Some students `falling through cracks`

The federal government has vowed to lift education standards after national
benchmarking showed 10 per cent of school students were still falling through cracks
in the system.
One in 10 school children are failing to meet minimum standards for reading, writing
and numeracy, according to the 2009 National Assessment Program Literacy and
Numeracy (NAPLAN) report.
The report, released on Friday, shows test results for students in years three,
five, seven and nine.
Children in the Northern Territory are still far behind the rest of the nation.
NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson admitted work was needed to address the weak
outcomes but said it was unfair to compare all territory students with the rest of
the nation.
"To compare the performance of the territory as a whole, with 33 per cent of our
students indigenous and 80 per cent of those students in very remote schools, with
the performance of urban Sydney is somewhat anomalous," he told reporters.
"I'm very confident that when we look a the performance of our urban schools they
will compare favourably."
Across the nation, students from Victoria, NSW and the ACT were among the best
performers.
Nationally, 90 per cent of students achieved the national benchmark or above.
But although the overall picture was a bright one, there were some areas in which
students performed worse on average than last year.
Year five students nationally recorded a lower average score for writing than in 2008.
Average writing scores for year three students in NSW, South Australia and Tasmania
were also lower than last year.
Victorian students' writing performance declined in 2009 for every year level tested
except grade three.
In the NT, the number of students in years three and seven who met or exceeded the
minimum numeracy standard fell.
Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard told reporters the results showed there was
still more to do as part of the Rudd government's "education revolution".
"For those students and those schools and states that are doing well," we want to do
even better," she said.
"For those students, those schools and those parts of the country that are at risk
of falling behind we want to lift up standards."
Queensland students showed improvements in literacy and numeracy but were still
among the worst performers in Australia.
The state ranked sixth in Australia compared to seventh last year.
Last year's result prompted the Queensland government to bring in an expert to
review the state's efforts, which Education Minister Geoff Wilson said had paid
dividends.
"We are improving at a rate faster than Victoria and NSW so we're reducing the gap,"
Mr Wilson said.
"This is a great early effort, and I take my hat off to all the teachers involved."
Parents will receive a report on their children's individual performance starting
next week.
Individual schools' NAPLAN results will be available on a website before the end of
the year.
Teacher unions have threatened to boycott the administration of the test unless the
federal government prevents the information being used to create league tables.
"I am not about league tables, I've made that absolutely clear," Ms Gillard said.
Queensland Teachers Union president Steve Ryan said the tests were unreliable.
"We have a situation in Australia where we have a national test without a national
curriculum. So I can't see the value of it," he said.