Kerry Bartlett (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Education, Science and Training. Is the minister aware of the release today of the 2005 national literacy and numeracy benchmarks? What do the results show? How is the government ensuring that there is adequate emphasis on these fundamental skills?

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

I thank the member for Macquarie for his question and note his deep interest in matters affecting schools in his electorate. The Howard government believes in greater choice, values and standards in our schools. In relation to standards, I think it is telling that the state governments released today the results of literacy and numeracy tests that were taken two years ago. The data that has come out in these results shows that far too many students are failing to meet the minimum acceptable standards in literacy and numeracy, and the trends are equally worrying—for example, the percentage of students in year 3 who are failing to meet minimum acceptable standards in mathematics was about six per cent. By year 7, the percentage of students who were failing to meet minimum standards in mathematics had increased to 18 per cent—in other words, the longer they were at school, the worse they were doing. This is a real concern.

Back in 1998, the state and territory governments gave a commitment to the people of Australia that every child commencing school that year would reach minimum acceptable standards in reading, writing and mathematics within four years. The states and territories said that every child would reach those standards within four years. Clearly, that has not happened.

The Australian government has committed almost $2 billion in additional funds to education authorities to help lift the standards in maths and reading and writing, particularly focusing on disadvantaged schools. Yet, it is evident from these results that students are not getting the full benefit of that investment of additional funding. So the Australian government has insisted that next year it will have the first national assessments in reading and writing and mathematics for years 3, 5, 7 and, for the first time, year 9. The government will ensure that the results of these tests are available in a timely fashion—not two years later—so that action can be taken and interventions can be put in place.

It is also telling that, through these national tests, it will be the first time that we will be able to compare results school by school, state by state. If the Australian government had not intervened, if it had not made this a condition of funding for state governments, they would continue to ignore this very serious problem. The Howard government is committed to supporting parents in their wish for higher standards in literacy and numeracy and for greater choice, greater values and greater standards in our schools.

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

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.