ACT election sees major parties clash over Canberra's education system improvements

ABC NEWS (Australia)

With the ACT election campaign on the horizon, the two major parties are exchanging barbs over Canberra's education system. The Barr government has agreed to implement improvements recommended by an independent review released in May. However, the Canberra Liberals are now trying to convince families and teachers that they would provide a better alternative.

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00:00Despite reassurances from teachers, by Year 2, Emily Lewis's son was still struggling with reading.

00:09I think it became clear that the school didn't have the systems or the resources in place to try and bridge that gap along with us.

00:17So that's when we sought out an external tutor.

00:20Emily is frustrated she had to seek support outside the public system.

00:25There's a lot of private tutoring places in Canberra that are extremely expensive, like thousands of dollars per term,

00:32and it's just impossible for many families to be able to afford external tutoring.

00:38In May, the ACT government agreed to implement recommendations of an expert panel on literacy and numeracy over four years,

00:46with $25 million in June's budget to increase teaching consistency, conduct phonics testing in Year 1,

00:52and provide multi-tiered support along with extra resources.

00:56The opposition doesn't think it's enough.

00:59The Canberra Liberals have costed our policy to fully fund and fully implement the evidence-based approaches to improving literacy and numeracy,

01:06and that's at $98 million.

01:08The Liberals are also promising more funding to improve classrooms and annual $200 vouchers for teachers.

01:15We have heard from many teachers that a lot of the times they are putting their hand into their own pocket to purchase school supplies.

01:22The education union has given the policy top marks.

01:26The education plan announced by Elizabeth Lee today shows that she has listened to Canberra's public school teachers,

01:33and we certainly welcome that, and we welcome the constructive dialogue that she's engaged in.

01:38But the Chief Minister argues the opposition is simply copying his government's homework.

01:44We have already budgeted hundreds of millions of dollars, more than $600 million for work across our public education system,

01:53so an announcement today from the Liberals of only an extra $25 million I don't think will achieve what they are stating it will.

02:02Parties' plans to be tested at the polls.

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