Significant government funding during the past 4 years is yet to yield substantial improvements in student performance. According to the recently released NAPLAN Summary Report, national average scores for reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation and numeracy have remained comparatively stagnant for 2008-12.
Chief Executive at the Australian Council for Educational Research, Geoff Masters, says we are going backwards in student performance and there needs to be a greater future focus on teaching:
If we are going to lift our performance into the top five (OECD) countries, we cannot keep doing what we have been doing.
Key policies for education include:
- $14 billion Building Education Revolution (BER);
- $2.5 billion for Trade Training Centres;
- Digital Education Revolution – 1:1 computer access for every student in years 9-12;
- $550 million Improving Teacher Quality program through national partnerships;
- National curriculum – English, Maths, Science and History to be taught in all states and territories;
- School transparency – introduction of the MySchool website and National Assessment Program and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing.
Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett says “These changes will take time…We won’t necessarily see results jump dramatically over a period of one or two years.”