The establishment of the Special Assistance Program in Victorian Primary Schools was the most significant development in remedial education in Australia.
It was a Hamer Liberal Government initiated strategic plan designed to address falling literacy and numeracy standards.
The position was the focus of this substantial change in the delivery of special educational services to children at risk of illiteracy and innumeracy.
[1] The development and implementation of the Special Assistance Program in Victorian Primary Schools during the period 1979 - 1982 constituted the most significant innovation in the provision of special education services to children experiencing learning difficulties and in addressing declining literacy and numeracy standards.
Up until the political directive to initiate this program was given, there had been no policy within the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development[2] (previously Education Department of Victoria) directing Principals of Primary Schools to develop special programs for pupils at risk of illiteracy and innumeracy.
[7][8] The concept of a school based resource teacher identifying deficits in literacy and numeracy in individual children and providing assistance and resources to classroom teachers to address those deficits through special programs had been supported by the findings of numerous major committees of inquiry.
Arising from this philosophical perspective emerges the inescapable proposition that special assistance for children at risk of illiteracy and innumeracy (over and above the normal learning provisions available to all children) is an essential part of a school's functioning and that the designation of a specially trained resource teacher to provide that assistance to children, their classroom teachers and their parents is an integral part of a team approach to curriculum development, teaching and all other aspects of schooling.
They were: The implementation of the first stage of the Special Assistance Program was only possible after further consultation and a signed agreement by the Minister of Educational Services the Hon.
As a result, not all requests for the in-service training course in the Special Assistance Program could be met in the first year of its availability.
[10] AREA shared a concern that teachers undertaking SART duties were not qualified in special education, but their proposals to the course committee were rejected.