Emily Lewis's son struggled with learning to read in kindergarten but his teachers assured the Canberra mother there was no need for her to be concerned.
By year 2, with her son still lagging behind his classmates in reading, she sought extra help from the school.
"The gap between him and his peers was getting wider,'' Ms Lewis said.
"He's a really smart guy, so I just didn't want him to begin to struggle with other subjects, just because his reading was a little bit slow."
Ms Lewis turned to a private tutor when the school was unable to provide the help she thought her son needed.
"I think it became clear that the school didn't have the systems or the resources in place to try and bridge that gap along with us, so that's when we sought out an external tutor,'' she said.
"We've been doing tutoring now for about six months, which has been really brilliant. I'm not sure that he'd at the stage that he's at with his reading now without the tutoring that we've been doing."
Ms Lewis also placed her children on the waiting list for a private school.
But she said she is conscious many families are unable to afford private tutoring or private schooling if their children have trouble at school.
She believed the public education system should move more quickly to adopt phonics-based literacy teaching and needed more resources.
"It does feel quite inequitable to me that there's a lot of families that wouldn't be able to get that external support," Ms Lewis said.
"[It] would be nice if we could sort of rely on the systems and the resources in public schools to help us bridge that gap for the struggling kids."
In June, the ACT government agreed to implement all the recommendations from an expert panel on literacy and numeracy over four years.
The government committed to implementing more evidence informed, consistent teaching practices, common assessments including a year 1 phonics test and additional funding for literacy and numeracy teaching materials from kindergarten to year 2 from the start of 2025, such as decodable readers and maths resources.
Ms Lewis said she was happy to see more support being introduced for literacy and numeracy in ACT schools but thought the changes would likely take full effect too late for even her youngest child, who's yet to start primary school.
Canberra 'should have the best education system in the country': Elizabeth Lee
Canberra Liberals Leader Elizabeth Lee said if her party is elected in the territory election on October 19 it will build an education system that's "better for students, teachers, and parents".
The party's education policy for the upcoming election includes a year 1 literacy screening test, or a phonics test, and small group intervention supports for students who need them across any grade.
Under the proposed policy, teachers would also receive a $200 voucher at the start of each year to help them pay for classroom supplies.
"Canberra Liberals are the only party that will fully fund and implement an evidence-driven plan to improve literacy and numeracy in ACT government schools," Ms Lee said.
"We should have the best education system in the country, but 23 years of Labor and the Greens have failed a whole generation of students.
"Under a Canberra Liberals government our students will have access to evidence-driven approaches to teaching literacy and numeracy, and our teachers will receive the support that they need to ensure that they teach this in the classroom."
Ms Lee said the party would put teachers at the forefront of the education system by lowering their administrative burden, and introducing a behaviour curriculum pilot for students that schools can opt into.
"What we will do is ensure that mixed approach to a number of administrative responsibilities that are currently falling on individual teachers and principals to manage, including issues in relation to maintenance and infrastructure," she said.
"The other aspect, of course, is that we do need to support teachers by ensuring that they are provided with the workplace that they deserve — and we'll do this by looking at the very serious concerns in relation to violence in our schools."
Ms Lee said a Canberra Liberals government would also boost the Asset Renewal Program with an additional $25 million to bring every government school up to minimum standards when it comes to heating, cooling, and bathroom facilities.
Jess Del Rio, of the ACT Alliance for Evidence-Based Education, said the investment promised by the Liberals would assist the one-in-three ACT school students who had literacy and numeracy problems.
"For those kids that are struggling at an individual level, it's really important that they have not only access to appropriate whole class instruction, but if necessary they have access to small group instruction as well,'' Ms Del Rio said.
She said small group instruction should be "evidence-based and cover the core skills of literacy which are phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension".
Barr accuses Lee of copying
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the opposition's plans for literacy and numeracy largely copied policies already being implemented by the government in response to the expert panel.
"The announcement from the Liberals today is largely a copy of the work that Labor has already undertaken,'' he said.
Mr Barr also criticised the Liberals' promise of an extra $25 million for the Asset Renewal Program as inadequate.
"We have already budgeted hundreds of millions of dollars, more than $600 million, for work across our public education system,'' Mr Barr said.
"So an announcement today from the Liberals of only an extra $25 million I don't think will achieve what they are stating it will. More investment will be required.''
Mr Barr said Labor would unveil its education policy for the next four years in the lead up to the election.
