Lesson to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Gonski

Poor behaviour in Australian classrooms is a contributing factor to sliding standards, an expert has warned.

Education expert Kevin Donnelly. Picture: David Geraghty

Poor behaviour in Australian classrooms is a contributing factor to sliding standards, a leading education expert has warned.

As an education funding row is set to erupt between the states and the federal government, Kevin Donnelly, a senior research fellow at the Australian Catholic University who co-chaired the National Curriculum Review, yesterday cited repeated OECD reports showing behaviour in Australian schools lagged compared to high-performing countries.

A 2012 study showed Australia was above the OECD average for the incidence of bullying or intimidation and average in terms of students disrupting classes. But Australia’s performance on both these measures was much worse than Singapore and South Korea.

Australia was also among the worst countries for noise and disorder in a 2009 study published by the Programme for International Student Assessment alongside Canada and New Zealand.

Incoming NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has made increasing school funding in line with Julia Gillard’s Gonski model one of her priorities, a position that will put her at odds with the federal government, which argues that spending money on its own is not the answer to lifting standards.

Dr Donnelly argues that more funding for schools is not the answer to declining student performance and warns that the NSW curriculum is “overcrowded” and seeks to enforce politically correct, cultural-Left values.

He proposes enhancing school autonomy, imposing new consequences for failure and upholding a rigorous curriculum that does not pander to political objectives such as the Safe Schools program.

As The Australian revealed yesterday, Ms Berejiklian vows to act as the “strongest advocate” for the Gonski reforms and would “make sure the federal government sticks to all its commitments.”

But Labor’s education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek yesterday seized on the comments to drive a wedge between Malcolm Turnbull and the NSW Liberal government.

“The NSW Liberals know that Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts to schools will mean fewer teachers, less one-on-one attention, and students left behind — and less help with the basics like reading, writing, maths, science, and computer skills,” Ms Plibersek said.

Writing in The Australian today, Dr Donnelly says the last two years of Gonski were never funded and that the federal government was in a tough fiscal situation and facing years of deficits.

He says that Australia’s spending on education, at 5.6 per cent of GDP, is slightly higher than the average of 5.2 per cent across the OECD, but he argues Australia is not getting a good return in terms of student performance based on its level of investment.

“Despite a record level of investment in education over the last 20 years Australia’s results in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Programme in International Student Assessment have gone backwards,” Dr Donnelly says. “If the NSW Premier is serious about raising standards ... then ­instead of more money a la Gonski what is needed is a more market-driven model based on autonomy, diversity and choice and evidence-based research reflecting the characteristics of stronger performing systems and schools.”

The West Australian Education Minister Peter Collier called for a new education funding plan after recent analysis showed a hypothetical metropolitan government school in NSW would be provided $3236 per student in federal funding this year while a similar school in Western Australia would only receive $2649.

“Why should we, in Western Australia, be penalised for funding our schools so well? Why should a student from an identical background in Western Australia be funded at a much lower rate than a student that happens to live on the east coast of Australia? This is no way to operate an effective federation,” he told The Australian.

“ I look forward to seeing a true needs-based funding model, similar to the student centred funding model we have already introduced in WA, that is working so well.”