A new report comparing Australian high school students with 65 other countries shows the nation is slipping further behind in maths and reading skills.
The 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) measures the mathematics, reading and science skills of half a million 15-year-olds from around the world.
It found Australian teens placed equal 17th in maths, equal 10th in reading and equal 8th in science.
Asian countries like China, Singapore, Korea and Japan are pulling ahead of Australian students in maths and reading.
The results show Australian students are slipping in maths performance by about a half a year of schooling compared to 10 years ago.
ACER's director of educational monitoring and research, Dr Sue Thomson, says gender, Indigenous status and socio-economic status still divide student outcomes.
"Australia has slipped backwards to the type of gender disparity that was seen decades ago, and the performance scores of girls coupled with a number of particularly negative motivational attitudes puts Australia further away from providing all students with the same educational opportunities," Dr Thomson said.
Results back Government's plan to focus on teachers, says Pyne
Education Minister Christopher Pyne says Labor's education policies have been in place for most of the decade and they have now been shown as a spectacular failure.
"Today's report card shows that for all the billions spent on laptops and school halls, there is still no evidence of a lift in outcomes for students."
"Despite spending 44 per cent more on education funding over the past decade, results are still in decline.
"This clearly shows that more funding does not equate to better outcomes."
The Federal Government will go ahead with Labor's Gonski plan from next year but will only commit to four years of funding.
Mr Shorten says it needs to get on board for the full six years.
"It's time to implement Gonski in full. It's time to stop the political games and bandaid solutions and get on board giving the next generation of Australians the best start in life."
However:
Kevin Donnelly from the Education Standards Institute says he is not surprised by the results.
"We have in fact been in trouble, if you like, for many, many years.
"We have trouble with disruptive classrooms...[and] we don't allow our teachers to mentor one another and to help one another. In places like Singapore, they actually respect teachers, children respect teachers, they are well-resourced.
"They have a lot more time to learn from one another and to improve classroom practice."
He says the debate is not only about funding.
"Money is important, but it gets back to a rigorous curriculum, effective teaching practice, good teacher training - so there are a few things we can look at there."
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Good Old Labor, think if they throw enough (of the taxpayers) money at a problem, it will go away.
...
Why arnt kids made to repeat anymore.
Is this an Aus wide thing or just and Adelaide thing.
I know of quite a few students who should of repeated. The school advises the parents but in the end, the parents say yes or no.
There are kids here being put through to highschool who are just not ready. They are 2 or 3 years behind their peers.
When did those 15 year olds start school ?
Back to schools: the end of Howard's way?
Under Libs, the richer the school, the bigger the pie
- JUSTINE FERRARI
- THE AUSTRALIAN
- NOVEMBER 28, 2013
THE most affluent private schools received the biggest boost in funding in the 10 years of the Howard government system, touted by Education Minister Christopher Pyne as a fairer and more equitable needs-based funding model than that introduced by Julia Gillard.
Federal Education Department figures show that funding for the wealthiest private primary schools in NSW grew by more than 80 per cent between 2000 and 2010, while funding for the elite private high schools rose by 50 per cent.
Of the 12 categories measuring a school's capacity to generate its own income through fees, fundraising and investments, funding for the lowest level of high schools rose by 12 per cent and by 25 per cent for primary schools.
The Howard government introduced a new funding model in 2001, which allocated money based on the socio-economic status of students in a school.
A school was assigned an SES score, calculated from the postcode of students' home addresses and linked back to census data, which was linked to a set level of funding. There were about 280 different funding categories for primary and secondary schools.
In introducing the SES system, the Howard government removed the measure of a school's capacity to raise its own income, and so the biggest jump in funding flowed through to the high-fee private schools.
- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/under-libs-the-richer-the-school-the-bigger...
The Conversation
Funding and disadvantage
This wide mix of funding sources allows policy innovation and protects schools from overzealous government budget cuts.
But it makes education funding extremely complex and allows misinformation to flourish, to everyoneโs detriment.
Until the Rudd-Gillard governmentโs MySchool website, policymakers did not know how much funding each individual school received and thus could not effectively target money and programs to where they were most needed.
While all sectors enrol a mix of students of different backgrounds and educational ability, socio-economic and educational disadvantage is heavily concentrated in the public school sector.
Figure 2: School funding in Australia: all levels of government, all sectors. $bn Author
Click to enlarge
In 2010, public schools enrolled 80% of students from the lowest SES quartile, 78% of disabled students, 85% of Indigenous students and 68% of students of non-English speaking backgrounds.
The Gonski Review found that Australia has one of the biggest gaps amongst developed nations between high and low performing students, a gap that is growing. It also found that educational performance is strongly and unacceptably linked to studentsโ backgrounds - the more disadvantaged, the worse the childโs outcomes.
Current funding allocations exacerbate this shameful situation.
