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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-09-20 Daily Xml
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TERTIARY ENTRANCE RANKING

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:12): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Can the minister advise why in the year 2000, 44 per cent of South Australian students received a tertiary entrance ranking in maths, physics and chemistry, but now that figure has fallen to just 37 per cent, well behind Labor's own Strategic Plan target of 45 per cent set in 2003. I seek leave to have inserted in Hansard the statistical data taken from the government's own Strategic Plan Progress Report to substantiate the figures I have just quoted.

Leave granted.

Percentage of students receiving a Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER) or equivalent with at least one of the following subjects: mathematics, physics and chemistry (2003 baseline).

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
All students 44 42 41 39 38 37 35 35 37 37 45
Male 55 53 52 51 51 48 45 46 47 48 (target)
Female 37 34 33 31 29 29 28 27 29 29


Source: SACE Board of South Australia

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Education and Child Development) (15:13): I will be very happy to look at the data—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! You will not shout at the minister.

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: —that has just been tabled by the member, because the data that was tabled by the member yesterday was also laced with inaccuracies. But can I say that we have invested heavily, over $50 million, in terms of a primary maths and science strategy, and we also have a STEM strategy. We are absolutely committed to promoting maths and science in our schools. Can I remind this place—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: Can I remind this place that, on a world scale, Australia, and South Australia in particular, have outstanding education systems. In fact, it has been acknowledged by people outside of Australia, we rank higher than the USA, we rank higher than France, higher than the UK—

Mr PISONI: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order, member for Unley.

Mr PISONI: My question was asking why we have slipped from 44 per cent to 37 per cent in the number of students—

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley, I suggest—

Mr PISONI: —who get a pass rate in maths, physics and chemistry.

The SPEAKER: —you wait for the end of the answer. Thank you, sit down. No point of order.

The SPEAKER: Minister, have you finished?

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