NATIONAL LITERACY AND NUMERACY TESTS

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:14): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Why, after 10 years of Labor, have South Australian students performed worse in 14 out of 20 categories in last year's NAPLAN tests compared to the previous year and are now rating below the national average in all 20 categories in NAPLAN? I seek leave to insert the statistical data into Hansard supporting these figures.

Leave granted.

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Education and Child Development) (15:14): The NAPLAN test is a very good instrument for measuring how students and schools are performing in relation to literacy and numeracy. It is one of the ways we measure student performance. Although members opposite are very keen on talking down our students and our teachers—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr PISONI: Point of order, Madam Speaker. That is an outrageous allegation from the education minister and I ask that it be withdrawn. The reference is standing order 127.

The SPEAKER: Minister, I would ask you to withdraw that.

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: Sure; I withdraw. The vast majority of South Australian students are achieving at or above the minimum standards in all areas, with 95 per cent of students achieving this benchmark or above. Indeed, many students across all three of our schooling sectors are achieving outstanding results.

Last year's results show that South Australia does in fact compare well to students in Western Australia and Queensland, states that have similar characteristics to us and similar demographic make-up to us. We have been performing at a consistent level for the past four years. What we need to recall is that there are a number of factors that affect our NAPLAN results, including the proportion of students living in very remote areas as well as the SES standards of our students. However, what this government is doing is pouring in investment and resources, a concerted effort on ensuring—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: What is their plan, Madam Speaker? I will tell you—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Pisoni: Sit down, Patrick, she's standing up.

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Unley! Minister, do you have a point of order?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: My point of order is obvious, Madam Speaker. The opposition is absolutely hectoring the minister, not simply interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Hopefully they will be quiet for the rest of question time.

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: We are actively addressing our literacy and numeracy in this state. For instance, we have invested in an early learning literacy strategy that includes 264 reading support teacher roles being provided for schools to develop reading expertise. Training for reading support teachers has been offered across the state. We have something that we are very proud of here in South Australia: the TfEL program, the Teaching for Effective Learning framework, which has been developed by my department. This is a program, an initiative, that is internationally recognised and now being used as a key reference point for improving the quality of teaching and learning in our schools.

We have a literacy secretariat who coordinates literacy initiatives and builds teacher capacity. I do agree with the member opposite: teacher quality is absolutely critical. This literacy secretariat works with school leaders for a whole-school approach to literacy initiatives. I mentioned earlier the over $50 million that we are investing in our primary mathematics and science strategy, and, of course, our Literacy and Numeracy National Partnership has placed 14 numeracy coaches and 14 literacy coaches in schools across five regions from August 2009 to May 2007.