Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

As usual, you are being very generous to the opposition about their questions. I do appreciate the opportunity to talk about the Australian government's record of achievement in school education. Not only are we are focusing on teacher training at university with the cooperation of all of the universities and the states and territories but we are also focusing on getting more autonomy in schools. That is because all of the research shows that the more autonomy is in schools, the better the outcomes are for students. Every state and territory has signed up to that.

We have reformed the national curriculum. From next year, primary school curriculum will be decluttered. Four subjects will be concertinaed into one subject; that means 'all put together' for those of you on the other side of the House who are not aware. There will be more room in the curriculum for teachers to focus on science, maths and English. We fixed school funding. We put the $1.2 billion back in. We are increasing school funding every year: eight per cent, eight per cent, six per cent and four per cent. That adds up to a 28 per cent increase over the next four years.

I am very proud of our record of achievement in school funding. I look forward to any more questions from the opposition on this subject.

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