Page 254 - Week 01 - Thursday, 13 February 2020
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MADAM SPEAKER: Resume your seat, please, minister. A point of order?
Ms Lawder: The question was very short and to the point: what objections do you have to phonics checks? It goes to relevance. I would ask the minister to directly answer, rather than refer.
MADAM SPEAKER: She is on the topic and the policy area of education and literacy skills. Minister, do you want to finish?
MS BERRY: I want to finish by reminding people that those early years, those first two years before a child starts formal education in kindergarten, are the most formative years when a child’s brain development is most important. Those two years before kindergarten are what the ACT government is investing in, and it is supported by the teaching profession, to make sure that children, before they start school, get the best start because they have had those two years in preschool education.
MS LEE: Minister, why is it that our students are falling behind in literacy and why do you continue to ignore the calls from the dyslexia community, still, on phonics checks?
MS BERRY: I have met with the dyslexia associations. I have spoken with them and listened to their views on what they see as an appropriate way forward with regard to English and literacy within our schools. I am not convinced that explicit or direct instruction, as they are asking for, or a test in the second year of primary school is the way forward. An overall assessment that the ACT government in ACT schools already does with the PIPS data at the start of and end of kindergarten is an appropriate assessment.
The English and literacy that children learn though universal access to preschool that they will get for the two years, once that is implemented and phased in for three-year-olds, will make a significant difference to how a child learns. Importantly, we will be making sure that schoolteachers, the professionals in this place who actually deliver education, are supported and provided with the professional development that they have said that they want to ensure that children learn in the best possible way. This will be delivered not through another test that means that people can start pointing a finger at students who might not be achieving learning in the same way.
Mr Hanson: You just want to hide results.
MS BERRY: This is about making sure that every child, regardless of how they learn gets the same best-quality education. I should remind those who are interrupting that the ACT’s public schools do very well on PISA in literacy. NAPLAN is a very narrow focus on literacy and numeracy and should not be the thing that identifies whether a student has succeeded or not within our public schools. (Time expired.)
Ms Lee: Point of order, Madam Speaker. I did listen to the entirety of the minister’s answer. At the beginning of my question I asked why our students are falling behind. She has failed to answer that.
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