Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Johnston for his question and for his interest in the comparative performance of Australia's school education system. I am pleased to inform Senator Johnston and the Senate, through you Mr President, that the OECD's Education at a Glance 2015 report released overnight shows that Australia spends, as a proportion of GDP, a very high level, in fact an above-average level among OECD countries on school education. It is a demonstration of the strong support, indeed the record support, provided for school education in Australia.

While at a primary school level our rate of expenditure is slightly below the OECD average, at a secondary school level total expenditure per student is significantly above the OECD average. The OECD average is some US$9,484, while average expenditure on secondary school students in Australia is significantly above at AU$11,010, a demonstration of the strong commitment that governments around Australia and continually throughout political industry have put on supporting a school education sector. While funding matters, it is what you do with the funding that matters most in education outcomes that can be obtained.

In Australia, we have noticed over the last decade or so that funding has increased quite substantially. In fact, in the period 2000 to 2009 funding increased some 44 per cent. Yet during that time we saw declines in real and relative terms in our PISA scores—the international benchmark on literacy, numeracy and science. That is, of course, a very concerning and worrying situation for Australia and it is why as a government we have put our focus not just on funding questions but also on how we can help schools to do their best to lift other standards in teacher quality, curriculum and all standards in the education system. (Time expired)