After more than two years, the Albanese Government’s failure to deliver the school reforms young Australians deserve is another embarrassing policy failure by Education Minister, Jason Clare.
The government’s release today of an unsigned National School Reform Agreement, to which only the West Australian and Northern Territory governments have agreed in principle, confirms Labor has delivered nothing more than a school funding war and no national reforms to drive better student outcomes.
Shadow Minister for Education, Sarah Henderson, said while the draft agreement proposes a number of important reforms including evidence-based teaching, screening tests such as the Year 1 phonics check and improved student attendance and performance targets, the reforms are both light on detail and inadequate.
“With one in three students failing NAPLAN, parents are crying out for a back-to-basics education for their children where literacy and numeracy skills are prioritised, underpinned by explicit teaching and a knowledge-rich, common sense curriculum,” Senator Henderson said.
“While the government has adopted the Coalition’s call for explicit instruction and other evidence-based teaching methods, Jason Clare has failed to detail how teachers will be properly supported in the classroom.”
“Our nation’s hard-working and dedicated teachers must be front and centre of further school reforms. Too often, educators are forced to work extra hours writing lesson plans from scratch when highly effective teaching materials should be available to every school.”
“The draft agreement contains plenty of motherhood statements but says nothing about improving the national curriculum or delivering the critical reforms needed to combat classroom disruption,” Senator Henderson said.
“The Coalition’s senate inquiry recommended a national behaviour curriculum and other important reforms to improve classroom engagement and learning which have been ignored by the government.”
“Jason Clare is embroiled in a full-blown school funding war and has botched the opportunity to deliver the national reforms every child needs to reach his or her best potential.”
Senator Henderson said the lack of a publicly available bilateral agreement* with the Northern Territory failed the transparency test.
“In a part of Australia which is plagued with indigenous disadvantage, low student attendance, spiralling school standards and a remote education crisis, it incumbent on Labor to lay out its plan for students in the Northern Territory,” Senator Henderson said.
*Update 1 August 2024: Please note that subsequent to the issue of this media release, the government released its bilateral agreement with the Northern Territory government. The Coalition is concerned about a number of aspects of this agreement including the NAPLAN student outcome targets which are significantly below the Closing the Gap targets.