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Look beyond the dollars promised to schools

By David Robertson - posted Friday, 27 May 2016


Reform, driven by initiatives at the federal level, is central to the policy directions of both major parties.

To the frustration of many schools, education policy is already littered with targets, benchmarks and goals. Goals are certainly useful in driving improvements, but there doesn’t appear to be much debate about how they will contribute to educational improvements, nor proper accountability if the targets aren’t achieved.

For any Federal Government, the setting of targets and reforms is problematic in itself as the Commonwealth doesn’t actually own or operate any schools. It therefore must rely upon state and territory governments and the non-government school sectors to implement federal policies, a task which historically has not always been successful.

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National policy targets and directions should at least be realistic and achievable. The ALP policy contains a raft of targets and reforms that aim to foster the development of “a dynamic education system where students learn to embrace uncertainty, encourage collaboration, harness global perspectives and make time and space for creativity.”

Most of the ALP’s long list is very familiar and covers all of the recent policy issues in schooling – STEM, coding, school engagement with Asia, improving literacy and numeracy, early intervention, higher teaching standards, professional support for teachers, school leadership and “real” engagement with parents.

Labor’s plan includes investing in schools to improve literacy and numeracy, which will deliver amongst other things, more subject choices and more extra-curricular activities. It is not clear what this would actually mean for a school and doesn’t seem to take into consideration the recognised issue that there is already an overcrowded curriculum. No evidence or argument is presented as to how more subject choices and more extra-curricular activities would contribute to improved student outcomes.

The Coalition has also tied its funding commitments to a range of more modest and achievable measures, based on focusing on what will make a difference to student outcomes. Some are likely to be resisted by the education profession such as requiring all new principals to be certified through a new national certification process and changing industrial agreements “to link pay progression for teachers to the nationally agreed Australian Professional Standards for Teachers”.

Other proposed measures on early literacy and numeracy intervention and STEM echo Labor’s policies.

It is encouraging to note that the Coalition’s policy makes clear that “increased accountability requirements should be efficient and not adversely impinge on teachers’ time or impose additional costs”.

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Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham has taken a pragmatic approach to conditions on funding: "I'm a reasonable person and I won't unreasonably expect that every single one of the reforms we've outlined must be implemented or no dollar would flow to schools," (The Australian 14/5). "But we expect to get real reforms and improve the outcomes of students as a result of that investment."

Shadow Minister for Education Kate Ellis has made it clear to schools that “we are providing substantial funds … but that does not come with no strings attached,” (doorstop interview 28/1).

We are only in week three of this eight-week election campaign and unfortunately some of the debate and commentary on schools has been less than rigorous and unnecessarily divisive, re-hashing tired and unproductive funding debates down sector lines.

Education policy, in the context of declining student outcomes, should look beyond the dollars on offer to schools. The policy contest should centre on what works and what’s proven to work in schools, and most importantly for students.  The 3.7 million children currently sitting in classrooms around the nation (14.5 percent of whom are in independent schools) deserve better.

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About the Author

David Robertson is Executive Director of Independent Schools Queensland.

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