Australian students slipping behind in maths, reading: OECD report

Updated

A new report comparing Australian high school students with 65 other countries shows the nation is slipping further behind in maths and reading skills.

The 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) measures the mathematics, reading and science skills of half a million 15-year-olds from around the world.

It found Australian teens placed equal 17th in maths, equal 10th in reading and equal 8th in science.

Asian countries like China, Singapore, Korea and Japan are pulling ahead of Australian students in maths and reading.

The results show Australian students are slipping in maths performance by about a half a year of schooling compared to 10 years ago.

How the states/territories rated: Maths Science Reading ACT 518 534 525 NSW 509 526 513 VIC 501 518 517 QLD 503 519 508 SA 489 513 500 WA 516 535 519 TAS 478 500 485 NT 452 483 466 AUST 504 521 512 Shanghai 613 580 570



The decline was stronger in girls than boys, with girls dropping to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average.

The report also found a wide gap between students in different parts of the country.

Tasmania and the Northern Territory lagged well behind other states in all three areas.

About 14,500 Australian students from 775 schools were measured in the assessment, which was conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) for the OECD.

ACER's director of educational monitoring and research, Dr Sue Thomson, says gender, Indigenous status and socio-economic status still divide student outcomes.

Australian students from a wealthy background show a difference of about two-and-a-half years of schooling compared to a student from the lowest socio-economic group.

Questionnaire responses have also found girls hold a much more negative view about maths.

"Australia has slipped backwards to the type of gender disparity that was seen decades ago, and the performance scores of girls coupled with a number of particularly negative motivational attitudes puts Australia further away from providing all students with the same educational opportunities," Dr Thomson said.

Indigenous students are on average performing significantly worse than non-Indigenous students, a difference of about two-and-a-half years of schooling or more in maths, science and reading.

Ms Thomson also raised concerns that more than two-fifths of students failed to reach base proficiency levels in maths.

"These are the levels at which the Ministerial Council set as not really ambitious goals but achievable goals for a country such as Australia and for a large proportion of students not to be achieving those results is quite a worry," she said.

Twelve other countries also showed declines in maths literacy over 10 years, with the largest decline occurring in Sweden, then Finland, New Zealand, Iceland then Australia.

See how the countries compare in the latest results:

Results back Government's plan to focus on teachers, says Pyne

Education Minister Christopher Pyne says the results are a bad report card on Labor's years in office.

"In that period our results dramatically declined," he said.

"These are the worst PISA results since PISA began in 2000.

"They are demonstrably worse than anything that ever occurred under the Coalition government. They are a serious wake up call for the Australian education system."

He says the report's findings vindicate the Coalition's plan to focus on teacher quality.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the Government has fixed the school funding issue and school standards are the key to lifting rankings.

"We've got the funding sorted out. We need to have a debate about better school performance, about more principal autonomy, about more parental involvement, about more community engagement and above all else, about higher standards and that can now happen," he said.

Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has used the report to intensify pressure on the Government to adopt all of Labor's Gonski schools plan.

The Federal Government will go ahead with Labor's Gonski plan from next year but will only commit to four years of funding.

Mr Shorten says it needs to get on board for the full six years.

"It's time to implement Gonski in full. It's time to stop the political games and bandaid solutions and get on board giving the next generation of Australians the best start in life."

Opposition Education spokeswoman Kate Ellis says the figures are worrying.

"We have always conceded that the system has been broken, that the old Howard-style system is broken, which is why the Labor government went through the biggest reform of our school system in 40 years and why the Abbott Government now cannot afford to toss it aside."

Kevin Donnelly from the Education Standards Institute says he is not surprised by the results.

"We have in fact been in trouble, if you like, for many, many years.

"We have trouble with disruptive classrooms...[and] we don't allow our teachers to mentor one another and to help one another. In places like Singapore, they actually respect teachers, children respect teachers, they are well-resourced.

"They have a lot more time to learn from one another and to improve classroom practice."

He says the debate is not only about funding.

"Money is important, but it gets back to a rigorous curriculum, effective teaching practice, good teacher training - so there are a few things we can look at there."

Results back push for needs-based funding model: Greens

The Greens say Australia's results in the report should put more pressure on the Government to adopt a needs-based school funding model.

Senator Penny Wright has attacked the deals the Government struck with Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory on Monday for more school funding.

She says those deals ditch the so-called Gonski funding model in favour of a "no-strings-attached" model.

"It's not just the quantity of money handed out to the states, it's the way that money is spent," Senator Wright said in a statement.

"If that money doesn't get to the most disadvantaged students, Australia will continue to decline on an international scale."

The Australian Education Union says the widening gaps vindicate the predictions of the Gonski review.

"This must be a wake-up call to the Abbott Government," deputy federal president Correna Haythorpe said in a statement.

"They have consistently refused to embrace the Gonski recommendations for more equitable funding arrangements.

"Amid the constant backflips and chaos, it remains impossible to determine whether they even care about the inequity in education and the social and economic cost of it.

"The Government must make a full six-year commitment to the more equitable funding arrangements contained in the Gonski law and agreements if schools are to be given the resources and time required to lift achievement levels and break the connection between disadvantage and poor outcomes."

Topics: mathematics-education, education, schools, secondary, mathematics, science-and-technology, australia, act, nsw, nt, qld, sa, tas, vic, wa

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