SMH Schools Summit 2024 as it happened: Prue Car, Jason Clare speak; co-education on agenda

Jason Clare, the federal education minister, says he wants more transparency around where government money goes: to private or public schools.

Asked by education editor Lucy Carroll whether the government needs to demand more transparency of certain schools or sectors following the scandal involving embattled private boys’ school Cranbrook, Clare said that “not all independent schools look like Cranbrook”.

Most independent schools are low fee … they don’t look like castles and you don’t need a King’s ransom to go there.

Whether it’s the public school system or non government, I want taxpayer money to glow in the dark.

I want teachers and I want parents to know where the money is going.

We are keen to make sure that we tie the funding to the things we know work.

I want any agreement we strike to make sure we have more transparency on where the money goes.

And with our last panel wrapped up, we’re bringing our coverage of the Sydney Morning Herald Schools Summit to a close.

Many thanks for joining us today, a day filled with interesting insights into the future of education in NSW and Australia.

Some highlights from the day:

• The state’s education minister, Prue Car, said teachers are feeling gaslit.
• Murat Dizdar, secretary of the NSW Department of Education, addressed concerns about falling literacy and numeracy rates: “Don’t believe the commentary.”
• The head of NESA, Paul Martin, defended the ATAR as an imperfect but necessary measure of academic success.
• Jason Clare, the federal education minister, acknowledged “not all independent schools are like Cranbrook,” which is facing a government investigation.

Thanks for your company today. See you at the next summit, or in the school playground.

At the final session of the day, Mike Hennessy, chief research and insights officer at PeopleBench, is warning the pipeline of school staff who are being trained to lead schools in the future is getting smaller and smaller.

“The pipeline is narrowing … and the pipeline is leaking,” he says.

“We’re losing people at some fairly critical junctures.”

He singles out “middle leaders” – about 35 per cent of whom he says intend to leave the profession pre-retirement.

But Joanne Jarvis, director of the School Leadership Institute at the Department of Education, says for too long those middle leaders have been focused on management – not impact or understanding.

Teachers are being left to fail when “they can no longer be the teacher they want to be,” says Eddie Woo, the creator of maths channel WooTube and leader of mathematics growth at Cherrybrook Technology High School.

“We got into this, and we continue, because of the moral purpose that drives us.

Eddie Woo at the Sydney Morning Herald Schools Summit.Credit: Rhett Wymann

“In the places where I have had heartfelt, tearful conversations with teachers from across sectors who have decided to walk away it’s because of that one [moral] purpose.”

Teachers who quit are “just not getting to the outcome that [they] knew was possible”, Woo says. “But you didn’t have the support to get there.”

Let’s return briefly to NSW Education Minister Prue Car’s speech, which included this news:

High potential and gifted education will be rolled out in every public school in the state under a new plan to challenge the students who are not reaching their full potential.

Such programs were only available in half of the state’s public schools, Car said, but fixing that would depend on tackling the state’s teacher shortage.

Education Minister Prue Car speaking at the Herald’s Schools Summit.Credit: Rhett Wyman

“Parents deserve to see high potential and gifted education inside the doors of every local school,” Car said this morning.

“Parents want confidence that regardless of their choice of school, that the learning environment will bring out the best in their child.

“Our vision is that in NSW, high potential and gifted education will be delivered in every public school, in a high-quality offering, in a way that is valued by students, parents and teachers alike.”

Read the full story here.

Jason Clare, the federal education minister, says he wants more transparency around where government money goes: to private or public schools.

Asked by education editor Lucy Carroll whether the government needs to demand more transparency of certain schools or sectors following the scandal involving embattled private boys’ school Cranbrook, Clare said that “not all independent schools look like Cranbrook”.

Most independent schools are low fee … they don’t look like castles and you don’t need a King’s ransom to go there.

Whether it’s the public school system or non government, I want taxpayer money to glow in the dark.

I want teachers and I want parents to know where the money is going.

We are keen to make sure that we tie the funding to the things we know work.

I want any agreement we strike to make sure we have more transparency on where the money goes.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare says he wants an education system where your chances in life aren’t based on who your parents are.

“What I’m trying to do is help build a country where your chances in life don’t depend upon who your parents are or where you grow up or the colour of your skin,” he says.

Jason Clare in conversation with Lucy Carroll.Credit: Rhett Wyman

“It’s more important now to finish high school than when I was in high school and [the percentage of students finishing high school is] going backwards.

“The kids that we need to go to university to go get the jobs of the future are the ones that aren’t finishing school.”

He says early childhood, school education and tertiary level education are all intertwined and one could not be prioritised over the other.

Jason Clare has just pointed to data that shows increasing disparity between well-off and disadvantaged students.

The average eight-year-old can today read at a level about a year ahead of what an average eight-year-old could do 15 years ago.

But at the same time, “the gap in reading skills between a child from a wealthy family and the reading skills of a child from a poor family have got worse,” he says.

“15 years ago it was [a difference of] about a year of learning. Now it’s two.”

“That gap doesn’t shrink at school, and tends to get bigger and bigger and bigger.”

We’re now hearing from federal Education Minister Jason Clare, in conversation with Lucy Carroll.

They’ve begun their conversation with a reflection on Clare’s own schooling, in Cabramatta and Canley Vale, in Sydney’s south-west.

After caring for his mother – who fell very sick at the end of primary school – for almost two years, when he returned to school he says he “was so far behind that school didn’t make sense”.

“I was an extraordinarily lucky person to be loved by two wonderful parents who gave me everything they could in this world,” he says.

“But there were other things that they couldn’t teach me, that they couldn’t know. And it was my teachers at school that helped me see what life was like beyond school.”

On the same panel, Grattan Institute education program provider Jordana Hunter says Australia needs to improve the status of teachers and pay top educators more.

“We have to get the [school funding] sorted, but it is possible to get more money into the system and get no better outcomes for it,” she says.

Grattan Institute’s Jordana HunterCredit: Rhett Wyman

“Quality teaching in the classroom is the engine room that will drive better outcomes,” she says, adding that investing in teachers would improve that.

“There’s work to be done in terms of raising the status of the profession and our research suggests one of the best ways to do that is actually through boosting the level of professional expertise and extending teachers’ career pathways.

“And certainly at that top end there’s a strong argument to be paying teachers more ... and really incentivise our high achievers to come into the profession and think about having a career that remains connected to the classroom.”

Now to the panel on the National School Reform Agreement - which is a joint agreement between the federal government and all states and territories to lift student outcomes across Australian schools.

Early childhood education has been an area of “significant neglect”.Credit: Getty

NSW Teachers Federation president Henry Rajendra says early childhood education has been an area of “significant neglect”. He added:

We welcome the increase in the number of public preschools [in NSW]. But let’s not be too proud of the record.

There are far too many children that present at kindergarten and come with undiagnosed disabilities or learning needs that have not had the interventions.

They are off to a very, very late start. Will they ever reach their potential? We know that is at high risk.