Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Few issues are more important to the future of our country than the education of our children. Education is, figuratively, a nation's heart and soul. But it is also literally every nation's future. Australia is no exception. So the latest Programme for International Student Assessment or PISA results should be a cause for concern and a call to action.

The results are the worst for Australia since testing began and show that we are falling further behind our regional neighbours. If you look at the trend lines, we have decreased: from 15th to 19th in mathematical literacy; from 10th to 16th in scientific literacy; and from ninth to 14th in reading literacy. In my home state of Tasmania this issue is doubly important, given we have the lowest retention rates into years 11 and 12 in Australia. We also have the lowest adult literacy rates in the country, highlighting that those left behind in the classroom suffer those consequences into adulthood. We on this side of the House believe that all students deserve our support, regardless of the choice parents make for their education. Better educational results today support a smarter and more competitive nation tomorrow. But there is so much to be done.

Despite billions more for education during the last decade, education results have declined. During the last six years we have listened to grand promises about an education revolution and then an even grander-sounding 'education crusade'. But what have we gained from this six-year revolution and crusade?

We have seen overpriced school halls, overpromising of computers in schools and overblown rhetoric about 'catching up with Shanghai kids', yet student outcomes have declined.

Statistics over 10, 20 and 40 years are instructive. Ten years ago, eight per cent of year 3 children did not achieve minimum national benchmarks. A decade later in 2013, NAPLAN results revealed that this had jumped by 50 per cent, with almost 12 per cent of children in year 3 achieving a very low rating, or below, for reading. That is despite an almost 50 per cent funding increase.

In the last 20 years educational funding has doubled to $40 billion per year, yet our student results in national and international tests have fallen. Research from the member for Fraser confirms that over the last 40 years, despite an almost 260 per cent increase in school spending, literacy and numeracy outcomes have declined. Standards have not improved, despite more dollars, smaller class sizes, $16 billion in new buildings and a laptop spending spree. There is simply no logic in the arguments put forward by those opposite and highly politicised teachers unions that just more dollars is the answer. Labor's fistful of dollars approach to education clearly has more to do with politics and ideology than it does with evidence.

We have to start talking more about standards than dollars. We should be discussing how to help teachers whose own literacy skills impede their ability to teach reading effectively. The final report of the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy in 2005, for example, revealed that less than 10 per cent of compulsory units in primary teaching degrees were allocated to reading instruction. Then Minister for Education, Science and Training Brendan Nelson welcomed the inquiry's recommendations and said that we simply must prepare teachers better to teach reading as their key focus.

The inquiry's literature review found that quality of teaching has the largest impact on a child's learning to read. It is a factor of far greater importance than a child's background or their family circumstances. The inquiry found that, in the first three years of school and beyond if necessary, all children learn to read most effectively through an approach to reading that emphasises phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension. The report highlighted repeatedly that teacher quality was the most valuable resource in making a difference in classrooms.

What does that mean? Quite simply it means that scarce taxpayer dollars must be applied to the key factors that determine better educational outcomes: improving teacher quality, greater autonomy in decision-making by principals and parent-teacher organisations, parental engagement and a quality curriculum. I recall former Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth Peter Garrett talking about a 'decade of neglect' and how schools were failing our children. Those opposite were in government for six years, and state Labor governments have controlled public education in every state for most of the last decade. In my home state of Tasmania, for example, Labor has been in power for 16 long years and over half of Tasmania's $5 billion is spent on health and education, yet the state of our hospitals and educational outcomes is a distant last on national benchmarks.

Watching the Lateline television program on 19 February, I listened with a heavy heart as Dr Ben Jensen of the Grattan Institute suggested that the literacy crisis in Tasmania could become unmanageable in the next decade. I know the member for Franklin and other members here this morning will be worried about some of the statistics when we consider how our population is going with their reading, writing and progress in schools. At least half of Tasmania's population cannot read or write properly. More than half of the state's students fell below the national baseline for maths, compared to 42 per cent nationally. Forty-seven per cent failed the minimum standard of English, compared to 36 per cent nationally. This is despite Tasmania's teacher-student ratios being nine per cent higher than those on the mainland.

In his 1955 book Why Johnny Can't Read Rudolf Flesch pinpointed quality of instruction as the decisive factor in delivering better educational outcomes. He was right then and he is right now. We must attract high-quality teachers with a vocational commitment to their profession. That requires better selection, better entry standards and ensuring that the professional development of teachers continues throughout their career. Enough time must be devoted in core teaching units to prepare teachers to manage classes and to deliver effective reading instruction. This requires a change in emphasis within university faculties and government education departments. We need much more of a focus on academic rigour and core disciplines that improve literacy and numeracy and less of the left-wing, socially progressive fillers that currently dominate the national curriculum. We must put more emphasis on teaching students how to write effectively and to master the numeracy requirements they need in their everyday lives and future careers.

The current overcrowded, rigid curriculum must be streamlined. That is why the coalition has appointed Professor Ken Wiltshire and Dr Kevin Donnelly to review the national curriculum. Their recommendations to government in mid-2014 will help ensure that the national curriculum puts students first in the government's education policies.

Schools deserve greater independence from the authoritarian command-and-control model that those opposite champion. We need less control from governments, bureaucrats and unions and more from school boards and councils. In conjunction with the above, parents must accept their role in their children's learning and behaviour. This requires parents to do more at home to encourage a learning culture, discipline and cooperative social interaction.

Our collective actions, both federal and state, on education will either help Australian students grab future opportunities or consign them to languish in mediocrity, overtaken and bypassed by others who are better prepared and harder working, in all ways hungrier for a better life and quite willing to pay the price in sheer effort to attain it. This reality is accentuated by our national geography. We sit on the very doorstep of Asia during what pundits have already labelled the 'Asian century', but it might just as fittingly be labelled the 'hypercompetitive century' or, perhaps more positively, the 'education century'. The coalition will work tirelessly, must work tirelessly, to overturn bad education policy and improve existing policy. Our young people deserve nothing less. I commend the motion to the House.

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