Victoria’s reputation as ‘Education State’ suffers further blow

Victoria’s claim to be the ‘Education State’ has suffered a further blow, with student reading and maths outcomes static for more than a decade, a damning new report has found.

Victoria’s reputation as the ‘Education State’ has suffered another blow.

Victoria’s reputation as the Education State has suffered a further blow, with student reading and maths outcomes static for more than a decade, a damning new report has found.

This is despite an increase in education spending of 33 per cent in recent years, with average funding per student rising from $11,522 in 2015 to $21,478 in 2021, the Victorian Auditor-General Office (VAGO) report says.

The report, released in state parliament on Wednesday, is highly critical of the Allan Government’s reporting of student outcomes, saying they are “not a fair or transparent presentation of student outcomes”.

This includes reporting of NAPLAN results, which the auditor-general said are not made available to the public in easy-to-understand and accessible formats.

The auditor-general, Andrew Greaves, points out that the government’s own aim, established in 2015, was to be an Education State, with $10b committed to produce excellence and reduce the impact of disadvantage.

Victorian students’ reading and maths outcomes have been static for more than a decade.

These targets included reducing the gap in NAPLAN reading achievement between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students in years 5 and 9 by 15 per cent by 2025.

And yet the proportion of Indigenous and disadvantaged students failing to meet benchmarks has soared since 2012 and current measures will not close the gap.

It comes as ten per cent of Year 9 students are reading at Year 7 level or below and the average Indigenous students are two years behind.

The report says: “While there have been improvements for some students, outcomes for most students have stayed the same since 2012. Based on the department’s reporting, it is not on track to make the significant improvement in student outcomes sought by the Education State targets”.

Outcomes for most students have stayed the same since 2012.

The report comes after the most recent PISA data from the OECD found educational outcomes for 15-year-old Victorian students across reading, mathematics and science are at record lows.

The government was also criticised for reporting outcomes against budget measures that “focus on students in all Victorian schools and those that achieve at high levels”.

“This is not a fair presentation of the department’s performance, as it does not report outcomes for government students specifically. It also does not report outcomes for groups of students whose achievement is less likely to meet expected levels,” the auditor-general’s report states.

Shadow Minister for Early Childhood and Education, Jess Wilson, said: “This report shows

disadvantaged students continue to be let down by the Allan Labor Government.

“Under Labor, students from indigenous and disadvantaged backgrounds, who begin their

educational journey behind their peers, are not being effectively supported to close the gap.

“Furthermore, the failure of the government to monitor fundamental areas such as writing is

contributing to the continued stagnation of student performance,” Ms Wilson said.