Edited speech by the Hon. Julia Gillard MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, at the Dare to Lead Excellence in Leadership in Indigenous Education Awards ceremony, 29 April 2009:
Last year when I was here at the Dare to Lead Awards I was blown away by what I saw about the efforts being made in Australian schools to make a real difference for Indigenous education. I am sure that, just as last year, the stories we hear today will fill us all with hope and enthusiasm. We need hope and enthusiasm because, whilst we have made a difference, and the people in this room who are going to receive awards today have personally made a difference, there is still so much to do.
We know when we look at the statistics on educational achievement for Indigenous Australians that there is a major challenge in front of us. The government is committed to halving the gap by 2020. Halving the gap in attainment of numeracy and literacy; halving the gap in Year 12 attainment.
We know from the most recent testing that the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students ranged from 17 percentage points for Year 3 numeracy to 29 percentage points for Year 5 reading. They are big gaps, and we have got to be closing them.
We also know from recent statistics that the proportion of Indigenous students who achieved a Year 12 certificate actually decreased from 51 percent in 2001 to 46 percent in 2006. This happened at the same time that the proportion for non-Indigenous students increased from 80 percent to 86 percent, so we actually grew the gap. That's a very big gap to close, particularly when we know from all the evidence in this nation and evidence from around the world that successfully completing secondary schooling is so much of a key to the rest of life's chances.
We can only make a genuine difference when we work in partnership with people in school communities, and that of course is what Dare to Lead is all about. Today we are here to celebrate those in this room who genuinely deserve these awards. These are very special people. I don't envy those who have to make the decision about the names on the awards because there is so much good work going on.
I know that each of the people receiving awards today comes from a school community that has embraced Dare to Lead and is making a real difference. These schools have been selected because they are outstanding examples of the positive change that can be achieved through strong leadership, innovation, astute use of data and a genuine connection with local Indigenous communities.
These things are easy to say but hard to do, and it means the people in those school communities put a priority on this each and every day - days when it was going well, and days when it was going badly. Days when you could see the outcomes coming true around you, days when the outcomes seemed a million miles away. But they have embraced the challenge of looking at Indigenous disadvantage in education and personally committed themselves to closing that gap. To each of you can I say, we genuinely thank you for that very hard work and that sense of commitment. Whatever governments do, it can only live and breathe on the ground if people like you accept the challenge and do the kind of work you have been doing in your local school communities.
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