Australian students lagging behind Asian neighbours: report

Updated

Australia's schools system is falling behind its East Asian neighbours despite the money that has been poured into education budgets, according to a report released today.

The Grattan Institute report has found that the average 15-year-old student in Shanghai is performing two or three years ahead of an Australian student in maths.

It says Australia should be focusing more on improving the quality of teaching, and less on areas like school funding and class sizes.

The institute's Dr Ben Jensen says Asian schools are using teacher mentoring programs and collaborative teaching to great success.

"What it is is an unrelenting focus on improving learning and teaching in every classroom," he told AM.

"What happens is that like what happens in Australia, there is much discussion and much talk about improving teaching, but where they succeed, we fail in actually getting into classrooms and improving learning and teaching in every classroom in every school."

"There is a severe disconnect between what policies are trying to do and what happens in schools and classrooms. In short, we say it, they do it."

The institute says the disconnect between the two schooling systems is having huge economic and social consequences.

Dr Jensen told AM that while the performance gap was two years in mathematics, Australian students also lagged by more than a year in aspects of reading, literacy and scientific literacy.

"It is across the spectrum that students in Australia are falling behind," he warned.

And he says simply spending more money on education is not the answer.

He says teachers need to be collaborating more, mentoring each other, and getting regular feedback on their teaching methods.

"What they [Australia's East Asian neighbours] are doing is actually doing the things that we say matter, but they're successful at making these changes in the classroom," he said.

"So we're trying to improve teaching, to improve learning, and we know what works in schools, but they're doing it in spades while unfortunately we are talking about it but are not able to translate that into action in schools."

The crucial difference is that teachers in East Asian countries enjoy higher status than their Australian colleagues, he said.

"This is an importance difference, and it is the crucial difference between effective teaching and learning in Australia and these systems.

"In these systems teacher status is high - not because they work hard, not because it is a stressful job, but because it is considered a true profession where the complexities of diagnosing each student's learning and shaping teaching to ensure that each student's learning continually improves is recognised.

"Resources are put into it so teachers have the time and resources available to engage in improving teaching.

"This is what we all know matters. This is what we all know will improve student learning.

"The difference is they put resources into it, they put time and effort into it and they provide quality education development and continual training for teachers throughout their careers."

The report comes ahead of the release of the biggest review of Australia's education system in 30 years, which will be handed down by businessman and University of NSW chancellor David Gonski on Monday.

Topics: education, schools, australia

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