Don’t shy from the overhaul challenge, David Gonski urges
Experts have warned that rebooting Australia’s underperforming education system would be costly and challenging.
Experts have warned that rebooting Australia’s underperforming education system would be costly and challenging, as the architect of the proposal, businessman David Gonski, acknowledged the plan was ambitious.
As Malcolm Turnbull lauded the Gonski report, which has signalled a radical change to the way schools teach students and assess their progress, questions are being asked about who will fund proposals designed to arrest Australia’s declining academic results.
Released yesterday, the report recommended a move towards personalised teaching based on each student’s needs, regardless of their year level, while teachers would be encouraged to use a new online tool that would enable them to track each students’ progress against their own individual learning goals.
Each student would be supported to achieve at least a year’s worth of progress every year to prevent high-achieving students from “coasting and cruising”, the Prime Minister said yesterday.
While the reforms were broadly welcomed, including by state and territory education ministers, the Australian Education Union, Australian Council of Deans and the NSW Secondary Principals Council all highlighted concerns around funding.
“We can commission report after report to investigate how to best equip students and teachers to achieve educational success, however what it comes down to is money,” said principals council president Chris Presland.
Union president Correna Haythorpe called on the federal government to adequately fund schools before proposing a new testing and assessment tool for classrooms. “Taking a test does not improve education outcomes, rather it identifies where there are student learning needs and then schools can target programs to support their students,” she said.
Melbourne Graduate School of Education academic John Hattie, who consulted with the review panel, said a large number of schools were already doing innovative things and the report provided a framework for scaling that up. “No question this will be expensive,” he said. “But as I told the review panel, don’t do anything unless it’s going to make a difference. And this will.”
Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Perth introduced personalised learning two years ago and principal Kate Hadwen estimated that it had added about $700,000 a year to the school’s budget.
“It’s all very well to talk about, but personalisation requires a fair bit of funding,” Dr Hadwen said. “We track each girl; where do we think that student is at, how did they do in their last test, do they need any extra support. It means more staff and that’s where the money gets laid in.”
Mr Gonski said: “I think the plan we put is ambitious but that doesn’t mean we should shy away from it.”
Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the total cost of the 23 recommendations would depend on the scale and speed of the reforms the states and territories agree to back.
“Ultimately it will be a fraction of the cost of the tens of billions of dollars Australians invest in schools each year,” Senator Birmingham said. “Done well, these reforms can deliver a much better return on investment.”
The Turnbull government commissioned the Gonski review last year after committing an extra $25.3 billion to the education sector.
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