Historic Education Accord a step closer

Published Thursday, 25 September, 2014 at 04:46 PM

Minister for Education, Training and Employment
The Honourable John-Paul Langbroek

A 30-year plan for Queensland’s school education system is a step closer following today’s historic Education Accord Summit.

Minister for Education, Training and Employment, John-Paul Langbroek, said the day-long summit had exceeded expectations with the range of dynamic and positive ideas generated from 500 delegates to ensure all Queensland students received the best possible education.

“Today we have made significant progress towards creating Queensland’s first ever Education Accorda long-term plan for educational improvement,” Mr Langbroek said.

“The Accord will build on the community’s aspirations in The Queensland Plan and will determine the priorities for our schools to 2044 and beyond.

“The summit identified some of the biggest challenges for schools of tomorrow as teaching quality, catering for diverse student needs, providing a well-rounded education and harnessing rapidly changing information technology.

“Communication and problem solving were named by the delegates as the two most important skills for students leaving school while the key priorities included literacy and numeracy, creativity and critical thinking and equity of access.”

Mr Langbroek said the next stage would see the development of the Education Accord draft, further community consultation and review by a 15-member panel selected from today’s delegates.

“In the coming months, a draft Accord will be publicly released and I encourage all Queenslanders to have their say and contribute ideas towards shaping the final Accord in 2015,” he said.

“Today’s summit feedback, combined with online public responses, student videos, electorate submissions and industry input will provide the foundation for the 30-year Education Accord.”

The Minister thanked today’s summit delegates, who came from across all 89 state electorates, for taking the time to attend and provide relevant and constructive contributions.

“Summit participants made it clear that they believe the Accord should focus on improving teaching quality as a key target and that this could be achieved through measures including professional support, mentoring and coaching,” Mr Langbroek said.

“The Accord is part of our commitment to develop a strong plan for a brighter future for all Queensland schools and students and will cover all education sectors – state, independent and Catholic schools.”

A record of today’s summit will be available at http://deta.qld.gov.au/about/educationaccord/ on 10 October 2014.

25 September 2014        

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