Tasmanian parents will soon receive a report card on their child’s performance in this year’s NAPLAN literacy and numeracy testing.

As we saw last week, Tasmanian students in general continue to under-perform relative to other states, and below the national average. Some parents will receive report cards on their child’s literacy and numeracy test results that show their child fails to meet the national average, remembering that these are minimal standards.

This will no doubt be cause for concern for these parents and it is important the Government outlines what steps it is going to take, and guarantees to these parents that a targeted individual plan will be used, and regular reports on progress provided.

The Government should at least offer more one-on-one and small group support for those children who are not performing at the national average. We should be asking why children are not achieving these basic skills of learning, informed by diagnostic work by school psychologist, speech pathologist, or other specialist services.

Through the past two NAPLAN reports we have seen that Tasmanian students are continuing to fall short of their potential and rather than waiting for next year’s tests to confirm the trend again, the Government should be in there fixing the problem now.

Regular reports should be available for parents with advice on the programs that are being used, support programs that parents can help with, and updates as to progress. No child should be leaving primary school, or indeed high school without these basic skills.

What these results show is that the Government’s ‘big bang’ approach to education reform for post-Year 10 students clearly missed the mark on tackling some of the basic reasons students are not continuing on with education. Too many students in upper primary and high school are being left behind.

Far from being clever, kind or connected, the hallmark of the Bartlett Government may well be plummeting retention rates and falling education standards if immediate action isn’t taken.
Sue Napier MP Shadow Minister for Education