Member for Mulgrave Curtis Pitt says outstanding NAPLAN results for Far North Queensland schools reflect the hard work and dedication of students, parents, teachers and staff, and others in school communities across the region.
“It is a great achievement for FNQ schools to be improving in their NAPLAN results faster than others in the state,” Mr Pitt said.
“It is also a great outcome for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in our region to be showing improvements at a rate higher than national minimum standards.”
Mr Pitt said the outcomes were the result of the hard work and dedication of school communities as well as the investment in educational reforms started by the former government.
“It would be wrong for the current LNP government to ignore the reforms put in place by the previous Labor governments and to claim all credit for itself,” he said.
“That would be ignoring past reforms such as the investments by former governments in early childhood education; widening access to kindergarten; and the start of Prep Year in 2007.
“I would be very disappointed if the current state government did not give due recognition to those reforms.”
Mr Pitt said there were no guarantees the state LNP government’s policies would build on past reforms.
“The secret Costello Audit report is likely to push for more privatisation and outsourcing of services in Queensland public schools,” he said.
“We already know that the summary of the final secret report suggest current limits on class sizes are likely to be ‘up for grabs’ under the Costello model for service delivery.
“Without see the full secret Costello Audit report we really don’t know what other impacts the LNP’s plans will have on our schools and the academic performance of students.”
Mr Pitt said the Newman Government also needed to take a more positive stand on the Gonski reforms proposed by the federal government.
“I was very pleased to attend a staff morning tea at Isabella State School today to discuss Gonski reforms,” he said.
“Those reforms hold tremendous promise for our school system and deserve to be discussed in a sensible manner.
“The LNP government is taking the opportunity in a federal election year to mount one of its classic obstructionist, Canberra-bashing campaigns on Gonski.
“Current and future students across Queensland deserve a whole lot better,” he said.
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