Plibersek targets teacher status

Tanya Plibersek aims to lift standards of teaching and student outcomes across the board.

ALP deputy leader Tanya Plibersek. Picture: Brian Cassey

Tanya Plibersek has revealed she will be minister for education and training, and minster for women, if Labor wins the election, and will play a lead role in policy co-ordination and implementation within cabinet as deputy prime minister.

Labor’s deputy leader told The Weekend Australian that she would focus on lifting standards of teaching and student outcomes across the board with a suite of policies to improve the quality of schooling.

“The guiding principle for me is I want the same quality education for every Australian child that I want for my children,” Ms Plibersek said.

“We will match the government’s funding for Catholic and ­independent schools, and provide $14 billion in extra funding for public schools.

“It also means improving the status of teaching so that we attract the best and brightest into teaching, that we keep our great experienced teachers in the classroom, and support mentoring and training teachers.”

Ms Plibersek reiterated Labor’s plan to establish an Evidence Institute for Schools that would commission research into how teachers could improve learning outcomes at a cost of $73 million over four years. Labor will also set up a ­National Principals’ Academy to provide leadership training at a cost of $30m over four years.

“We know what works to improve results,” Ms Plibersek said.

“We had a national agenda for school improvement that Christopher Pyne said was just red tape. (But) the most critical factors for school success are the teacher at the front of the classroom and the leader of the school.”

Labor will boost federal funding for schools from 20 to 22.2 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard over three years and has cautioned state governments that the extra spending must be used to ­improve school performance rather than meet costs such as capital ­depreciation.

Although the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is being ­reviewed, Labor has no plans to abandon diagnostic testing that is important for parents, teachers and governments.

“We need to know if some kids are falling behind,” Ms Plibersek said.

“We need data to make decisions.

“But we can do that in a way that doesn’t have Year 3 kids vomiting on the way to school because they are nervous about their tests.”

She said Labor would run a disciplined cabinet process and prioritise policy co-ordination and delivery.

“Focusing on the proper implementation of all of our policies across the board will be a really ­important part of the job and it does free the leader a little bit to focus on what he needs to focus on,” she said.