Wednesday, 12 August 2026

 Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:21): (2681) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for the Minister for Education, who of course was the former Premier but now is Ms Williams, to clearly outline the steps this government will take to address the declining literacy and numeracy skills in students and the worrying finding in the latest NAPLAN results that one in three children – or one in four in Victoria – cannot read. One-third of students are struggling to meet basic standards in English and maths, and the damage is even worse across regional, remote and disadvantaged backgrounds. In Victoria under Labor one in four kids are failing to meet NAPLAN proficiency benchmarks in reading, writing and maths.

The Carroll Labor government, we know, has not been able to resolve teacher situations. In fact under Mr Carroll we still have teachers giving up a day’s pay in protest and striking because schools have not been properly upgraded and given resources. This Carroll Labor government is busy racking up debt while students continue to fall behind. The latest NAPLAN results show that literacy skills are now lower than they were two years ago, and up to 40 per cent of Victorian students failed to meet basic proficiency targets in grammar and punctuation.

However, thanks to the coalition consistently campaigning to return to teaching phonics, Victorian students outperformed their peers in all other states in writing and numeracy. In fact they ranked first or second nationally in 16 out of 20 assessment measures. This positive result is thanks to the Liberals and Nationals’ efforts to reintroduce 25 minutes of phonics for prep to year 2 students, which creates early reading stability and a critical foundation for learning. Meanwhile, the Carroll Labor government is sitting on its hands, as universities are not teaching phonics to trainee teachers despite proven positive outcomes.

A Wilson Liberal government will focus on lifting academic standards, with a $200 million commitment to rewrite and declutter the Victorian school curriculum with a much stronger emphasis on core maths, science and literacy. Through our excellence in education plan we will provide rigorous academic training for students and expand professional learning for teachers to become experts in their field. The Liberals and Nationals will not accept failure. We will look at schools that are excelling and replicate their success. To create real and lasting improvements, parents must also be encouraged to spend more time with their children. They need to monitor what their kids are looking at, because unfiltered material can be distressing for their intellectual, emotional and spiritual development. The coalition government has a plan to back every Victorian to achieve their full potential at school, while providing more support for teachers and evidence-based learning in every classroom. Our Liberal and National literacy and numeracy guarantee includes an interim target of a 15 per cent increase in the number of kids deemed proficient in literacy and numeracy under NAPLAN, a goal that goes above and beyond existing targets.