Education funding no panacea

THE Better Schools plan must not offer more of the same.

SCHOOLS will reap a financial bonanza after the election but it will not be a silver bullet for improving classroom standards. Without fundamental change, billions of dollars could be wasted for little return, as with the $16.2 billion Building the Education Revolution. Labor's Better Schools plan, based on the Gonski report, extends for six years, with the biggest allocations promised for 2018 and 2019, beyond the forward estimates. The Coalition is committed for four years.

Teachers' unions have played up the two-year difference. But the pressing issue is how to improve quality. Any evaluation of teacher training, for example, must be independent rather than captured by those responsible for the current malaise.

The Better Schools plan is right in envisaging more reading and maths recovery programs. But unfortunately for the children who will struggle at school and later at work, a recent review by the Australian Council for Educational Research for the NSW government found no evidence to support the value of many remedial programs. The review confirmed the phonics-based reading program MULTILIT (Making Up for Lost Time in Literacy), developed at Macquarie University, had proved its effectiveness. If genuine reform - as opposed to extra spending - is to occur, tried and tested pedagogies, including phonics in teaching reading, must be central to classroom teaching. Gimmicks such as self-directed learning, abandoning grammar and substituting pop culture for literature should be ditched. Teachers must not be stifled by micromanagement or red tape.

A strength of the Gonski model is that in addition to base funding for every student, extra money will be allocated for those disadvantaged by remoteness, disability, language barriers and socio-economic factors. Such resources will help redress the widening gap between the richest and poorest schools. Instead of treating disadvantaged students as "victims" by setting benchmarks low, resources should come with high expectations of hard work, classroom discipline and excellent teaching. Nor are the problems confined to poorer students. Despite smaller class sizes, the ACER has identified a fall in the achievements of Australia's top students. Our children and the nation cannot afford another dud education revolution.