Doorstop Interview - Parliament House

SUBJECTS: NAPLAN Results

 E&OE…

 Journalist: So, what do you make of the final NAPLAN results?  Is it worrying? 

 Christopher Pyne: Well, it is worrying because it shows the Government has presided over education stagnation rather than an education revolution.  And it’s worrying because it shows the results haven’t changed between 2008 and 2011; the period of this Government.  And yet during that time they’ve spent billions and billions of dollars on give-away lap tops and school halls while they’ve abolished literacy programs and maths and science programs so the Government has got its priorities all wrong.  The priorities should be maths, science and literacy and numeracy.  It shouldn’t be giveaway programs like the laptop program which has blown out by double or the school halls program where we know billions of dollars was funnelled to developers pockets rather than where it needed to be. 

 Journalist: There are still some areas; obviously more than 90 per cent of students reached minimum standards.  Do you see any good in these recent results? 

 Pyne: Well, you’d hope that the Australian student cohort would – nine out of 10 would reach minimum standards.  I have three children of school age myself and I think the minimum standards are that, just the minimum.  They all do the NAPLAN and I think the Government can’t really crow about these results.  Far from it.  What it’s shown is that over the last four years the Government has presided over no net improvement in Education results while they’ve spent close to 20 billion dollars on giveaways and school halls while they’ve cancelled good programs like maths and science programs and literacy and numeracy programs. 

 Journalist: What do you make of the state results?  If you could just give me a general comment of the state by state results. 

Pyne: The South Australian results are particularly concerning given that South Australia has gotten backwards in fourteen categories and what it shows is that Jay Weatherill the state Premier who was the Education Minister for most of that time I think for all of that time rather than trying to address the reforms and needs of the education in South Australia sat on his laurels and did nothing. He took a weak approach (which) allowed the Education Department to run the agenda while other states notably Victoria and Western Australia have been powering on with reforms introducing principal autonomy and new benchmarks for teachers.  Jay Weatherill presided over stagnation and allowed South Australia’s school cohort to be let down and go backwards. 

 Journalist: Other states generally?

 Pyne: Other states are doing better than South Australia.  I think that is the message out of these results.   Jay Weatherill far from being a successful Education Minister was in fact one of the states greatest failures as an Education Minister.

 Journalist: So should the heads roll based on these results?

 Pyne: Well I’m surprised Peter Garrett is trumpeting these results.  I think what it proves is that Peter Garrett simply isn’t up to the job of being Education Minister which Julia Gillard confirmed by appointing Brendan O’Connor as a junior junior Education Minister to Peter Garrett. Peter Garrett should be addressing the issues of literacy and numeracy, maths and science.  He should be recognising that there should be savings made in education where those savings should be channelled back in programs that parents and teachers wanted in literacy and numeracy, and maths and science.

 Journalist:  What would change under a liberal government?

 Pyne: We would dramatically alter the way education is run in Australia today.  We would introduce real principal autonomy that was comprehensive that gave principals the opportunity to hire the staff they wanted and to get the best out of them and we would reintroduce things like the education vouchers that focus on literacy and numeracy rather than school halls and laptop give-a-ways which has been this government’s hallmark.

ENDS