Ms LAWRIE - 2013-11-26
The Northern Territory community acted swiftly to organise fundraising efforts for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Chief Minister, I thank you for acting after I wrote to you urging the NT government to support the relief efforts. You acted then. I ask, when will you listen to parents, teachers and students who are telling you how much your education cuts are truly hurting Territorians? Even your own CLP members, one by one, are starting to speak out against the cuts, and we hear CLP Central Council was very vocal on the weekend against the education cuts. When will you listen and act to stop the education cuts that will affect the future of our children in the Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. We are working very hard on providing a pathway forward for education in the Northern Territory. We know there are teachers, principals, school councils and many others in the education sector who are working their darndest and who want the best outcome for kids in education. The situation remains that we have the highest paid teachers in the country, the highest spend per student in the country against the national average, the best teacher/student ratios in the country but the worst education outcomes.
W want to provide a platform for the way forward for the development of northern Australia and ensure we have well educated students who can pathway through educational avenues such as CDU to ensure they are the nation’s leaders in areas such as engineering, oil and gas, agribusiness and food production so they can be the staple behind the development of northern Australia. To do that we have to ensure we get the best educational outcomes at the schooling level.
That is why we have made allocation changes so we get more teachers per student in the primary years to get the best educational outcomes for kids for an early start in life. It is very important to get the early start in life for kids in the early years. We also have three reviews under way. One is looking at the performance of middle schools to see whether they are hitting the target and getting the educational outcomes required.
We are looking at remote Indigenous education to see how we can improve that area to get better education for Indigenous students in remote areas. We are also looking at senior schooling to ensure we get the best outcomes, particularly through the allocation of classes and whether or not we have the right subjects for those senior schools at the moment. Those reports will be coming in shortly.
I congratulate the Minister for Education for the hard work he has done to try to drive change in this area to ensure we have the best educated kids in the Territory.
I have a chart in front of me which shows that over the last five years we have seen a rapid increase of more than $200m go into the education sector, an increase of 700-plus teachers in the education sector, but a complete decrease in the NAPLAN results we are receiving in our schooling system. If you want better educated kids you have to look at the resources that go in and ensure they are targeted properly to get the right educational outcomes for those kids. Quite clearly, we are not getting the educational outcomes in all aspects of the schooling sector that we want. We want reform in that area to ensure we have the best educated kids to support the growth and economy of Australia, northern Australia, and the Northern Territory into the future.
Mr WOOD: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Could the graph the minister has shown be tabled please?
Mr GILES: Member for Nelson, I will not table it because I will use this information later. I am happy to e-mail you a website with the graph on it.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. We are working very hard on providing a pathway forward for education in the Northern Territory. We know there are teachers, principals, school councils and many others in the education sector who are working their darndest and who want the best outcome for kids in education. The situation remains that we have the highest paid teachers in the country, the highest spend per student in the country against the national average, the best teacher/student ratios in the country but the worst education outcomes.
W want to provide a platform for the way forward for the development of northern Australia and ensure we have well educated students who can pathway through educational avenues such as CDU to ensure they are the nation’s leaders in areas such as engineering, oil and gas, agribusiness and food production so they can be the staple behind the development of northern Australia. To do that we have to ensure we get the best educational outcomes at the schooling level.
That is why we have made allocation changes so we get more teachers per student in the primary years to get the best educational outcomes for kids for an early start in life. It is very important to get the early start in life for kids in the early years. We also have three reviews under way. One is looking at the performance of middle schools to see whether they are hitting the target and getting the educational outcomes required.
We are looking at remote Indigenous education to see how we can improve that area to get better education for Indigenous students in remote areas. We are also looking at senior schooling to ensure we get the best outcomes, particularly through the allocation of classes and whether or not we have the right subjects for those senior schools at the moment. Those reports will be coming in shortly.
I congratulate the Minister for Education for the hard work he has done to try to drive change in this area to ensure we have the best educated kids in the Territory.
I have a chart in front of me which shows that over the last five years we have seen a rapid increase of more than $200m go into the education sector, an increase of 700-plus teachers in the education sector, but a complete decrease in the NAPLAN results we are receiving in our schooling system. If you want better educated kids you have to look at the resources that go in and ensure they are targeted properly to get the right educational outcomes for those kids. Quite clearly, we are not getting the educational outcomes in all aspects of the schooling sector that we want. We want reform in that area to ensure we have the best educated kids to support the growth and economy of Australia, northern Australia, and the Northern Territory into the future.
Mr WOOD: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Could the graph the minister has shown be tabled please?
Mr GILES: Member for Nelson, I will not table it because I will use this information later. I am happy to e-mail you a website with the graph on it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016