Teaching children how to read and write has always been the primary objective of education or schooling. However, in recent years there have been concerns that this major objective has not been achieved, or has not been achieved at a satisfactory level, by many students by the end of the compulsory years of schooling. This has led to a renewed focus on literacy at both Commonwealth and state level, and the introduction of new policies and practices which are aimed at improving literacy outcomes. These policies and practices parallel developments that have occurred in a number of other countries, and have included setting standards or benchmarks to make explicit the standards of achievement expected at different levels of schooling,.
