Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Deakin for his question and also for his role as chair of the caucus education and skills committee. It is a very good question because it comes about at a time when we recognise there are additional needs in education to ensure that we have enough kids at school in maths and science and enough people to teach maths and science as well. But I just want to address one matter before I answer his question. Regrettably, the coalition spokesperson for education, the member for Sturt, has now fled the Federation Chamber. He is nowhere to be seen. He came in here and asked one question and had a typical spray and now he has departed again. If anything says to the public how seriously this shadow minister takes education it is the fact that he can only turn up to the Federation Chamber for 10 minutes and ask one question of me, the Minister for School Education, when he has the opportunity to be here for a full hour. The best that Mr Pyne could manage was 10 minutes and one question. It reminds me of his contribution when the Gonski report was released. Within 15 minutes of the report being released, the member for Sturt had condemned it. Apparently he was able to speed read the work that Mr Gonski and his eminent panel had undertaken. There were hundreds of pages of findings and recommendations in that report—deliberations in which the public and the education community had been involved—but the shadow minister for education, the member for Sturt, spent about 15 minutes musing and then dismissed it out of hand.

I want to respond to a question that the member for Sturt put as he fled the Federation Chamber, and that concerns the Literacy and Numeracy National Partnership. The fact is that the Literacy and Numeracy National Partnership is making a difference for the students it was intended to benefit. Yes, the ANAO report came out, but it compared the average results of all students in those schools to the average results in other schools. But the focus of this national partnership was on the students struggling in literacy and numeracy, those students who were below the national minimum standard. The fact is that we have seen improvements in moving those kids who are at that level. For example, between 2008 and 2011, 70 per cent of schools in this national partnership have reduced the proportion of their students who were below the minimum standard for year 3 reading and, between 2008 and 2011, 80 per cent of schools reduced the proportion of students who were below the minimum standard for year 5 maths. It is very important to get that on the record. It is regrettable that the member for Sturt did not hang around long enough to understand what a difference this government's investment is making in relation to this issue.

The member for Deakin asks me a very important question about the budget commitment to the specific issue of increasing the opportunity for the delivery of improved maths and science teaching in schools. What I can say is this: the chief scientist was asked to investigate this matter by the Prime Minister. When the chief scientist investigated that matter, he came to the view that it was important that we were able to provide additional support across a range of program areas that had already been underway, including the ones that the member for Deakin mentions such as Science by Doing, and we were able to bring forward additional investment of some $54 million in the budget. Around that particular commitment nearly $11 million went to improving the quality of teacher training, especially for prospective teachers. That work now to be considered and under way will lift the opportunity for young students who are interested in graduating and teaching maths and science to have additional support and input, particularly through professional development provision of teaching instruction and the like. There is $3 million for national support and advice for teachers, including a national advisory and linking service. There are online videos, which I think are a particularly useful device to illustrate new funding standards for practical activities for school science laboratories. And, of course, there is the $3 million that the member mentioned for science connections programs. This investment that the Gillard Labor government is making is an especially important one, not only for the teachers and the students in the electorate of the member for Deakin but Australia-wide. We recognise that having high levels of proficiency in maths and science is absolutely central to enabling us to lead in technological advances to continue to build prosperity in the future—something that this government is fully committed to.

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