New Victorian Government Plan for Schools

The Association of Independent Schools of victoria, media release, 8 April 2008

The Victorian Minister for Education, Ms Bronwyn Pike, and the Minister for Early Childhood Development, Ms Maxine Morand, have released three discussion papers on the Victorian Government’s proposed Blueprint for Early Childhood Development and Schools Reform.

The Blueprint outlines the planned direction for education in Victoria over the next five years in both government and
non-government schools. It notes that the Victorian Government needs to collaborate with non-government schools to assure the quality of education delivered in all schools.

According to the Blueprint, ‘many non-government schools are rightfully proud of their success; however, as in the government school system, some could be better supported to improve student outcomes’.

The Blueprint says that such collaboration would ‘extend both opportunity and responsibility…and may include more support through greater access to government resources, better information to parents on student progress and outcomes, and stronger accountability for outcomes’.

Chief Executive of The Association of Independent Schools of Victoria (AISV), Ms Michelle Green, says independent schools report management details to federal and state governments, and provide parents with a great deal of informa-tion to enable them to assess the progress of their children.

AISV has developed research tools to help schools measure, monitor and compare stakeholder perceptions and to benchmark the school’s performance. Ms Green says AISV Member Schools provide as much information to their communities and government as do government schools.

‘Our members report very well to governments and to their communities and there would have to be very good reasons to change the way they report,’ Ms Green said.

The overview discussion paper to the Blueprint has identified a series of stated improvement targets and progress measures against which to measure the reforms outlined. These include:

• a minimum of 95 per cent of four-year-olds in each local government area attending four-year-old kindergarten
• an increase in the proportion of children entering school with the basic skills for life and learning
• a reduction in the proportion of children entering school with emotional and behavioural problems
• a reduction by 10 per cent of the number of children who fail to meet expected learning standards in Year 3
• an increase by 5 per cent of the number of students performing well above expected levels of literacy and numeracy
• a 15 per cent reduction of the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students in reading, writing and numeracy
• an increase in community confidence in public schooling
• an increase in the proportion of government schools that meet standards of curriculum provision
• an increase in the proportion of government school principals who are accredited as high-performing
• an increase in the Year 12 or equivalent completion rates
• an increase in the proportion of early childhood education and care workforce with recognised qualifications.

The discussion papers on the Victorian Government’s proposed Blueprint for Early Childhood Development and Schools Reform can be downloaded here.

 

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