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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-08-25 Daily Xml
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National Literacy and Numeracy Tests

Mrs POWER (Elder) (14:11): My question is for the Minister for Education. Can the minister update the house on the 2021 NAPLAN test results?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:11): I thank the member for Elder for this question; it's a very important question. I take the opportunity to indeed congratulate, commend and thank the entire education workforce across South Australia for what is indeed their life's work, their calling and their passion. I also commend, thank and congratulate South Australia's students on the work they have done in what has been, as has been shared with the education workforce and indeed the whole of our community, a really difficult year and half.

We are very pleased to see that 2021 NAPLAN results released this morning showed some very good news, some very good indicators of how the South Australian education system is travelling. We know that in 2018, when our government came to office, things weren't quite where we wanted them to be. There were a lot of people working very hard, committing their lives and their passion to supporting our children and young people, yet for a number of years our results, as identified in the national standardised test for the NAPLAN for literacy and numeracy, weren't at the level we wanted.

Indeed, they are still not, but the trajectory over the last three years is commendable, it's outstanding and indeed it's significant. It is the most dramatic improvement in NAPLAN results of any state in Australia. Our year 3 students have more than doubled the national growth figure by the mean scores across Australia. Our year 9 students are the only students who have better NAPLAN results this year than they did in 2018, again significantly better than the national average and again showing steps forward. Our years 5 and 7 results were second and third by the same measure. We have achieved in years 3 and 5 spelling and reading the best results in the history of NAPLAN and indeed in year 5 numeracy.

We always want to be better. Our children deserve nothing less than the best. Every day, our goal, our ambition, in education in South Australia, no matter what town or suburb our children are in or whatever classroom or whatever school or preschool they are in, is to be the best we can. So we are not satisfied with the improvement that we have achieved. We want that improvement to solidify, continue and accelerate in the years ahead.

But it is an extraordinary achievement to take the figures. When I became the shadow education minister, we were fifth or sixth out of six states in a vast majority of domains. We were last in 10 out of 20 domains. We are now third or fourth out of all the states in a majority of domains. We haven't had anything like that since Jane Lomax-Smith was the education minister. I was very pleased to note Jane Lomax-Smith's favourable response to today's NAPLAN results this morning on social media, and I thank her for her encouragement.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Just a moment, minister. I cannot hear, because of the constant interjections, what the minister is saying. The member for Wright is called to order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I hear the interjection, sir. It takes a special kind of cynical hypocrisy to have seen as Chief of Staff or as minister over a period of years in the last Labor government a deterioration in results from when Jane Lomax-Smith was minister to the awful situation we had later and then to see that turn around to the very favourable results we have now by comparison, and to criticise that, to look for any possible minor statistical opportunity to undermine the work done by teachers and educators and schools across South Australia.

The literacy guarantee work, the phonics check, the literacy coaches—the evidence-based school improvement measures taken by our department over the last three years are paying dividends. The hard work of educators, families and, most importantly, South Australian students is paying off. They should be proud and I encourage all members of parliament to write to their local schools, every one of them, and congratulate them on their efforts and their hard work.

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