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Bills Digest No. 170 2000-01
States Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Amendment Bill
2001
WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as introduced
and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest does not have
any official legal status. Other sources should be consulted to determine
the subsequent official status of the Bill.
CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Endnotes
Contact Officer & Copyright Details
States Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance)
Amendment Bill 2001
Date Introduced: 7 June
2001
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Education,
Training and Youth Affairs
Commencement:
Royal Assent
The Bill will amend the States
Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Act 2000 (the
current Act) to provide additional funding for literacy and numeracy programs
for the years 2001-02 and 2002-03.
In 1996 the new Government declared early its intention
that improving the literacy skills of young people would be a central
education policy objective. To achieve that objective Dr David Kemp MP,
then Minister for Schools, Vocational Education and Training, advocated
a national goal be set to ensure that every child leaving primary school
should be able to read, write and spell at an 'appropriate level'. He
also stated that:
In addressing the issue of literacy effectively we
are addressing a key source of a number of the difficulties and problems
faced by young people including the national priority issue of youth
unemployment. That is why the Government places so much importance
on literacy as the essential key we must give our students with which
to unlock their, and Australia's future.(1)
The endorsement of the National
Literacy and Numeracy Plan in March 1997 by Commonwealth, State and
Territory Education Ministers was an acknowledgment that in spite of considerable
debate at the time over alleged levels of literacy, literacy standards
needed to be improved.(2) This debate and subsequent policy
development at both the Commonwealth and State level, has been accompanied
by continuing evidence of the links between literacy skills, socioeconomic
disadvantage, and future life outcomes, notably the links between literacy
levels and employment outcomes.(3)
The National Literacy and Numeracy Plan includes:
- early assessment of all students to identify those at risk of not
achieving minimum required standards in literacy and numeracy
- early intervention to assist those students identified as at risk
- national reporting of student achievement against nationally agreed
benchmarks, and
- teacher professional development to support the implementation of
the National Literacy and Numeracy Plan.
An additional strategy, the National
Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, aims to improve
the educational outcomes for indigenous students.(4)
In April 2000 Commonwealth and State and Territory Education
Ministers approved literacy
and numeracy benchmarks for years 3, 5 and 7.(5) To facilitate
nationally comparable reporting of student achievement, a nationally agreed
procedure was developed to equate State and Territory tests. The
1999 Year 3 reading national benchmark results(6) are the
first results of that process. These results show that on average 86.9
per cent of Year 3 students achieved the reading benchmark, with girls
outperforming boys by 89.7 per cent to 84.9 per cent. The achievement
of indigenous students was significantly lower, with only 66.1 per cent
achieving the benchmark.
These results have been heralded as a significant improvement
on the results of the National School English Survey conducted in 1996.
However the degree of improvement since that survey is debatable, given
that two reports from that same survey produced significantly different
results, ranging from 4 per cent of Year 3 students achieving below an
estimated range of achievement for reading to 27 per cent not achieving
against the required standard.(7)
The Commonwealth delivers its literacy programs through
its targeted assistance programs for schools under the current Act.
Grants for literacy and numeracy programs are provided through the
Strategic Assistance for Improving Student Outcomes Programme and the
Grants for National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies and Projects Programme.
The former includes the provision of assistance to school education authorities
to improve the literacy and numeracy outcomes of educationally disadvantaged
students. The latter supports projects that identify, research and implement
strategic national initiatives and developments in literacy and numeracy.
Funding for the indigenous literacy strategy is provided under the Indigenous
Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 through the Indigenous Education
Strategic Initiatives Programme.
The Bill amends the current Act to provide additional
funding of $33.3 million for literacy and numeracy programs for the years
2001-02 to 2002-03. Most of this money ($23.9 million) will be directed
to education authorities to improve student outcomes. The remainder of
$9.4 million will be provided for strategic initiatives.
In effect there are two sets of alternate provisions
for the Bill. The base figures for Part 1 of Schedule 8
of the current Act vary depending on whether or not related provisions
in the proposed Innovation and Education Legislation Amendment Act 2001
have commenced at or before the commencement of section 1 of the proposed
States Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Amendment Act
2001 (the proposed Act).
If the proposed Innovation and Education Legislation
Amendment Act 2001 has not commenced at or before section 1 of the proposed
Act, the first alternative in Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Bill applies:
Item 1 substitutes an increased funding level
of $290 788 (from $289 488) for Strategic Assistance for
Improving Student Outcomes for the year 2002.
Item 2 substitutes an increased funding level
of $290 788 (from 267 845) for Strategic Assistance for
Improving Student Outcomes for the year 2003.
Item 3 substitutes an increased funding level
of $7,452 (from $1,198) for Grants for National Literacy and Numeracy
Strategies and Projects for the year 2002.
Item 4 substitutes an increased funding level
of $4,292 (from $1,171) for Grants for National Literacy and Numeracy
Strategies and Projects for the year 2003.
Items 5 and 6 repeal Items 3 and 4 of Schedule
2 of the proposed Innovation and Education Legislation Amendment Act
2001 if Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Bill applies.
If the proposed Innovation and Education Legislation
Amendment Act 2001 has commenced at or before section 1 of the proposed
Act, the second alternative in Part 2 of Schedule 1 of the
Bill will apply:
Item 7 substitutes $290 788 for $289 678
for Strategic Assistance for Improving Student Outcomes for the year
2002.
Item 8 substitutes $290 788 for the original
base figure of $268 035 for Strategic Assistance for Improving
Student Outcomes for the year 2003.
Items 9 and 10 are the same as items
3 and 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Bill.
- Hon Dr David Kemp MP, 'A national literacy goal', address to the Australian
College of Education Conference on General and Vocational Education,
Sydney, 21 June 1996.
- For further information about this debate and a history of Commonwealth
literacy policy development see Harrington, M. Literacy: A Chronology
of selected research and Commonwealth policy initiatives since 1975
(Chronology No. 2 1999-2000), Canberra, Department of the Parliamentary
Library, 1999, http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/chron/1999-2000/2000chr02.htm.
- See, for example, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Education and
training in Australia, Cat. No. 4224.0, ABS, Canberra, 1998.
- Launched in 2000, the Strategy is available at http://www.detya.gov.au/schools/Publications/2000/LNS.pdf.
- Further information about these benchmarks, published by the Curriculum
Corporation, is available at http://online.curriculum.edu.au/litbench/intro.asp.
- Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs,
National report on schooling in Australia 1999 preliminary paper:
1999 Year 3 reading national benchmark results, Melbourne, MCEETYA,
2000, http://www.curriculum.edu.au/mctyapdf/3648-report.pdf.
- See Management Committee for the National School English Literacy
Survey, Mapping literacy achievement: results of the 1996 National
School English Literacy Survey, DEETYA, Canberra, 1997 and Australian
Council for Educational Research, Literacy standards in Australia,
Canberra, 1997.
Marilyn Harrington
30 June 2001
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ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 2000
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