View - LIME Network

Attachment tablesAttachment tables for this chapter are identified in references throughout thischapter by an ‘A’ suffix (for example, table 7A.2.3). A list of attachment tables is insection 7.7. These tables can be found on the Review web page(www.pc.gov.au/gsp). Users can also contact the Secretariat to obtain theattachment tables.7.1 Years 5 and 7 literacy and numeracyBox 7.1.1Key messages• Between 1999 and 2005, year 5 Indigenous students’ performance against thenational reading, writing and numeracy benchmarks fluctuated, with no statisticallysignificant trend (figures 7.1.1, 7.1.3 and 7.1.5).• Between 2001 and 2005, year 7 Indigenous students’ performance against thenational reading, writing and numeracy benchmarks also fluctuated, with nostatistically significant trend (figures 7.1.7, 7.1.9 and 7.1.11).• In 2005, the proportion of year 5 Indigenous students who did not achieve thenational benchmark was substantially higher than the proportion of all students for:– reading (37.2 per cent compared to 12.5 per cent) (figure 7.1.2)– writing (25.7 per cent compared to 6.7 per cent) (figure 7.1.4)– numeracy (33.5 per cent compared to 9.2 per cent) (figure 7.1.6).• In 2005, the proportion of year 7 Indigenous students who did not achieve thenational benchmark was substantially higher than the proportion of all students for:– reading (36.2 per cent compared to 10.2 per cent) (figure 7.1.8)– writing (27.7 per cent compared to 7.8 per cent) (figure 7.1.10)– numeracy (51.2 per cent compared to 18.2 per cent) (figure 7.1.12).• As Indigenous students progress through school the proportion who achieve thenational minimum benchmarks decreases (figures 7.1.13 and 7.1.15).Achieving literacy and numeracy benchmarks for years 5 and 7 has a significanteffect on participation in year 12 and entry into higher education (ACER 2004).Evidence suggests that school leavers who lack fundamental skills in literacy andnumeracy face poor employment prospects (ACER 2004; OECD 2004).Recent studies have highlighted the link between health and education (Schwab andSutherland 2004; Zubrick et al. 2006). Low literacy was identified as one of thebiggest hurdles when it comes to improving the health of Indigenous people(Schwab and Sutherland 2004).POSITIVE CHILDHOODAND TRANSITION TOADULTHOOD7.5