Teenagers fall year behind internationally in maths

Australian Year 9 students have fallen an entire school year behind their counterparts in maths | TAKE THE TEST.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham says the PISA data went further than the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and NAPLAN. Picture: Kym Smith

Australian Year 9 students have in just 12 years fallen an entire school year ­behind the results of their counterparts in maths, prompting urgent calls to reverse a downward spiral that risks dumbing down a generation.

The release of the latest ­Program for International Student Assessment reveals the performance of Australia’s 15-year-olds in maths, science and reading is in “absolute decline’’ and the ­nation is being outgunned by New Zealand, ­Estonia and Slovenia despite a strong focus on education and record spending.

The results of Australian Year 9 science students, who were tested last year for PISA 2015, were on average 11 points below the results of Australian students who took part in 2012.

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In maths, results were down 10 points over the three-year ­period and nine points in reading. Over the longer term, Australian students have slid 12 months behind where they were in maths in 2003, seven months in science compared with 2006, and about 10 months in reading since 2000 when PISA began.

A 30-point drop in PISA is roughly equivalent to the loss of 12 months’ worth of learning.

The international snapshot for 15-year-olds, conducted every three years by the OECD, is accepted as a global academic benchmark and comes one week after Australia posted dismal international test results in Years 4 and 8 for maths and science.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the PISA data went further than the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and NAPLAN “in terms of not just showing a ­plateauing of results in Australia’’ but demonstrating a “clear ­decline from year to year” in Australia’s education performance. “It is not acceptable to see Australia falling behind more and more countries in terms of our maths, reading and science performance at a time when these areas are becoming ever more critical to the job prospects and economic prospects of our nation,’’ he said.

Students from Singapore, the world’s smartest 15-year-olds, are currently two years and four months ahead of Australian students in maths, 18 months ahead in science and 12 months ahead in reading.

Sue Thomson, the director of educational monitoring and research at the Australian Council for Educational Research, said the evidence from PISA made clear that the science, reading and mathematics achievements of Australian students were in absolute decline.

“For performance to have dropped so significantly in all three subject areas is very disappointing and really flags we need to do something urgently,’’ Dr Thomson said. She said the TIMSS results last week indicated that, “although we are slipping backwards relative to other countries, Australian student achievement against the mathematics and science curriculum is unchanged’’.

“Results from PISA 2015 suggest the situation is much worse: Australian students’ ability to apply their mathematical and scientific knowledge to real-life situations is falling not only relative to other countries but also in an absolute sense.’’

About four out of 10 Australian students are below the national proficient standard, meaning the education system is getting worse at preparing them for the everyday challenges of adult life.

There was a 3 per cent fall in the proportion of Australia’s high-­performing science students and a 5 per cent increase in the proportion of low performers.

The increasingly bleak picture will inflame tensions in the schools funding standoff between Canberra, Labor and the states, with education ministers due to meet for talks next week.

A national breakdown of the results shows the gulf between students from the highest socio-­economic group compared with the lowest was a full three years of schooling in maths, science and reading. Students from advantaged backgrounds were also five times as likely to be high performers as students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Tasmanian students are well below students on the mainland while indigenous students continued to trail non-indigenous students.

Senator Birmingham said commonwealth funding for schools had increased by 50 per cent since 2003 to $16 billion this year while the nation’s results were going backwards.

“I’m not suggesting that money is not important — of course it is vital — but as the OECD notes, Australia ranks as spending the fifth-highest amount on education in the OECD and once you get to that level there is little value in just increasing spending; the harder task is to invest in the areas that the evidence says makes a difference,” Senator Birmingham said.

“Given the wealth of our nation and scale of our investment, we should expect to be a clear education leader, not risk becoming a laggard. We must leave the politicking at the door and have a genuine conversation that is based on evidence about what we do from here.’’

Labor deputy leader and education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said the PISA results were “further proof disadvantaged Australian kids are still struggling at school’’.

“Australia’s performance will only get worse unless government acts now to ensure disadvantage is no longer a barrier to getting a great education, and achieving great results,’’ Ms Plibersek said.

She said that at the time of testing less than 10 per cent of Labor’s extra needs-based funding, the so-called Gonski money, had flowed to schools.

Schools expert Jennifer Buckingham said last week’s TIMSS had demonstrated that students didn’t really know the curriculum content they were being measured on. The PISA data, she said, showed this lack of content knowledge made it difficult for students to attempt to apply that and devise answers to the type of real world problems PISA measures.

More than half a million students from more than 70 countries and economies took part in PISA 2015, including 14,500 Australian students from 750 schools.