Ms MANISON - 2016-04-20
Since the CLP came to government you have cut public education funding. Your federal Liberal colleagues will also look at massively cutting education funding. How can you ask the federal government for more money when you have taken money out of the Northern Territory education budget? Is this not why nobody trusts you to deliver for Territory schools?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, let us talk about trust. From last year to this year the non-government sector in the Northern Territory grew by around 24 students. The government sector grew by over 800. That tells me we have a community that has confidence in the public education system in the Northern Territory under the watch of this government and what we are doing in the space of education in the Northern Territory.
I have heard it said that we have introduced about a decade’s worth of reform into education in the last three-and-a-half years. We have lifted the rock that you were never game to lift in regard to remote education. We have a 10-year strategy, not another pilot program, which we want to lock in and ensure delivers for remote students across the Northern Territory. We are already seeing some clear results.
We introduced Direct Instruction, under a lot of pressure, and I have lost some bark in this space. The teachers, some of the very people against it in the first instance, are now saying, ‘It is the best thing you have ever done, minister. We can see measureable change in these students.’ That has not happened for years.
The reforms we are making in the educational space will change things for the Territory for decades to come. This generation of Territorians will have a far different system and platform than there ever has been before. It is not how much money you put into something; it is how it is spent. It is the wisdom you apply to that spending.
We have introduced a new act. The old act was in play for 35 years, and for nearly 12 years of that time you were in government. Did you once consider introducing a new act? No. After three-and-a-half years in government we have a new Territory Education Act – independent public schools, global school autonomy, putting control back at the school level. You want lot of bureaucrats to run it from a building so removed from what is happening at the coalface that they have no idea.
Results in the Territory have never been better. More Indigenous students are passing their NTCET with higher academic achievements than ever before. What is there to be ashamed of?
There are over 800 more students in 2015-16 in the public sector, and 24 in the non-government sector. The public has confidence in this government and the public education system. It is Labor that it has no confidence in.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, let us talk about trust. From last year to this year the non-government sector in the Northern Territory grew by around 24 students. The government sector grew by over 800. That tells me we have a community that has confidence in the public education system in the Northern Territory under the watch of this government and what we are doing in the space of education in the Northern Territory.
I have heard it said that we have introduced about a decade’s worth of reform into education in the last three-and-a-half years. We have lifted the rock that you were never game to lift in regard to remote education. We have a 10-year strategy, not another pilot program, which we want to lock in and ensure delivers for remote students across the Northern Territory. We are already seeing some clear results.
We introduced Direct Instruction, under a lot of pressure, and I have lost some bark in this space. The teachers, some of the very people against it in the first instance, are now saying, ‘It is the best thing you have ever done, minister. We can see measureable change in these students.’ That has not happened for years.
The reforms we are making in the educational space will change things for the Territory for decades to come. This generation of Territorians will have a far different system and platform than there ever has been before. It is not how much money you put into something; it is how it is spent. It is the wisdom you apply to that spending.
We have introduced a new act. The old act was in play for 35 years, and for nearly 12 years of that time you were in government. Did you once consider introducing a new act? No. After three-and-a-half years in government we have a new Territory Education Act – independent public schools, global school autonomy, putting control back at the school level. You want lot of bureaucrats to run it from a building so removed from what is happening at the coalface that they have no idea.
Results in the Territory have never been better. More Indigenous students are passing their NTCET with higher academic achievements than ever before. What is there to be ashamed of?
There are over 800 more students in 2015-16 in the public sector, and 24 in the non-government sector. The public has confidence in this government and the public education system. It is Labor that it has no confidence in.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016