Literacy and numeracy forum to help close the gap
Peter Garrett
posted Monday, 23 May 2011
Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett, today opened a forum of school leaders, Indigenous education workers, teachers and researchers involved in intensive literacy and numeracy projects aimed at closing the gap.
“These projects are helping to halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievement for Indigenous children by 2018,” Minister Garrett said.
“This forum provides a great opportunity for people working on the ground with Indigenous students to meet and share information that can help build on the progress made so far,” Mr Garrett said.
Since 2008 the Government’s commitment has invested $51.5 million in these projects. Over 20,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in over 670 schools across Australia will benefit from this assistance.
“We have recently committed $25.9 million to fund 17 new projects that are about to commence in schools,” Mr Garrett said.
The Connecting to Country project focuses on improving teacher quality and leadership. It will help teachers and principals to broaden their cultural knowledge and skills base to strengthen educational leadership and increase their confidence in teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
The Representations, Oral Language, and Engagement in Mathematics (RoleM) intensive numeracy project builds on proven strategies including cultural understanding by using culturally appropriate and inclusive maths learning resources. It is empowering parents to support successful transitions from home to school in the early years of schooling.
ACT government schools and the Gugan Gulwan Community Centre are working together to improve the literacy skills of at risk Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Years 6-9 in the Tuggeranong Schools network in Canberra.
“Targeted approaches such as these projects and the Smarter Schools National Partnerships are resulting in more Indigenous students receiving the best literacy and numeracy teaching available,” Mr Garrett said.
“Achieving the Closing the Gap targets will involve close collaboration between all Australian Government and non-government education providers as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”
For more information about Australian Government education policies, visit www.deewr.gov.au/schooling.
Tags: Education, Indigenous