I rise this evening to add my support to the Education Legislation Amendment Bill 2007. This bill will amend the Education (Queensland Studies Authority) Act 2002 to enable the QSA to develop and administer common national tests in literacy and numeracy and will also amend the Education (Queensland College of Teachers) Act 2005 to replace the term ‘professional learning’ with the term ‘professional development’. I am quite excited about the national testing of literacy and numeracy. I am not so much excited about the thought of the extra tests-and I am sure lots of students would agree with me there-but what I am excited about is the outcomes that will occur once the results of the tests are available. It means that individual students will be aware of their performance, as will their parents, and schools can then actively target individuals and groups of students with additional assistance and that means improved educational outcomes for all of our students.

As a qualified secondary teacher I understand that the professional development of teachers is one of the most significant measures a government can take to optimise the quality of education services delivered in our schools. That is why I am pleased to report that the Queensland government is focused and committed to continuing to enhance the professional development available for both teaching and non-teaching staff. As part of the 2007-08 budget, the Bligh Labor government committed over $40 million towards professional development. In addition, the minister has created a professional development institute. The institute assists state school teachers and school leaders to meet the department’s aims for excellence in education. It is the ‘go-to place’ for all professional development information and advice, providing regular updates on the range of professional development activities available across the state. The institute liaises with principals, professional associations, Education Queensland business units, universities and other government organisations to confirm priorities and to provide the most up-to-date and relevant information. It is also responsible for the coordination of the new professionalism scholarships and awards for high-performing school leaders and teachers.

This government continues to demonstrate its commitment to professional development through the Literacy-The Key to Learning: Framework for Action 2006-2008 and the Numeracy: Lifelong Confidence with Mathematics-Framework for Action 2007-2010 which both focus strongly on the professional development of teaching staff. In 2007-08 the government has allocated around $13 million for the rollout of these important initiatives, and we are seeing the results. This focus on professional development can only continue to improve the quality of education that our students receive and therefore boost their literacy and numeracy skills. Many people have spoken in this debate today about their individual schools. With 23 state and non-state schools in my electorate, I could spend a great deal of time talking about them and reporting on all of them.

Mr Reeves: But you won’t.

Ms MALE: No, I will not, not this evening. I will save that for another time. From all of the reports that I have received back to date, it has been a relatively smooth start to the school year. In my electorate there are several acting principals who have settled in very quickly to their new roles and the community is supporting them very well. I understand that Education Queensland is working towards minimising the disruption to schools when promotional opportunities for principals has a knock-on effect for acting roles throughout the system. I encourage it to keep the acting stints to a minimum where possible so that communities can have surety of who their principal is and the way forward for their curriculum and the work that they do with their students and the community as a whole.

I congratulate Queensland Transport and Education Queensland for working together to provide a new bus service for Elimbah students who are travelling to Beerwah State High School. The community and I have campaigned for this service-proving how necessary it is-and I am pleased that our voices were listened to. It is a good result for the students, who now have a dedicated school bus service. I am also looking forward to the many leadership ceremonies that are occurring in schools over the next couple of weeks and the opportunity that it will afford me to meet with parents and teachers to discuss their views on education. As you would know, Mr Deputy Speaker English, I am also looking forward to my daughter’s leadership induction on Friday when she will become the school captain of Caboolture State School. As I have previously said, education is a combined effort between government, schools and the community. I am pleased that we can continue to bring forward legislation that has positive outcomes on the learning of our students. I commend the bill to the House.