Topics: National School Reform Agreement, school funding war.
Kieran Gilbert: Let’s turn now to the school reform agreement released this week by Jason Clare. We had the education minister on yesterday. Let’s bring in the shadow education minister, Sarah Henderson. Thanks for your time, senator. What’s your assessment? I looked at your statement. You don’t mind some of the direction of the reforms, but you believe basically it’s light on. Is that a fair assessment?
Senator Henderson: Well, Kieran, good afternoon. It certainly is light on. There are some good and important reforms in this document, but the most important issue is that it’s unsigned. What Jason Clare has delivered are no national reforms and a school funding war with five states, and the ACT refusing to sign this agreement because he went to the election promising full and fair funding and now we’ve ended up with a funding fiasco. And of course, the people who are paying the price are Australian students and their families and teachers and principals.
Kieran Gilbert: When you look at the broader issue here, we’ve had many funding increases in recent times, but the Gonski funding hasn’t led to a commensurate increase in standards, has it? In fact, the decline has continued Why is that?
Senator Henderson: Well, it’s because we haven’t had evidence-based teaching in every Australian classroom. We have called consistently for the mandating of explicit instruction and other proven teaching methods that we know make a marked difference in the classroom. And for those schools and school systems which have introduced a best-practice teaching methods and given teachers the support they deserve, they’ve seen a massive acceleration in their results. So, we want to see this in every Australian classroom. And while this document, this unsigned document, has some of those reforms, it needs to go further. Frankly, Kieran, parents expect a back-to-basics education where the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy are front and centre in their children’s learning, and rather than see results go backwards, it’s pretty dire. One in three students across this country is currently failing NAPLAN. It’s worse in the regions and it’s catastrophic in the Northern Territory. So, we’ve got to urgently drive those reforms. And rather than Jason Clare focus on doing so – and we know it’s possible without additional funding because already New South Wales have introduced a much better syllabus. Victoria has announced some evidence-based teaching reforms, again with no additional funding. We know this is possible, but rather than just focus on these critical reforms to drive better student outcomes, Jason Clare has got himself caught up in a ridiculous funding war. And of course, you know the states and the territories – mind you – mainly Labor states and the ACT are now are in a full-blown war with Jason Clare, which I think goes to show that he’s shaping up to be one of the worst education ministers ever, because we’ve also got the university sector in crisis as well, with some of the reforms the government wants to introduce for that sector.
Kieran Gilbert: On this issue around funding, though, we’ve spoken about it for so long and the minister has said to the states, `You’ve got ’till the end of September to sign this deal or the additional funding goes’. But looking at the broader matter, since Gonski there are statisticians who say that `Yes, funding is critical up to a certain point, but beyond that it’s not’ – as you’ve said, it’s much more than just extra dollars. In fact, dollars spent in the wrong direction don’t improve anything.
Senator Henderson: That’s exactly right, Kieran. And under the former Coalition government, we almost doubled school funding. But over two decades we’ve seen a gradual decline. I mean, there are some areas of improvement, but let’s look at the average 15-year-old 20 years ago, they were one year ahead in their learning compared to now under the International Programme for International Student Assessment results. And the average 15-year-old in Singapore is three years ahead in their learning. So, this is catastrophic, not just for students, because every student deserves to reach his or her best potential, but for our nation, for us to be globally competitive, to attract the best and the brightest, and to keep the best and the brightest here in this country. We’ve got to be globally competitive. And, at the moment, I would say that Jason Clare has taken his eye off the ball when it comes to critically driving these reforms that we need in every Australian classroom.
Kieran Gilbert: They’ve got to get that deal done, no doubt about it. Sarah Henderson, thank you. Appreciate it.