income.
Of course, the Chief Minister was quick to rush to print to claim how well the ACT government had been portrayed in the latest report. This can be expected from this Chief Minister. She talked about our NAPLAN results, which show that ACT school students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are performing well in reading and numeracy, and suggested that this indicated a school system that is teaching the basics effectively. But what she failed to mention—and the previous education minister often glossed over this—was the percentage of children in the ACT and the percentage of schools that are not achieving the national minimum standards for spelling, reading, numeracy and comprehension.
She also failed to point out that many of the top results are in non-government schools, the sector that the Chief Minister was happily prepared to wipe out in her earlier political career as the minister for government schools. She also failed to point out the unique socioeconomic circumstances here in the ACT that led to these results. As the Canberra Times highlighted in February of last year in respect of NAPLAN tests:
With the release of NAPLAN test results, some ACT schools will again be basking in the warm glow of success that our raw scores show. While it is true that on actual test results, a majority of ACT schools perform above the national average in most areas most years, there is a much less rosy picture when fair comparison is made with statistically similar schools around the nation … Many of our schools are not performing as well as they should be when factors like the education and income of parents are taken into account.
The Chief Minister said that we have an education system that produces great results—and it does, but only for some students and some schools. What is being done to bring those students in those schools up to the national minimum standards? For example, when we look at the graphs in the report across a number of measurements in education for Indigenous students, a lot of work is to be done. At every year level Indigenous students are trailing. The government talks of wanting to close the learning achievement gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, but how many are still falling through the cracks and how serious is the government when it talks about addressing these issues?
When it comes to other aspects of education, the government are again selective. They are quick to promote some of our newer schools, but they are silent on so many others that lack resources for so many basic requirements. We can all acknowledge that some of our public schools are outstanding architectural examples. They are leaders in technology and they produce environmental outcomes well above schools in other jurisdictions. Some schools have gymnasiums any commercial operator would be proud to own. But we also have public schools at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video