School outcomes are not Canberra's job, says Coalition's Christopher Pyne

THE Coalition's Christopher Pyne says the federal government isn't responsible for school outcomes, as he attacked Labor's vow to lift the nation's standards.

OPPOSITION education spokesman Christopher Pyne says the federal government isn't responsible for school outcomes, as he attacked Labor's vow to lift the nation's schools to a world top five standard.

Julia Gillard will today unveil the government's long-awaited response to the Gonski review in a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra.

She will vow to return Australia's education system to the top five nations in reading, maths and science by 2025.

But Mr Pyne said today the government should not assert it was responsible for education standards, because it was not directly involved in the running of schools.

“I know this is being lost in this debate but in fact the federal government doesn't run any schools in Australia,” Mr Pyne told ABC radio.

“Every school is run by the Catholic system, the independent system or the public system run by the states. So blaming the Howard government or the Gillard government for school outcomes is rather missing the point.”

In her speech today Ms Gillard is expected to accept the Gonski report's main recommendation for a fundamental overhaul of the education system to fund students based on their individual needs.

It will see additional loadings handed to schools for disadvantaged students, with changes to be phased in from 2014.

Schools Minister Peter Garrett said the government had a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to improve the school system and believed the 2025 target was “an absolutely serious and achievable goal for us”.

“We can identify what a better school would mean for Australian students and we are prepared to start sitting down and negotiating with the states and territories and school systems to get that underway,” Mr Garrett told ABC radio.

Since the Gonski report was released in February, the government has promised no school will “lose a single dollar” and all schools will get an increase.

Australian Education Union president Angelo Gavrielatos said he believed the government's investment would be significant.

“We're (eventually) going to see the investment ... of $5 billion annually in 2009 money, $3.8 billion of which - 75 per cent - would go to government schools,” Mr Gavrielatos said.