Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Education and Employment References Committee on classroom disruption, together with accompanying documents, and I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

It gives me great pleasure to rise today and to speak on this report. It was a labour of love for this committee, and I do thank, indeed, the committee for their diligence in the way that they approached this. As I said, it was a real labour of love for the committee. It's taken more than a year to get to this point, and I want to place on the record my thanks to the deputy chair, Senator Tony Sheldon, and my fellow committee members for their input and valued contributions.

This final report builds upon the findings of the interim report. The time we have taken for further analysis of the results indicates that there is a lot of room for improvement in Australian classrooms. Just for context, we extended the reporting date just to allow time for us to get data back from the OECD, who were reporting on the PISA results. They had delayed it because of COVID. They delayed their report, so we wanted to just make sure that we were getting the latest data to fit into this.

On that, our results in maths, science and reading have been declining since 2015, but I do note that in more recent years this has stabilised, since our average 2022 results were about the same as they were in 2018. So it is reassuring to see that our 15-year-olds are scoring higher than the OECD average in these core subjects. However, this doesn't mask the fact that our results have been dropping over two decades. It's also a point to note that our standings are where they are partly because of the fact that other countries have gone backwards. We comparatively, over the COVID period, did better than other countries. We haven't necessarily improved, but we did do better than other countries, and that is worth noting. But we shouldn't allow it to give us any false sense of comfort, because there is an enormous amount of work that needs to be done. Maths results dropped 37 points since 2003, from 524 to 487; science fell 20 points, from 527 to 507; and reading is down 30 points, from 528 to 498, since 2000. This is equivalent to the loss of a whole school year over that period. Action is needed now to reverse the long-term declining trend.

To that end, this final report recommends that the Senate continue to prioritise the issue by referring a targeted inquiry into the declining academic standards in Australia. There is a pressing need to ensure that we raise the academic standards and outcomes for all Australian students. This is their future at stake, after all. We need to emphasise our commitment to tackling this before the rot sets in for good, before we're past the point of no return. We owe our children more than that. We owe those tireless and dedicated saints, our wonderful teachers—we have the best teachers in the world—principals, educators and school administrators more than that. This is our turn to do our part to make the tough decisions that need to be made. What are the experiences of our teachers, principals and parents? What are the challenges that they're facing, and what do we need to do, from a policy perspective, to help them overcome these challenges? How can we show them that we have their back?

The survey results from the OECD tell us, really, what we already know, and that is, of course, that our teachers are doing a terrific job. Our teachers are doing a great job, but they do need our support. They do need more support. Sixty-eight per cent of Australian students reported that in most maths lessons their teacher showed an interest in every student's learning. Seventy-seven per cent reported that the teacher went out of their way to give extra help to students who needed it. We know that our teachers are some of the most compassionate and dedicated in the world, and this data only confirms it. But the report also shows that they desperately need support in classrooms, and I know that this is a point that Senator Henderson, the shadow minister for education, has been making very passionately over her time since taking on this portfolio as she has discovered the needs across the country.

The disciplinary climate in our classrooms is holding our students back from achieving at their highest potential. We have a situation where one in four Australian students reported that they could not work well in most or all lessons, because of the disruption that was occurring in classrooms. So we've got to do better than this. We're literally at the bottom of the pack—literally towards the bottom of the table. We need to do much better. A third of students aren't listening to what the teachers say. Almost half are getting distracted either by their own mobile phone device or by another student using a mobile phone device. I do acknowledge that all states either have enacted a mobile phone ban or are in the process of rolling out that policy. That is a good step, and I support all governments of all jurisdictions taking that step and every school for enforcing it. It is a good step in the right direction, because we know that mobile devices have enormous potential to aid students but they also have significant potential to inappropriately distract them in class. We need to make sure that teachers are supported in being able to do that. But I digress.

Australia was ranked 69 out of 76 countries in 2018. Even though PISA have changed the way that they present this data, the results aren't ideal. We are now ranked—listen to this—33 out of 37 OECD countries. To have a higher number is a bad thing. To be a good country, you have to be No. 1. So, at 33 out of 37, we are falling way behind and we are scoring well below the OECD average. Arresting this decline should be the top priority of this government.

There is a lot of big talk coming from the government on school funding, but that priority should be to direct funds where they can be of most use. This includes promoting evidence based methods of teaching, like those in the AERO engaged classrooms report and those that we've recommended in the interim report. The first tranche was released around the same time as the PISA report last year. These good resources that have been developed are backed by the research, and we know that they work. We have several schools across Australia already using these methods and they are achieving outstanding results. Rolling it out quickly and thoroughly across the country is an important and good thing. This isn't really even going to cost any more money. It is just better using the resources that we have now. In fact, they are available on the website right now. We have seen these methods in action. We have seen them produce very real and outstanding results. The emphasis should be on a whole-school approach, a whole-school commitment to behaviour.

The interim report, which we tabled late last year, recommended the introduction of a behaviour curriculum. That would set out the expected behaviours and values of a school and a list of key habits and routines, not a list of prohibited behaviours. It's all about making schools and classrooms safe, predictable and equitable places for all students to learn. We have to set our students up for success. I have said it before and I will say it again. We need the political willpower to follow through with what the evidence is telling us. Nearly half of Australian students achieve the national proficiency standards—51 per cent in maths, 58 per cent in science and 57 per cent in reading. So the status quo isn't working.

We know that evidence based methods and pedagogy like explicit instruction and formative assessment which are based on the science of learning help students learn and retain information. We should mandate these methods. If we know that teachers are crying out for more support then we need to ensure that they are equipped with the skills and the strategies that they will rely on in the classroom by reforming initial teacher education courses at our universities. We need to know that we are going to get those academic outcomes. This won't be an easy process. There is no silver bullet that will solve all the problems in our classrooms. But isn't it the definition of insanity to just keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Something has to give.

I will finish with this. We must remember that the greatest cruelty that we could show to our children is to rob them of their futures by doing nothing and allowing this problem to escalate by reducing learning time in class and ultimately leaving them illiterate and innumerate.

Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to welcome the tabling of the final report by the Senate Education and Employment References Committee on increasing disruption in Australian schools. Chaired most capably by Senator O'Sullivan, this very important inquiry has offered critical insights into how spiralling behaviour in and out of the classroom is impacting on the learning outcomes of Australian students.

Unruly, disruptive and even violent behaviour is seriously impacting on the ability of teachers to do their job and is the leading cause of teachers leaving the profession in droves. With some of the unruliest classrooms in the world, it's no wonder academic standards are declining. Despite a 60 per cent increase in school funding over two decades, we are seeing that trajectory of declining school standards, with one in three Australian students failing NAPLAN, and, as we've heard from Senator O'Sullivan, a long-term decline in our international results. Students deserve better, teachers deserve better and Australian parents deserve better. So dire are our school standards, despite the best efforts of teachers—and I reiterate that—that half of all year 10 students tested under the Program for International Student Assessment failed to meet minimum expectations in maths, with 43 per cent failing to meet the grade in reading and 42 per cent in science. As Senator O'Sullivan said, the average 15-year-old is now one whole year behind in his or her learning compared to 20 years ago. That is a shocking outcome.

Students cannot learn in a disruptive environment, and hardworking teachers must have the training and the resources to excel in the classroom, including the resources and the training to manage poor classroom behaviour. On that score, teaching courses offered by Australian universities—not all, but on the whole—leave new teachers unprepared and lacking knowledge in evidence based teaching methods for the science of learning—so our universities must bear a big part of the blame. Here's the irony: university academics training student teachers don't need a teaching degree to do their job. I strongly endorse the committee's recommendation in its final report to hold an inquiry into declining academic standards, including examining students' proficiency in literacy and numeracy and the experience of principals, teachers and parents in meeting the challenge of raising academic standards.

It is regrettable that, since the interim report was handed down late last year, we have seen so little action from this government and the education minister, Jason Clare, on the recommendations of the interim report. They include fast-tracking the delivery of core curriculum in every university teaching course, including comprehensive behaviour management training. Yes, the government recognises, like we did when we were last in government, that universities are not meeting the grade, but this minister is letting universities off the hook by giving them so much time to get their act together, so we need those reforms fast-tracked. We need, as was recommended, a national behaviour survey of Australian schools to support evidence based measures to combat classroom disruption; more on-the-job experience for student teachers; a behaviour curriculum which incorporates into the Australian curriculum the explicit instruction of expected behaviours at school; the adoption of evidence based teaching methods in every Australian school to support optimal student engagement and learning; and the abolition of open classrooms—which has been announced in New South Wales but not in any other state or territory—which make behaviour management more difficult.

The coalition is interested in these reforms—the things that work, the things that the evidence shows will turn around these declining school standards. Minister Clare has spent almost two years talking a very big game on the next National School Reform Agreement, but we have seen no national agreement and very little in the way of reform. Yes, it is true that there has been a ban on mobile phones in classrooms—I have to say, led by some of the states rather than the minister, but we welcome that very important change in classrooms—but we've not seen anything else that we know will work and that we know will give each young Australian every opportunity to reach his or her best potential.

In fact, this minister was comprehensively rolled by the states and territories at the last education ministers meeting. Within 24 hours of making this big announcement, the so-called $3 billion for public schools—what a joke that was!—this hopeless minister was absolutely, comprehensively rolled when five states announced there was no deal at all, leaving uncertainty, division and a complete and utter funding shambles. It was absolutely clear that this minister had not done his homework. This minister had not done the hard yards with the states and territories to get them over the line. Australians need an education minister who is a tough operator, not a smooth talker.

Let's not forget that on the minister's watch, on the Albanese government's watch, we now have a full-blown teacher shortage crisis with no immediate solutions from this government. We have seen no interest at all from this government in improving the national curriculum. The minister will not even mention the words 'explicit instruction', when we know from the evidence that explicit instruction is a core part of what will help to turn around our declining school standards.

Perhaps it's because the Australian Education Union doesn't agree with these teaching methods—incredible. In our cost-of-living inquiry, we heard the Australian Education Union again confirm on the record that it doesn't subscribe to the evidence of what we know works in Australian classrooms. They don't believe it. They think it's dangerous, which is contrary even to the very good work of the Australian Education Research Organisation. That just goes to show how out of touch the Australian Education Union is. Frankly, there is no value at all in anyone listening to what this union has to say when it comes to doing what is right for young Australians.

As Senator O'Sullivan has reiterated, the coalition has been crying out for the government to take the necessary steps and make the necessary reforms to turn around our declining academic standards, including to mandate explicit instruction and other proven teaching methods in every Australian classroom. In saying that, I acknowledge that there are many schools and a number of school systems that are doing a very good job embracing evidence based teaching methods. One of the great visits that we had when I joined the inquiry's Sydney hearings was to the Marsden Road Public School. We again met the wonderful principal, Manisha Gazula, and saw what she is doing in a highly disadvantaged area of Sydney. With no extra funding, she's embracing evidence based teaching, and her NAPLAN results are going through the roof. What can be done when you have the vision and the determination and you embrace the science of learning is incredible.

I reiterate my endorsement for this very important recommendation in the final report that has been tabled today, and I say this hopelessly dishonest government needs to do better and this minister needs to do far better than he is doing at the moment.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.