A JOINT STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER AND THE MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, SCIENCE
AND TRAINING
THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT’S AGENDA FOR SCHOOLS
Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity
22 June, 2004
Tomorrow, the Australian Government will introduce into
Parliament legislation that sets out the Howard Government’s agenda
for Australian schools. The legislation will support a record $31.3
billion for schools and $2.1 billion for Indigenous education over
the next four years. The funding is conditional on the states and
territories and non-government school authorities meeting a number
of requirements that will underpin the Australian Government’s
national priorities, shaping our schools over the next decade.
Funding Commitments
In every year of the Howard Government, a new record for school
funding has been established. This legislation will continue this
pattern. The $31.3 billion that is provided to schools in this
legislation represents an $8 billion increase over the current
quadrennium. This is a major investment in Australia’s future. It
will leave us better equipped to face the global future and help us
build on our long traditions of innovation and technical excellence.
The funding commitments are built on the principles that every
student will be financially supported regardless of the school that
the child attends and that no school will have its funding cut.
These are important principles that are not shared by the Australian
Labor Party.
School funding is a joint responsibility of the Australian
Government and the states and territories. Each level of government
contributes funds to schools. The states and territories have the
primary responsibility for funding state government schools, which
they own and manage, while the Australian Government is the primary
source of public funds for Catholic and Independent schools. Many
parents contribute to the cost of their children’s education and,
for most, this is a considerable commitment representing great
personal sacrifice. Overall, state schools enrol 68 per cent of
students and receive 76 per cent of public funds for schooling,
while non-government schools enrol 32 per cent of students and
receive 24 per cent of public funds.
State Schools: Over the next four years, the Australian
Government will provide $9.8 billion to the states and territory
governments in specific funding for their state schools. This is a
$1.9 billion increase over the current four year period and will
continue to provide funding increases to state schools of more than
6 per cent per annum. Funding to date has already increased by 69
per cent since 1996. This funding commitment is in contrast to the
commitments of the states and territories who, despite their
ownership of, and primary responsibilities for, state schools, only
increased their funding in their budgets last year by an average of
2.1 per cent - below the inflation rate and well below school cost
increases. The Australian Government’s general recurrent funding for
state schools over the next quadrennium represents a 28 per cent
increase over the current four year period (excluding increases due
to enrolment and related effects).
Catholic Schools: From 2005, the 1610 Catholic systemic schools
will become fully integrated into the socio-economic status (SES)
funding system, meaning that every non-government school, regardless of denomination, will attract
funding according to the socio-economic status of the communities
that the school serves. As a consequence of the Catholic schools
joining the SES system, they will receive $362 million more in
additional funding. This will bring their general recurrent funding
over the four year period to $12.6 billion – a 32 per cent increase
over the current four year period (excluding increases due to
enrolment and related effects).
Independent Schools: Independent schools will continue to have
their funding determined according to their SES scores, which have
been updated. Independent schools will receive a total of $7.6
billion in general recurrent funding – a 27 per cent increase
excluding enrolment growth and related effects.
Special purpose grants: The Government will also respond to those
students and schools in need of extra help, providing almost $4
billion over four years for special purposes. Of this, $2 billion
will be invested in the education of the most disadvantaged
students, with a focus on literacy, numeracy and help for students
with disabilities. Another $1.5 billion will be spent on school
buildings; $113 million will improve the educational experience of
geographically isolated children; $231 million will help newly
arrived students from non-English speaking backgrounds learn English; and $110 million
will be provided for students to learn languages other than English.
$2.1 billion will be directed to improving the educational
outcomes of Indigenous students. We will make mainstream education
services work better for Indigenous students, redirect resources to
programmes that have improved learning outcomes, and provide greater
weighting of resources towards Indigenous students of greatest
disadvantage – those in remote areas.
National Priorities
The legislation that will be introduced tomorrow will also
underpin and provide the legislative framework to implement the
Australian Government’s national priorities in schooling that will
shape schooling over the next decade. These priorities have been
informed by an extensive parental consultation that has been
conducted this year. It recognises that funding alone does not
determine the quality and safety of a school. It also recognises
that we need greater consistency in schooling across the nation, so
that all students will be educated at an equally high standard,
regardless of the state in which they reside.
Greater national consistency in schooling
Since Federation, we have made progress in moving towards greater
national consistency in key areas of national importance including
transportation, corporate law, university regulation and
environmental regulation. In schooling, however, the "rail gauge"
problem remains firmly entrenched. Everything from school starting
ages to educational standards differs from one state to another,
causing great difficulties particularly for the 80,000 students who
move interstate each year. The Howard Government will be legislating
to stop these absurd anachronisms. To receive funding for the next
four years, states and territories and school authorities will have
to agree to implement, by 2010, a common school starting age.
In addition to year 3, 5 and 7 literacy and numeracy testing, we
will be introducing national tests in year 6 and year 10 in the key
subject areas of English, Mathematics, Science, and Civics and
Citizenship. Children should be at the same educational standard and
learn similar skills regardless of the state in which they reside.
These national tests will provide authoritative measures of the
standard of achievement of children against national measures.
Better reporting to parents
Parents are frequently not kept fully informed as to how well
their child is performing at school. School reports, for example,
are often written in language that contains so much educational
jargon that they are almost incomprehensible to parents. Some
reports ask the teacher to tick boxes which supposedly measure
achievement, but actually provide no guidance. Further, not every
state reports the results of national literacy and numeracy tests
against national benchmarks.
From next year, this situation will no longer be acceptable. The
legislation contains provisions to ensure that school reports are
written in plain language and that assessment of the child’s
achievement is reported against national standards (where available)
and is reported relative to the child’s peer group at the school.
Additionally, it will be a condition of funding that national
numeracy and literacy tests are reported to parents against national
benchmarks. Parents demand a fair and honest assessment of how well
their child is performing.
Transparency of school performance
Information about a school’s performance is frequently poor or
difficult to access. Without clear, accurate information, how does a
parent choose a school for their child, and how does the community
hold a school accountable for its performance? The legislation to be
introduced tomorrow will include, as a condition of funding, a
requirement that all schools publish school performance information
to provide parents with objective data to assess schools and have
specific information against which to hold schools accountable. The
precise requirements will be specified in regulations, but they will
include the public release of the following information for each
school:
- Percentage of students achieving national benchmarks in
literacy and numeracy and their improvements on the previous year
- Average year 12 results and percentage of year 12 completions
- School leaver destinations
- Teacher qualifications and proportion participating in ongoing
professional development
- Staff and student retention and absentee rates
- Aggregate measures of student improvement beyond normal
expectations (that is, value-added measures of school performance).
Greater autonomy to school principals
A shift towards giving school principals greater power over the
running of their schools has been occurring in Victoria and South
Australia as a consequence of former state Coalition governments. It
needs to be accelerated nation wide. Research shows that school
autonomy is one of the key factors in success. Of particular
importance is the power over staffing decisions. Few boards or heads
of any organisation – in business, non-profit or government
enterprise – could guarantee quality of service without some control
over who they employed. Schools are no different. The legislation
will include as a condition of funding that school principals have a
significant say over staffing issues in their own schools. Further,
it will require state governments and school authorities to commit
to providing principals strengthened autonomy over, and
responsibility for, education programs, budgets and other aspects of
the school’s operations.
Creating Safer Schools
This week, one child in six will be bullied at school. The
effects on all concerned can be devastating: those who are bullied
are likely to have higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression and
illness and have an increased tendency to suicide, while the
children who do the bullying are more likely to drop out of school,
use drugs and alcohol, and be involved in violent behaviour later in
life. The Australian Government believes that bullying is
unacceptable in our schools. Every child deserves to be educated in
an environment free from mental and physical abuse and bullying.
The Australian Government has led the development of a national
safe schools framework that provides a set of agreed guiding
principles for schools to follow so that every school can have in
place a comprehensive set of protocols for providing a safe learning
environment, and for handling incidents involving bullying, violence
or any form of child abuse. The legislation will make as a condition
of funding the adoption of this framework and prominent display in
all schools. $4.3 million will be provided to school authorities to
support the framework’s implementation.
Common Commitment to Physical Activity
Obesity and lack of physical activity are major causes of
preventable health problems. Schools play an important role in
promoting physical activity and a healthy lifestyle. However, the
time dedicated in the school week to physical education and sport is
declining. More than 40 per cent of children play no sport or
participate in any physical activity.
The Australian Government is committed to increasing the levels
of physical activity in primary and junior secondary students
leading to promote more active and healthier children. From 2005,
all students in the compulsory years of schooling will be required
to undertake at least two hours of physical education each week.
This is subject to commonsense exemptions to allow for children
unable to undertake any form of physical activity. This measure will
complement other measures that will be announced shortly to tackle
childhood obesity.
Better approaches to boys’ education
There is a high level of public concern about the disengagement
of boys from education and their lower levels of achievement. It is
imperative that nothing is done which undermines the important and
necessary progress which has been made in the last twenty years in
the education of girls. However, the evidence is overwhelming that
boys are falling behind in our education system, not only against
girls, but compared against the performance of boys 25 years ago.
The Australian Government has already invested $8 million to help
some 340 schools showcase and champion effective approaches to the
educational needs of boys. The Australian government is
strengthening its commitment to boys’ education, providing a further
$19.4 million towards a new initiative – Success for Boys. This
initiative will build on the success of the Boys Education
Lighthouse initiative and will provide grants of $10,000 to up to
1,600 government and non-government schools to implement proven
initiatives to improve the education of boys – especially in role
modelling and literacy.
Developing the teaching workforce
The quality of teachers is the single most important ingredient
of a good education. All young Australians deserve to be taught by
highly skilled and dedicated teachers. The Australian Government is
investing more than $159 million in teacher professional
development. The Howard Government recently established the National
Institute for Quality Teaching and School Leadership, based at the
Australian National University, to provide advice and leadership for
the profession.
Making Values a Core Part of Schooling
Parents consider ‘discipline’ and ‘values’ as very important
social factors in choosing a school for their child. Building on the
experiences of 69 schools taking part in the national Values
Education Study, a Draft National Framework has been developed and
sent to all principals for discussion with their school communities.
National endorsement will be sought for adopting this as a framework
for values education in Australian schools. Every school must also
have a functioning flag-pole, fly the Australian flag and display
the values framework in a prominent place in the school, as a
condition of funding.
The government will also provide almost $30 million for values
education in Australian schools. This will support values education
forums in every school in Australia involving the whole school
community as well as showcasing best practice. It will also fund
drug education forums in every school and curriculum and assessment
resources to help all schools to teach values.
Accelerating Indigenous education outcomes
Although educational outcomes for Indigenous students are better
than ever, they still lag well behind those of non-Indigenous
students. More needs to be done to close the divide between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Over the next four years
the Australian Government will invest $2.1 billion in Indigenous
specific educational programs. This is a 20.5 per cent increase over
the current quadrennium. Funding has been refocused around programs
that have demonstrably improved educational outcomes. There is also
a greater weighting of resources towards students who are most
disadvantaged – those in remote areas.
Helping families with post school choices
The transition from school to career is a significant milestone.
We want all young people to have a clear understanding of their
career options once they leave school. We want them to have
opportunities to explore different vocational paths and we want them
to have access to sound advice about career choices. The Australian
Government will spend more than $214 million on career, transition
and partnership programmes over the next four years assisting young
Australians to gain a range experience in different vocations and
access to professional careers guidance throughout their secondary
schooling.
Media Release from the Prime Minister, The Hon John Howard, MP
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