E&OE
T24/07
TRANSCRIPT OF DOORSTOP
STATE PARLIAMENT HOUSE, PERTH
TUESDAY, 24 APRIL 2007
SUBJECT: ‘FUTURE OF SCHOOLING IN AUSTRALIA’ REPORT; OECD FACTBOOK 2007 FIGURES
SMITH: There are a couple of very important education issues today.
Firstly, the release by the States and Territories of their ‘Future of Schooling in Australia’ report. This is a very important document and I think it underlines a number of very important education matters that Labor has been underlining and reinforcing since the launch of Kevin Rudd’s ‘Education Revolution’.
Firstly, that if you want to make real progress and real improvements in education in Australia you have to do that in a collaborative, cooperative way. And so much of the report by the States and Territories underlines just how far you can go if you’re prepared to genuinely cooperate. Just imagine how much better we would be placed if, rather than spending 11 years blaming the States, Territories and teachers, the Howard Government had actually sat down and acted in a cooperative way.
There are a number of important features in the report which reinforce what Federal Labor has been saying all of this year. Firstly, that we are now in an international competition when it comes to education at every level and our investment needs to be greater just to keep up with our international competitors. We are either standing still or lagging behind in terms of the outcomes when compared with other nations.
Secondly, the importance of early intervention. The earlier we intervene with a child, the more chance we have of ensuring a quality educational outcome and this particularly applies to students from disadvantaged or lower socio-economic families.
Thirdly, the importance of a rigorous curriculum. I welcome the State’s support for a national curriculum, which is consistent with the national curriculum document that Kevin Rudd and I released a month or so ago, underlining the importance of rigour and standards in the core disciplines. I think that the approach of the States to go back to the traditional subjects of Economics, Geography and History is very sensible and will help ensure rigour and standards.
I welcome very much the report and its references to assessment of students and reporting to parents. We need now to understand how students rank individually, how schools rank individually and how we rank as against other nations. And that reports for parents and for students need to be in plain English and easily understood.
So I welcome very much this very significant State and Territory report released by the Premiers today.
Another important issue, overnight we see the OECD Factbook 2007 shows that for the first eight years of the Howard Government, when it comes to our Universities, the OECD average investment per student is plus 6 per cent, for Australia it’s minus 6 per cent. So under the Howard Government’s first eight years in office, our investment in higher education went backwards, while the OECD went forwards.
According to the OECD Factbook we are ranked 18th on the measure of investment per University student. Again underlining the point which is echoed in the ‘Future of Schooling in Australia’ report in a different context, that our competitors are investing more, and we are either standing still or lagging behind. We can’t afford to allow that to occur. That’s why in Labor’s ‘Education Revolution’ we have said we need to make a greater investment in our Universities and a greater investment in education at every level, in early childhood, schools, vocational education & training and at our Universities.
I’m happy to respond to your questions.
JOURNALIST: How do you think teachers will react to the report?
SMITH: I think teachers will welcome it because it’s a sensible report.
It again makes the point that of all the things we do in education, perhaps the single most important thing, is the quality of the teacher actually in the classroom. The report released by the Premiers today again underlines that it is possible to sensibly reward teachers for quality teaching through things like ongoing professional development and accreditation for specialist teaching skills. That stands in stark contrast to the debacle of so-called performance pay which Julie Bishop and the Government has been trotting out for the last few months, and we saw the embarrassment that Julie Bishop suffered a week or so ago when the State and Territory Education Ministers met with her, where she again made it clear that her model of performance pay for teachers meant that some teachers might be paid more, but other teachers would be paid less.
The Premier’s report released today makes it clear that it is possible to reward teachers for quality teaching and for their ongoing professional development. I think that is very important, it is one of the key challenges in education and as we know from our own position in Western Australia, attracting our best and brightest to become teachers, and then rewarding them sufficiently to stay in the profession is a significant challenge but one that I am happy to sit down and work through with the Premiers and my State Ministerial colleagues in a cooperative way. Again, that stands in stark contrast to the Howard Government’s approach.
JOURNALIST: Inaudible…switch to social science subjects…
SMITH: Well, I think it will have an impact on rigour and an impact on standards.
We need to ensure that our standards improve. That is largely a result of again not being in a competition between a couple of schools in a particular State, or a couple of States as against themselves, but because we are in an international competition. So anything that we can do to improve rigour, to improve standards, to improve performance is a good thing and I think returning to that basic theme of dealing with Economics, of dealing with History, of dealing with Geography, having rigour in the key core discipline areas, whether they are Economics, Geography, History, Maths or Science or English, can only help but improve and increase standards in the future.
Ends
Contact: Adam Siddique on (02) 6277
4108 or 0407 473 630
MEDIA RELEASE
Stephen Smith MP
Shadow Minister for Education and Training
Member for Perth
15/07 24 April 2007
LABOR WELCOMES POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION BY STATES & TERRITORIES TO FUTURE SCHOOL EDUCATION
Federal Labor welcomes the release today of ‘The Future of Schooling in Australia’, a report by the Council for the Australian Federation (CAF).
The report is a positive and welcome contribution by State and Territory Governments and a testament to what can actually be achieved by engaging in a cooperative federalist approach.
It provides an example of what could have been accomplished, and the progress that could have been made if, rather than engaging in blaming the States, Territories and teachers over the last 11 long years, the Howard Government had actually worked collaboratively and cooperatively with the States and Territories.
Significantly, the report underlines and reinforces Federal Labor’s call for an ‘Education Revolution’, recognising that education is crucial to Australia’s future economic prosperity and is the critical driver for maximising individual potential and providing equality of opportunity.
The report highlights that while historically a majority of Australian students have performed well against international benchmarks, there is a significant under performing ‘tail’ which is linked to socio-economic disadvantage.
State and Territory Governments, along with Federal Labor, clearly recognise that in relation to schools and schooling, Australia can not afford to stand still.
In terms of our international competitiveness, if we don’t increase the quality and quantity of our investment in education, we will increasingly be overtaken by other nations who are investing more to become more skilled and productive.
The report supports key positive policy initiatives advocated by Federal Labor, including:
· Intervening early in a child’s education and in their preparation for school;
· Making principals the key driver of improving school performance;
· Maximising the number of students completing Year 12;
· Lifting educational outcomes for Indigenous students; and
· Testing students in relation to national standards of performance.
Consistent with Federal Labor’s approach, the report also focuses on developing a rigorous national curriculum in core areas, in consultation with the States & Territories and the Catholic & Independent school sectors.
In relation to testing, the report states that information on the performance of individual students, schools and school systems should be made available to the public so that teachers and parents have necessary and relevant information:
“Assessment should provide information on the performance of the individual students, individual schools and school systems.”
And,
“Parents and students need reports on progress that help them to understand personal development in a jurisdiction or national context. The external assessments of all students in state and national testing programs provide this kind of information. For each student the report can show what the student knows and is able to do, and what the student should now be moving on to in order to reach a higher standard. This performance reporting must be clear and meaningful, with straightforward language and helpful visual representations.”
And that,
“Reports to students and their parents should make clear in substantive terms what students know and are able to do, including how this relates to what is expected of their age group, and what they need to work on next…”
The report recognises that the most effective way to improve educational outcomes is by ensuring the quality of the teacher in the classroom. This can be done by improving the quality of teaching by rewarding high performing teachers, providing performance focussed evaluations and ongoing professional development. According to the report,
“States and Territories recognise that it is the quality of the workforce (principals, teachers and non-teaching staff) that is a key driver of educational results within schools.”
Finally, the report states that harmonising teacher registration to improve quality and standards and reduce red tape is an important goal and one that Federal Labor also supports.
Again, this can only be achieved through a truly collaborative approach with the States and Territories. Federal Labor is firmly committed to such an approach.
Contact: Adam Siddique on (02) 6277
4108 or 0407 473 630