01 - Department of Education and Communities - NSW Government

DIRECTOR-GENERAL’S REPORTthe expansion of the pilot from 80-100 schools scheduled to participate to a total of 361 schools whichrequested inclusion. All secondary students in government schools will sit the ELLA test from 1998.We also increased the consultancy support for literacy by 400 per cent and allocated significant resourcesfor training and development, including the development of a CD-ROM for teachers of Years 5-8.Teaching numeracy is another fundamental element in our work.Just as in literacy, we fielded four times the number of numeracy consultants as in 1996. The CountMe In project was highly valued by teachers. It concentrated on numeracy in the very early years ofschooling. One interesting development in numeracy teaching was a project called Maths on The Net.It supported small isolated schools through the Internet.In August the Premier launched the Government’s White Paper on the HSC Securing Their Future.This Department worked extensively in support of the consultation process which formed the basis ofthe Paper.The reforms will make the Higher School Certificate stronger and more flexible. All courses will bereported on a single scale and for the first time English will be able to be studied as four units. Therewill be a substantial increase in the quality and status of vocational education. Most significantlyperhaps will be the abolition of the TER as a single number descriptor of a student’s achievement afterthirteen years of schooling.The TER will be replaced by much more information about what students know and understand inaddition to subject based information about their performance relative to that of other students. Thosestudents seeking university entrance will receive a confidential Universities Admission Index directlyfrom the university authorities.The 1997 HSC results for government schools were splendid. Whilst a more detailed list of resultslies elsewhere in this report I will mention a few highlights.In the 149 courses examined in the 1997 HSC, 94 students from government schools came first orequal first. Of the 39 courses with more than 1000 candidates, 26 were topped by students fromgovernment schools. Of those 26, all five Mathematics courses and five of the six Science courses hadour students in first place in the state.These results speak volumes about the quality of public education in this state.In the wider world there is an enormous concentration by the media on elite sports and on those whoparticipate. The Department of School Education has a commitment to increase the health and fitnessof all our students while still catering for those who have particular sporting talents.Until this year we had no real data about the fitness levels of our students. There certainly were data,some anecdotal, some scientific, but none that matched closely enough the demographics of the hugepopulation of students in our schools. In 1997 we were able to establish benchmarks in relation to thefitness levels of our students in Years 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10.DSE Annual Report 1997 5