Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They should table the Easter bunny. My question is addressed to the Minister for Education, Science and Training. Would the minister advise the House of the reaction to the release of the national literacy and numeracy benchmarks? What is the government’s response?

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 Canning for his question. As he will know, this week the state governments finally came clean with comparative schools test results in literacy and numeracy, which finally gave parents a national perspective, a national picture, of what is going on in our classrooms, although the data was two years late in coming. Not surprisingly, parents had raised concerns about the worrying decline in standards in reading and mathematics. It seemed that students’ skills were getting worse the longer they were in school.

So what did the state Labor education ministers and the education unions say in response? In Western Australia, the results were the worst in the country. According to the West Australian newspaper, WA students rated lowest for the three 'Rs'—their primary students were amongst the worst in the nation when it comes to reading, writing and arithmetic. It found that Western Australia had the highest percentage of students failing to reach the national benchmark in five of nine categories and that the state standards were dropping, with the 2005 results worse than the 2004 results in six of the nine categories. The West Australian Labor minister blamed the federal government for those results. Apparently he does not take any responsibility for what goes on in his schools.

In Victoria the year 3 reading results were below the national average. The Labor Party in Victoria thought that that was a testament to their continued commitment to the highest standards. They do not meet the national benchmarks, but they think that is a testament to the highest standards. The Australian Education Union Victorian branch head, Mary Bluett, thought it was all a cause for celebration.

In Queensland, the education minister actually welcomed the Australian government’s additional $1.8 billion to lift literacy and numeracy standards, but this is a man who dismisses calls for higher standards in literacy and numeracy as a tired old cliche. The Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens Associations could not disagree with him more. In fact, they are calling for a refocus on the teaching of the three Rs in classrooms, according to the Courier-Mail, and are asking that the Labor education minister refocus on teaching the fundamentals.

The Queensland Teachers Union, though, have come up with the answer. Instead of teaching the fundamentals, including spelling and punctuation, they want us to just replace it with text messaging. As reported in the Courier-Mail today, spelling is overrated; apparently it just gets in the way, and the Queensland Teachers Union President, Steve, Ryan, has accused those who are pushing a traditional curriculum of reading, writing and mathematics of ‘outdated thinking’. So, while the Howard government is assisting 16,000 students who have been failed by the state school system with reading assistance vouchers that are helping students on a one-on-one basis to meet reading and writing standards, the teachers union have given up. They think that young people can get by in this world by text messaging.

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 and wish all members of the parliament a very happy and restful Easter.