Teaching time for literacy, maths should be mandated

The OECD’s observation that Australia is one of the few countries with no fixed share of school instruction time devoted to reading, writing, literature and maths should concern education ministers, school authorities, teachers and parents. On average across OECD countries, the Education at a Glance 2023 report reveals, 25 per cent of instruction time in primary schools is spent on literacy and 16 per cent on maths. In lower secondary school the international figures shift to 15 per cent on literacy and 13 per cent on maths. It would be interesting to compare those figures with local schools.

On other measures Australia is ahead, with compulsory instruction time in primary and lower secondary education totalling 11,000 hours across 11 grades, the highest in the OECD. The average is 7634 hours across nine grades. Australia also betters the average in the educational attainment of 25-34-year-olds and in higher teachers’ salaries. Salaries, the OECD notes, are “an important determinant of the attractiveness of the teaching profession”. Australian teachers’ salaries have soared five times faster than those across the industrialised world. But they should be increasingly merit-based, a concept teachers unions often oppose. The average salary for well-qualified upper secondary teachers with 15 years’ experience is $108,312 ($US69,369). It is well ahead of the $US53,456 average for teachers across the OECD.

In light of the alarming results of the most recent NAPLAN tests, the amount of instruction time spent on the basics in classrooms should be investigated and, if necessary, extended to match or exceed OECD averages. Some children need more time to master the basics. Those who are ahead could be given more challenging books and maths tasks. As education editor Natasha Bita reported last month, one in three children failed this year’s literacy and numeracy tests despite taxpayers pumping $662bn into schools since NAPLAN testing started. Just 15 per cent of students exceeded expectations and half performed “strongly”. Of 1.3 million students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 who sat the tests, about 130,000 were found to need extra support and 300,000 were classed as “developing” their skills.

While Australian students spend longer at school than their peers overseas, the curriculum is crowded and ideologically laden, often distracting attention from key subjects. As former chief scientist Alan Finkel told Bita this week, lack of basic literacy and mathematical skills was sabotaging students’ success in high school and university. Students needed to learn “muscle memory” subjects early, he said. “In literacy, not teaching phonics has been a serious problem because we have a generation that hasn’t been taught effectively how to read,” Dr Finkel said. “And good luck picking up mathematics at university for a subject like engineering or architecture if you didn’t learn it at school.”

Young Australians’ participation rates in higher education are impressive, the OECD snapshot shows. But in view of the nation’s skills shortages, however, the report reveals a much lower participation in courses leading to vocational education qualifications than in some strong European industrial economies. In Australia, 29 per cent of 25-34-year-olds have a VET qualification as their highest level of educational attainment, compared with more than 50 per cent of those in the same age group in Austria and almost 40 per cent in Germany. The contrast highlights a point industry leaders and this newspaper have made for a long time – university is not necessarily the best option for every school-leaver. Some students stand to build more satisfying, lucrative careers through skills training. Depending on their interests and talents, they should be encouraged by school career services to do so.

On the positive side, after years of debate over funding, the snapshot shows Australia is well up to scratch. The nation spends $US15,620 per full-time equivalent student, well above the average of $US12,647. And young people are the winners. Across OECD countries, 14.7 per cent of young adults aged 18 to 24 are not in education, employment or training. In Australia the corresponding figure is 10.6 per cent. It should be better because, as the report notes, those young people face “worse labour-market outcomes later in life than their peers who remained in education or training at this age”. Overall, the report affirms efforts by both sides of politics and educators to lift standards. But the focus must remain on curriculum, literacy, numeracy and quality teaching.