By Andrew Rimington
The Gonski review of funding for schooling has been two years in the making and eagerly anticipated, and the early reaction from stakeholders and Government has been mixed.
The key recommendations propose a revised funding model which will have significant funding implications for all governments, as the report identifies at least $5 billion is required to address issues around student disadvantage and performance issues. At the same time the Commonwealth is stipulating that no school loses a dollar in funding.
The report will now be referred to the Council of Australian Governments to consider how modelling of a new funding system will work in practice. Feedback will be sought from principals, parents and unions whilst public forums will engage parents and the community.
There are several concerns for business and industry in the final report.
The major one is that the terms of reference did not mention engagement with industry to consider business concerns with the outcomes of the education system. None of the recommendations or key findings relate to business issues.
The closest recommendation to do so is the last one, which relates to how schools can engage more closely with individuals or business in how more funding can be accessed to build on the $11 billion currently contributed to the education system through philanthropy.
The report does acknowledge that over the last 10 years Australia has slipped dramatically in comparison to OECD countries in student performance in literacy & numeracy, science and maths. The latest National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results for 2011 indicate that Australian and Victorian performance is not improving.
Indeed, analysis indicates that results have been flat for four years and are in fact regressing. Reduced enrolments in maths, sciences and second languages are also of concern because of the implications in meeting workforce skill needs in the years ahead.
This is not a tolerable situation. The push over the last four years for national curriculum reform has not had any impact and will not be fully implemented for several years. Meanwhile, the adverse impact of a dysfunctional education system continues to leave its mark on the Victorian workforce with around 56 per cent of workers having Language, Literacy & Numeracy (LLN) difficulties. The illiterate worker of today is the illiterate school leaver of yesterday.
VECCI is also extremely concerned about youth disengagement from school education. The report does not address this crucial issue in its 41 recommendations, but in Finding 25 it notes “schools are responsible for supporting students who are unable to remain within a school, and should have welfare policies that seek to find the most appropriate learning environment for their needs”. This is just not acceptable. The report does not address the key issues around how our education system can be radically reformed to achieve better outcomes.
A system that does not focus curriculum frameworks on meeting both potential employer and student needs is a system destined to keep repeating the mistakes of the past – as a society we will continue to see school leavers populating the workforce with significant deficiencies in LLN skills.
The report does not address how Vocational Education & Training contributes to either student capability or how it underpins better student outcomes. It does not raise the role of Trade Training Centres and the millions of dollars invested in these resources to see them sitting idle. And it certainly does not address the need for improved career development strategies, which will lead to improved student outcomes.
A highly competitive, skilled and innovative workforce is required to ensure the ongoing growth of future jobs. A strong and responsive education system is crucial to meet this outcome. Employers and industry must be involved in future discussions to ensure these crucial and fundamental issues are addressed.
Your input to these issues will ensure that the voice of Victorian industry is heard.
Further comment can be provided to Andrew Rimington, Senior Manager, Policy at arimington@vecci.org.au - or have your say below in comments.
Andrew, I must say that yours and Mark Stone’s comments show a minimal understanding of education, educational systems, and the Gonski report. I’ll address each one in turn.
1. Education and Business
Schools would love more input and support from businesses in delivering educational outcomes. Most schools do not have the personnel with the skills nor the time to create this link. They are there to educate a increasing wide spectrum of kids from worldwide backgrounds and abilities. The “56 per cent of workers having Language, Literacy & Numeracy (LLN) difficulties” more than likely come from exactly the schools the Gonski report would identify as requiring additional funding to support learning and create a more equitable Australia. What could be a clever idea is VECCI creating a fund to support schools in those areas that struggle. Give a hand rather than mouth of and do very little. BTW I have worked in philanthropic organisations in education and while they do great work they rarely build the sustainable school that is outlined by you or the Gonski report.
2. Australia’s ‘decline’
If you have read the Gonski report you’d be highly suspect of a report that randomly picks two year results from PISA and then says we are in decline. In no way do the results account for cohort changes nor for natural statistical variance. Even the TIMS say we aren’t declining. In fact when you dig deeper into the results what it shows is that certain educational systems which underwent transformational change many years before ours are starting to outperform other systems. Interestingly enough some of the leaders of those system changes now work for ACARA and are shifting our educational pedagogy and processes.
3. National Curriculum
The “push for the last 4 years” has only occurred at the level of government. It is only this year that QLD schools are beginning to implement it and other states are trialling it. Schools and teachers are now only coming to terms with the paradigm shift it will require in their thinking and planning. Of course it has had very little impact!!!
4. Potential Employer Needs
If I asked you 10 years ago what employers need of a workforce do you think it would be the same as if I asked you today? There would be certain constants but there would be a whole raft of new needs. Education has to plan and prepare students for 10 – 60 years out whilst it is struggling to come to terms with the societal and technological changes now occurring. What hinders them is that Education is a political and financial football rather than something everyone agrees upon its direction and the funding required to support ALL our kids.
5. VET
VET, VCAL and Trade Training Programs do need more support and linkage with schools. But are you waiting for schools or partnering them?
If you want a strong a responsive education system, as a famous politician once said “Don’t ask what it can do for you, Ask what you can do for it!”
DR BERTOLINI
Many thanks for your contribution to this discussion as it is exactly this type of exchange that is needed for both sides to have greater understnding of each other’s issues. However it is not as simple as saying that business has “minimal understanding of education, systems & the Gonski report”. Business understands very well as it has grappled with the issues outlined in the article for well over a decade. It also is not as simplistic as asking business to put more money into the system either. Declining education outcomes is a major issue recognised by all Governments and hence the COAG commitment to national curriculum reform. It is also why the BER injection of $14.7 billion to schools was not only a stimulus measure but also an investment in achieveing better outcomes. The Government has a commitment of $2.5 billion up until 2017 for Trade Training Centres also, but it is little point if students don’t take up vocational options. The Education system must be made more accountable. It is also not acceptable to hear that a leading University Education academic was heard to say at a national conference last year that employers just had to “lower their expectations”. At the very least employers should expect that school leavers at whatever level should be able to read and write. Let the discussion continue. Andrew Rimington.
Thanks Andrew for the reply. Declining educational outcomes are NOT being shown by the narrow and limited testing indicated in PISA or NAPLAN or TIMMS and were not the instigation for educational reform. What instigated the reform was the realisation of the shift in the socio-economic paradigm occurring and the rise of new businesses and business models. Notice the number of bricks and mortar businesses failing if they don’t address the shift.
In this debate you are I are speaking from different viewpoints. You are looking at the “system” as a whole and I am looking at a more localised approach. I don’t think business should put more money into the “system”. It would then be wasted along with other funding because the system is not designed to be locally oriented (notice how the Victorian Government tried to control the BER rollout rather than giving power to the principals and school councils to design what was appropriate to their needs … massive blowouts for designs that, while useful, don’t necessarily meet what each school needed and wanted).
What I am suggesting is that it would be more appropriate for VECCI members to approach schools in their local areas and ask them how they can partner the schools – perhaps even fund a business-community-school link position for a group of schools. I was recently contacted by School-Community-Business Partnership Broker covering Far North SA. Her work is “focused upon building partnerships to support young people to attain Year 12 or equivalent qualifications and reach their full educational and social potential. The program is designed to foster a strategic, whole of community approach to improving education and transition outcomes for all young people.” Sounds like a great idea doesn’t it?
What is in need of reform is the model used in the Education Departments. We have a National Curriculum which is an attempt to bring schools and teachers across the nation on to the same page (and then be undermined by each of the state governments as they create their own version as some sort of stepping stone) but we don’t have a major reform of the approaches, processes and thinking used by state governments. The Gonski report was tasked with addressing one of these aspects of governmental reform- funding.
My challenge to you as the President of VECCI is to look at how VECCI members can go local and support the schools that will provide the workbase in their local areas. This will be more immediate and will also build their brands.
Adrian Bertolini
My concern with our country is that the increasing dysfunctionality of families could be leading to the youth disengagement from the school system.
If so, no amount of money given to the school system will change this!