Topics: NAPLAN results
Andrew Bolt: Joining us, the opposition’s education spokesman, Sarah Henderson. Sarah, thanks for joining me. What do these NAPLAN results tell you?
Senator Henderson: Andrew, good evening. Well, this is a disastrous result, and it tells us that one in three children is failing that plan, not meeting, not meeting, the minimum proficiency standards in reading, writing, mathematics, and that tells a shocking story about Australian education, and that’s why Andrew, the Coalition has been absolutely relentless in his advocacy for getting back to basics, focusing on literacy, on numeracy, evidence based teaching methods that we know work. So I take your point, the concerns you’re raising, because your post code, if you receive the best type of education, does not determine your educational outcomes. And so I think you’ve really highlighted some pretty regrettable comments by the education minister, Jason Clare.
Andrew Bolt: You mentioned evidence-based teaching. I was really struck with my kids recently, going back a few years now, at school and I helped them in classrooms that they weren’t teaching phonics, you know, like how the constituent parts of each word, how they sound at that kind of thing. (I was) struck by how well students who were struggling cottoned onto this and got it. What comes out of this is that one of the states that does worse, or the state that does worse, is Queensland, which has not adopted phonics, just for a start, not yet. I mean, what do you make of this?
Senator Henderson: Well, basically, we have been failing Australian children, and despite a very substantial increase in schools funding. Under our government, we nearly doubled schools funding over two decades, we’ve seen a decline in school standards. So the average Year 10 student, Andrew, is a year behind in their learning compared to 20 years ago, and yet we have poured so much more money into our classrooms. But what’s been missing, and I am pleased to see that there is traction now, even with the education minister himself, what has been missing is those evidence-based teaching methods, the teaching of phonics, explicit instruction, and the other things that we know work the grade one phonics check is so important to screen children and understand how they are tracking so that if someone is falling behind, you can identify that child early. And of course, one of the really important recommendations that we made in the Senate inquiry into classroom disruption is the critical importance of teaching children how to behave. That’s why we’ve called for a national behaviour curriculum, because when children know what’s expected of them – guess what? – most of the time, they will behave. They’ll learn better, they’ll be more engaged, and teachers will also thrive, Andrew, because when they have evidence-based teaching materials, lesson plans, which show them how to teach, what to teach, and give them all the tools that they need, then the teachers are so much happier as well, and they, as I say, excel in the classroom. So, there’s been a generation of students that have been let down and that dramatically and urgently needs to change.
Andrew Bolt: I was struck by the fact that children from overseas-born parents, migrants are doing better on average than children born from families, you know, here. So it seems a very local problem and maybe a cultural problem. When you look at Chinese students, Chinese culture tends to really stress education. I wonder what’s going on here? I noticed that there’s some of the good results, like, you know, in Taiwan, in China and Finland, that can think, you know, that really impress the culture. The classrooms tend to be more culturally homogeneous. I wonder if that’s a factor too?
Senator Henderson: Well, Andrew, let me just draw on the example of Marsden Road Primary School in Western Sydney, led by a magnificent principal. Her name is Manisha Gazula. She started at the school about five or six years ago. Looked at the results – most of the children are from low SES families. They are from non-English speaking backgrounds. She transformed the school with evidence-based teaching. The children walk in lines to the library. They are taught how to behave. If the children are late for school, the parents are told off. She stands at the front gate and says, `That’s not good enough, that does not meet our expectations’. And these kids are thriving. Their NAPLAN results have now completely turned around. They’re now above the New South Wales average. And these are some of you know, really from kids, from really struggling families, which goes to show that when you have the best evidence-based teaching in the classroom, when children are taught based on the science of reading and learning, then they thrive and their outcomes are not determined by their place.
Andrew Bolt: I love your example, I’ll ask if you don’t mind that my producer get the name of that principal from you because I think that’s a great story.
Senator Henderson. Thank you so much. She’s amazing. Thanks, Andrew.