By Lucy Carroll and Angus Thompson
The gap between the nation’s richest and poorest school students is now firmly entrenched, warns a major report that calls for the rollout of a suite of new performance targets and a massive boost to public school funding.
School systems would need to hit higher attendance and NAPLAN targets and provide greater funding transparency, while the best teachers could be sent to the poorest classrooms, under an expert panel’s proposals to the nation’s education ministers as part of a new 10-year funding agreement.
School systems would need to hit higher attendance and NAPLAN targets under the expert panel’s report.Credit: iStock
The report, ahead of the next National School Reform Agreement, found the achievement gap between the richest and poorest students was growing and inequality was now “entrenched”. It called for all public schools across the country to be fully funded as a matter of urgency.
“Australia has one of the highest levels of social segregation across schools in OECD countries. The impacts of concentration of disadvantage can be severe and result in poorer education outcomes,” the panel’s report, Improving Outcomes for All, said.
NAPLAN data showed the learning gap for disadvantaged students compared with their more advantaged peers rose from 1.4 years in 2008 to 2.3 years in 2022 for year 3 reading. The latest round of international tests showed teenagers from disadvantaged families lagged their advantaged counterparts by five years of schooling, and Indigenous students were around four years behind their non-Indigenous peers.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare met his state and federal counterparts on Monday to kick off negotiations for the next agreement, which will help determine how schools are funded through federal, state and territory arrangements.
“At the moment, most public schools aren’t fully funded and children from poor families and regional Australia are three times more likely to fall behind at school. We’ve got to fix this funding gap and fix this education gap,” Clare said after the meeting.
The ministers agreed on three areas of focus: equity, wellbeing and a sustainable workforce.
The report, by an expert panel chaired by Dr Lisa O’Brien, set out a series of recommendations, including that students received high-quality classroom instruction and regular screening, and that those who need additional support can access small-group or individual “catch-up” tutoring.
It called for all Australian schools to use a year 1 phonics check by the end of 2026, and an equivalent “robust” numeracy screening check by 2028.
It also urged governments and school systems to encourage highly effective teachers and principals to work in schools with the highest numbers of disadvantaged students.
In measures aimed at addressing social disadvantage, as well as the residual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on classroom cohesion, the panel called for the creation of a national wellbeing measurement that would take into account factors such as belonging, safety, cultural safety, engagement and classroom disruption.
Additionally, it called on specific staff to act as “wellbeing co-ordinators” who could link students with certain services, and create “full-service” schools where students could take advantage of community and health services such as occupational and speech therapists.
NSW Education Minister Prue Car welcomed the report’s identification of equity, student wellbeing and the workforce as key issues that would inform discussions for the reform agreement.
“It means we are all working towards the same goal,” she said.
“Without enough teachers in our schools, we cannot begin to implement the further improvements that we all want to see.”
Associate professor Glenn Savage, an expert in education policy at the University of Melbourne, said if wellbeing was to be translated into a measurable outcome, “everyone needs to be on the same page”.
“It can be useful, but it can also lead to unintended consequences and perverse outcomes,” Savage said, adding that if it were used in any way to rank schools, it could have detrimental impacts on those facing certain challenges.
However, he criticised the lack of specific direction in the report on setting targets to close achievement gaps affecting disadvantaged cohorts.
“If the only way we address inequity is to focus on minimum proficiency standards in NAPLAN, then that’s a very weak and not particularly aspirational target for tackling inequality in our schools,” he said.
Specific questions surrounding funding were excluded from the remit of the panel’s report, but Savage said now was the time to talk about funding.
“Ministers now need to develop reform initiatives and targets, but they also need to have a conversation about how money is tied to those things,” he said.
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