Speech to Australian Education Union Public Education Day Forum

Australian Education Union Public Education Day Forum

23 May, 2012, Canberra

Hon Christopher Pyne MP

Federal Member for Sturt

Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training

Manager of Opposition Business in the House

Thank you for your invitation to speak at the Australian Education Union National Public Education Forum today.

I stand before you today as a partial product of Australia’s public school system having begun my education journey at Burnside Primary School in South Australia. I have experienced firsthand the dedication of the teachers and staff in our public system that are committed to excellence in education and determined every day to lift up their students towards greater things.

I believe in the public school system and so it will come as no surprise that my three school age children also all attended my alma mater Burnside Primary and have greatly benefited from their experiences. 

No one should be in any doubt that the Coalition stands for public education. We are committed to the principle that all children must have the opportunity to secure a quality education.

I will share with you today some of the policy priorities areas we have identified as essential ingredients in our strategy in meeting this principle.

First, we must value teachers. Nothing we will achieve in Australia will happen without you – the teachers in this room and in our classrooms.

The Coalition will work to both better support and train the teaching profession and we will work with Universities and the States in this area as a matter of priority.

I have visited dozens and dozens of schools following the handing down of the Gonski Review and have never been in doubt about our teachers’ commitment to their students and the Coalition values this dedication.

As revealed in a recent Grattan Institute paper the countries that have overtaken Australia (namely some of our Asian neighbours) have managed to do this by placing an enormous priority on improving support arrangements for their teachers.

I believe that with well supported and trained teachers, a whole class or an entire school can be transformed.

Second, we want to have the best and most robust curriculum available in the world.

Productivity rises as a result of what happens in our schools and the Coalition believes that knowing the languages of our key regional partners is critical to unlocking the potential of the Asian century for Australia.

As announced during the Budget in reply by the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, a Coalition Government will work urgently with the states to ensure that at least 40 per cent of Year 12 students are once more taking a language other than English within a decade.

And we will support the good work teachers in our classroom by implementing a curriculum that is rigorous without being too prescriptive or overcrowded.

Third, we also above anything else realise how essential a parent’s involvement is in a child’s education.

Government’s have a responsibility to support the engagement of parents as much as possible in our education system. Research indicates this has an enormous impact. 

We want to see greater parental involvement in schools, and as part of our policy on school autonomy we want to see more parents be involved in their schools decision-making processes in this country than ever before.

However in saying this, the Coalition also recognises that we have an obligation to recognise that not all children are the same. Some students have additional needs which mean that parents need extra support from Governments to meet their child’s educational needs.

This is why we support the Gonski Review’s recommendation that students with a disability be fully funded through an additional loading regardless of school sector or State, based on nationally agreed definitions of disability.

We announced a policy at the last election to take the first step in that direction, that would see $20,000 made available in additional funding for these students through an education card for the students with the most profound disability.

Our plan is then to extend this programme to all students with a disability over time as budgetary conditions improve.

I will finish by sharing some of my thoughts on the Gonski Review, and in particular the proposal to introduce a School Resource Standard at a cost to Governments of an additional $5 billion per year.

While the Coalition appreciates that many areas of the school sector have welcomed the model, the reality is that no Government has yet committed to its introduction or the additional funding needed to transition to the new model.

In the absence of that commitment, we remain firmly committed to the current funding arrangements so that schools can plan with certainty into the future.

We also have reservations about using NAPLAN data as a basis for determining benchmark funding levels in the new model.

The Coalition agrees with the Australian Education Union’s position taken about the purposes on NAPLAN in many ways. These tests should be used as a diagnostic tool. 

I believe this was well put in the AEU’s February 2010 fact sheet which suggested “The NAPLAN tests were designed as a diagnostic tool. The results are used to help assess the progress of each individual student and ensure teaching programs meet their learning needs. They also provide parents with information on their child’s skill development in literacy and numeracy. The NAPLAN tests were never designed to be used to publicly rank or compare schools against each other”.

Yet following the introduction of the My School website which publishes the NAPLAN results, we have seen in some instances the creation of league tables.

The Coalition does not support the creation of league tables, as we do not support schools being named and shamed in this simplistic manner. We believe in the long term this will do little to improve education outcomes.

As evidenced in the Australian Education Union’s submission to the Senate Enquiry in 2010 into NAPLAN there are some serious issues around NAPLAN and My School.

 In the Union’s submission we heard concerns about a high-stakes testing regime with the Union outlining several consequences as a result of publishing results on the website including teaching to the test, and a narrowing of curriculum offerings.

Submissions by other school sector representatives into the Gonski Review process have suggested that NAPLAN data is unreliable and in some instances not suitable to be used in a funding model.

The School Resource Standard is to be set at the level thought to be required to educate children, defined as where 80 per cent of students have achieved above the minimum standard in national numeracy and literacy (NAPLAN) tests for the past three years.

This amount is estimated by David Gonski to be $8000 per primary school student and $10,500 per secondary school student.

And the report makes clear that all funding information must be published on the My School website.

So one of my concerns is what happens to those schools which are funded to the benchmark amounts, but don’t get 80 per cent of students having achieved the minimum standard in national numeracy and literacy?  Is there an even greater risk that these schools will be named and shamed through simplistic league tables?

Conclusion

As you can imagine a Member of Parliament becomes very familiar with the schools in his electorate. Over my 19 years in Parliament I have visited every school many times over and in my role as Shadow Education Minister for Education I have travelled nationally meeting with hundreds of teachers, parents and principals at the chalk-face and what I see is an exceptional education system preparing young Australians for a great future.

Could it be better? Absolutely and the Coalition’s policies will be directed toward ensuring that all children have the opportunity to secure a quality education.