Roll out direct instruction to all classrooms, says Indigenous leader Noel Pearson

As the teacher union demands more cash to lift student results in NAPLAN literacy and numeracy tests, Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has other ideas.

Noel Pearson at St Peters Lutheran College in Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson has demanded that all schools adopt direct instruction in classrooms and blasted education leaders for ignoring the reform for 20 years.

Mr Pearson said it was “bittersweet‘’ to see Catholic schools improve reading and mathematics results through the direct instruction method – also known as explicit teaching – after he lobbied for two decades to have it mandated in public schools.

Drawing the link between school failure and rising rates of youth crime, the prominent Aboriginal lawyer and activist said ­direct instruction would help First Nations students catch up with kids living in cities.

“What do you think is driving the youth justice problem with Indigenous kids? Failure to read,” he told The Australian.

Mr Pearson said it was “bittersweet” for him to see Catholic schools improve literacy results after they embraced direct instruction just four years ago.

“You just add water and the kids come good – the plant grows,” he said of the old-school, teacher-led, step-by-step teaching method.

“Of course, in remote schools you’ve got to fix all the other problems like teacher retention, teacher accommodation, training of teachers.

“But if you don’t get the instruction right, you’re going to fail anyway.”

The Cape York Institute leader’s call came as both the federal government and the opposition called for explicit teaching in every classroom.

But Mr Pearson said the political support for explicit instruction has “come 20 years too late’’.

“It still has not dawned on the commonwealth how to solve the problem of distributing billions of dollars to the states and territories without them ever heeding the evidence (of how children learn),’’ he said.

“That explains why Australian schools have fallen further and further behind notwithstanding the increase in funding. You know, we are just completely clueless.’’

Year 3 student Harris reads with principal Tim Cleary at St Thomas Aquinas Primary School in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

One in three Australian children failed to meet baseline standards in this year’s NAPLAN (National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy) – including 400,000 students who have fallen so far behind they require catch-up tutoring.

Figures show Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are four times more likely than non-Indigenous children to be failing in basic reading, writing and mathematics.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has included explicit instruction methods in his 10-year Better and Fairer Schooling Agreement.

But NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia are refusing to sign up unless he doubles the commonwealth’s offer of $16bn in extra funding.

Mr Clare said that “we know evidence-based teaching practices like this work’’.

“That’s why I’ve got $16bn on the table that’s tied to practical reforms like this – to fix the funding of our public schools and turn around the drop in the number of young people finishing high school,’’ he said. Federal opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said Mr Clare had promised to drive evidence-based teaching “but continues to be caught up in a school funding war’’.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare is pushing state and territory governments to adopt evidence-based teaching methods. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“Labor’s failure to conclude agreements with four states puts at risk increased funding and critical reforms for more than 80 per cent of government schools,’’ she said.

Senator Henderson also called for a simpler national curriculum, which the former Coalition government had endorsed in 2022.

“Labor is failing to listen to many educators who say the national curriculum is ‘impossible to teach’,’’ she said.

“Labor’s proposed school reforms do not address classroom behaviour and teacher safety or the need to adopt a concise, knowledge-rich national curriculum.’’

The Australian Education Union blamed poor NAPLAN results on the failure of governments to give public schools all the needs-based “Gonski funding” that was recommended 13 years ago in a review led by business leader David Gonski.

AEU president Correna Haythorpe said underfunding was “leading to entrenched disadvantaged and educational segregation in Australia’’.

“We cannot close achievement gaps without closing resources gaps,’’ she said. But a rival union, the Teachers Professional Association of Australia, said the results highlighted the difference between schools using modern teaching techniques, such as student-directed learning, and those using the “tried-and-true direct instruction approach’’.

Australian Education Union president Correna Haythorpe is blaming poor performance on funding shortfalls. Picture: Chris Kidd

TPAA national secretary Edward Schuller said that fresh NAPLAN data proving the success of direct instruction in 56 Catholic schools in Canberra and Goulburn is the “death knell of student-led learning’’.

“We hear too much about 21st-century skills in this country and have completely neglected the foundational basics that all learning is dependent on – reading, writing and arithmetic,’’ he said.

Mr Schuller said too many schools were still expecting students to “lead their own learning and build on key skills that simply aren’t there to begin with’’.

He said the achievement gap between private and government-run schools was growing wider.

“It’s critically important to have the autonomy and authority to implement direct instruction and cut through the clutter of the curriculum,’’ Mr Schuller said.

Mr Pearson praised Ross Fox, the director of Catholic Education for the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, for mandating explicit instruction in 56 schools through the Catalyst reform program in 2020.

“He is the one system leader who has carried this instructional reform and that’s what’s missing across the country,’’ Mr Pearson said.

“Where are the system leaders who are carrying the banner of effective instruction?’’