Back-to-basics the key to boost literacy and

A new report showing eight million Australians don't have adequate literacy and numeracy skills for further training comes as no surprise given the decade of neglect under state Labor Governments, said Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education.

"The findings of the No More Excuses report released today suggest that students are leaving school without a strong understanding of basic literacy and numeracy," Mr Pyne said.

"State Labor Governments have held the reins of education, curricula and schooling for the last ten years in Australia, and this report is a terrible indictment on the Labor Party that often bills itself as the education party," he said.

By allowing state curricula to be hijacked by so-called experts pushing experimental learning techniques such as 'whole language learning', governments have left many young people with little grounding in spelling, grammar and punctuation.

This report shows that you cannot get by with a spell-checker, a wing and a prayer, especially if you wish to take on further training and advance in the workplace.

Australian schools need to re-embrace traditional back-to-basics teaching methods such as phonics, and the National Curriculum needs to be the vehicle to drive this change.

After four years of the Rudd/Gillard Government promising Australian parents nothing less than an education revolution, it is deeply disappointing that the national curriculum remains a flawed document a long way from full implementation.

April 4, 2011

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