ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr said it would be more surprising if the ACT did not lead the nation in educational outcomes.
Responding to the latest Council of Australian Governments Reform Group's baseline education and training comparisons, Mr Barr said the ACT risked complacency, given its historical successes. The comparisons showed ACT students outperformed their state and territory classmates on nearly every measure.''Of course I am grateful for the success of the system in delivering those results, but some serious questions would need to be asked if we were not at that level,'' he said.
Mr Barr said his focus was to improve the educational opportunities for Canberra students who were not as privileged as some of their other classmates. ''The entire system appears geared towards meeting the needs of comfortably middle-class students on their way to university,'' Mr Barr said.
He agreed with the COAG assessment that much of the ACT's educational success was due to its high socio-economic status. ''I don't believe there is enough focus on the constant battle to engage the non-academic stream of kids in the ACT, and equally, it is a challenge to convince people there is more work to do.''
Mr Barr said he also wanted to improve outcomes for the more than 1100 indigenous students in the ACT, whose results were better than indigenous students in other states and territories but who lag behind their non-indigenous classmates.
Part of the challenge was making sure they had engaging pathways through school and past Year 12, with Mr Barr keen to improve vocational education options for all students in the ACT and considering reforms to the college system.
He acknowledged closing the gap, while a national priority for the Rudd Government, would be a very hard task.
''It really remains to be seen how successful both the Commonwealth and the state and territory governments will be at addressing that significant gap,'' Mr Barr said.
''But it would be defeatist not to try.''
Australian Education Union ACT branch secretary Penny Gilmour echoed Mr Barr's view that there were dangers in complacency.
''They are results to be proud of but there is always room to strive to do better and we absolutely must address the gap in achievement in indigenous students in the ACT and nationally,'' Ms Gilmour said.
Save Our Schools spokesman Trevor Cobbold said the COAG results ''confirm what we have known for some time, Australia has a high quality/low equity education system. Australia's average results are high, but its equity performance is shocking''.
''The extent of achievement gaps is disgraceful. Indigenous students are, on average, 212 years behind non-indigenous students. The gap between rich and poor students is just as large, a fact still not widely recognised or acted on by governments,'' he said.