Update: Added comments from Chief Minister Andrew Barr and AEU ACT branch president Angela Burroughs.

The Canberra Liberals have announced their education policy for the election: “a clear plan to improve literacy and numeracy, better support our hardworking teachers and ensure all students have access to well maintained and safe learning environments”, party leader and shadow education minister Elizabeth Lee said.

The Australian Education Union (AEU) ACT branch welcomed the Canberra Liberals’ policies.

“The education plan announced by Elizabeth Lee today shows she has listened to Canberra’s public school teachers,” branch president Angela Burroughs said.

Literacy

Improving literacy and numeracy are foremost. The Canberra Liberals would commit $98 million to introduce Year 1 phonics checks, supply decodable books, small group intervention and support for students, and regularly monitor progress across all years. The program would start immediately.

Ms Lee alleges that education minister Yvette Berry “let down an entire generation of students” by dismissing expert evidence that explicit instruction (phonics) was the best approach.

According to last year’s NAPLAN results, a third of Year 9 students did not meet benchmarks for reading; a quarter of students could not spell; and one-tenth was unable to read or write. This year’s NAPLAN findings showed that more than 28 per cent of Year 9 students struggled with reading. However, the ACT consistently topped the country in reading, and recorded the highest results for spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy for some years. Ms Berry has observed that the ACT was the highest performing Australian jurisdiction in reading literacy, as measured through international assessments PISA and PIRLS.

Ms Lee said the government’s funding for the Strong Foundations literacy and numeracy program, announced in June, was “woefully inadequate”: the $24.9 million they allocated only included $1.7 million in new funding, which “goes nowhere near being able to fully implement the recommendations”.

The AEU ACT welcomed the Canberra Liberals’ commitment to fully fund the literacy and numeracy reform package, Ms Burroughs said.

Independent candidates said that literacy and numeracy standards must be improved, and that a crossbench would ensure they were.

Peter Strong AM (Strong Independents) agreed that government funding for literacy was “insufficient”. His fellow candidate Ann Bray AM said: “We want to see the literacy reforms fully funded, so that teachers can get the training they need to implement the reforms, students can get the decodable books necessary to fast track the teaching of phonics, and the phonics assessment that is to be done in year 1 of school can be immediately implemented.”

The Belco Party welcomed the Canberra Liberals Education policy and endorsed prioritising literacy and numeracy and creating an evidence-based plan to tackle the “appallingly low” standards of literacy and numeracy, co-convenor Bill Stefaniak, former ACT Education and Training Minister, said.

“Despite the millions of dollars thrown into our education system. we have gone from fourth or fifth best in the world in 2000 to behind Kazakhstan in some areas. Maybe the ACT government should have given Borat a consultancy to help us out!

“NSW has gone back to basics (e.g. phonics), and full marks to Premier Minns for that and also to the Catholic Education Office for doing the same. The improved results were nearly immediately apparent for all to see.

“The Belco party agrees with the Liberals that teachers need more time to teach, and that the crowded curriculum should be slashed to allow this to occur. The Belco Party is keen to lessen the time teachers spend on administration and teaching the latest ‘fad’ that has little to do with imparting the knowledge our kids need to get on in life.

“The three Rs are of paramount importance, and it is a disgrace that a third of all Year 9 students still have trouble reading, and lack basic numeracy skills.

“It’s not the money that’s the problem, it’s what and how they are being taught, or more specifically not taught.

“As the ACT Education and Training Minister from March 1995 to November 2001, I grieve at the decline in educational standards this government has presided over.”

Thomas Emerson (Independents for Canberra) said that a crossbench of independents would ensure the government implements, in full, all the recommendations of the Inquiry into literacy and numeracy in ACT public schools within the next four years. “And what about catching up the kids who have fallen behind? We need proactive leadership from the ACT Government with a commitment to deliver a concurrent program supporting the children who fell behind prior to this inquiry being undertaken.”

Mr Strong agreed. “We need a Strong cross bench to ensure that the ALP and the Libs, whoever it is, honour their election promises. If the Libs get power, we need to ensure that their right wing do not undermine their leader, take control, and change their policies.”

School facilities

The Canberra Liberals would boost the asset renewal program by $25 million to improve heating, cooling, and toilet facilities in public schools – “a down payment to ensure that those basics are brought up to scratch”, Ms Lee said.

The Liberals’ 2021 report, Bringing out the best in every child: An Education strategy for the ACT, argued that school infrastructure was ageing and under-funded; some schools are in “a dangerous state of disrepair”.

The Liberals would also complete Property Quality Standards and conduct a stocktake of all ACT government schools.

“There has been a lack of a systemic approach when it comes to maintenance and infrastructure,” Ms Lee said. “This audit will identify gaps, future needs and funding requirements. It will ensure that a detailed schedule for retiring and replacing ageing infrastructure assets is maintained, and will facilitate the development of a rolling program of building maintenance.”

Public school teachers welcomed the commitment to immediate infrastructure upgrades, so that every school has adequate heating, cooling and toilet facilities, Ms Burroughs said. “The commitment to ongoing maintenance and infrastructure improvements to ensure that every school has high quality facilities is also something that the AEU ACT branch has argued for in our submissions and presentations to budget estimates.”

However, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said that the ACT Government had already budgeted more than $600 million for public education system investments, and deemed the Liberals’ additional $25 million insufficient to achieve the desired outcomes.

“I don’t think [it] will achieve what they are stating,” Mr Barr said.

The ACT, he noted, was one of the few jurisdictions in the country to fund at the Gonski school resource standard, and was in discussions with the Commonwealth to secure more funding for public schools.

Vouchers for teachers

Teachers would receive $200 vouchers for teachers to purchase supplies for their classrooms. In 2021, the Canberra Liberals called for a Fair Work Ombudsman review of ACT teacher pay and conditions, particularly in light of possible ‘wage theft’; an Australian Education Union ACT survey found that teachers spent $5 million of their own money on classroom materials and resources.

“We have heard from many teachers that a lot of the time, they are putting their hand into their own pocket to purchase school supplies,” Ms Lee said. “Teachers know best what they need in their classroom.”

The Canberra Liberals would also reduce the administrative burden on teachers. For three years, the Canberra Liberals have argued that teachers and principals spend more time than educating, a problem flagged by a 2021 AEU ACT report.

Ms Burroughs said the union welcomed the Liberals’ commitment to reduce educators’ workload by lowering unnecessary administrative burden so that teachers can teach and school leaders can lead. We know that our members will welcome Elizabeth Lee’s commitment to ensuring that ACT teachers remain the highest-paid teachers in the country.”

More schools

The Liberals would conduct feasibility studies for vertical schools in the inner north, one of the fastest-growing regions, to address capacity at crowded schools like Lyneham. Perhaps on the ame site as Dickson College.

Class discipline

An opt-in behavioural curriculum would address classroom disruptions and violence. The support program has been rolled out in two ACT schools already, and is receiving good feedback, Ms Lee said.

The ACT has the highest rates of violence against principals (according to an Australian Catholic University survey last year) and much violence towards teachers. In 2021, the ACT Education Directorate reported more than 800 incidents each month in which teachers were victims of occupational violence, while n 2022, students at Calwell High School assaulted the principal and other teachers. In response, the government set up a taskforce to review safety in public schools.

But Ms Lee alleges that the government has largely ignored concerns from principals, teachers, and the Australian Education Union.

Bill Stefaniak (Belco Party) said he was “appalled at how badly discipline in the classroom has deteriorated. I’m pleased to see the Liberals take this seriously, but the Belco Party will, if we get seats and there is a change of government, make it our first priority in education to fully examine whatever steps are needed to address this problem.

“We suggest a forum or series of forums like I convened in 1995 to thrash out with all stakeholders the best way to ensure that Physical education and health were put back into all our government schools from years K to 10. The result was a very effective PE and Health program which everyone had ownership of (including my assembly colleagues Roberta MacRae (Labor shadow) and Kerrie Tucker (Greens), who participated in the various round tables we had to thrash out a plan. “It is just not on that teachers should have to go to their workplace – i.e., their school – knowing that they may be bashed by some unruly disturbed student. This must change.”

Education union:

“We know that our members will welcome Elizabeth Lee’s commitment to ensuring that ACT teachers remain the highest-paid teachers in the country.”

ACT Government failing on education, parties say

Ms Lee said Canberra should have the best education system in the country with excellent teachers, well-funded schools, committed parents and an educated population, but the Labor-Greens government has let the community down.

“The problem is not a lack of funding, with only Northern Territory spending more per student than the ACT; it is a Labor-Greens government that is tired, out of touch, and not meeting the needs and expectations of our students and hard-working teachers,” Ms Lee said.

Thomas Emerson (Independents for Canberra) said: “It’s time to start living up to the promise of public education. Teachers and parents are telling us our public schools do not have sufficient resources to ensure each child in our community gets a good education. We’re hearing about a lack of coordinated curriculum support on the part of the government, forcing educators to spend too long on tasks outside of actually teaching. Ageing schools aren’t getting the infrastructure maintenance and upgrades they need, and parents don’t feel their kids are encountering an environment that supports them to thrive.

“We’re seeing a slow exodus from the public system into the private system. The consequence is a divide based on wealth. At Year 9, advantaged kids are roughly four years ahead of their disadvantaged classmates. Is this really the society we want for ourselves?

“Canberra should be the best place to grow up in Australia. For kids facing disadvantage, that’s not the case currently. Something needs to change.”