Federal Election 2007 - ALP response

[Tuesday 13 November 2007]

Ensuring Australia's workforce is skills and qualified will be a top priority for a Rudd Labor Government, and nowhere is this more important than in our schools.

School Librarians play an important role in promoting the importance of literacy and in fostering greater information literacy skills in students and teachers in our schools.

In an age where students are dealing with information on an unprecedented digital scale it is particularly important to ensure school librarians are properly qualified to assist young Australians in accessing and interpreting this information.

To be the best trained and best skilled workforce in the world, we must do more to encourage greater professional development, mentoring and induction, particularly in education, including our school librarians.

Regards,

ALP Campaign Information Services.

[End of response]

More information on the Australian Labor Party's education revolution please check their website. Also, the KEVIN07 website.

Note: Post election 2007 an email was sent to the Hon. Kevin Rudd in response to encouraging Members of Parliament to visit a public school and an independent school.

"Providing computers is a wonderful initiative but the schools must have qualified teacher librarians to assist the students to use the computers effectively and appropriately.

On these visits, we urge the Members of Parliament to visit the school library to assess if qualified staff are employed. It was noted in the election campaign the library was often featured when a Member of Parliament visited the school, but did the library have qualified staff?

To start building a world class education system, the focal point of the school - the school library - needs to have quality staff and resources so that school libraries have a positive impact on a range of learning areas and improved student outcomes."

Anette Ainsworth
ASLA President

Last updated 28 November 2007