Alan Tudge says schools must focus on maths, science to improve

Australia will set itself a 10-year goal to fix its dismal school performance and get the country back among the top education nations.

Australia needs 10 years to fix its dismal school performance and get back into the ranks of the top 10 education nations, Education and Youth Minister Alan Tudge will tell an audience at the Menzies Research Centre on Thursday.

And to do so, we should learn from the examples of high performing nations like Finland and Singapore.

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Noting that in the past two decades, while funding for schools has gone up, Australia’s rankings in reading, science and maths had slid among OECD nat­ions.

Education Minister Alan Tudge says the drop in our education standards is alarming. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“In the early 2000s, we ranked 4th internationally in reading, 8th in science, and 11th in maths. By 2018, we had fallen to 16th in reading, 17th in science and 29th in maths,” Mr Tudge, who wants more focus on teacher quality and the curriculum, will say.

In real terms, this means that over the past two decades, reading performance has ­declined by the equivalent of nine months of schooling, maths by 14 months, and science by 11 months.

“If this was our economy, this decline would be a nat­ional topic of conversation. Perhaps the lack of attention is because the decline has been gradual,” he will say.

“But when viewed over a 20-year period, it is profound — and it will have consequences for our long-term productivity and competitiveness if we cannot lift our education performance.

“We should set ourselves a 2030 target to be again among the top group of nations across the three major domains of reading, maths and science. We used to consistently be in the top group, which means we can get there again.”

A student with a good teacher can achieve twice as much as those who aren’t as good. Picture: Dean Martin

To get there, Mr Tudge will say that while states are responsible for much of what happens with teachers, the Commonwealth can still make a difference through the delivery of better teacher education at a university level as well as better professional development.

“For example, primary teachers in Singapore are rigorously trained in systematic and explicit teaching of grammar — a key to great literacy teaching,” he will say.

According to Mr Tudge, “a student with a teacher in the top 10 per cent of effectiveness achieves in a half a year what a student with a teacher in the bottom 10 per cent achieves in a year.

Mr Tudge says maths and civics are among subjects which should have a greater focus. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

“That is, a good teacher has twice the impact of a poorer teacher on student learning.”

As well, would-be teachers already in the middle of another career should be allowed to take “shorter pathways” into the classroom, as “it would be a rare mid-career person who could afford to take two years off work” to do the required Masters degree.

What is taught will also come in for scrutiny, with Mr Tudge calling for “greater focus put towards the fundamentals of reading, mathematics and civics and citizenship”.

“These are the building blocks which underpin other content areas and set individuals up for a greater contribution in our society and democracy,” he will say.

Originally published as Alan Tudge says schools must focus on maths, science to improve