Basem Abdo (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to build a better and fairer education system and improve students' wellbeing? What other approaches is the government being asked to consider?

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank my friend the member for Calwell for his question and congratulate him on his extraordinary first speech—one of the best I have ever heard, and there's been some brilliant first speeches in the last few weeks in this chamber.

Some encouraging news: NAPLAN results are out today, and they show improvements in literacy and in numeracy. In reading, we've seen improvements in years 5, 7 and 9, and, in numeracy, we've seen some real improvements right across the board. This is the first time that this has happened in almost 10 years. All of this is encouraging, but the cold, hard truth is that there is a lot more work to do.

What the NAPLAN data shows us each and every year is that about one-in-10 students are below the minimum standards that we set for them, but it is one-in-three children from poor families and from regional Australia. These are the same kids who often end up not finishing high school. That's why the agreements that we've now signed with all states and territories are so important. They're about fixing the funding of our public schools and targeting that funding to where it's needed.

That funding is not a blank cheque; it's tied to real and practical reforms: things like phonics checks and numeracy checks in year 1, to help identify children who need additional support, that is rolling out in states and territories this year and next year; things like evidence based teaching, explicit teaching, to help children learn; and catch-up tutoring or small-group tutoring to help children who fall behind to catch up and to keep up. And from January of next year, the reforms that all states and territories have now agreed to, to teacher training at universities, will also roll out. All of this is critical to help build a better and a fairer education system.

The Minister for Communications has just given us an update on social media reforms. We've already banned mobile phones in schools. We're already seeing a real-life example of the sort of difference that it's making. Teachers tell us that children are more focused in the classroom. They also tell us that our playgrounds at lunchtime are noisier. Kids are playing and talking to each other, rather than doomscrolling. But when school finishes, you know what happens. You see it, if you drive past a bus stop at three o'clock. You can see kids with their heads down, looking at their phones, back into the cesspit of social media. We know the impact this is having on our children, on their health and their mental health, and how it is used to bully and belittle other children. This is doing something about it. This is a really important step to help our parents, but, even more importantly, to help our kids.