LNP’s ‘education plan’ completely out of touch

Education Minister Grace Grace has slammed the LNP’s new education plan as uninspiring, unsophisticated and simply out-of-step with Queensland’s needs.

“It’s obvious Deb Frecklington has no clue about what’s happening in Queensland schools or what our students and teachers need,” Ms Grace said.

“On one hand the Opposition Leader says she wants schools to have more autonomy, but now she wants to give teachers new curriculum ‘guidelines’ to follow.

“This sounds to me like Deb Frecklington wants to tell teachers how to do their job, which is completely at odds with her cries for greater independence for Queensland schools under the IPS model.”

Ms Grace said the Palaszczuk Government had increased the number of schools in the IPS initiative from 130 schools when the LNP left office, to 250 schools in 2018.

“Our Government is committed to supporting teachers and school leaders to get on with doing their important work in classrooms across the state,” she said.

“If Deb Frecklington had a clue about education, she’d know we already have comprehensive Curriculum into the Classroom resources in place to support teachers,” she said.

“We’ve invested more than $50 million since January 2015 to roll out these materials and I know Queensland’s resources are the exemplar for other states.

“What I want to know is, which parts of the national curriculum does Deb Frecklington plan to dump?

“Will it be STEM subjects, physical education, or the creative arts on the LNP scrapheap?

“This is so typical of the LNP – always looking for things to cut, this time from our kids’ education.”

Ms Grace said the Palaszczuk Government was putting Queensland students first.

“Our Government listens to our education stakeholders, principals, teachers, parents and students and we’ll continue to do so,” she said.

“That’s what we did back in 2016 when we were developing the new ATAR system and that’s why it has the full support of stakeholders.

“The new ATAR system is more rigorous because it means students must pass English to receive a tertiary entrance score. Under the current system, you don’t even need to study senior English to get an OP.”

Media contact: Emma Clarey 0439 578 472