Researchers call for education system overhaul and school vouchers

The conservative Page Research Centre says while the return to traditional teaching approaches is welcome, there needs to be a forensic analysis of ‘why Australian school education has reached such a low point’.

The Page Research Centre recommends a new school funding arrangement that will give each parent a funding voucher, redeemable at any government or non-government school.

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A conservative research centre has issued a bold proposal to overhaul the Australian education system, calling for a national education commission, fast-tracked Australian Curriculum reform and replacing university programs with national teacher training institutions.

The Page Research Centre – a not-for-profit organisation affiliated with the Nationals and focusing on regional and rural Australia – also recommends a new school funding arrangement that will give each parent a funding voucher, redeemable at any government or non-government school.

Deidre Clary, Kevin Donnelly and Fiona Mueller, in the policy paper Academic and Cultural Orphans: The Legacy of Policy Reforms in Australian School Education, also argue for an extensive national inquiry into six decades of education policy reforms.

The Page Research Centre, whose board chairman is former deputy prime minister and former Nationals leader John Anderson, recommend an evaluation of the extent to which key reforms such as the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Declaration, the National Schools Reform Agreement (to 2024) and the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement (2025-2034) have “achieved official national education goals”.

Director of research Dr Mueller said while it was positive that the nation had apparently returned to traditional approaches to school education in curriculum and in pedagogy, it was important “to understand why we have ended up in such a dire situation with such low public confidence and low morale in the profession”.

Former deputy prime minister John Anderson. Picture: AAP

The researchers call for the establishment of a national school education commission, led by a national school commissioner. It would be responsible for overseeing initial teacher education, which they argue should be removed from the Australian university sector and replaced with a small group of independent national institutions.

“Teacher quality has also suffered. Entry standards for teaching degrees are inconsistent and often low. Initial education programs lack clear connections between theory and practice, leaving many new graduates underprepared for the classroom. Teachers face high stress, unrealistic workloads and poor student behaviour, leading to low morale and high attrition rates,” the paper notes.

Dr Mueller told The Australian: “This is about commonsense approaches, it’s unrealistic in our view to expect universities which have all of those pressures to publish and undertake all the other academic commitments to also deliver on national expectations in teacher education, they’re not the right fit … and the kind of contemporary research needed to support professionals in the classroom hasn’t been done.”

The policy paper also recommends bringing forward the review of the Australian Curriculum “with the overarching goal being to ensure that all decisions regarding design, content and academic expectations are underpinned by evidence”, and to review the “nature and purpose” of the National Assessment Program so it is aligned with the Australian Curriculum.

In his foreword, Page Research Centre chief executive Gerard Holland – a former partnerships director at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship – writes: “School leavers, on average, are less literate, less numerate and far less knowledgeable about their nation’s Western democratic heritage than previous generations …

“In fairness to students, parents, teachers, school leaders and all other stakeholders, it is time for an honest, forensic analysis of how and why Australian school education has reached such a low point, demonstrably not achieving the national goals of equity and excellence.”