Despite the best efforts of our teachers and school staff, Australia's public education system is struggling to meet the needs of all students, especially those experiencing disadvantage.
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But a new report has outlined positive steps that can change that. The Expert Panel advising the National School Reform Agreement (NSRA) has highlighted the need for targeted and tailored support for those who need it, a commitment to fair school funding and the use of data and evidence to inform necessary changes, to help achieve equity in our education system.
The NSRA is the agreement negotiated between Australia's federal, state and territory education ministers to set policy for public schools, which then informs funding agreements.
The Expert Panel's recommendations, released this week, follow the latest international comparison of 15-year-old students that showed Australia's performance in reading, science and mathematics is continuing its two decade-long decline.
Those results, from the triennial OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), highlighted the divide between the advantaged and disadvantaged students across Australia.
The assessment revealed Australian students experiencing disadvantage to be, on average, around five years of schooling behind their more advantaged peers.
Australia's reading, science, and mathematics results had been steadily declining since the country first participated in the PISA assessment in 2000.
For example, 70 per cent of students from disadvantaged backgrounds didn't meet the National Proficiency Standard in maths, placing at risk their capacity to participate in and contribute fully to society. This compares to 28 per cent of those from advantaged backgrounds.
The results also show Indigenous students are around four years of schooling behind non-Indigenous students. Students from regional and remote areas fare worse than students from cities.
What the expert panel's report and the PISA findings highlight - and what is abundantly clear to those in education - is that the education gap has not been closing.
A key driver of this inequity was the massive disruption to our schools caused by COVID. While inequity had already existed, the pandemic helped exacerbated the gap between disadvantaged students and their peers. This was then compounded by significant cost-of-living increases.
The expert panel's report, as an input to the NSRA, sets out a roadmap for change.
Among its recommendations is for public schools to be fully funded to combat inequality and for all students to be regularly monitored to identify the need for additional support.
On funding, the report said almost all public schools were not funded to the school resourcing standard (SRS). We welcome the commitment of all education ministers to fully fund all Australian schools.
With more than 80 per cent of disadvantaged students attending government schools, we must ensure these schools are adequately funded and that schools where there are large number of disadvantaged students are prioritised.
This would give the most disadvantaged schools the ability to attract and retain the best teachers. And we know how important teacher quality is to student outcomes.
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The report is also right in highlighting the need for a greater focus on direct and tailored intervention. It is an initiative The Smith Family has long called for and mirrors the programs we run to help students in disadvantaged families.
Students facing disadvantage who have slipped behind need tailored extra learning support so that they can catch up. This tailored intervention is not only critical to help them catch up but also to keep up and stay engaged at school.
It is crucial that all students, no matter their backgrounds, are given the best chance through their education to complete year 12. We know that students who finish school have better futures.
We now have a clearer picture of the areas that need greater focus to improve outcomes in our schools. It makes it more critical than ever now for us to get the next National Schools Reform Agreement right. That new agreement will start in 2025 and direct future federal, state and territory funding.
At a meeting of education ministers on Monday, they affirmed their commitment to closing the educational gap that is leaving too many students behind. But they must act urgently so we can start to reverse this trend.
- Doug Taylor is the chief executive of The Smith Family.