Australians' ability to read and write has continued to decline over the lifespan of the former Howard government's school funding model, introduced in 2001.

The Abbott government pledged this week to honour the school spending commitments of the former Labor government for the next four years. The announcement went some way to ending the policy uncertainty that had been aroused by federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne last week, when he said he needed to go ''back to the drawing board'' and develop his own school funding model because the former government's model was ''a shambles''.

Education standards in decline: Recent figures from the PISA report point to reading and writing as taking the biggest hit. Credit:Virginia Star

At the time, he said the former Howard government's funding model, the socio-economic status (SES) model, would be a good place to start when designing a new system. But Mr Pyne later backed away from that comment and this week said he would fund the states according to the Gonski model.

The SES model has been controversial because it led to a large increase in the amount of federal funding going towards private and non-government schools.