Aus: 'Is Australia’s Literacy Education Failing Its Children?'

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Aus: 'Is Australia’s Literacy Education Failing Its Children?'

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Here is a summary in Conatus News of the scenario in Australia with regard to literacy rates and the uptake (or not) of a phonics check:

Is Australia’s Literacy Education Failing Its Children?

Scott Davies
https://conatusnews.com/australias-lite ... -problems/
Despite ever-increasing investment in education, Australia’s literacy rates are not improving and are falling behind those of other nations. Why is this so?

The gradual decline in literacy standards in Australian schools has garnered much attention in recent years. Despite standardised testing in the form of NAPLAN as well as ever-increasing sums of money being spent on education overall, results are not improving and are, in some cases, declining. As the new schooling year begins, the topic is once again in vogue, and for a good reason. The recent Gonski education reforms, promising billions of extra dollars to Australian schools over several years, seeks to remedy these issues by giving schools more resources to tackle the decline in standards across the board. But is funding alone enough to alleviate the malaise within Australian literacy education?
One of the solutions being put forth to ease this crisis is reintroducing phonics training for young students. A committee established by the Federal Government has recently proposed a phonics check for Year One students. The proposal has proved a contentious one among educators, with the education union and some experts claiming that the decision ‘undercuts the judgment of teachers’. There are also fears that students at Year One would be too young to cope with the test.

However, the proposed phonics test also has a broad base of support among teachers, researchers and activists. The phonics check has gained bipartisan support in the state of South Australia, with both the Liberal and Labor parties indicating their support for the test. Education researchers, such as Jennifer Buckingham of the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) argues that the case for a phonics check is strong, based from results in England since they implemented the check back in 2012. Struggling readers were able to be identified and given the required targeted attention at an early age, improving their literacy skills in later years. A petition by the CIS has also garnered several thousands of signatures of support, as well as widespread backing among educators on social media.

In spite of this, the phonics test has not been implemented as of yet. Furthermore, the ‘balanced literacy’ approach to teaching reading is still predominant in Australian schools. The above issues with literacy instruction in Australian schools has flow-on effects in the lives of Australian adults. Many children, not having been taught to read effectively in the crucial formative years of education, struggle with reading through the senior years of their education and through to adulthood.
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