LITERACY AND NUMERACY

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:29): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Can the minister inform the house about initiatives being taken to support teachers and parents to help children learn the basic skills of literacy and numeracy?

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Education and Child Development) (14:30): I would like to thank the member for Florey for this important question and acknowledge the work that she does in her community, particularly with our young people.

The basic skills of literacy and numeracy have always been very important in order to give young people the best start in life. They are even more critical these days because we know that young people are growing up in an incredibly complex world, with everything from social networking to electronic banking, etc., to contend with. New and emerging industries (and the Premier has just been speaking about this) in areas like advanced manufacturing, while requiring higher order skills, also require a very fundamental and solid foundation in numeracy and literacy. We need more people who can solve complex problems, think creatively, analyse and, obviously, problem-solve.

When I visit schools and preschools—and I have been to, I think, more than 120, now—I see outstanding examples of teachers engaging with our young South Australians. From an international perspective, it is worth reminding this place that South Australian young people do very well in numeracy and literacy and, indeed, did significantly better than the vast majority of OECD countries. There are, however, a number of measures which indicate that we can do more and should be doing more to extend our young students into higher levels of achievement.

I feel very strongly that this is a collective role for parents, teachers and, of course, our early childhood professionals. We do have a new opportunity here because we are working very hard to make stronger connections between our services for parents and families and our schools and preschools, and the services that we provide from zero to 18.

In that context, in the context of my experience over the last year, I did ask my department to take a brand new look at improving literacy and numeracy teaching and learning. I have to say, as part of that process, the department undertook quite a significant level of engagement with parents and school communities. I believe they surveyed over 700 parents and school communities, and parents have told us very clearly that they want to be active participants in their child's learning and experience at school, and they have high aspirations for their children.

Today, I am very pleased that I have released an important discussion paper that outlines a new strategy for literacy and numeracy for South Australia, for children zero to 18. The proposed strategy is based on the evidence of what we know to be effective approaches that are currently in place. Central to the proposed strategy is that it recognises that this is a job for all of us—for parents and community members as well as teachers and principals—because we know, thanks to the work of people like Professor Fraser Mustard, that by the time a child is three, for instance, 85 per cent of their brain has been wired. So, if we want them to be doing well when they get to school, we must use every opportunity—and let us not forget that parents are our children's first teachers—that we have before they enter the formal schooling system.

I encourage everybody to have a say. The deadline is 30 November, with the intention of rolling out the new strategy and the initiatives included in that, pending the consultation from the beginning of next year.