2UE Jason Morrison

SUBJECTS: Gonski funding

E&OE………………………………………………………………………………………

Jason Morrison: Today the federal government, the Prime Minister, is going to make public what it plans to do to improve Australia’s education standards in schools. It’s the decisions that were made of the back of this much talked Gonski report. The government is being scrapped the current way it funds education and moves to something it does better. Why – to achieve better educational outcomes. Of course the mad irony is that the Gonski report talks all about money, it doesn’t necessarily talk about what we are teaching or where teaching may have gone astray; not what teachers are doing but indeed how much teachers have to focus on. Most Australians most stunned to know where our kids today sit versus those from other countries, countries we used to think were world behind us. And when you look at the education standards around the world, Australia struggles to make the top ten. In mathematics, we are not there; Taiwan, Finland, Hong Kong, South Korea, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, Lichtenstein, Macau, Japan are all in front of us. In science, again it is a similar story; Estonia sits above Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand, we are neck and neck with the Netherlands. And reading standards in a humiliating reality the standards of Australian kids come out in school with their English understanding and grasp in fact falls behind countries that don’t even speak it as a first language. So it is easy to talk about money and dollars here and dollars there and the Prime Minister will do that and probably be roundly congratulated. What she will talk about is money probably likely she won’t be around to even see spend. Now the Prime Minister of Australia struggles to hold power for the next weeks within her own ranks. She is talking about spending, rolling out to 2020. The aim is to lift standards of education and to get us into the top five around the world. I would have imagined many of you would be staggered to know we are not. Christopher Pyne is the shadow education minister and he is with me this morning. Christopher, good morning to you.

Christopher Pyne: Good morning Jason.

Morrison: Now before we start talking about money going here and there, I would think by anyone's reading to know that nations that really are emerging nations outdo us in educational standards is a national disgrace.

Pyne: Well it is Jason and the reason is for thirty years we have been focussing on the wrong things in education. And rather than focusing on the basics on traditional teaching methods, we have adopted every fad as it has floated past in teaching. I am sure that is not the case everywhere but what I am saying is that we don't need to announce massive new spending proposals with money we do not have which is what the Prime Minister will try and do today in an election policy rather than an education policy. We focus on teacher quality, professional development of teachers, the training of teachers and the salary and the volume of teachers. We focus on the curriculum and we give principals in government schools real autonomy. They are the things that will make a difference with education outcomes, not just spending more money that the government doesn't have anyway. It’s a great con.

Morrison: I reckon not a week goes by where there is not a suggestion of some elm in society that is being encouraged to be tipped into the school curriculum. I feel for teachers on this front. Last week it was that we need to teach nutritious. The week before it was that we needed to teach road safety. These are the things I note that make the newspapers. We talk about making sure children have better understanding of the road rules, that they understand the legal system. It just keeps going on and on. Everything that is being suggested isn’t making them mathematically more capable and certainly will not make them read better or have a better understanding of the science that we are confronted and nowadays being sold with some very dodgy statements about why we need to change and upturn the economy.

Pyne: Well Jason the problem for teachers and students is they are a captive audience. So governments always think well if we have a program that will please one particular part of the community who might be a noisy part of the community, let’s run it out through schools and get teachers to do it. It really is unfair on teachers and one of the great bits of feedback I get from teachers from travelling around Australia talking to them they just want an uncluttered curriculum. They want to get on with teaching maths and science and English and so on, rather than filling up their day with more reporting requirements, more new programs that governments are running out. One of the centrepiece’s of the Prime Minister’s announcement today is more reporting requirements for teachers and principals back to state and federal governments. So quite frankly that is the last thing we need. People are thoroughly sick of all these reporting requirements and form filing out, they want to get out with teaching and I feel for them.

Morrison: I reckon I probably have once a week, a school email me a fundraiser they have on. Last week it was a school that I identify as being from a pretty underprivileged part of Sydney as trying to raise money to buy whiteboards. The teacher that emailed me said that we have 14 classrooms and only 10 of them have got whiteboards in them. So I would assume that whatever we have in the other classrooms is not deficient and we listen to that and this is a public school and I say where does the money go if we can’t get something as fundamental as that? After you pay for lighting the board at the front of the classroom is pretty typical.

Pyne: Well unfortunately the state governments run all the public schools, and the Catholic and the Independents run their systemic schools. State governments have a responsibility to fund their public schools to their best of their ability to ensure they have the best outcomes possible. I simply point to the fact that in Victoria nine cents in every dollar is spent on the bureaucracy in the Victorian education system. In South Australia thirty four cents in every dollar is spent on the bureaucracy in education system. I don’t know what it is for New South Wales but what that points to is that there is a tremendous amount of money not getting to the chalkface and that is what the state government needs to be focusing on.

Morrison: So today will all be about billions of dollars and these ridiculous targets dates of 2020. And I think most people look at this and when they hear Julia Gillard talking about what her government do by 2020, you may as well play the comedy backtrack and as if they will make it that far. 2020 is a great ambition and that is how we should be thinking and planning in government. It again highlights the focus is always on the dollars and I wonder why the focus is just only on the dollars and not tightening up on what we have.

Pyne: Well this announcement today will be all spin and no substance. We know that the Gonski review would have left 3,254 schools worse off including 2,300 public schools. Let’s see if the Prime Minister rules that out today. But if she announces billions of dollars of new spending - where is this money coming from? The federal government is broke, all the states apart from Western Australia are essential broke. The idea that they have billions of dollars is an outrageous con and parents are not going to buy it because they are not stupid. They know they can’t spend what they don’t have but this government keeps announcing massive new spending proposals, whether it is the NDIS or the dental scheme, now it is the schools. All preparing for an election, not preparing for good policy.

Morrison: We will see today, thank you for your time this morning.

Pyne: Thank you Jason.

Morrison: Christopher Pyne is the Shadow Education Minister.

ENDS