2024/2025 Budget submission

An investment of around $92 million over four years is required for the ACT public education system to become a world leader in delivering evidence-based literacy and numeracy initiatives.

IMPROVING THE QUALITY AND EQUITY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN CANBERRA IS MORE CRUCIAL NOW THAN EVER BEFORE

Too many Year 9 students in the ACT lack the skills expected at that level. NAPLAN 2023 results show that in the ACT

• 29% of Year 9 students are not proficient in reading

• 38% are not proficient in writing

• 38% are not proficient in grammar and punctuation

• 25% are not proficient in spelling

• 31% are not proficient in numeracy.1

The OECD's Progress for International Assessment (PISA) indicates there has been a significant decline in the ACT’s performance over the past two decades in reading, math, and science. Twenty points in PISA tests is roughly equivalent to one year of schooling. The latest PISA report for 2022 shows that the performance of students in the ACT has reduced over the last twenty years in

• mathematical literacy by 50 points (equivalent to 2.5 years of schooling)

• reading literacy by 35 points (equivalent to 1.75 years of schooling)

• scientific literacy by 26 points (equivalent to 1.3 years of schooling).

While a decline is evident across all jurisdictions, the ACT is one of three jurisdictions that have had the biggest falls in performance compared to all other states and territories. This skills deficit and decline in educational outcomes poses serious implications for economic growth and for the future of Canberra’s young people. There is a significant gap between the skills students possess and those required by a future job market in which low skilled jobs increasingly become obsolete because of automation and AI.