Education bureaucrats have failed the nation

AUSTRALIA'S substandard results in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study are an indictment of those academics, subject associations and teacher unions that have argued during the past 20 to 30 years that all is well with our education system.

Groups such as the Australian Curriculum Studies Association, the Australian Association for the Teaching of English and the Australian Education Union have been asleep at the wheel enforcing a dumbed-down, politically correct approach to the curriculum devoid of rigour and international best practice.

As a result, in Year 4 reading we are outperformed by 21 countries, including Britain, New Zealand and the US, all English-speaking nations with a similar cultural profile to Australia and facing similar educational challenges.

In Year 4 mathematics we rank 18th, in science 19th and, while a better result, in Year 8 mathematics we are placed seventh and in science 10th. Clearly, Julia Gillard's grandiose promise to have Australian students performing in the top five nations by 2025 is even more unachievable than originally thought.

Even worse, compared to Australia, countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea are able to get greater numbers of students performing at the top of the scale. In Year 8 mathematics, for example, 34 per cent to 49 per cent of students reached the advanced benchmark, while the figure for Australian students is only 9 per cent.

The reasons our students underperform are many and not easy to address. It's also the case, contrary to what the Prime Minister is promising, that there is no silver bullet.

As mentioned, a large part of the blame lies with those academics and professional associations responsible for teacher training, professional development and initiatives such as the Gillard government's national curriculum. Dracula is in charge of the blood bank and for years Australia's education establishment has been in denial.

Given the official endorsement of the whole language method of learning, where children are told to look at words and guess their meaning and where the more formal phonics approach is ignored, it shouldn't surprise that so many of our students are illiterate.

And it's not the fault of teachers. The reality is that our schools of education promote new age fads such as open classrooms, personalised learning, constructivism, collaborative goal setting and teachers as facilitators; all ineffective, as proven by the US study Project Follow Through.

Expect that Gillard will use the latest test results to argue why the commonwealth government must continue to take control of education and why her "national crusade" is the best way to raise standards. Ignored is that nationalising curriculum and assessment, teacher training and registration and imposing her National Plan for School Improvement, all designed and managed by the educrats and professional bodies responsible for the present malaise, will be ineffectual. Worse, by forcing all government and non-government schools to implement Canberra's agenda by tying compliance to funding, as is the intention with the new funding model post 2013, standards will only get worse.

Kevin Donnelly is director of Education Standards Institute.