Debate runs rings around figures for schools
Australiaβs debates over falling standards of education seem endless and circular despite the constantly increased funding. Why is it so hard to get the right answers?
Sarah Mitchell is blunt about theΒ failure of Australiaβs school systemΒ to teach all children to read and write to an acceptable standard. Mitchell also happens to be NSW Education Minister, which gives her criticisms some potential potency in addressing Australiaβs lousy literacy record.
Despite the pious boasting about being an βeducation nationβ, for example, a more sobering reality is clearer in regular international reviews of education results. Australiaβs report card always points to another further depressing deterioration in schoolchildrenβs basic literacy andΒ numeracy skillsΒ β relative to other countries and relative to previous Australian school generations
SoΒ NSWβs education ministerΒ is making a Year 1 phonics screening check compulsory in her state β as it is in South Australia and as the federal government has been requesting of all states.Β Itβs obvious this dispute is just one aspect of the endemic problems in Australiaβs education system.
She is determined to ensure the benefits of teaching reading to young children using a phonics-based approach that explicitly sounds out words and letters. Despite decades of evidence proving this is effective in teaching young children to read, many state education departments, teachers and the teachers of teachers in Australian universities resist phonics in favour of greater emphasis on strategies based on meaning and context to interpret words.
The argument is still so passionate in Australia that David Gonski deliberately omitted taking sides in his major report to the Turnbull government in 2018 on how to improve education standards. In Gonskiβs thinking, coming out in favour of one or the other view would have created too much controversy , overwhelming other recommendations.
Many good teachers use a mix of approaches, of course, depending on their pupils. But Mitchell insists the balance is still not right. She warns universities to clear out academics who reject evidence-based practice, writing in a recent article inΒ The Sydney Morning HeraldΒ that aΒ faculty of medicine would not allow anti-vaxxersΒ to teach medical students.
Yet at the end of another school year, itβs obvious this dispute is just one aspect of theΒ endemic problemsΒ in Australiaβs education system.
So I adopt a lateral approach and call Fergus Gardiner for his advice. βFergβ β as he is known throughout some of Sydneyβs wealthier suburbs β has built a booming coaching business helping mainly private school students at the other end of school life β the last two years as theyΒ prepare for final exams.
But this is not about the endless debate over funding for public v private schools. Australia already has one of the highest percentages of high school children in private schools in the world β far higher than the US. What is more striking is that overall results between private and public systems are so similar.
Of course, there will always be plenty of outstanding students (and teachers)Β in very expensive private schools just as there will be brilliant students (and teachers) in public schools.
But itβs more aboutΒ how to get the bestΒ out of average or underperforming students β and teachers.
Full disclosure. I admit my own children contributed to Fergβs business model when I decided they needed help with maths and essay-writing skills and structure over a decade ago. This didnβt seem to be happening at an optimal level at school.
My own attempts at offering suggestions with at least essay writing were also inadequate. I didnβt follow the fashion for repeatedly employing βkey wordsβ. I rejected phrases I considered jargon but exam markers apparently deemed evidence of understanding the topic. I disagreed with the premise of too many of the permitted βthemesβ.
And that was before students β including mine β had constant access to mobile phones and ever more appealing apps as ready distractions from studying or paying attention to a teacher.
Ferg is a former teacher who became frustrated with the gaps in the school system. He says βresilienceβ is a big word in the education community but little is done to encourage it.
Instead, he sees a generation of parents now doing so much for their children that many students have little idea of how to plan for whatβs required, he says. Nor do students often have a clear goal for what they want to achieve β and understand the need to undertake the necessary training to get there rather than being spoon fed.
βYou have no idea of the number of kids who are given a set of texts for English and donβt read any of them.β he says. βWe tell them they have to work outside their comfort zones, which no one likes. But we also provide them with a set of behaviours and activities that allow them to do what they think they canβt.β
That includes using weekly data to report regularly on the work being completed by each student. But itβs also about teaching them to work independently, to do their research, to be flexible, to ask the questions rather than relying on teachersβ notes or remaining disengaged.
βWe need to be building skills,β he says. βStudent accountability is at the centre of everything we do. Great results are achieved by consistency of action. Poor results come from a lack of commitment to the tasks that really matter.β
This also involves a team of senior teachers to respond to queries of an evening and a mix of face-to-face and online tutoring sessions. None of this comes cheap β at about $1000 a month relative to government funding for school students averaging about $16,000 a year.
Such extra help never should be a replacement for school teaching. But everyone should be asking why Fergβs business model is only expanding.
