Liberals' Canberra school review call slammed as teaching quality audit finds data lacking

Liberal education spokesman Jeremy Hanson's motion to commission an independent review of the ACT government education system was defeated in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.

Mr Davis' amendment was passed instead, committing Education Minister Yvette Berry to updating the ACT parliament on recommendations from previous inquiries into standardised testing and bullying and violence in schools at the August sitting.

He said the Liberals' education strategy was overly reliant on data from NAPLAN and failed to address the concerns of teachers.

"Mr Hanson's motion cast aside the significant community and school led reviews that have recently been undertaken and that are currently in the process of being implemented," Mr Davis said.

"It doesn't talk about teachers being underpaid and overworked and the need to support and foster respect and admiration for the significant intellectual and caring work that our teachers provide young people.

"It plays into the conservative and offensive discourse that it is a lack of intellectual and professional rigour among teachers that leads to the alleged poor outcomes of students."

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Mr Hanson accused Mr Davis of "ideological warfare" by suggesting the Liberals were attacking government schools and enriching private schools.

"I support parental choice, but at the end of the day, in this place, minister, our principal responsibility here in terms of the management schools is government schools. Let's focus on that," Mr Hansen said.

The fiery education debate in the Legislative Assembly came after the ACT Audit Office performance report into the teacher quality in public schools was tabled.

The audit found baseline data was not consistently captured and used in six-monthly progress report to keep track of the impact of initiatives designed to improve teacher quality. It found school executives were unaware of support available to them through the Education Directorate.

"The Education Directorate does not have an informed understanding of the true level of teacher underperformance," it said.

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