The government would work with state and territory governments, and the non-government sector, to complete the national plan to improve reading levels in time for the 2014 school year.

Ms Gillard read Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip to 10 children sitting on the floor of The Lodge today.

The Making Up for Lost Time in Literacy (MultiLit) program developed by Macquarie University would also be used by some schools.

Warning Australia risks falling behind the world, Ms Gillard' funding offer to the states will be debated by premiers during April's Council of Australian Government meeting.

The national reading blitz and a request that some of the new money be spent on specialist literacy teachers would be one condition of the new funding.

But there are concerns the initial investment will be just $1 billion to lift falling standards at struggling schools - far less than the $6.5 billion proposed by the Gonski review of school funding.

Schools will be asked to identify at-risk students and implement an early intervention plan using expert teaching methods and involving parents wherever possible.

Teachers will also be asked to focus on ensuring:

EVERY school has a reading plan that could include phonemics, phonics, fluency and vocabulary knowledge;

STUDENT data is reviewed to diagnose why some students are struggling;

READING plans are tailored for children who need intensive support; and

PARENTS be encouraged to help by introducing a reading routine at home and volunteering in classrooms.

But there are concerns the initial investment will be just $1 billion to lift falling standards at struggling schools - far less than the $6.5 billion proposed by the Gonski review of school funding.

MOTR wrote on Feb 24^th, 2013 at 6:48am:



Agreed

The Labor Premiers presiding over the State's education responsibilities all this time should be shot!!

Maqqa wrote on Feb 24^th, 2013 at 4:54pm:


Both major parties are culpable. Pity Howard didn't have the same vision.

The state government seems oblivious to the impact on people's lives.

IF YOU were to choose just one weapon to fight entrenched disadvantage, the sort of grinding poverty and unemployment that passes from one generation to another, that weapon would be education. Study after study confirms that education opens doors - to jobs, higher incomes and even better health.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that the national year 12 completion rate is approaching 80 per cent, but that it falls to less than 60 per cent among the poorest parts of society. They also show that the unemployment rate for early school leavers is more than 9 per cent by the time they reach their early 20s, and that more than half of them will be neither studying nor working a year after dropping out. Meanwhile, 30 per cent of students whose parents didn't finish high school will drop out themselves. Among students whose parents did finish year 12, the figure is 10 per cent.

Which makes it all the more disturbing that the Baillieu government appears to be targeting those who most need a good education, but are also at the highest risk of not getting one. In its budget earlier this month, it cut $19 million from the school start bonus and the education maintenance allowance, programs designed to help poorer families with school-aged children. From next year, the bonus will be scrapped and the allowance, formerly paid to both parents and the school, will go to parents only. So where the family of a student entering year 7 in 2012 received $535 in hand, with another $235 going to the school, a similar family in 2013 will receive $300, with the school getting nothing.

This measure has been largely overlooked, overshadowed by the $300 million cut to TAFE funding that will see courses slashed and jobs lost across the sector. But as today's story in The Sunday Age shows, it will seriously affect those who can afford it least. Some high schools will lose up to $80,000 a year - money that would have been spent on uniforms, excursions and books. While there will be a new model for funding schools in poorer areas, Frank Sal, president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, estimates that 200 schools will benefit but that most of the state's remaining 1360 high schools will be worse off.

Mary Pendergast is the principal of Warrnambool Secondary College, where 30 per cent of students receive the education maintenance allowance. She expects the cuts to carve $45,000 out of her budget. ''Next year there will be a cohort of families in deep distress and financial stress,'' Ms Pendergast said, ''and the schools will be presented with a group of students who will be unable to present with the necessary equipment and uniforms to begin their education. It will be distressing for the families, and there is a complete lack of logic in this policy.''

This is not the first blow state schools and their students have absorbed from the Baillieu government. Last year it sliced $48 million from the Victorian Certificate of Advanced Learning, a vocational qualification aimed at retaining those unsuited to the VCE. Mr Sal has also accused the Coalition of withholding millions of dollars of federal money earmarked for schools via the National Partnerships program, despite independent schools receiving their full entitlement.

''I'm really concerned this government does not seem to recognise the impact of cutting funding to government schools,'' Mr Sal said. ''We can least afford to lose this money, but the government seems to consider it the most politically palatable option.''

Sadly, it would seem Mr Sal has a point. Taken in combination with the cuts to TAFE, the favoured destination of early school-leavers, Mr Baillieu's record starts to look shabby indeed. It is incomprehensible that a government would set out to spurn those who most need help, or to abandon its best weapon in the fight against poverty and disadvantage. But unless the Coalition reconsiders its priorities on education, that is exactly what it will be doing.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/editorial/baillieus-education-cuts-hurt-those-w...