Public Education

The Hon. PENNY SHARPE [3.34 p.m.]: As the school year comes to a close I would like to draw to the attention of the House the success and achievements of the New South Wales public education system in 2005. This week across New South Wales communities have come together at presentation days, school picnics and graduation ceremonies to celebrate the achievements of the year. At the end of 2005, public education in New South Wales has the best paid and most professional teachers in Australia, small classes in the early years, a rich and dynamic curriculum that is able to meet the needs of all students, a commitment to supporting all students through programs such as breakfast clubs, parenting education and other support services, and a wide range of sport, art, music, technology, science and other programs that promote participation and success for every student.

As a result of the Government's investment in education and programs such as reading recovery, New South Wales Year 3s had the best results ever for their basic skills tests this year. Literacy and numeracy outcomes, despite Federal Government scare campaigns, are among the best in the world. Our public schools have an outstanding record when it comes to teaching academic and vocational skills. Our public schools strive mightily, and with many successes, to make sure all our children have every opportunity in their schooling and ultimately in their future careers. Our public schools also know that education gives our children precious opportunities in life as well as in work. There are skills and values we need to be good citizens and to maintain a good society that are not measured in any test but which are taught every day in our public schools.

Students learn that every one of them is valuable, and that their value has nothing to do with money or possessions. Our children and young people learn that being Australian has nothing to do with skin colour or where in the world your family came from—or how recently they came. They learn that we have to be careful of each other and we have to take care of each other. Learning together means learning to be together. We hear a lot about the importance of values in education; it is often used as a way to attack our public schools. The Howard Government, led dishonourably by the Minister for Education, Brendan Nelson, denigrates public education by peddling the myth that public schools do not have values and they do not teach values. What the Prime Minister and Brendan Nelson mean is that they do not agree with the values that public schools teach.

Our public education system teaches tolerance and, what is more important, acceptance. Our public schools teach students respect for others and to celebrate the wealth of diversity. They teach inclusion and social responsibility. They teach the values that John Howard's Federal Government dislikes and distrusts. They teach the values that John Howard's Government has systematically set out to destroy. Like thousands of parents across the State, this week I attended my daughter's school presentation day. The very best of public education was on display. I saw first hand how public schools teach values in the most effective way possible: through experience and example. I saw the pride and excitement of my daughter and her schoolmates. These kids were part of a caring community. They know that they are all Australian no matter what part of the world their ancestors came from.

They know this because they spend their time together, they play together, they talk together and they share their lives together. They are growing up side by side; they are growing up together. This experience lays an important foundation of tolerance that insulates those kids against ideologies of hatred and division, no matter who peddles them. This is one of the greatest achievements of our public education system. The children who grow up together will grow up to be adults who stand side by side. In a week where we have witnessed deeply disturbing events on the streets and beaches of Sydney, I acknowledge the successes of our public schools in 2005 and celebrate the contribution they make to tolerance and acceptance within our society.

[Debate interrupted.]