By Robyn Grace
A statewide school tutoring program that cost taxpayers more than $1 billion has done little to improve students’ learning, an audit has found.
In a report tabled in parliament on Wednesday, Victorian Auditor-General Andrew Greaves said fewer than one-third of all government schools had fully effective practices and many schools were implementing the program incorrectly.
Small-group tutoring has been running in Victorian schools since 2021.Credit: Istock
The Department of Education had the information it needed to boost schools’ delivery of the Tutor Learning Initiative, but had not used it to drive improvement, the audit said.
“We found that the initiative did not significantly improve students’ learning compared to similar non-tutored students,” the audit said.
More than 1500 government schools and 600 low-fee non-government schools have participated in the program each year since 2021, which enabled tutors to work with students and address their individual learning needs.
The Victorian audit, which examined only government schools, found students who received tutoring in 2023 did not show greater learning gains than similar students who did not receive tutoring.
“When we compared similar students from each group, we found that students who received tutoring learnt less than those who did not receive tutoring,” the audit said.
Among disadvantaged students, there was no difference in learning gains between tutored and non-tutored students. There was also no significant difference in learning gains between tutored students in metropolitan, regional or rural Victoria.
The tutoring program was introduced in 2021 after COVID restrictions closed schools, and students were forced into long periods of remote learning. It was billed by then-education minister James Merlino as the “most critical thing” the government was doing in schools that year. It is funded until the end of next year.
An evaluation of a similar program in NSW found it had “minimal effect” on academic improvement in literacy and numeracy, but the Victorian Department of Education had repeatedly blocked the release of its own review.
The auditor-general’s evaluation focused on schools’ delivery of the initiative only in 2023 because staff and student absences due to COVID-19 and influenza affected the results in previous years.
The audit analysed schools’ delivery of the initiative against the department’s own “continuous improvement” tool.
It found that three years into the tutoring program, fewer than one-third of all government schools had fully effective practices that were targeted, appropriate to school context and appropriate to student need.
The audit found that despite collecting a range of data, the department had not used the information to drive improvement in schools’ tutoring practices between 2021 and 2023. The department also does not set benchmarks for schools’ performance against the framework.
“For the initiative to improve learning outcomes for students, the department must make a sustained effort to understand what works, why it works and how to support all schools to be fully effective,” the audit said.
“We understand the department rolled out the initiative quickly in response to students’ learning support needs during the COVID-19 response and that schools were still affected in 2022.
“However, the initiative has been in place for three years with a total commitment of over $1.2 billion and it does not show evidence of sustained improvement over time, either in schools’ practices or student learning outcomes.”
Centre for Independent Studies research fellow Trisha Jha, who has previously called for the release of tutoring data, said the combination of high autonomy and low transparency in Victorian education meant schools were not equipped with the knowledge to make better decisions.
“Given this program is funded until the end of 2025 and has cost $1.2 billion, the department needs to act now to ensure schools improve their practice,” Jha said.
Opposition education spokesperson Jess Wilson said it defied belief that students had not improved and the department had failed to improve the program.
“The Minister for Education must explain the incompetent management of this program and why a $1.2 billion investment in student learning has resulted in no meaningful improvements at a time that learning outcomes are already at record lows,” she said.
The audit recommended the department collect and analyse data and promote what was effective for each different school type and student group.
It also said the department should set measurable goals for schools’ tutoring performance and establish statewide pilots to better understand the expected benefits and support needed in schools.
A Victorian government spokesperson said the report acknowledged that there was strong evidence supporting small group tutoring, “however it does make it clear – post pandemic – we can do things better”.
“We accept the recommendations and will look at improving the effectiveness of the Tutor Learning Initiative, as we do with all programs,” they said.
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