‘We shouldn’t be defending it’: NAPLAN results spark call for equity in the west

Dismal NAPLAN results have revealed the kids struggling most at school, but the federal Education Minister says Western Sydney kids deserve as many opportunities as those on the North Shore.

School kids in Western Sydney deserve to be on par with those on the North Shore, Education Minister Jason Clare has declared, as his supremo Mark Scott said more traditional direct teaching techniques were needed to close the NAPLAN gap.

Mr Scott, the Sydney University Vice-Chancellor and former head of the Education Department, said it was time to stop complaining about the NAPLAN process and admit the system needed to do better, after shock results revealed almost a third of Australian students failed to meet national literacy and numeracy standards.

“It’s not the result that we need and we shouldn’t be defending it,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“We should be using the results as a spur for higher achievement in every school down the track.”

Mr Clare told The Daily Telegraph that kids in Western Sydney deserved the same results as those on the North Shore and Mr Scott said there were already proven methods that could bring even the most disadvantaged kids in line with the most affluent.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare sits in on a lesson with Hambledon Public School students in Sydney’s northwest. Picture: Eilidh Sproul-Mellis

“Kids in Western Sydney and the bush deserve the same chances and opportunities as kids on the North Shore and eastern suburbs,” Mr Clare said.

“That’s what the reforms we implement will be all about.”

Sydney University Vice Chancellor and head of the Teacher Education Expert Panel Mark Scott. Picture John Grainger

The latest NAPLAN results revealed almost a third of Australian students were not up to literacy standards, with the worst results among poorer families, those in the bush and Indigenous kids.

“I don’t want us to be a country where your chances in life depend on how wealthy your parents are, where you live, or the colour of your skin,” Mr Clare said. “But we are today.”

Mr Scott, who has been tasked by the government to overhaul teacher recruitment and training, said the student-led exploratory style of learning that has been fashionable over recent decades had failed to lift literacy standards and that more focused, direct instruction was needed.

He said evidence proved that this could close the gap even with the most disadvantaged students.

“There just needs to be a clarity of focus on laying the strong foundations early, irrespective of the school that the student goes to, irrespective of the background of the child,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

This included an emphasis on explicit instruction, breaking down and decoding words students struggle with, strong classroom management and each school having an established improvement plan to ensure it is always seeking better outcomes.

“Part of the strategy for this is every school to be able to demonstrate that they have a school improvement plan, that they are putting in place strategies that clearly and systematically demonstrate they’re focused on using the teaching techniques that evidence suggests works,” he said.

NSW Education Minister Prue Car said closing the gap between the bush and Western Sydney and more affluent areas was a major priority and more teachers were desperately needed.

“There is a gap, and it’s not acceptable,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

“That’s why we need to make sure that we address the teacher shortage because it’s worse in the bush, it’s worse in rural and regional communities, and in parts of Western Sydney, where there are growing populations and not enough teachers.”