I’d like to thank Senator Tyrrell for raising the critical issue of improving literacy and numeracy in Australian schools. With one in three students failing NAPLAN, evidence based teaching reforms must be urgently mandated in every classroom. Getting back to basics is critical, and there is no excuse for any more delays. Failure to deliver what works in the classroom—the teaching of phonics, explicit instruction and other proven teaching methods—has damaged a generation of Australians. Consigning students to a lifetime of functional illiteracy or a failure to reach proficiency in numeracy is akin to child neglect. The Albanese government has failed to deliver these critical national reforms for more than two years, and that is shameful. Education minister Jason Clare has talked a big game.
There is a draft agreement, but so far the Albanese government has not delivered the national reforms promised. Instead, the Albanese government has delivered a school funding war, which culminated in state Labor education ministers coming to Canberra and protesting against the Albanese government, with the Victorian education minister, Ben Carroll, declaring that the Liberals, when in government, did a better job funding public schools than this government is doing. Failure to teach children to read and write and to be numerate fuels disengagement, dysfunction and even youth crime. That was the finding of the National Children’s Commissioner, Anne Hollonds, who warned that, unless schools do more to help struggling students, things will go from bad to worse.
She told the Australian’s education editor, Natasha Bita:
The fact that kids have to wait to be in prison to get one-on-one intensive learning support that they need is just abominable.
In the Northern Territory the situation is particularly dire. The Albanese government conducted a mad scramble to sign a funding agreement in the dying days of the Territory Labor government. But this shows that Australians will not be fooled by any government that has big spending plans and no real plan. The CLP’s win in the Northern Territory election shows that Australians want schools funding to deliver real improvements in the classroom, not wasted on all the wrong priorities. I applaud Lia Finocchiaro’s determination to get children off the streets and back to school, learning to read and write, which is critical to combating youth crime in the Northern Territory.
I have to say, given that Australia is among the worst in the world for classroom disruption, Minister Clare’s failure to include a behaviour curriculum in the draft National School Reform Agreement is a major oversight. This must be remedied. We know that children cannot learn in chaos, in classrooms that are disrupted, or where they are disengaged and not focused on the important work of our teachers. And of course so many teachers are leaving the profession—hardworking, dedicated teachers—because of violence and aggression in many classrooms across this country.
That said, as Senator Tyrrell referenced, there is amazing work happening in so many classrooms and school systems, and we are seeing a real move in our states and territories. More and more teachers are looking at the evidence, are looking at what works: evidence based teaching, explicit instruction. I saw a great example at a Catholic school just outside Hobart which is using the latest evidence based teaching. The children are absolutely thriving. They are children in a low-SES area and are doing incredibly well.
So, while we are seeing some real moves in Tasmania, with a focus from the Tasmanian government on explicit instruction and literacy, and the New South Wales government has rewritten its syllabus, and the Victorian government has made important announcements in relation to moving to the teaching of phonics, we do need to see more action. For instance, it’s going to take another three years for the New South Wales syllabus to be properly rolled out. As I said, the coalition is determined that in every classroom we must have evidence based teaching mandated. We must get back to basics. Australian parents deserve no less.