Greg, thank you and good morning everyone. I’m delighted to say a few words to kick off your conference. Congratulations on the work that you do for students right across this vast land, in boarding schools in every corner of the Country. As the Shadow Minister for Education, I recognise and sought you for the incredibly important work that you do. Without wanting to speak on the record about my own experiences, I am a former boarding school mum, so I get it, I get the challenges, the wonders and the great advantages that can flow from boarding school. The coalition has had a very acute focus on boarding school as a very significant part of the solution for children in remote communities and particularly in the northern part of WA and in The Northern Territory. We’ve had a very firm commitment to seeing boarding schools as a part of the solution for particularly for Indigenous students. And of course, we are very, very proud to support organisations like the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation, which does an incredible job linking its students and providing scholarships to boarding schools all around Australia.
I know in recent years there have been some really big challenges. One of them is online safety, because one of the problems with COVID is that many of the boarding students retreated to their rooms or their dorms and sat on their phones, and I know that was very much a challenge for my son’s situation when he was, like so many other students going through COVID and enduring the horrors, really, of being locked down at such a formative time of their schooling. I want to just also say thank you to everyone who makes such an incredible contribution to the wellbeing of students, because caring for students in a boarding school environment is a very, very significant job. The duty of care is second to none. You have charge of students, 24/7, and it is an incredibly important responsibility. Our parents place much faith and trust in you. And as I say, you do an absolutely incredible job. I do want to also just reflect a little on and I know there are some representatives here from Singapore this morning, I do want to say that more broadly, across education, there are some big challenges. We have seen our NAPLAN results handed down last week, one in three Australian children are failing NAPLAN, not reaching the minimum standards in literacy and numeracy, and that is very, very concerning. The average year 10 student is, in fact, one year behind in his or her learning compared to 20 years ago. So the coalition has a very, very strong focus on getting back to basics with education, on focusing and supporting evidence based teaching, explicit instruction, the teaching of phonics, the explicit teaching of numeracy and even explicit teaching of behavior. We’re really cognizant that in many, many classrooms, classroom disruption is a very big issue. We made some very significant recommendations in a Senate inquiry into classroom disruption, including implementing a behavior survey and also a National Behavior Curriculum. And I have to say I am disappointed.
While there is an unsigned agreement which embraces a range of evidence based teaching methods that the government is in the process of trying to get signed with the States and Territories. I’m disappointed that that important part and that important change hasn’t been included. So while some schools are doing an incredible job and very much punching above their weight, as a Nation, we have a long way to go, and there is a significant challenge. Not just in schools, of course, but also in in universities. So thank you again for your commitment, for your dedication. And in a continent as large as ours, boarding schools is just absolutely imperative for many families, there is no other option, and so we see you as being a very, very important part of our education system and the contribution you make. Thank you.