Community Alliance Party

The Community Alliance Party welcomes Labor’s latest promise on education – a proposal for addressing the achievement gap in education, according to Jane Tullis, Community Alliance candidate for Ginninderra.

Mrs Tullis says this is a case of Labor me too-ing the Community Alliance, whose education policy was released last week.

"We are very happy to see the government has finally recognised the existence of an achievemnt gap, as this is something they have consistently denied until this announcement," said Mrs Tullis. "We are very happy to see an ACT government starting to take this issue seriously."

"The Community Alliance is committed to addressing this gap by supporting the students who really need it, by addressing their early literacy and numeracy needs," she said.

"We also proposed to give parents and the community more opportunities to be involved in the education of children, which is something missing from this strategy," she said.

According to Mrs Tullis, Labor’s promise compels already overworked schools to develop 'action plans', with no detail, as if teachers and principals weren't already doing the best they can for these children.

"At a cost of $11.8 million over four years, we see only 17 plus 8 specialist teachers to be shared across the entire ACT public education system," she said. "If you do the maths, it probably gives struggling students maybe an hour or so of one-on-one assistance a week."

The Community Alliance advocates for more in-school support for teachers and for students with high learning needs.

"It is at the coalface that the difference can and will be made," she said. "I have been lobbying for this for years, why is it now that Labor suddenly recognises that it needs to do something about the lack of equity in educational outcomes for the students who needs?"

Contact: Jane Tullis