Thursday, 20 June 2024

Ministers statements: literacy education

Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Minister for Education, Minister for Medical Research) (14:18): Getting the teaching of reading right matters. Reading is the foundation of a child’s education. If you do not learn to read, you cannot read to learn. We know that our NAPLAN results are excellent – top of the class – but we have always got more work to do. It is why from 2025 all schools will be putting, from prep to year 2, structured literacy in the classroom. It is why we are embedding explicit teaching in the classroom. It is why Victoria leads the nation and remains the Education State. Phonics is about teaching kids the sounds of the alphabet and how to blend those sounds into words. It is about extracting meaning from the text. I will give an example: nu-cle-ar. On our side: re-new-a-bles.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Premier will not incite members.

Ben CARROLL: What do the experts have to say about this? La Trobe University says it applauds the Victorian government announcement that it will embed evidence-based best practice in every classroom. Jordana Hunter from the Grattan Institute said it is a huge step forward. The federal education minister said:

We have the evidence of what works … I am so glad to see Victoria rolling this out.

Karen Dimmock, CEO of the Association for Children with a Disability, said:

This is a great announcement for all Victoria children and students with learning disabilities …

I do not want those opposite to miss out, though. David Cameron in For the Record – I have done a bit of night-time reading – says on page 392:

Studies show that children learning by the phonics method are two years ahead of their peers.

They are driven by ideology; we are driven by the evidence. We are the Education State under the Allan Labor government.