Australian schools must be overhauled to stop alarming drop in student performance, says David Gonski

SCHOOLS have “failed a generation” of Australian children and must be radically overhauled to arrest an alarming slide in student performance, a landmark report warns.

• Government backflips, accepts national education funding deal
• What you need to know about Gonski 2.0
• 51 SA schools to have funding frozen

SCHOOLS have “failed a generation” of children and must be radically overhauled to arrest an alarming slide in student performance, a landmark report warns.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will today release a scathing review of the education system, led by school funding architect David Gonksi, and give in-principle support to its 23 sweeping recommendations.

The report found that children are being left behind by a “20th century industrial model of school education”.

David Gonski

It urges a profound shift from the current year level-based curriculum that moves students in “lock-step” to the next year of schooling to one focused on individual progress that is independent of age.

South Australian children appear to have been worst affected by Australia’s flawed education system because overall improvement in NAPLAN results since 2008 was the lowest across the country with only a 0.17 per cent increase in the average score.

Controversial recommendations — including a new online test tool for teachers to plot individual student progress in real time, and performance pay — are set to ignite a war with the teachers union.

While the Government would not put a price tag on the overhaul, it was likely to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Education Minister Simon Birmingham will brief states and territories at a special meeting of the Education Council on Friday in a bid to seek agreement on the overhaul.

“The report lays out very clearly that business as usual has failed Australian students and more of the same is not acceptable,” he said.

Mr Gonski warned against governments picking and choosing the more palatable recommendations.

“We are strongly of the view that the proposed reforms outlined in the report are required to improve school performance and student achievement,” he said.

“Further, they have been designed as a package where each reform is necessary to support the overall ambition.”

Since 2000, Australian students’ academic performance has declined when compared to other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, suggesting schools here were not improving at the same rate.

This slide has occurred in every socio-economic level and in all school sectors.

In 2000, Australian students ranked fourth in literacy and science and seventh in maths but in 2015 — the latest ranking — Australia had ranking dropped to 16, 14 and 25, respectively.

Under the proposed reforms, every child would be handed a “unique identifier” to track individual student performance which could be transferred from one school to the next if student moves.

The Australian Education Union was likely to oppose the new online testing tool, while the Turnbull Government was expected push for its use to be a requirement under future funding agreements.

The report states the tool would help teachers tailor individual programs for each student to maximise learning growth and could suggest evidence-based interventions.

It would be key to changing the culture in schools from one which tries to ensure millions of students attain specific learning outcomes for their grade and age before moving to the next year level to one focused on individual progress.

Schools must be overhauled to stop a fall in student performance, David Gonski has warned.

Under the current model a student who receives a D grade year after year may be perceived as making no progress at all when the student might be making as much annual improvement as a student who consistently receives an A.

“Less advanced students who manage to improve significantly over the course of a school year are likely to become demotivated when their efforts are not adequately recognised,” the report states.

“Similarly, academically advanced students may become demotivated if not challenged.”

The report also found that to be a world-leading education system, Australia needs to better encourage, support and recognise teaching expertise. It carefully raised the contentious issue of performance-based pay which the AEU has rallied against.

It recommends that schools should be able to “tailor remuneration and allocation of responsibilities based on teacher expertise” instead of the usual practice based on years of service.

The report favoured a Singaporean program where teachers were offered three career tracks — teaching, leadership and specialist — which includes training and development and performance appraisal to “incentivise, motivate and reward”.

Key recommendations

■ Every student should get a year’s worth of learning for every year at school.

■ Teachers should prioritise teaching of basic literacy and numeracy in the early years.

■ Student success should be measured in terms of the level of achievement and the extent of progress.

■ Online tool for teachers to regularly and consistently assess where each student is, and their progress.

■ Review the curriculum for Years 11 and 12 to ensure students have the skills needed in the future.

Who is David Gonski?

THE prominent businessman sits on about 40 boards as well as chairing the ANZ Banking Group, and is chancellor of the University of NSW. He recently retired as chair of Coca-Cola Amatil and used to hold the influential role of chairman of the Future Fund.

Mr Gonski was asked by former Labor education minister Julia Gillard in 2010 to chair a committee that would recommend an overhaul of school funding.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last year asked Mr Gonski to chair another education review, this time to ensure the school system was working in the best interests of students.

Mum’s message: Don’t blame teachers

EVERY week, Ruby Loy leaves her primary school class room to spend an hour with a specialist teacher.

Jacinta Loy with her daughter Ruby, who is dyslexic. Picture Matt Turner.

Her goal; to improve her reading after she fell behind in a classroom which did not appropriately cater for dyslexic students.

Ruby’s mother, Jacinta Loy, said the Gonski Report’s scathing assessment of the current state of the nation’s education system “absolutely” captured their experience. “Schools are just not given the skills or the resources to be able to teach children with specialist learning needs,” Ms Loy said.

She said the blame did not lie with the teachers or the school staff who had tried their hardest with the resources provided to them.

“The school can’t help it, it’s not their fault. Her teachers all tried really hard but they are not educated to be able to handle specialist learning needs.

“They need to be taught how to teach these kids with reading issues. The way dyslexics learn to read can benefit an entire classroom.”

“Many schools’ intervention programs for students are well marketed but are based on flimsy evidence or are evidence based but delivered by people not trained in dyslexia and specialist intervention needs.”

Ms Loy watched as her daughter’s self esteem suffered while she grappled with the fundamental skill.

“Not many people realise but falling behind in class can affect social skills and self esteem,” Ms Loy said.