Press Conference - James Cook University

E&OE TRANSCRIPT Press Conference - James Cook University 1 July 2014 SUBJECTS: Direct Instruction, literacy and numeracy CHRISTOPHER PYNE: ...Thank you very much for coming along this afternoon for this very important announcement about one of the government’s very high priorities, which is around literacy for young Australians. It’s great to be here at James Cook University, where the government has announced recently a $42 million investment in tropical health and medicine at a standalone institute at James Cook University, which will make an enormous difference to propelling James Cook into the forefront internationally of universities that specialise in research-intensive work around tropical health and medicine. But today, our announcement is not about tropical health and medicine. I’m here with Ewen Jones, the Member for Herbert, to announce that the government’s $22 million fund for Direct Instruction and literacy and numeracy, and Explicit Instruction will be awarded to Good to Great Schools Australia, which is by chaired Noel Pearson – and unfortunately, Noel couldn’t be here today but Julie Grantham is here, who is the CEO of Good to Great Schools Australia, and Cheryl Cannon, who was one of the very earliest pioneers of Direct Instruction Australia in the Cape York. Direct Instruction has had a big impact on Cape York communities. It’s been championed by Noel Pearson in that part of the world through the Cape York Aboriginal Australia Academy and the Australian Council for Educational Research and AITSL, chaired by John Hattie. Both have found that Direct Instruction is the most useful method of bringing children up from very low levels of literacy to above average and normal levels of literacy. For example, in remote Australia, Year 3s have a [pause]. One in five Year 3s are below average in terms of the national average in reading. The same figure for metropolitan Australia is one-twenty-fifth. So one-twenty-fifth of students in metropolitan Australia are below average in the national testing for reading; but in remote Australia, it’s one in five. Now, that is an unacceptable figure. So the government before the election had a policy that we would investigate what we thought was the best way to spend $22 million on lifting the capacity of young primary school kids in remote Australia to the national levels, and Direct Instruction and Explicit Instruction were clearly the most successful. This is a passion of mine. It’s a passion of mine because my father was the founder of SPELD in South Australia, along with others, in the early 1970s. And SPELD is the Specific Education and Learning Difficulties Association of South Australia, and now a national body. He wanted to work with children with dyslexia with learning difficulties and I want to, as the Education Minister, leave a mark around children with learning difficulties. And if you are below average and if you have very difficult literacy and numeracy skills at a young age, it will set you up for a lifetime of being behind in all aspects of employment, education and, therefore, life in general. So the government wanted to invest in literacy in remote areas to begin with, and then see that rolled out further over time. And we think that Good to Great Schools Australia is the right organisation to use that $22 million to – across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland in particular – lift the literacy capability of young Australians. Not just Indigenous Australians but, obviously, remote schools – the preponderance of students in those schools are Indigenous but both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. And I’m very pleased to be able to announce that today and I think Ewen would also like to say a few words about that. EWEN JONES: Thank you very much, Christopher. I think this is a fantastic program. When I had the chance to speak to the Cape York Land Council about what that they were doing, I was very interested and followed it up then. I’m the Chair of the House Committee on Education and Employment. We’re doing an inquiry on TAFE at present. One of the consistent things we get across the country is that when kids – young adults – are turning up at TAFE, basic and literacy and numeracy skills are not there in a large number of people. So I’m really pleased to see this being rolled out further than just the Cape York Land Council. I would like to see new Australians from immigrant backgrounds and humanitarian refugee backgrounds, non-English-speaking backgrounds, have access to this sort of thing. This is a truly great initiative by our government and it’s something that I think that the Minister is 100 per cent correct. We have to make sure that when you come to this – that, you know, Direct Instruction is about making sure that you’re across the detail and that you understand what’s going on before you move to the next thing. You don’t just get passed through. You must master it before you move on, and that’s what’s really impressive for me in this and I see great future for this, in our education system. Thank you. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well said, Ewen. Any questions? QUESTION: Minister, how many students or schools can you picture this being rolled out to? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, the schools haven’t yet been identified. There was an expression of interest round, and Good to Great Schools Australia was successful in that round. The $22 million will now be given to them to implement. They’ll have to work with the Western Australian, Queensland and Northern Territories governments. At the moment about 700 students in Cape York are the beneficiaries of Direct Instruction, but I anticipate that will become thousands of students across northern Australia and remote Australia in particular. QUESTION: Is that enough? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, it’s a start. Now, my view is that any child who has disadvantage in their reading should have access to Direct Instruction and Explicit Instruction. This is a phonics-based program, and I believe that children learn best when they learn phonics in terms of reading. They then move on to other more sophisticated things later in secondary school but if a child has a disadvantaged start, then the best thing we can do is give them the opportunity to read and to write and, of course, to be able to count and so on. So is it a start with $22 million. It will make a real impact and when I think parents see the benefits in those remote schools, they’ll want the same kinds of programs in their schools. The child-centred learning, which has become the dominant aspect of education in Australia – there is certainly a place for that. But if children are being moved from one year to the other and emerging from school without the basics in reading, then they’ll never really make a great start in education. So the features of Direct Instruction that are important are that it’s phonics-based, but also that children stay at the level they are at in terms of their ability. They’re not simply moved up because of their age. That means that if they’re failing, they don’t simply get put through from year to year in the vain hope that somehow they’ll catch up later. And I think that is one of the good aspects of Direct Instruction. One of the aspects of Explicit Instruction is that it’s more teacher-based, so it’s focussed more on the professional development of teachers to give them the skills they need to be able to use phonics and Direct Instruction in the classroom. Direct Instruction is even simpler though. Almost anyone, but certainly teachers can instruct in Direct Instruction and that’s very important, because if it’s in remote schools, of course, it’s harder and harder to get teachers from the city to necessarily want to work in remote schools and so you need strategies for those teachers who are in remote schools to make it as easy possible for them to impart knowledge to their students. QUESTION: Minister, are there any remote regions in the north Queensland area that you can identify that could benefit from this? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, a lot of north Queensland and far western Queensland is remote and they will benefit from it in terms of towns. Well, a lot of remote Australia, whether it’s north, west, Western Australia, most of the Northern Territory, northern Queensland will benefit from this program. But, as I say, the actual schools themselves haven’t yet been identified because the part of the contract that we’ll sign with Good to Great Schools Australia will be to ask them to identify the most disadvantaged schools. Now, they’ll be determined on the basis of their results on – the NAPLAN results – and the schools with the most disadvantage will be the ones that Good to Great Schools Australia will focus on and that means that some people might criticise them and say they haven’t had quick results. Let’s remember, they’ll be dealing with the toughest cases because they’re going to take the schools with the worst results. EWEN JONES: Can I also add to that. When it comes to Direct Instruction for kids – one of the things that the Cape York Land Council said to me is that you do end up with the…in remote communities, you do get a preponderance or a great majority of first year out teachers – or very early on in their career teachers. Direct Instruction gives them a real good classroom tool which lets them manage their classrooms better and that was one of the things that the Cape York Land Council found when they were rolling this out, that those new teachers, it gave them a better classroom structure and was able to let them work through the classroom even better. So it helps brand new teachers. It helps the student. It helps the community and it gets kids leaving school who can read and write. And I think that’s the key here, is that we’ve got too many kids leaving school at the moment at 12 and 13 because they’ve been lost in the system because they can’t read and write. And it’s happening right here in Townsville. You don’t have to go to western Queensland. It’s happening right here in Townsville. QUESTION: Minister, you have to negotiate with the states on this. Are you sure they’re all going to agree and take it up? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, one of the aspects of the expressions of interest was the capacity for the winner to work with the states and territories. Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory will all be represented on the advisory board, which I will appoint and announce quite soon. My understanding is that they’ve all expressed a willingness to work with this program because all the state ministers, like me, want better outcomes for our students. Can I just say also, this is within our four pillars of the school education policy of the government. So we’ve obviously been focussing since we were elected on teacher quality, on a robust curriculum, on parental engagement and on independent public schools. And the Direct Instruction program is part of the strengthening in the curriculum because we think phonics should be at the centre of the curriculum, certainly in primary school. Okay. Thank you very much. EWEN JONES: Thank you. [ends]