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

I thank Senator Duniam for his question and his interest in this important subject. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study—or TIMSS, as it is known—is an international sample assessment of year 4 and year 8 student achievement in maths and science released every four years by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Attainment.

Unfortunately, since 2011, Australia has fallen 10 places for year 4 mathematics performance, five places for year 8 mathematics performance and five places for year 8 science. Australia has fallen in place rankings and unfortunately we have also seen poorer performances by our students in advanced levels. Further, between one-quarter and one-third of Australian students did not achieve the national proficient standard in maths and science. These are deeply disappointing results. We have been overtaken in some areas by countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic that were on par with us in 2011. Kazakhstan, which has a GDP per capita of just AU$14,000 compared to our GDP per capita of more than $73,000 and which was significantly behind us in maths and science in 2011 has now overtaken us.

As many educational researchers, experts and commentators have noted, these results coming on top of poor NAPLAN performances and poor performances in other international benchmarks are a wake-up call to Australia. They demonstrate that, despite decades of growing investment in our schools and despite record levels of funding, at present we are not getting the outcomes that we should expect and want from our school system. It is essential that we better direct our resources and focus not just on how much money there is but on how we can most effectively invest it to get the best possible outcomes for Australian schoolchildren and the Australian economy. (Time expired)