Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Come in, spinner! Let's have a talk about NAPLAN results in reading, writing and maths. In nearly every state, in years 7 and 9, the average results have gone—

A government member interjecting—

If you don't want to govern, you can feel free to leave the parliament. You're paid to actually govern. Obviously that means looking after our literacy and numeracy results. The results have gone back. The best we can say is that they've essentially flatlined. For eighth grade maths scores on the TIMSS international test, Australia is ranked 18th. Russia is seventh. So we're now more than 10 places behind Russia. For reading literacy in fourth grade, PIRLS has Russia ranked first and Australia trailing in 14th place.

Let's have a look at some of the reasons for that. I particularly want to acknowledge the great work that teachers and teaching support staff do to run schools—and I know we've got former teachers on this side of the chamber. The member for Lalor has run schools as a principal. But we know that they're being asked to do more with less under this government. There are more demands on their time. Teachers are spending so much of their time doing admin, collecting data on kids with disabilities and the like. It is a very stressful time for teachers and the other staff at the moment. It's actually driving good teachers away. We're getting fewer high achievers choosing teaching as a career path, particularly when compared to other OECD nations.

Surely we can all agree that we want the best people, the best educators, teaching our children—my children, your children and those in years to come. Look at Singapore, Finland and other countries. They're recruiting top teaching graduates. We should recruit from that top third of student cohorts to educate our students. Currently it is not good enough. The quality of our teachers is obviously a serious issue. A principal sets the tone, but the teachers are at the chalkface, so to speak. The only plan the coalition government have to improve teaching standards is basically online training for teachers. They need to look at adopting some of our policies. So my big question to the minister is: can the minister confirm that, in the time the Liberals have been in office, NAPLAN reading, writing and maths results have decreased across all age groups, in every state and territory? As education experts and industry have panned your education policies as window-dressing, why, after six years, do this government have no long-term plan for education in Australia?

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