MPs recommend WA schools focus on grammar

as posted here

BIG changes to the way children are taught reading and writing in schools have been recommended by a WA parliamentary committee.

The committee’s recommendations also include making the Baby Bonus dependent on parents attending post-natal classes, making pre-primary compulsory and ensuring all child care workers have a TAFE qualification.

Committee chairwoman Alannah MacTiernan said the most important proposal was for children to be taught reading and writing the old-fashioned way – by focusing on grammar and phonetics.

The committee found literacy levels were inadequate in WA and many children were not prepared when starting primary school.

“We found many children were presenting at school with a large number of developmental vulnerabilities, and it seems that these numbers were getting worse,” Ms MacTiernan said.

She said many parents’ basic knowledge about how to help babies develop had been lost.

“We need to strengthen parents’ understanding of child development because they’re the best people to deal with it, so that means creating better programs for parents.

“Instead of just handing a book to new parents, it should be perhaps a more exciting DVD - a medium that more people will want to look at - that explains what’s really important.”

“One of the things we’ve suggested is that the Government consider using as leverage the baby bonus to get parents attending a few post natal classes so they engage with certain issues.

"People might think parents instinctively know this stuff but what we’re seeing is that parents often don’t," Mrs MacTiernan said.

Other recommendations included introducing more school-based playgroups for children from 0-3 years and boosting the number of child health nurses.

“I had my kids 25 years ago or so and I could go to the child health nurse as often as I liked, but they haven’t increased the number of child health nurses for decades so the service has become highly rationed and there’s not enough support for parents who need it,” Mrs MacTiernan said


as posted here