5th MCEETYA meeting

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Information statement

5th MCEETYA meeting
Brisbane, 17 July 1996 to 18 July 1996

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State, Territory, Commonwealth and New Zealand Ministers with responsibility for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, met in Brisbane on 17 and 18 July 1996. This was the fifth meeting of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. The meeting was chaired by the Hon. Bob Quinn, MLA, Minister for Education, Queensland, who is the Chair of MCEETYA for 1996. The meeting was jointly hosted by the Hon. Santo Santoro, MLA, Minister for Training and Industrial Relations, Queensland and the Hon. Kev Lingard, MLA, Minister for Families, Youth and Community Care, Queensland. The main outcomes of the meeting are summarised below.

Gender Equity

Ministers noted that both a national framework to support gender equity in schooling and a national strategy for women in vocational education and training have been developed and will shortly be disseminated.

National Literacy Survey

Ministers agreed to a new national goal: that every child leaving primary school should be able to read, write, spell and communicate at an appropriate level. Common literacy benchmarks at Year 3 and Year 5 will be developed and the levels of performance to be met in reading, writing, and other essential aspects of literacy will be determined. A report on progress with this work will be made to Ministers at their first meeting in 1997.

School Starting Ages

With the exception of South Australia all State and Territories Ministers requested that the Conference of Education Systems Chief Executive Officers (CESCEOs) considers the issues relating to school entry age in Australia with a view to suggesting strategies for working towards a national school entry age band in Australia and a standard nomenclature for the year before Year 1, to facilitate mobility between States and Territories.

National strategies in schooling to prevent paedophilia and other forms of child abuse

Ministers agreed to the development of a national strategy in schooling to prevent paedophilia and other forms of child abuse. NSW has the responsibility to prepare a paper, in consultation with other States and Territories, concerning current action in each and to develop a proposal for a national strategy for co-ordination of States' and Territories' actions.

Career Education

Ministers agreed in-principle to the re-establishment of the Career Education Taskforce, with the Commonwealth as convenor. This Taskforce would clarify the roles and responsibilities of sectors, systems and providers and promote intersectoral and cross-system cooperation and define the outcomes to be achieved from career education by each of the agencies responsible for the delivery services and/or information.

Education Network Australia (EdNA)

Ministers noted that the focus of EdNA has shifted from development of a network to the fostering of collaboration and cooperation between key stakeholders in the use of Internet as a tool for delivery of education in Australia. Because the current administrative structure does not reflect this change in focus, Ministers agreed that the Board of the Open Learning Technology Centre (OLTC) be restructured as a matter of urgency. Ministers also agreed that an EdNA Reference Committee be established and report to the restructured OLTC. This committee will provide advice to Ministers on major policy issues associated with the use of the computer networks in the delivery of education and to the Board on the strategic directions for the development of EdNA and on implementation and governance issues.

Copyright

Ministers noted the demands of the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) for payment for copying of print materials in schools for 1997 and the future. Ministers are now awaiting the handing down of a decision in the matter of copyright payments to the Audiovisual Copyright Society (AVCS) which was recently before the Copyright Tribunal.

Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act - standards in education.

Ministers noted the progress report provided by the Taskforce on DDA Education Standards and endorsed the further development of a report which will fully canvass the issues of the feasibility and the desirability of DDA Education Standards, present a conceptual framework to cover all sectors of education and training and provide exemplars of potential education standards.

Cultural Understanding as a Key Competency

Ministers agreed that any further work on the definition of the eighth key competency cease and noted that individual States and Territories will be undertaking studies to investigate the extent to which Cultural Understandings are embedded in the seven key competencies and of the applications of Cultural Understandings in curricula for life long learning and non-work situations. Ministers also agreed that as a joint project of the ANTA Standards and Curriculum Council and the Curriculum Corporation data gathered should be analysed to establish possible points of agreement on the meaning of the term "Cultural Understanding" and that it should be determined whether the work of the pilot projects can contribute further to agreement on the meaning of the term.

National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools

Ministers agreed that two State/Territory CEOs will work with the Commonwealth and other recognised experts in the field to review responses that have been received from jurisdictions with a view to better targeting of NALSAS towards achievable goals, focussed on excellence and standards in languages and Asian studies which are responsive to employers' needs.