Andrew Bolt: Jason Clare reacted to the NAPLAN results by playing the race and class cards

Education minister Jason Clare needs to stop preaching class hatreds and racial grievances when reacting to the dismal NAPLAN results, writes Andrew Bolt.

How tragic that a man as ignorant as Jason Clare is our federal Education Minister, when we face an education crisis.

This week’s national NAPLAN results confirm it: one in three school students doesn’t meet literacy and numeracy benchmarks. More than one in 10 needs “additional support” to catch up.

The worst results are among Aboriginal children. In remote schools, where Aboriginal culture is strongest, 60 per cent of students don’t meet benchmarks.

But here comes Jason Clare. On the same day that he falsely accused Israel of starving Palestinian children to death, he reacted to the dismal NAPLAN results by playing the race card – oh, and class card.

Minister for Education, Jason Clare. Picture: Martin Ollman

“Your chances in life shouldn’t depend on your parents’ pay packet or the colour of your skin, but these results again show that’s still the case,” he said.

But what’s he’s actually saying here? Is he implying Australia is so racist that it’s holding back Aboriginal children because of their skin colour?

Or is he saying there’s a link – genetic? – between skin colour and school results?

Well, that last one is clearly racist. I have Aboriginal friends who are whip smart. Indeed, I’m tipping Senator Jacinta Nampijimpa Price could become Prime Minister, with her brains and guts.

So that leaves his first option: our racist society makes children with a darker skin fail.

But NAPLAN suggests a different story: children of migrant ­parents who speak a foreign ­language are twice as likely to excel in year 9 maths, and even do better than other students at English. Given that our biggest immigrant intakes now are of Indian and Chinese people, skin colour certainly isn’t linked to failure.

Senator Jacinta Nampijimpa Price. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

So I suggest to Clare that it’s culture, not skin colour, that matters most: the culture of your family, town, tribe, faith or ethnic group. Or a mixture of them.

If you don’t grow up valuing hard work, education, individualism and Western culture, you’re less likely to reach Western standards at school or most other places.

That’s why Clare’s other response to these results – that “your chances in life shouldn’t depend on your pay packet” – is also false, preaching hopelessness to the poor.

I came from a migrant family that wasn’t well off, but prized books and education, and all their children did well.

If many successful students are from rich families, it’s not because money made them smarter. It’s the other way around: it’s because parents who themselves think books, education and hard work are important are – big surprise – likely to get richer.

So a word to Clare. Stop preaching class hatreds and racial grievances. Tell kids the real secrets to success. It lies within them all.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Jason Clare reacted to the NAPLAN results by playing the race and class cards