Opposition accuses Education Minister Grace Grace of ‘running and hiding’ from NAPLAN results
The Opposition has launched a stinging attack on Queensland’s Education Minister after she visited a remote Cape York community on the day NAPLAN results dropped showing the state’s children had gone backward.
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EDUCATION Minister Grace Grace has been accused of “running and hiding” from Queensland’s NAPLAN results amid her visit to remote parts of Cape York today.
LNP education spokesman Jarrod Bleijie said it was a deliberate move by the Minister to leave Brisbane given she knew the results were being released.
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However Ms Grace defended her trip to Napranum insisting it was planned two months ago and that she was the ministerial champion for the region.
“It’s just rubbish,” she said.
“I was here 12 months ago, I’m the ministerial champion for … Aboriginal community of Napranum.
“It’s just cheap political point scoring.”
Mr Bleijie said Ms Grace was “running and hiding”.
“The Minister would have known when the results would have been released,” he said.
The LNP has seized on Queensland’s results today, which revealed the Sunshine State had gone backwards in more than half of all categories.
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Deputy Leader Tim Mander said despite record investment in education, more than half of the standards were worse than they were 12 months ago.
“We are below the national average in most of the results which again is a state embarrassment,” he said.
“These results are showing that the state education department’s focus is simply not being effective.”
However Ms Grace defended the results, telling The Courier-Mail Queensland had been the star performer.
However she conceded there was room for improvement, with everyone around the country concerned about the Year 9 results.
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It comes after more than 22 per cent of Queensland Year 9 students did not meet the national minimum standard for writing, while more than nine per cent didn’t for reading.
“The NAPLAN results overall, because of the glitches that happened last year, really have not changed except we’ve seen improvements right across in relation to writing,” she said.
“In spite of all that, Queensland’s improved in areas and we still remain the star performer when it comes to NAPLAN in Queensland and that’s (star reference) from the independent Grattan Institute.
“We should all be very proud.”
When asked why Queensland was behind other states, Ms Grace said we had been the star performer when it came to growth.
“Can we do better? Of course we can,” she said.
“Every state can do better.”
The Minister said she had confidence in teachers while insisting public schools in the middle of remote Queensland could not be compared to private schools in Brisbane central.
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