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CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Concluding Comments
Endnotes
Contact Officer & Copyright Details
States Grants (Primary and Secondary
Education Assistance) Amendment Bill 1999
Date Introduced: 30 June 1999
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Education, Training and Youth Affairs
Commencement: On Royal Assent
This Bill amends
the States Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance)
Act 1996 and gives effect to initiatives announced in the
context of the 1999-2000 Budget.
Its provisions include:
-
- $36.3 million in the year 2000 for increased funding under the
Literacy and Numeracy Programme to improve literacy and numeracy
outcomes for students in the early and middle years of
schooling
-
- $26.4 million to extend funding for the National Asian
Languages and Studies in Australian Schools (NALSAS) strategy for
the year 2000
-
- the continuation of previous capital funding arrangements for
non-government schools, and
-
- contingency funding for struggling non-government schools in
the transition to the new system of funding for non-government
schools.
The additional funding for literacy programs in
this Bill reflects the continuation of the Government's concern
with the literacy and numeracy achievements of Australia's school
students.
In March 1997 Commonwealth, State and Territory
Education Ministers agreed to a national literacy goal:
That every child leaving primary school should
be numerate, and be able to read, write and spell at an appropriate
level.(1)
and agreed to the adoption of a national
literacy plan.
There are two strands to Commonwealth funding
for literacy programs which give effect to the plan:
-
- Grants to schools to foster literacy and numeracy development,
targeting educationally disadvantaged students, and
-
- Grants for national literacy and numeracy strategies and
projects.
The proposed legislation will increase funding
generally for the National Literacy and Numeracy Plan, and
specifically support new initiatives targeting students in the
middle years of schooling, ie. students in upper primary and
secondary school through to Year 10.
The additional capital grants funding for
non-government schools is a continuation of the Government's
commitment to maintain funding at current real values. The previous
Labor Government had provided additional capital assistance for the
years 1993 to 1996. When the Coalition came to office it gave
effect to its election commitment to continue to provide additional
funding each year of its first term of government to maintain
capital grants in current real terms. This latest allocation is a
continuation of that commitment.
The additional funding for short term emergency
assistance for non-government schools is a contingency fund
intended to assist those schools which will receive increased
funding under the new funding system announced in the 1999-2000
Budget(2), but which may have difficulty surviving until the
restructure takes effect.
For information about the NALSAS Strategy, the
reader is referred to Bills Digest, no. 20, 1998-99.
Schedule 1 amends the amounts payable under
various Schedules of the States Grants (Primary and Secondary
Education Assistance) Act 1996 and makes provision for the
technical amendment of headings in that Act to reflect the change
in the name of the Literacy Programme to the Literacy and Numeracy
Programme.
Items 1, 7 and 8 provide for
technical amendments to reflect the changed name of the Literacy
and Numeracy Programme.
Items 2 to 5 increase capital
grants for non-government schools for the program years 2000 to
2003 from $74.537 million to $84.670 million each year.
Item 6 increases the amount of
short term emergency assistance for non-government schools from
$614,000 to $2.501 million for the program year 2000.
Items 9 to 11 provide for
increases in grants under the Literacy and Numeracy Programme for
the program year 2000. Grants to foster literacy and numeracy in
government schools are proposed to change from $111.749 million to
$135.028 million and, for non-government schools, from $43.270
million to $48.669 million. Grants for national projects to foster
literacy and numeracy are to be extended into the program year 2000
with $7.629 million allocated.
Item 12 extends funding for the
NALSAS strategy for the program year 2000 by increasing funding
under the Languages program from $17.308 million to $43.750
million.
In recent years the middle years of schooling
have become a focus of pedagogical concern. The middle years of
schooling have been defined as 'a phase of schooling that bridges
the conventional primary/secondary divide with a view to responding
more effectively to the specific developmental needs of young
adolescents'.(3) It is recognised that students make the least
amount of progress in learning in years five to nine and the gap
between high and low achievers increases markedly. The middle years
of schooling coincide with a period of rapid physical, emotional
and intellectual development for adolescents who, at the same time,
are confronting various societal pressures and influences. As
reported in the final report of the Commonwealth's National Middle
Schooling Project,(4) school systems are acknowledging the
particular needs of this age group by developing alternative
approaches to curriculum delivery and pedagogy. The report also
articulated a set of specific needs and principles of middle
schooling.
To date Commonwealth literacy programs have
focused on the early years of schooling and, through the Full
Service Schools program, those students in their final years of
schooling who are at risk of not completing school or who have
returned to school as a result of the requirements of the mutual
obligation provisions of the youth allowance. The new literacy
funding which targets those students between these two groups is a
continuation and completion of the policy focus on literacy and is
an acknowledgment of the current pedagogical concern with the
middle years of schooling.
Literacy standards are of paramount importance
to the current education policy agenda. There is widespread
acceptance of the need to improve literacy levels and recognition
that literacy outcomes are critical to future success, as
substantiated by a number of reports in recent years.(5) However,
there has been less consensus with regard to the motives and
methods of the Government's policy reforms.
Most recently, the debate has become focused on
the development of national benchmarks and the testing of student
outcomes against those benchmarks. Earlier this year Dr Kemp,
Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs, stated:
National comparable reporting is vital in
improving the effectiveness of all Australian schools. Better
reporting and better accountability are crucial in providing
parents and the community with the information they need to make
informed choices about schooling.(6)
At the same time he also referred to a
government commissioned report, yet to be released, which expressed
parents' desire for standardised reporting that would facilitate
their evaluation of both their children's and a school's
performance and that would enable them to make informed choices
about their children's schooling.
Some educationalists question the feasibility of
standardised testing against national benchmarks and what it will
achieve.(7) Apprehension has also been expressed about how the test
results will be used and fears have been provoked that the
Government is planning to withdraw funds from poorly performing
schools, with reports that this idea has been canvassed in a
discussion paper commissioned by Dr Kemp.(8) It is arguable that
this idea is reminiscent of policies currently in place in the
United Kingdom where legislation provides for the closure of
failing schools and their subsequent reopening with new heads and
teaching staff.
-
- Dept of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs,
Literacy for all: the challenge for Australian schools:
Commonwealth literacy policies for Australian schools,
Canberra, 1998.
- Hon Dr David Kemp MP, Choice and equity: funding
arrangements for non-government schools 2001-2004, 11 May
1999.
- Jim Cumming, ed., Extending reform in the middle years of
schooling: challenges and responses, Australian Curriculum
Studies Association, Deakin West, ACT, 1998, p. 5.
- Robyn Barratt, Shaping middle schooling in Australia: a
report of the National Middle Schooling Project, Australian
Curriculum Studies Association, Deakin West, ACT, 1998.
- For example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics report,
Education and training in Australia 1998, released earlier
this year, confirmed that both labour force participation rates and
unemployment rates were strongly linked to literacy skill levels.
- Hon Dr David Kemp MP, 'Outcomes reporting and accountable
schooling', speech to the Curriculum Corporation's Sixth National
Conference, May 1999.
- Brian Cambourne, 'Politicians can take up toxic tool to beat
teachers', The Australian, 20 July 1999, p. 6.
- Catherine Armitage, 'Question marks plague Kemp scheme',
The Australian, 19 July 1999. p. 4.
Marilyn Harrington
2 August 1999
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ISSN 1328-8091
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