John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I think the Australian economy will benefit enormously if the 80,000 school students who travel from one part of the nation to another are not disadvantaged by a lack of synchronisation between the curricula of the various states. That is why my colleague the Minister for Education, Science and Training has been arguing so strenuously with her state colleagues to bring about a greater uniformity of curricula. Investment in education is important, but standards in education are even more important. And the real barrier to standards lies in the hands of those people who have sought over the years to impose their own ideology on education in this country. This country’s economy will be massively boosted if, in the years ahead, we can produce a larger number of young men and women out of the school system whose basic proficiency in English and in numeracy, and their literature understanding, is much higher than it is at the present time. That remains a major objective of this government.

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