Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. Will the minister please update the House on how the Morrison government is ensuring that Australian children get a quality education, including during the current pandemic?

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question. I know that she cares deeply about the education of Australian children. It's one of her absolute passions, and it's why she's supported the government's record investment when it comes to schools: $314.2 billion to 2029. That's a 62.3 per cent increase in funding. On Friday, the Education Council met and we were able to endorse some projects and some policies which will further benefit Australian children.

Ms Ryan interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lalor has already been warned.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To start with, what we were able to do is all agree that every student who does year 12 this year, or year 11 where they do a VCE subject, will get an ATAR in 2020. There will be no mass repeating and no year 13. We've dealt with the pandemic and we will ensure that every year 12 student will get an ATAR in 2020. We were also able to agree that we will set up a $50 million national evidence institute, a key recommendation of David Gonski's Review to achieve educational excellence in Australian schools. This is another key milestone in ensuring that when it comes to schools they will get the best practice and they will get effective teaching policy given to them by an independent national evidence institute, which will go a long way to lifting educational outcomes in this nation. Can I thank all the states and territory education ministers for working with the Commonwealth to agree on this key achievement: the establishment of this $50 million national evidence institute. Dr Jenny Donovan will be the inaugural director from 1 July 2020. So not only have we set the institute up; we have a director who will hit the ground running to make sure that this institute can put those practices and policies in place that will inform schools—and in particular teachers and principals—about what they can do to lift education standards in this nation and education outcomes.

We also progressed the Review of the Australian Curriculum. It was an election commitment of the federal government that we wanted to declutter the Australian curriculum, so that a focus on literacy and numeracy could be at the heart of what our children are learning at school. This is what we have agreed, and, importantly, it will be maths and science that we start with in decluttering the curriculum and making sure that that focus is there on numeracy and on science. The Education Council is endorsing our policies and our commitment to make— (Time expired)