NAPLAN reveals Revolution faltering

Labor’s education revolution has faltered according to new national literacy and numeracy test results released today, said the Shadow Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne.

 “After four years of Labor shouting from the roof tops that they would revolutionise education, the NAPLAN results show the basic literacy and numeracy of the Australian school students tested has gone backwards in many areas,” Mr Pyne said.

 Almost half of the 20 categories of results reporting on students at or above the minimum benchmarks declined from 2008 to 2011. Most of the remaining categories either flat lined over that period with few examples of improvement:

• Year 3, decline in narrative and persuasive writing
• Year 5, decline in narrative and persuasive writing
• Year 5, decline in spelling
• Year 5, decline in grammar
• Year 7, decline in numeracy
• Year 9 decline in reading
• Year 9, decline in narrative and persuasive writing
• Year 9, decline in numeracy

“If the effectiveness of Julia Gillard’s education revolution is to be measured by how well young people are educated, then this result is hardly encouraging,” Mr Pyne said.  

“Schools Minister, Peter Garrett can wax lyrical about My School and Computers in Schools but he is not delivering on what matters - improving the ability of Australian school children to read and count,” he said.

September 9, 2011

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