Literacy, maths basics locked in to 'pass' school

WA students will be the first in the nation to have to meet minimum numeracy and literacy requirements before they can graduate from high school.

WEST Australian students will be the first in the nation to have to meet minimum numeracy and literacy requirements before they can graduate from high school, a move driven by concerns from tertiary institutions, training providers and employers that current standards were not good enough.

Education Minister Peter Collier yesterday announced an online minimum numeracy and literacy assessment, separate to the federal government's NAPLAN tests, would be introduced for Year 10 from next year. Those students who did not pass the assessment in Year 10 would be given the extra support through targeted education programs for the rest of their schooling and the opportunity to resit the exam.

These minimum levels will now be a requirement to graduate from high school. Students will not be able to receive their West Australian Certificate of Education without them, meaning they will not be able to attend a tertiary institution. Instead, they would receive a statement of achievement.

Those students could then opt to sit literacy and numeracy assessment at any time after leaving high school, and would receive their WACE when they passed.

Federal Education Minister Peter Garrett said any steps to improve literacy and numeracy were a step in the right direction. However, he said providing literacy and numeracy support to senior high school students was "potentially too late".

"By this stage, students will have sat NAPLAN four times, and schools and teachers would have clear indications about which students need extra help," Mr Garrett said.

Education expert Stephen Dinham described the testing and restructuring of senior schooling into two streams according to academic ability as "insidious".

"You are making high stakes decisions about young people's futures," Professor Dinham said.

"What happens is that people on the upper or academic track can go down, but those on the lower track rarely move up."

However, Mr Collier said the reform was "not designed to stream" students and they could mix and match courses.

Professor Dinham, chairman of teacher education at the University of Melbourne, backed Mr Garrett's statement that testing for literacy and numeracy deficiencies in Year 10 was "too late . . . The gap in literacy and numeracy skills starts at home and continues through school.

"By high school, those kids with difficulties hit the wall by Year 7-8 because the curriculum is so language-based. They hit the wall not because they are dumb but because they don't have the skills to continue."

Professor Dinham said the proposed statement of attainment would magnify difficulties and make them unemployable.

Mr Collier said he had received advice from industry and the community at large that literacy and numeracy standards were too low and sought advice from the Schools Curriculum and Standards Authority.

"We are leading the nation in the fact that we are actually setting minimum numeracy and literacy standards for our students in the senior secondary level," he said yesterday.

The assessment will be devised by the Schools Curriculum and Standards Authority, which has also recommended streamlining the course structure available to senior secondary students. At present they can choose between three stages, with stage one the most basic and stage three the tertiary path.

Mr Collier said this program, introduced by the previous Labor government, was confusing to parents and students. He said too many students were dropping out of stage two and taking the easier stage one option.

Instead, students will now be able to choose between a tertiary path to achieve an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), or a general path, in which they would be required to do a Certificate II in training programs to graduate. The changes will be introduced in 2015 for Year 11, and 2016 for Year 12 to coincide with the implementation of the national curriculum in Western Australia.