Skills plateau despite fund boost

LITERACY and numeracy skills among school students have remained fairly stable despite billions of dollars in extra funding. 

LITERACY and numeracy skills among school students have remained fairly stable across the country over the past four years, despite the extra billions of dollars invested to lift standards.

The latest results from the national literacy and numeracy tests released yesterday show little improvement in average scores, or in the proportion of students meeting national minimum standards.

About 92 per cent of students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 met minimum standards in literacy and numeracy this year, on par with previous years, while results in the individual tests of reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy were stable overall.

Some improvement was apparent in the primary years between 2008 and 2012, with the average scores of Year 3 students in reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation rising, while the scores of Year 5 students rose significantly in reading, spelling and numeracy.

Results among secondary students were stagnant, with the only improvement in Year 7 grammar and punctuation scores, while numeracy results fell significantly. Writing scores compared with last year also fell across the board, except among Year 3 students.

Testing expert Peter Knapp said the uniform drop in numeracy in Year 7 suggested this year's test was more difficult than last year's and the scale had not been adequately adjusted, rather than that the current group of Year 7 students were worse at maths.

Dr Knapp said the drop in writing scores compared with last year could be partly attributed to the topic, which was about learning to cook, and many teachers considered it failed to stimulate high school students.

School Education Minister Peter Garrett rejected the suggestion that the extra money invested in literacy and numeracy and low-achieving students over the past four years was wasted, saying that stopping a decline in educational standards takes time.

He also accused the NSW government of undermining efforts to improve student achievement with its decision this week to cut the state education budget by $1.7bn over the next four years.

"Turning school systems around, getting high-performance outcomes in students, takes time.

"It requires concerted effort, additional targeted resources where they're needed, and the last thing any government should be contemplating is cuts to education on the scale that's proposed in NSW," Mr Garrett said.

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli accused Mr Garrett of playing politics with students' test results, and said everyone from teachers and parents to politicians were doing their best to improve student performance.