Op-Ed
Published in the Herald Sun, 7 January 2025
In a few weeks, 661,000 Victorian students at government schools will be hit with another broken promise of the Albanese government.
There is no more funding for the state’s 1570 government schools as Labor committed to deliver.
This is a monumental failure by Prime Minister Albanese and his Education Minister Jason Clare.
Labor had 2½ years to get the job done but has delivered zilch to 83 per cent of government schools in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and South Australia.
This is despite the parliament passing legislation to deliver the funding increase with the strong backing of the Coalition.
With the previous national school reform agreement expiring last week, on December 31, Labor’s incompetence has delivered only a school funding war and no certainty.
But this hasn’t stopped Labor’s desperate lies, all part of the Prime Minister’s pre-election playbook.
Over the weekend, Mr Clare falsely claimed the Liberals had cut funding from schools.
The facts are that under the previous Coalition government, annual school funding nearly doubled – from $13bn in 2013 to $25.3bn in 2022.
Even more concerning is the Albanese government’s failure to deliver the national school reforms it promised to combat declining school standards. That one in three children fails to meet proficiency standards in literacy and numeracy is a national crisis.
That is why the Coalition is determined to get back to basics, underpinned by explicit instruction, the teaching of phonics, and other evidence-based teaching methods that must be mandated in every Australian classroom.
In schools and school systems where proven teaching methods have been adopted such as in ACT-Goulburn Catholic schools, students’ NAPLAN results are soaring, and teachers are saving hours a week in class preparation, supported by high-quality curriculum resources and high-impact coaching.
Every child deserves to reach his or her best potential, which is critical for our nation’s prosperity. Our hardworking teachers also deserve much better, which is why the Coalition took such strong action against the parlous state of teacher training in our universities.
As the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment confirms, the average year 10 Australian student is one year behind in their learning compared with 20 years ago.
Under Labor, retention rates at government schools are in free fall – since 2021, the number of year 12 students completing their schooling has fallen from 80 per cent to 73.6 per cent.
A big part of the problem is the national curriculum, which is overcrowded, too complex and infused with ideology, which is why primary school principals from every sector say it’s impossible to teach.
The classroom is for education, not indoctrination, but the Albanese government has shown no interest in the need for a concise, knowledge-rich national curriculum, aligned with international best practice.
This includes a behaviour curriculum to better support teachers and students, given the alarming rates of classroom disruption in so many schools.
Australia’s national curriculum is so unwieldy the regulator says it does not have the resources to produce it in hard copy. If the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority cannot print this document, how can teachers and parents be expected to read and understand it?
The national curriculum includes three “cross-curricular priorities”, which require schools to teach every subject with reference to “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures”, “Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia” and “sustainability”.
While learning Indigenous history and culture is an important part of every child’s education, the requirement to infuse every subject with this priority flies in the face of best-practice curriculums in Britain and Singapore that clearly set out the required knowledge and learning outcomes for each core subject. There is no activism and no agenda.
The next national school reform agreement presented a real opportunity to drive major reforms in Australian schools, but Labor’s Education Minister has been missing in action.
Mr Clare has been too busy making a mess of universities and, inexplicably, defending the right of activist academics to access Australian Research Council grants such as the $870,000 awarded to Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, who encouraged children to chant anti-Jewish terrorist slogans at the University of Sydney protest encampment.
Inexplicably, one of Dr Abdel-Fattah’s books is being taught in some Victorian schools, which must be investigated
As Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says, parents have had a gutful.