Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak on the Schools Assistance Bill 2008 and associated bill. The first bill is for an act to grant financial assistance for non-government primary and secondary education for the period of 2008-12 and for related purposes. Through new grants and funding structures such as the new national partnerships scheme, this government is improving the quality of education for both private schools and schools in low socioeconomic communities. The Rudd government is reforming the education system to provide equality in a system that has been underfunded for too long. The debate has often been defined by the schools that ‘have’ versus the schools that ‘have not’, by private versus public, by traditional versus innovative by and the previous federal government versus the states. We are now heading into uncertain economic times and I note there has not been sufficient development in the education system since the early 1990s.

We have a responsibility in this economic climate to invest our best efforts into the education of individual students no matter what type of school they attend—whether it be public, private or Catholic. The Rudd government is committed to providing all schools with security and certainty through national school reform as a part of Labor’s education revolution. In supporting independent schools the government is retaining the current Commonwealth funding arrangements for the period 2009-12. Within these arrangements the socioeconomic status score funding model, the current indexation arrangement, will be maintained. In the long term the government is undertaking a review of funding arrangements which will include an extensive consultation process with all stakeholders. This legislation will contain a new accountability and performance-reporting framework for non-government schools and systems. This will bring independent schools in line with the framework proposed for government schools under the national education agreement which is currently being negotiated through the Council of Australian Governments.

This is an important reform of our education system, which we promised at the last election and are now delivering on. We are honouring our commitment made to the Australian people at the 2007 election. In the current economic climate, we cannot underestimate the importance of quality education and good schools to the nation’s future prosperity and social goals. This reform to our education system has come not too soon. Around the world today, governments are dealing with the most challenging global economic conditions in living memory. To give you an example, when considering the current economic climate, it is interesting to observe the effects of the last time we had serious economic upheavals. Observing school retention rates produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 1989 the secondary school retention rate was just 60 per cent. This rapidly increased for the three years to 1992, when 77 per cent of students stayed in secondary education to year 12 level or equivalent.

It is easy just to cite figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, but, to emphasise the point, I was actually in school at that point. I was at Mount Clear Secondary College in the early nineties and I witnessed firsthand the drying up of jobs for unskilled labour. It was a common theme for a lot of the students that I went to school with that we stayed at school because job opportunities were no longer there. Some of my peers had elder siblings who had left school to undertake a trade, and those opportunities no longer existed by the time I reached that point in my life. There were a number of older students who returned to school because the employment opportunities that they had taken up had dried up as the international economy contracted.

One thing we need to keep in mind is that the Liberals in 12 years did nothing to reform our education system. Today’s challenges and tomorrow’s challenges must be dealt with through comprehensive legislation, and I believe this legislation does that. Be they secondary school leavers or graduates, we need to be able to provide all students with the skills to participate in a workforce dominated by tighter demands through this economic turmoil. This is not totally about fixing a system to accommodate unfortunate circumstances; this is also about fixing a system that has begun to fail school leavers and graduates in many circumstances. For instance, chapter 3 of the Economic survey of Australia 2008, published last week by the OECD, states:

… reading performance has deteriorated between 2003 and 2006 and a considerable gap in performance related to disadvantage remains.

The last decade has seen opportunity after opportunity go missing. However, Labor are delivering on the promises that we took to last year’s federal election. We are not talking about core promises versus non-core promises, as the previous Liberal government did. We are talking about promises that we made to the people of Australia, and we will deliver on them in full. To borrow from the Prime Minister’s speech at the National Press Club on 27 August 2008:

This challenge is becoming increasingly complex as the balance of global strategic and economic power shifts to the Asia-Pacific region, as terrorism continues as a global and regional threat, and new challenges emerge such as energy security.

This is important, but we cannot do this if we cannot read or write. This government is committed to equipping students with literacy and numeracy skills so we can meet the modern and future challenges that face our country and our families. It is patently obvious that year 9 students who have difficulty with numeracy and literacy are more likely to leave school. It is our responsibility to equip every school leaver with the knowledge and skills they need to be able to tackle the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s society.

We cannot ignore the fact that nations in advanced and emerging industrial economies are investing in strategies for rapid educational improvement for their citizens. Australian enrolment rates in early childhood education are very low by international standards. In 2006 Australia maintained a 40 per cent enrolment rate for children aged four and under as a percentage of the population aged between three and four. The OECD average was 70 per cent for the same period. Of greater concern is the fact that 30 per cent fewer Indigenous people reach year 12 qualifications in comparison to their non-Indigenous counterparts. Australia cannot take its high achievements for granted any longer. Overall, our progress as a nation has been held back by a long tail of underachievement at the bottom, with little support from the last government to address this. To combat this, our aim is to raise year 12 retention rates to 90 per cent by 2020. We are going to halve the retention rate gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students by 2020. We are determined to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

This government is determined to make big improvements right across the board to bring an end to the culture of toleration—the idea that it is okay for some children from poorer homes and disadvantaged communities to be left behind in their education. This government has a responsibility to reform the education system and provide basic skills as well as a high level of education and critical skills for those individuals to be able to survive and prosper in our community. This government is committed to implementing an education revolution, which is obviously a policy agenda to significantly improve the quality of Australian schools. There is a need for school reform to assist education for disadvantaged communities, and this is also an opportunity, of course, to provide positive reform for schools that are doing well. I do not want to take away from the fact that many of Australia’s independent schools are achieving excellent results. All of the reforms that we are undertaking to assist students and schools and to create a national framework are available for all schools, whatever system they come from—whether they be independent, public or Catholic.

In the May budget we allocated $19.3 billion over the next four years for education initiatives. This includes a national curriculum for all students in English, maths, science and history—all very important and critical elements to any national curriculum. We also included a national Asian literacy program, which I think is a tremendous initiative that will give us the skills to respond to the growing opportunities that exist within Asia. We provided $1.2 billion for the digital education revolution, leading to the development of a world-class national curriculum and the rollout of trade-training centres in schools throughout Australia. These initiatives are already well underway, with independent schools receiving over $12 million in funding to date. In my electorate, Trinity College Colac received 142 new computers. Over time, the digital education revolution will provide access to a computer for every student in year 9 through to year 12. This reform has been driven by new understandings about the best ways to improve educational outcomes.

A report by the McKinsey consultancy group titled How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top published in September of last year confirms the importance and significance of high-quality teaching within schools. It is obvious that we need the right people to become teachers in our communities. In Australia, the average starting wage of a teacher is 75 per cent of the wage that they will be earning in 15 years time, which is coincidently also the peak. We need to develop the skills of educated people to become effective instructors. A great chef is not necessarily going to be a great teacher of apprentices. We need to recognise and reward good teachers and, where possible, direct the best teachers to where they are required to help educate the most disadvantaged communities. Through the new National Partnership on Quality Teaching this government will ensure that the best graduates are recruited, that the best teachers are rewarded, that school leadership is recognised and that excellent facilities are provided. Those resources will be directed to where they are required the most, irrespective of whether they are a government school or a non-government school.

Integral to the Rudd government’s reform of the education system is the establishment with the states of the National Schools Assessment and Data Centre. This government is providing $17.2 million for the National Schools and Data Centre, which will ensure effective program implementation. By analysing all data collected from educational institutions, from early learning centres through to secondary schools, we will be able to effectively direct resources where they are most needed. In order for this data to be accessible, from 1 January next year schools will be required to report on performance as part of the national education agreement. Within this framework parents will be able to see how their children are performing at school and how their school is performing for their children. In creating a standard format by which educational institutions can be assessed, there will be consistent reporting of data that is relevant to understanding the effectiveness of schools and educational providers.

There will be consistent data on student populations. There will be clear data on socioeconomic status numbers. There will be relevant data on Indigenous student numbers, students with disabilities and students who are learning English as a second language. Through these processes we can establish the differences that extra resources make. We can provide better information to parents and to students about their education and their educational provider. We can be better informed as a whole in assisting the future development of positive informed policy. This framework will give parents, the public and the government information about every school. We are creating a sound policy of equality in education standards. The same rules will apply to both public and private schools nationwide.

This government, unlike the last, has not been asleep at the wheel. The Labor Party went to the polls last year knowing full well what we were about to do—that is, to create an education revolution that would go across all school sectors. The government are intent on rebuilding the literacy and numeracy levels within our communities. We are intent on improving the quality of teaching and on providing a sound education system for both public and private sectors, with substantial improvements in educational outcomes. This is paramount to the current generation of students, who will need skills to meet the demands of the future. We have to equip all of our children, whether they be in public or private schools, with the education to improve their chances of having successful, rewarding and fulfilling lives. School reform is critical to cementing a sound future for Australia. I commend the bills to the House.

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