PRIME MINISTER: I’m delighted to be here with the Education Minister, Simon Birmingham to talk about our schools policy that the Treasurer described in his interview this morning. What we are doing is making a commitment to the things that matter most to all of the parents of those kids that are playing soccer today and kicking around on football fields and cricket fields – enjoying themselves today, they are having a great time – but their future depends on great teachers and on having the skills that they need to be able to take advantage of the enormous opportunity of the 21st century economy.
So, yes, we are committing additional funds. We are committing the largest amount to schools of any Commonwealth Government and the Minister will describe that in a moment - $16 billion this school year rising to $20 billion in 2020.
And we are committed to ensuring that we have great teachers, that we support and encourage our best performing teachers and encourage them to stay in the classrooms teaching, and we’re also going to ensure that the money goes where it is needed most. So that kids who need the most support get it as early as possible. And that is why in this plan you will see that we will be requiring children to be assessed in terms of their literacy and basic numeracy in Year 1 and that’s in order to see, at that very early stage, who is behind so that they can get the support to make sure they don’t fall further behind. Because one of the things we’ve been observing in terms of the performance and the outcomes of our school’s system is the gap between the best students, the best performing students and the worst performing students is widening and the answer to that is an early identification of the problems that they have – learning problems, learning deficiencies - so that they can be addressed.
Now this is a very big commitment to the values that all of those parents behind us value the most, that they treasure the most - to ensure that their children, when they finish school have the skills that will enable them to succeed, to take advantage of these the most exciting times in human history.
Simon.
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Thanks so much Prime Minister. This is an exciting day to announce our plan to improve the achievement of all the Australian students, to have quality outcomes for our schools, quality outcomes for the students going through our school system.
What is critical today is not just a plan about how much money is spent but a plan to ensure the funds we put into our school system are spent as wisely and carefully and effectively as possible. But it is a plan that sees funding for schools grow, each and every year into the future off of a record base.
We are already spending a record level in our school system, and we will grow as a Turnbull Government funding for schools from $16.2 billion in 2016 to $20.1 billion in 2020. This is strong growth but it is affordable growth as well. It is growth that we will make sure that is targeted to the things that matter the most in our schools to lift the performance of our children, and to make sure our teachers are the best they possibly can be.
That is why this reform proposal outlines reforms right across teaching of children and indeed to the way our teachers operate.
It starts in the earliest years so that in Year 1, after their preliminary foundation year of schooling, our children will be assessed for their literacy capabilities, whether they are learning to read effectively.
Around one million students, according to some researchers are at risk of deficiency in their reading abilities. We cannot allow this to continue. We must make sure these children are identified as early as possible – that they are given the best, most effective teaching in terms of how to learn to read. Because if they don’t learn to read effectively, in the first couple of years of schooling, then they will fail quite likely at every other level of their schooling and school will be a miserable experience for those children.
The more we can address that in the earliest couple of years, the better it will be for every child. But then right at the other end school experience, in terms of finishing Year 12, we must have minimum standards of literacy and numeracy. Too many employers, too many universities, tell me as the Education Minister that they get children going into the work force, going into universities who don’t have adequate literacy and numeracy skills. Putting in place minimum standards as some states are already working to do can give a guarantee that those who finish school have the standards to go out into the work force. But also increasing aspiration in maths and sciences, in English and humanities, so that students who seek and aspire to go to university, need and should study in the maths and sciences, in the English and humanities areas right through their schooling life, so that we get that mix of experience and of course you put that ambition there – that flows right through all of the early schooling years as well.
Critically, we also focus on the capabilities of our teachers in this plan – from their training in the earliest years to make sure that in literacy and numeracy they are taught what they are need to be taught as to how to teach our children. They understand how to give phonetic instruction and phonetic awareness in those earliest years of primary school teaching. But also that we reward and recognise our most capable teachers so that those who actually inspire the children the most, stay in the classroom and are given the support to stay there and keep teaching because they are rewarded and recognised as part of the industrial arrangements in our schools.
These are quite sweeping reforms – they are some of the most comprehensive reforms our school systems have seen but they are based on firm evidence about what will make a difference to the achievement of students.
We have seen over the last 20 years, a doubling of funding in real terms going into Australian schools and yet our performance in reading, in literacy, in maths, in numeracy, science and languages has gone backwards. It is not good enough, as the Labor Party proposes, to keep spending ever more money without a real plan as to how it can be spent most effectively. We will spend under our student achievement plan record sums but we will make sure it is targeted to where it can make the greatest difference.
JOURNALIST: Why is this announcement only for three years when school funding deals are usually locked in for four?
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING: This announcement is for the entire budget cycle so it ensures that when the Budget is handed down on Tuesday, there is clarity right through every year in the budget cycle.
JOURNALIST: Have you spoken to the states in detail about these new reforms? And how do you envisage getting some of the more contentious aspects through, such as merit based funding rather than tenure based funding?
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING: We will absolutely work with the states and territories, as was committed at COAG, to finalise the distribution arrangements for funding by the start of next year. We are very committed though, in terms of the distribution of funding, to needs-based funding. We want to make sure that the greatest amount of money goes to the students who need it most. To those students in low SES schools, to students with disability, to students from Indigenous backgrounds. That’s why there’s an additional $118 million in the Budget targeted for immediate assistance for students with disabilities, while we then work to make sure those funding formulas from 2018 are right and based on providing students with disabilities with funding appropriate to their specific and individual needs.
JOURNALIST: Under the plan there’ll be more tests for students, as early as Year 1 – but what extra resources will there be for those who are discovered to be behind?
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING: So I want to make clear, we’re not talking about getting year one students to sit down and undertake a test. This is about a personalised, gentle, individual assessment of those students and its based on something that’s already happening in the UK, where you will have a teacher, under a standardised arrangement, sit down and understand from those students their reading capacity, their understanding and awareness of phonetics, how they actually interpret letters and sounds and characters. It’s really important you get that diagnosis undertaken at the earliest possible stage.
We also have commitments in the plan to make sure we identify best-practice in terms of interventions that are taking place across Australia and have that shared and rolled out across Australia. Accountability and transparency are critical parts of this reform agenda and making sure that we do identify the things that are working in some schools, to help those students of need and then have that rolled out across all schools, is an essential component of these reforms.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how confident are you that the High Court will find the Senate voting reforms constitutional in its hearing on Monday?
PRIME MINISTER: Can we leave that and just exhaust questions on education? I have to say, school education is a very high priority so let’s – any other questions on education?
JOURNALIST: Are you walking away from Gonski?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Simon can add to this, but let me just say, what the Gillard Government put in place was not – sorry, I just, I spy my grandson. Hey Jack!
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Hello Jack.
PRIME MINISTER: And my daughter.
But, what David Gonski identified was the need to ensure that funding was directed where it was most needed and that is absolutely our commitment. What Prime Minister Gillard put in place, was not Gonski, was not what was recommended by Gonski. David recommended a nationally consistent funding. The Gillard Government put in place 27 different agreements. I mean there’s no consistency at all.
So the principle that the money should go, funding should go where it is most needed and where it can be most effective to ensure that children who are disadvantaged or are behind in their educational attainment are brought up to speed. That absolutely is a principle, an objective that we share. I mean that is why the assessment in Year 1 is so important. As Simon said, we’re not talking about a test, these are little kids. But what it is to ensure that we know, that you know at the earliest stage whose behind where they should be, so that then the teachers can, obviously account for that to their parents and let the parents know, but then the teachers can make sure that the kids that are behind can be caught up because that gap, we’ve observed, has been getting bigger between the best performing kids and the worst performing ones.
So the sooner you address it, the better. That’s critically important for the future of all Australian children. You know, all of the kids here and right around the country. Simon, do you want to add to that?
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Very briefly, Prime Minister - there are separate questions to be addressed here. One is how much money you can afford to spend, and the other is how you spend it most effectively and wisely and in accordance with the need of individual schools and students. We are spending record sums, and we’re committed to keep growing that as a government, from $16 billion to $20 billion over the life of the Budget. But we want to make sure and we will make sure that it is directed, and the funding in the states and territories is directed, according to need. And that is where we are in absolute alignment with the principles of Gonski and the report that was delivered. Not with the 27 different funding models that Labor had, or with the distortions and contortions that Bill Shorten has in his policy.
But to make sure we deliver funding according to need for those who need it most, but that also we are really focused on how it is used most effectively and we address these many, many problems we have in terms of students not meeting standards at the earliest levels of their schooling and not having enough ambition for the latest levels of their schooling as well.
PRIME MINISTER: Can I just add this – a critical thing about this plan is that it is affordable. We can pay for it. We can pay for it without jacking up taxes. Bill Shorten has got a plan, so he says, for high levels of spending, but how’s he going to raise the money? Higher taxes, it’s part of his $100 billion of unfunded promises. This is affordable. This is affordable, this is living within our means and it’s ensuring the education dollars that we’re spending, which are growing at record levels, are nonetheless going to be spent in the way that is most effective. The other point I’d make is that education is a critical part of our national economic plan.
As I said at the outset, these little guys, if they’re going to exploit and take advantage of the huge advantages of the 21st century, the new economy of the 21st century, then we have to make sure that every lever of policy that we can manage is pulling in the direction to give them the greatest opportunities. One of those levers is ensuring that they have the skills, the STEM skills that you’ll need to be competitive, to be able to maximise your potential in the 21st century. So this is all part of our national economic plan, our plan to ensure that all Australians can benefit, particularly our kids and grandkids from the big opportunities that lie ahead.
JOURNALIST: The education union has bluntly said this won’t be enough money to cover the shortfalls to 2020, so is there room for the package to be expanded?
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING: There are no shortfalls. We need to be very clear here. Funding is at a record level already, and we are proposing to keep growing that funding off of that record base. For any school out there, who out of the increased funding that we’ve given them over recent years, and this government has increased funding to government schools by 66 per cent, for any school out there doing more things today to target support to their students, they should be confident they will be able to keep doing that in the future with the additional support we’re putting on the table.
PRIME MINISTER: I mean this is an important point. Over the last 10 years, federal funding for government schools has increased by 66 per cent in real terms and the state government funding per student in real terms has increased by less than seven per cent. So there is no question that the Commonwealth’s commitment to schools and in particular to public schools, to state schools, is enormous and it is growing at a very rapid rate. Now it’s a very significant commitment. What we’ve got to ensure and what we’re ensuring now and what Simon is doing, is ensuring that parents get the value and the educational outcomes for their tax dollars that we are committing to those school systems.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister - back onto Senate voting reforms. Are you confident that the High Court will find them constitutional? And what’s the plan tomorrow if they’re found unconstitutional?
PRIME MINISTER: I have every confidence that the Senate voting reforms are entirely constitutional, and I haven’t actually found anyone that would disagree with that. I’m untroubled by the prospect of the High Court decision.
JOURNALIST: What’s the plan if they are found to be?
PRIME MINISTER: There is no probability or likelihood of that. OK let me explain. The Parliament has the full power to change the voting system, the way the Senators are chosen under the Constitution and as the Senate voting system has changed from time to time over the years. It’s entirely within the legislative power of the Federal Parliament to do that and it has done so and on this occasion, the changes that we have made recently are ones that really restore democracy, because they ensure that preferences are allocated by the voter, not in backroom deals by preference whisperers.
And I can see that Jack is stealing his grandfather’s thunder, so on that note, thanks everyone.