Malcolm Turnbull concedes Australian children falling behind

Australian schoolchildren have been falling behind their overseas peers despite record investment in education, the PM concedes.

David Gonski. Picture: AAP.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has conceded Australian schoolchildren have been falling behind their overseas peers, despite record investment in education.

Mr Turnbull said a report handed down today by businessman David Gonski following his eight month review of the system set out important directions for reform.

“We have to recognise that we have been falling behind other countries on any measure whether it is reading, whether it’s science, whether it’s mathematics, we are falling down relative to other countries,” Mr Turnbull said.

“What David’s report sets out, some very important directions for reform, and the one that I think will resonate most with all of us is the need to ensure that every child gets a year of growth in their learning for every year they’re at school.

“Some kids are not getting the attention they need and some kids who are doing well, who have got a lot of ability, natural ability, are allowed to coast.

“There’s too much coasting and cruising. Every child should advance by a year whether they’re an A grade student, if they’re getting As, they should be moving up to A pluses, if they’re a B, they should be moving up to As and so forth, everyone should be advancing.”

Mr Gonski said he had not concluded that those currently working in the education system had failed.

“The fact is we can do better,” he said.

“What we have said as the Prime Minister very ably has said is that our mantra is that we believe that each child in each school in Australia in each year should progress in their education, but in addition to that, we made two other things very clear: One, we believe that children should be equipped, every student should be equipped, to be creative, connected and engaged as a learner.

“And finally, looking at the system as a whole, it should adapt and adopt over time so that we always have as good a system as really we deserve.”

Education Minister Simon Birminham said he and Mr Gonski would be taking Mr Gonski’s 23 recommendations to state education ministers on Friday

“This is a report that should see all of the bipartisan lines broken down across federal boundaries and Labor and Liberal boundaries to reform the schools to be their best and indeed, to give our nation the type of outcomes from schools that would be necessary to underpin continued success in the future,” Senator Birmingham said.

Mr Turnbull said there was “a lot riding on” Mr Gonski’s recommendations succeeding.

“If we get it wrong, presumably we stay where we are, which is not good enough and is not in my opinion viable,” he said.

“Australian students have slipped overall in international ranking. Just to put some numbers

around that, this is all in David’s report, but over the last 15 years, Australian students have dropped from fourth in the world for reading to 16th, from 11th in mathematics to 25th, and from 8th in science to 14th.

“That’s not good enough. Our goal should be to be heading in the precisely the opposite direction. I think we all agree with that.

“We’ve got more financial resources than ever, going into education, and a number of the countries that have been overtaking us actually spend quite a bit less per student than we do.”

Mr Turnbull said the report had highlighted the importance of literacy and numeracy as building blocks for success.

“So this report, yes, transforms the way in which we think about educational measurement by saying you must mediate some absolute benchmarks, but if you don’t get those foundational skills right, you’ll continue to see failure in the latter years of education and we must ensure there’s time, focus, and priority and assessment of the progress around literacy and numeracy skills.”

Birmingham welcomes ‘landmark’ Gonski report

Earlier, Education Minister Simon Birmingham said an overhaul of schooling which would see teaching based on student attainment rather than age or year level will help students to reach their potential rather than “coast” through school.

“This is a landmark report and it does absolutely encourage schools to focus in on how you progress each and every student to their maximum capability so that we shift the entire level of student performance and have more high achievers as well as fewer underachievers,” Senator Birmingham told ABC radio.

“Teachers already do a lot of individualised, targeted teaching in their classrooms, but importantly these recommendations will put more tools and resources in the hands of teachers and make that more effective and simpler in terms of changing the national curriculum so that there are clear progression steps around what stages students are at that can be assessed and measured so teachers know then how to target the teaching to move them onto the next level, as well as putting a really integrated national tool in the hands of teachers that enables them to be able to identify clearly where their students are progressing, how well they’re progressing, how that compares with the rest of the country, and then what steps they should take to move each student to the best of their capabilities over a twelve month period.”

However, Senator Birmingham said information about students’ progress would not be made public.

“No, this information is intended first and foremost for schools and teachers to know exactly how they’re tracking and to be able to get detailed information, but of course you would hope and expect that de-identified data and so on would be available to researchers, to policymakers, to create a cycle of continuous improvement there, that we’re able to have much better information about what’s happening in our schools, what’s working and feed that back in to help teachers do even better in the future,” he said.

Senator Birmingham sought to quash suggestions the new regime would replace NAPLAN testing.

“I think we’re a long way away from NAPLAN going,” he told the Seven Network.

“But certainly what this tool that’s proposed would be is something that teachers can apply in the classroom when it suits them according to their judgment, but using a range of resources where they can pick the test or assessment program that works for their students, then get real time results back to them that tell them how their students progressed compared with previous tests they’ve undertaken that tell them how their students compare with students in similar schools or across the country.

“That also then gives them tips as to how to individualise and target their teaching in terms of the different skill levels of the different students in that classroom.”

Senator Birmingham said the results would not be linked to performance-based pay for teachers.

“We’re not looking at performance pay in that sense, but the report does recommend that we look at how we keep our best teachers in the classroom,” he told ABC radio.

“We’ve already taken significant steps as a government in developing credentialisation for highly accomplished lead teachers where they’re recognised by their peers.

“What we’d like to see is more jurisdictions follow the lead of some others by better rewarding those highly accomplished lead teachers to stay in the classroom and to be there as mentors for new teachers and lifting the standard, quality and therefore regard with which the profession is held.”

Senator Birmingham is due to meet with state education ministers, who will be briefed by Mr Gonski, later this week.

“We’ve already shared the report with them and he certainly engaged with them in developing his recommendations,” he said.

“I hope that we see a strong level of enthusiasm to work together across boundaries, federal and state, Labor and Liberal, because ultimately this is about turning around significant problems in terms of performance in schools in recent years, and getting us on a trajectory where our students are growing, are learning, are meeting clear literacy and numeracy standards in the early years, but are also leaving school with the competencies and capabilities to be successful in further study, training or into the workforce.”

Mr Gonski has also recommended a review of Years 11 and 12 to ensure students have the necessary skills when they leave school.

“We have a national curriculum that’s in place right up to Year Ten. We then have disparate state by state approaches in Years 11 and 12, so we’ll get the feedback from the states and territories, but this should be looked at in the context, for example, of also the recent findings of the chief scientist who was critical about university admission requirements, the way in which the ATAR works, the real drop-off in terms of students doing higher level maths in Year 12, all of which shows that there’s a particular focus we’ve got to apply to reforms in those senior secondary years,” Senator Birmingham said.