NAPLAN: Ministers must act now to rescue these children

Education Minister Jason Clare. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Tertius Pickard

In the emergency wards of Australia’s education system, 400,000 struggling school students are still waiting for someone to help them.

Without intervention, these children have little hope of reaching minimum standards – let alone excelling – in English and maths by the time they leave high school.

Too many will give up waiting – a trend evident in the rising rates of school truancy and dropouts.

Two in every three Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and three out of four students living in remote parts of Australia, failed to meet minimum standards in this year’s literacy and numeracy tests.

This is unacceptable. There is no more compelling evidence that Australia’s education system has failed, despite 15 years of NAPLAN testing and a decade of “needs-based” funding increases.

Money and good intentions are not enough. Decades of dodgy teaching methods and a cluttered, confusing curriculum have created a destructive loop of disadvantage.

Students need explicit instruction – that old-school style of teaching that often involves rote learning, repetition, practice and scaffolding.

Children must learn to read by sounding out words and sounds, instead of guessing them by looking at pictures.

In maths, teachers must ensure that children have mastered basic content before they move on to harder lessons.

Too often, struggling students are left behind, unless their parents can afford to pay for expensive tutoring – a booming business in Australia.

The segregation of schooling in Australia is widening the gap, as employed and educated parents evacuate their children to private schools, leaving public schools to carry the burden of disadvantage.

Children struggle for many reasons – they may have a learning disability, a mental health problem, a dysfunctional family, or be hungry or homeless.

Just as a hospital must heal broken bones to prevent permanent damage, schools and society need to intervene so children aren’t crippled by unemployment and poverty.

The Albanese government is spending $368 billion on new submarines. An educated population is every bit as important to Australia’s prosperity and security.

Education ministers must get cracking on emergency reform. As they’re so fond of reminding parents, “every day counts’’.