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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-15 Daily Xml
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NATIONAL LITERACY AND NUMERACY TESTS

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Education. Can the minister explain why South Australian students did not meet the national average in a single category in this year's NAPLAN tests and performed worse than last year in 14 out of 20 categories?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Education, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (15:04): It might be useful to start with a little tutorial about averages. Unless all of the states are the same, necessarily there are going to be some states that are below the average and some states that are above the average.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It is a pretty elementary characteristic of statistics that unless every state is precisely the same there are going to be some states that are above the average and some states that are below the average. The truth is—

Mr Pisoni: And you're happy for us to be below!

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Pisoni: We used to lead, once!

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Unley!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: The statistical spread between the states is very small. If you look at the states that we are clumped in the middle with—Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia—very small indeed. There are two states at the bottom, Tassie and the Northern Territory, which has consistently been the case. So this has been quite a consistent pattern. But I think what needs to be understood by those that are seeking to understand these numbers is that the Australian education system, in world education systems, is amongst the best in the world—well ahead of the UK, and well ahead of the US. So, we sit in the middle of an excellent system in world rankings.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Are we satisfied with that? No, we're not. We want to take a good system and make it a great system, and that is what our endeavours are directed towards.

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