Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for EDUCATION, Ms PALMER
Another year, another terrible set of NAPLAN results for lutruwita/Tasmania. Compared to the rest of the nation, Tasmanian students, again, still lag behind their counterparts interstate in literacy and numeracy. You and I and the whole Council will agree that teachers are doing their best but are constrained in significant part by a lack of funding. Both the federal Labor government and this government continue to not fund public schools to the level needed. The Australian Education Union attests that Tasmanian public schools were underfunded by $119 million in 2023-24. That has to have an impact on literacy and numeracy.
Do you agree these NAPLAN results are the sign of policy and funding failure? What will you be doing as minister to better invest in schools and the future of our students?
ANSWER
Mr President, I thank the member for the question. These are not the results that we want to see. I acknowledge that. I do not want to see them as the Minister for Education. I do not want to see them as a parent. I accept that we must do more and we must do more every day. That is what the data is showing us, in particular, the data identifying the additional needs support category.
We want to identify those learners and we want to identify them in our schools as soon as we possibly can and to make sure that they do have the support they need when they need it. That is why schools do additional assessments, in particular the progressive achievement test across Prep to year 10, to monitor reading and mathematics progress. That is an important data set because it tracks children individually and teachers are able to use that in the classroom.
The NAPLAN data is one of the tools we have to look at the areas we must focus on in 2024. We can see that we are on the right track and where we need to clearly focus, in particular, in the literacy space.
When I look at this data, it is important for me as a minister to not be afraid of it, to think, how do I use that to say that what we have done in previous years is on the right track, that is where our energy should be, that is where we should focus because that is what the data is telling us. Or, the data might throw out something that we are not focusing on and we need to adjust to that.
We do not have to be afraid of it. It is not what I wanted to see. It is not what anyone wanted to see, but what can we actually learn from it? What can I do as a minister with it?
By 2026 all students across all schools will be taught to read in a structured, systematic, and explicit way. This is our focus in the literacy space with what we are rolling out across schools. We began rolling it out this year within a framework that ensures every student receives appropriate additional literacy support when they need it.
We will deliver evidence-based structured literacy in 100 per cent of all government primary schools by 2026 and are transforming the way students are taught to read; remembering these programs have been established in the science of reading and the evidence we have that shows the best way we can teach reading. We know that from the NAPLAN data, this is an area we should be focusing on. We are transforming the way students are taught to read. That is not going to see results overnight. We know it is going to take time to see those student outcomes.
When I looked at the data for 2024, I thought, ‘right, we are on track’. It is great we are putting these programs in place, especially in that literacy area and now let us give that time to come to fruition – to see the outcomes that we could have with students.
When it comes to the funding side of things, Tasmania is at the 74 per cent mark when it comes to our contribution in our government schools. As you would be aware, there are conversations happening now with the federal government and the state government on the states lobbying the federal government to see that final 5 per cent put into place. I can assure you that I, together with every other education minister across every state and territory, am lobbying very hard. We have meetings one‑on‑one with the federal Education minister and we will continue to lobby to see full funding in our government schools.
