$4 million to Extend Tasmanian Literacy Initiative

David Bartlett, MP

Premier

Friday, 29 August 2008

The State Government’s multi-million-dollar Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap literacy initiative will be extended as a result of an extra $4 million in Australian Government funding.

Visiting Warrane Primary School in Hobart today with Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Premier David Bartlett welcomed the announcement.

The extra funding is a result of Tasmania’s submission under the Literacy and Numeracy Pilots in Low SES School Communities program.

“The State Government acknowledges that lifting literacy standards is an important issue. We’re embarking on an innovative reform agenda to ensure that all Tasmanian children finish school with functional literacy and numeracy skills,” Mr Bartlett said.

“Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap is the pillar of Tasmania’s literacy strategy and I’m delighted that the Australian Government has seen the merit in this initiative and provided an extra $4 million over two years to extend the program to another 11 schools.

“This brings the total funding to $36 million over four years which will enable targeted support to significantly increase the number of children finishing their primary education with the necessary literacy and numeracy skills and for all children to achieve higher literacy levels.”

Mr Bartlett said that Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap initiative was a significant commitment to education, which provided strong support to schools’ improvement efforts.

“The funds will be used only for research-based, proven strategies and the initiative will be subject to ongoing monitoring and annual review,” he said.

“Most importantly, this initiative will support groups of students where there is the highest learning need.”

Mr Bartlett said that three groups of schools, 37 in total, with concentrated disadvantage and low student performance had been identified, based on benchmark results over three years.

“I welcome the Australian Government’s decision to provide extra funding so that Tasmanian children can have the opportunity to benefit from this major literacy initiative.”