http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/national-reading-shakeup/2005/12/08/1133829721416.html

Nelson flags national reading shake-up

By David Wroe and Chee Chee Leung

December 9, 2005

Photo: Nicole Emanuel

Sara Pacini teaches preps at Shelford Girls Grammar in Caulfield. The school uses a combination of methods when teaching reading, rather than any single approach.

EVERY child will be given a "literacy plan" and be tested heavily on their reading skills in the first three years of school under sweeping changes flagged by the Federal Government.

University teaching students will have to pass literacy tests before they graduate and school curriculums will be overhauled to emphasise teaching practices that are proven to be effective.

Education Minister Brendan Nelson floated the changes yesterday after launching a major literacy report that raises questions about the way reading is taught in Australian schools.

"At the moment, we've got a problem where unfortunately a lot of teachers have not been taught how to teach our children reading in the most scientific way," Dr Nelson said.

"The end result is we've got about 30 per cent of Australian children leaving the school system functionally illiterate, having trouble with basic spelling, grammar, punctuation."

Dr Nelson vowed to fight for extra money in the May budget for a range of new literacy programs, including information campaigns to encourage parents to read aloud to their children.

"We need to start now on the journey of making sure that every Australian understands that parenthood involves a number of responsibilities — one of them is actually starting to read to your children in early life."

A national inquiry into the teaching of literacy found that more emphasis needed to be put on "teacher quality" and to adopt teaching styles that were backed by evidence. It also found that much of the curriculum design and philosophy of teaching literacy in Australian schools was based on a "theory of knowing and learning rather than a theory of teaching".

The report warned that over reliance of the fashionable "whole of word" approach, in which children were encouraged to decipher words visually, was "not in the best interests of the child, particularly those experiencing reading difficulties". There was no evidence that this approach was effective in teaching children to read, the report said.

Most pressingly, schools needed to put greater emphasis on "phonics" — whereby children are taught to break words down into their component syllables and link these to sounds.

The report concluded that preparation of new teachers to teach reading was "uneven" across universities.

Dr Nelson said he would talk to his state counterparts about putting accreditation conditions on university teaching faculties to force them to test their graduating students on their own literacy and their ability to teach reading.

Victorian Education Minister Lynne Kosky said her department issued guidelines five years ago encouraging schools to use phonics, and described the federal inquiry as a useless exercise.

"It's taken thousands of dollars of taxpayers money to confirm what's already been happening in Victoria for five years," a spokesman for Ms Kosky said. "We don't need an inquiry from Brendan Nelson to tell us that."

Ms Kosky's spokesman also questioned the need for additional assessments of students' literacy.

"Kids are regularly tested in classrooms right here, right now. Once again it shows how out of touch Brendan Nelson is with Victorian classrooms."

The Australian Education Union in Victoria also said the inquiry was a "wasted exercise".

"It's not that we don't want to ensure that teachers are literate, but if you are going to pre-test and prevent people from becoming teachers, then you may well be robbing the profession of some really good thinkers," said branch president Mary Bluett.

"I would hate to see this debate turn into an absolute prerequisite that all teachers have to pass spelling bees. Literacy is more than just learning how to spell."

The Australian Secondary Principals Association and the Victorian Principals Association said they supported the recommendations, but there needed to be extra resources for schools to implement the changes.

The Australian Council of State School Organisations, which represents parents associations, also welcomed the report.

But president Jennifer Branch said the council was unsure how new national testing of students would operate when children started school at different ages across the country.