Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am pointing to the need to lift numeracy standards because we are seeing results like that. Then, having seen results like that, we are also advised of some of the things that would make a difference to numeracy attainment. The National Numeracy Review commissioned by the Council of Australian Governments and released in July this year concluded that the systematic teaching of numeracy in the early years of schooling, in maths lessons and in the wider curriculum, is essential to numeracy development. It went on to recommend that all jurisdictions should work towards a minimum of five hours per week of mathematics for students in all primary schools.

That important piece of information is joined by new research from the United Kingdom in the form of the 2008 Independent Review of Mathematics Teaching in the Early Years Settings and Primary Schools. The United Kingdom report recommended that every primary school should have a specialist mathematics teacher. So there we have the problem defined: numeracy standards and the number of students obtaining benchmarks going down over their years in primary school. We have work which suggests that more focus on numeracy development and specialist teaching can make a difference in primary school.

I am pleased to advise the House, and I am sure this will please the member for O’Connor, that the Rudd Labor government is responding to the lack of maths teachers in our schools. We made an election commitment, which we delivered in the recent budget, to halve HECS for people who got maths or science qualifications and then went teaching. On the weekend it was my pleasure to announce that we have expanded that program so that it also covers primary school teaching. If maths graduates from our universities in particular choose to go teaching, they will experience a 50 per cent HECS reduction. That can be worth $1,500 each year to them. This is part of dealing with the numeracy challenges that face this country when we are returning statistics like that.

Of course, no one thing fixes this challenge entirely. It takes quality teaching. It takes quality schools. It takes a new focus on disadvantage. It takes a new focus on transparency. It takes a new investment in making sure that we have teachers in our schools who have the kinds of skills that we need to ensure that we see numeracy formation. The Rudd Labor government are engaged in a series of practical steps to make a difference for Australian students because we want to see a quality education for every Australian child. We want to see every Australian child able to read, able to write, able to count and able to do numbers. Unfortunately, the legacy of the former government’s neglect is that we do not see these standards in Australian schools. We are getting on with the job of fixing it and getting the basics right.

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