Singapore’s education system achieves much more with much less

Singapore spends less on education, but its academic results far outstrip Australia ... and money is not the answer.

Singapore spends less per student than Australia.

Singapore spends less per student than Australia, has larger classes and pays its teachers less, but the cultural importance it places on education is one reason it streaks ahead on international tests.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham and Assistant Minister to the Treasurer Michael Sukkar seized on a warning from the co-ordinator of the benchmark Program for International Student Assessment, Andreas Schleicher, that Australia needed to improve its academic outcomes or risk its economic prosperity and social cohesion.

Mr Schleicher, director-general of the OECD’s Directorate for Education, is in Australia and urging the nation to look to the surprising number of features shared by high-performing nat­ions such as Singapore and China.

These include convincing the community to value the importance of education, believing in the success of every child, and ensuring teaching is more intellectually attractive.

Mr Sukkar said the government was “absolutely dedicated’’ to be implementing the tough reforms needed to lift Australia’s results on teacher quality and empowering principals but there was “a big roadblock in the way’’.

“The roadblock is the education unions, the teachers’ federations who basically are political arms of the Labor Party and anything that is suggested by a ­Coalition government they will oppose, even if it’s in the best interests of students,’’ he said.

Senator Birmingham, who earlier this year oversaw $23.5 billion worth of school funding reforms, said money wasn’t the answer, it was how it was spent.

Mr Schleicher, he said, had highlighted an important point that “culture and attitude are critical’’ in education outcomes.

“We need to work harder on the education of our children, starting at the earliest years in terms of that discipline of reading to your children pretty much every night. It builds their vocabulary before they start school,’’ he  said.

Senator Birmingham said Singapore “spends less per student than us, has larger class sizes than we do and … pays its teachers less than we do’’.

Figures show Singapore spent $US6733 per primary student in 2015, and $US9049 per secondary student. By contrast, Australia spent $US8251 per primary student and $US11,698 per secondary student in 2014.

The average primary class size in Singapore is 33.5 students. There are about 10 students fewer in an average Australian public school primary class.

Singaporean teachers are paid a base salary, before bonuses and allowances, of $US50,687 compared with the average Australian primary school teacher who pockets $US59,361.

PISA is conducted every three years by the OECD and measures the ability of 15-year-olds to use their science, mathematics and reading knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.