By Lucy Carroll
Seven years ago, the then-British schools minister Nick Gibb landed in Australia for a whirlwind tour to meet teachers, politicians and principals.
The reading wars were raging once again, and Gibb was here to urge federal and state governments to embrace phonics – the systematic, sounding out of words – as the most effective way to teach children how to read.
“When governments look to reform education systems, they have to start with reading. It is fundamental to everything. It’s key to lifting maths results too,” he says.
NSW introduced a new syllabus in 2022 that mandated the use of phonics. Students at Fairfield West Public School are pictured here learning phonics last year.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Gibb, who retired from politics this year, has been described as one of Britain’s most influential schools ministers. Alongside former education secretary Michael Gove, the Conservative MP cemented himself as an unshakable figure in British politics who spearheaded radical education reforms – from phonics to teacher training. He spent more than a decade from 2010 in the role, and five years before that in opposition.
“He was a firebrand in education,” says former NSW education minister Rob Stokes, who met Gibb in Sydney in 2017. “He wanted to bring about change. He was passionate, but he was divisive too.
“He was unambiguous in his message that phonics was the best way to achieve transformative change in student results in the early years. It gave us confidence that if it was working in UK schools, then it could work here too.”
It’s a message Gibb is still delivering. He will appear in Melbourne on Thursday at a schools summit and in Sydney next week at the Centre for Independent Studies to discuss England’s school reforms, and how changes could inform policy in Australia.
Nick Gibb (right), who was England’s schools minister for more than a decade from 2010, advocated for a “knowledge-rich” curriculum.Credit: Getty Images
“If you want to be an effective minister, make genuine change to improve things, you’ve got to understand what the problem is you’re trying to solve,” Gibb explains.
He used his five years as shadow minister to visit hundreds of classrooms and read books by education theorist E.D. Hirsch, whose work became a blueprint for his back-to-basics reform agenda – one which attracted both praise and criticism.
As the new UK Labour government flags reversing education reforms made under Conservative rule, Gibb points to the latest global reading test (PIRLS), where England climbed to fourth, as evidence the reforms are working. England outperformed Finland, Poland and Australia.
‘A phonics obsession’
Several years after Gibb’s 2017 visit, NSW and South Australia embedded phonics, where students decode words by sounding out letters, into the primary curriculum. The states also followed the UK by adopting a phonics screening check for six-year-olds.
In NSW, 59 per cent of children met the expected reading level in the phonics check last year, up from 55 per cent in 2022. Victoria is planning to roll out phonics from next year, while experts have called for a national check.
“We faced bitter opposition from teacher unions at the time, but the results show systematic, synthetic phonics was the most effective way of teaching children to read,” Gibb says. “Phonics has been my obsession during my career. And it’s paid off.”
Testing times tables
In 2022, England rolled out a compulsory times tables check for year 4 students. The rapid-fire test was the first time in almost 80 years that multiplication tables were formally assessed in primary schools.
The idea is opposed by some maths teachers here.
“That was much harder to get off the ground than phonics,” Gibb says. “The aim was to check if students could effortlessly recite their times tables to make sure they had that instant recall.” Last month, the UK’s national teacher union demanded the online test – which asks 25 questions on times tables 2 to 12 – to be scaled back and “made optional”.
England’s schools made a times tables check for year 4 students mandatory several years ago.Credit: Steven Siewert
In July, NSW Education Minister Prue Car proposed a numeracy check for year 1 students, an idea backed by her federal counterpart Jason Clare. But after states rejected the latest funding deal – which linked extra Commonwealth cash to reforms such as universal screening checks – it is uncertain if an early maths check will be rolled out in Australian schools.
No shame in knowledge
During his decade as minister, Gibb argued the need for a rigorous and knowledge-rich curriculum, while criticising the teaching of “so-called 21st-century skills”.
“For the brain to carry out complex problem-solving or critical thinking, it needs required knowledge in long-term memory,” he wrote last year.
Gibb has pushed for more facts, chronology of history, geography, punctuation and grammar, and a deeper understanding of mathematics in the curriculum. Much of this was inspired by Hirsch, he says, and his book Cultural Literacy. “We shouldn’t be ashamed of teaching an extensive knowledge-rich curriculum. It will help close the achievement gap.”
A study published last year found Australia’s science curriculum sets students up for failure against high-performing countries by having half the content of other education systems. The NSW Education Standards Authority says that state’s new curriculum will contain more “detailed knowledge” to help lift the baseline level of learning for all students.
Turning around the Titanic
Gibb says the most difficult reform was overhauling teaching training. “We had a big battle with Oxford and Cambridge over changes to initial teaching courses. University education faculties were not interested in discussing reform and wedded to their progressive methods,” he says.
Gibb pushed for initial training courses to contain “evidence-based” teaching methods, including explicit maths and reading instruction and managing classroom behaviour.
Last year, Australian education ministers agreed “in principle” to overhaul teacher training after a report found new teachers felt ill-equipped for the classroom.
“Making major changes to the courses is like turning around the Titanic. I’ve been very critical of university education faculties over the years because they were never really the fountain of ideas,” Gibb says. “They weren’t talking about the importance of knowledge curriculum, or the importance of knowledge in helping close the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. But making changes to training programs helped generate debate among teachers. And that was a good thing.”
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