Topics: NAPLAN results
Kieran Gilbert: Sarah Henderson, thanks for your time. Where are we going wrong and are there any green shoots in these NAPLAN numbers that you can see?
Senator Henderson: Well, not really. In fact the numbers released today are disastrous. One in three Australian children are basically failing NAPLAN and we are going wrong because we desperately need evidence-based teaching reforms in every Australian classroom where they have been introduced in some schools and school systems, we’ve seen a huge rise in school standards. But frankly, Kieran, every Australian child needs the best evidence-based teaching and that goes to those foundational skills, phonetics and things like that, isn’t it? Absolutely. We’ve got to get back to basics, a really sharp focus on literacy, on numeracy and through explicit teaching, through the teaching of phonics, some of those are in the unsigned agreement that the minister has released. But of course, he’s at war with five states and the ACT over funding, rather than focusing on driving those reforms that we know work and in fact, some states and territories have started to transition to.
Kieran Gilbert: It’s a lot more than just dollars, though, isn’t it? Because I know there’s the fight with the states, absolutely, but when we’re talking about dollars in education funding, it makes a difference up into a point but beyond that, actually more dollars don’t change what’s happening on the ground. That’s the reality.
Senator Henderson: Well, under our government, we doubled schools funding, the big challenge at the moment is, frankly, not funding because we’ve seen a really significant decline. We did a lot when we were in government in terms of addressing teacher training, driving those evidence-based reforms into the curriculum. But frankly, we are saying that some schools and school systems are adopting evidence-based teaching within the current funding envelope. And that’s why I’m so critical of the government, because they could have done this two years ago. They could have absolutely grabbed the bull by the horns, driven those national reforms in every Australian classroom but instead they have tied these reforms to a school funding agreement. And now there’s a war and it’s chaos.
Andrew Clennell: What about these things, what about screens? What sort of effect are they having in terms of how well kids are reading and writing and that sort of thing?
Senator Henderson: Terrible, and we did a very important Senate inquiry into classroom disruption, which shows that devices in the classroom are shocking and it’s one of the deficiencies of the unsigned agreement that we haven’t seen any focus on what needs to happen with classroom behaviour. We’ve suggested, in fact, a national behaviour curriculum. So children are actually taught how to behave but frankly, these things have to go.
Andrew Clennell: Homes have got a big part to play.
Senator Henderson: Oh, look, I mean, I’m a mum and so many parents are just pulling their hair out with these devices. When my son was in grade 4, we all had to go out and buy the $1,000 obligatory iPad when half the children couldn’t even read or write properly.
Andrew Clennell: That’s right. They’re busy doing this sort of thing. Instead of this sort of thing.
Tom Connell: You need tech skills as well. So as a solution you have certain classes where they are digging right into that and using an iPad and whatever else, and others where they’re not used at all because you know, they can’t be writing with chalk all through school, you know, let’s keep it old school and then just flip to tech in university are they? You need a mix.
Senator Henderson: Tom, in primary school you need to focus on the foundations of literacy and numeracy and that is not happening as it should. As I say, some schools and school systems are doing a great job. For instance, the Catholic school system here in Canberra has revolutionised the way it teaches. It’s introduced those evidence-based teaching reforms and it is seeing NAPLAN results go up quite substantially. But we need to see this happen in every school, in every classroom. And while disadvantage is, of course, an issue, your postcode should not determine your life outcomes. So we’ve seen schools in western Sydney that have done amazing work in introducing evidence-based teaching reforms and really, the children are absolutely flying as a result.