Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian government is focusing on ensuring that students who fail to meet the literacy and numeracy standard in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are provided with support so that we can lift those standards. Likewise, we know that parents are concerned about standards in schools. We are aware that employers are concerned that young people lack these fundamental skills in literacy and numeracy and we have all heard stories and been told by universities that our universities even have to offer remedial classes in English for year 12 graduates. Year 12 graduates who go on to university would be considered amongst our best and brightest students and yet universities have to offer remedial English classes. So we are obviously concerned about the levels of literacy and numeracy.

There are some schools that have made an extraordinary effort to lift the standards—low-performing schools who have managed to lift the literacy and numeracy standards by a dedicated focus, by specific resource materials and by ensuring that literacy and numeracy are among the core skills that they seek to instil in their students. We believe that those schools have a great story to tell. Schools that have been able to demonstrate substantial improvement in the literacy and numeracy achievements of their students, as measured by the national assessments and by their own applications, should be rewarded for their efforts in doing so. Those schools will then be able to use that funding to reward their teachers, to develop more resource material and to be used as best practice models for other schools around the country that are seeking to improve literacy and numeracy standards.

It is our hope that, over time, schools that are currently underperforming in literacy and numeracy will be assisted by the best practice models that other schools have been able to develop and that we will be able to lift standards across the board. But, of course, we can only do so much. At the end of the day, the state and territory governments are responsible for the education systems in their states. I think it is a matter of considerable concern that literacy and numeracy levels in this country are falling. We must do all that we can as a federal government and in conjunction with state and territory governments to lift the literacy and numeracy standards. These are the fundamental skills that will ensure that students have an opportunity to succeed in life, go on to further education and training or get a job. I certainly make no apologies for the Australian government’s focus on rewarding schools who have been able to lift standards in literacy and numeracy and, likewise, providing parents with the safety net of support in the form of a $700 voucher for those students who have not met minimum standards in literacy and numeracy.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Department of Immigration and Citizenship

Proposed expenditure, $1,566,212,000.

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