Taxpayer funding for schools has climbed to about $16,000 per student and exceeds $60 billion a year. At the same time, student achievement in the OECD-run Programme for International Student Assessment has plummeted faster than in just about any other country. And we expect there to be little good news in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study data being released this week.

Maximising the educational return on investment must be a key imperative as we continue on the long road to being the clever country we once aspired to.