Goal to make our schools best in class by 2030

Alan Tudge has teacher education sector in sights with plan to reverse 20-year decline in students’ academic achievement.

Federal Education minister Alan Tudge. Picture: Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has flagged an impending review of the teacher education sector, arguing further reform is necessary to reverse declining academic outcomes and return the nation to the top of the global rankings by 2030.

He has also hinted at the ­creation of new pathways into teaching, including bringing back one-year diplomas to attract talented mid-career professionals from other fields, such as engineering and accountancy.

In a speech to be delivered at the Menzies Research Centre on Thursday, Mr Tudge points to a 20-year decline in Australian student achievement, as evidence by the OECD PISA test, as justification for reform focused on boosting teacher quality, creating a more rigorous school curriculum and safeguarding NAPLAN from “those who call for less accountability”.

“Australian students are now, on average, about 1½ years behind Singaporean students when it comes to reading and science, and three years behind on maths,” he says. “The next evolution of ­reforms is needed (and) I will soon be launching a review to help shape such reforms.

“This review will investigate where there is still further work to do to ensure that all (initial teacher education) courses are high-quality and adequately prepare our teachers to be effective from day one. The quality of teaching is the most important factor in student outcomes. It is my most ­important priority when it comes to schooling.”

School education is at a crossroads, with a national curriculum review under way.

That process has recently been thrown into disarray after the board of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority twice rejected a draft maths curriculum amid concern it was based around vague and ­potentially confusing “big ideas”. Although just three months into the new portfolio, the Victorian Liberal MP has been involved in school policy for two decades.

While he acknowledges that there are no “silver buller” solutions to improve education, he believes there is significant evidence pointing to what does work to boost outcomes.

According to Mr Tudge: “Without a world-class curriculum, we will not achieve world-class learning outcomes.

“The curriculum sets the standard for the student outcomes we expect — and so our curriculum must reflect our aspiration to be among the best in the world again. Within the national curriculum content, I would like to see greater focus put towards the fundamentals of reading, mathematics and civics and citizenship. These are the building blocks which underpin other content areas and set individuals up for a greater contribution in our society.”

Mr Tudge intends to take his 10-year turnaround proposal to next month’s Education Council meeting, believing that it is a reasonable but also ambitious time frame.

“We should set ourselves a 2030 target to be again among the top group of nations across the three major domains of reading, maths and science,” he says. “Such a target would then become a guiding principle and place ­urgency to the task.

“If this was our economy, this decline would be a national topic of conversation.”

Centre for Independent Studies research fellow in education policy Glenn Fahey said Australia could be among the best performing countries in PISA and there was a lot to be learned from Singapore.

“If we look to curriculum, the most stark difference is a rigour gap,” he said. “Curriculum is part of the ­picture, but it’s also the delivery that’s critical. That remains a teaching quality issue and there’s no shortcutting that.”