ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY REPORT:
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
20 Jul 2012
When it comes to teaching, the quality of teaching is far more important than the number of teachers, the size of the class or the amount of money spent, says Professor Scott Prasser, Executive Director of the Public Policy Institute at the Australian Catholic University (ACU).
"Unions continue to insist public schools need more money for education and more teachers. But in the past 10 years although there was a 44% increase on the amount spent on education, there has been no improvement in outcomes, with some areas even slipping backwards," he says.
Not only do Australia's highest achieving students now lag behind their counterparts in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong, but despite the government's massive financial investment in education, there has been no improvement in the nation's lowest achievers.
The one-size-fits-all-approach adopted by the public school system which rewards seniority rather than performance does not encourage academically gifted students to choose teaching as a profession.
"What we have to do is raise the bar for people doing teacher education and insist on stronger and better standards," he insists.
Professor Prasser's concerns at the decline in teaching training at university level as well as the people it attracts to the profession are shared by Coalition spokesman on education, Federal MP Christopher Pyne.
In a speech to the Sydney Institute this week, Mr Pyne sharply criticised the low ATAR marks now required for those entering teaching courses at Australia's universities. Set in the mid 50s and low 60s, they are far below the ATAR cut off for professions such as law which at the University of Sydney requires a minimum of 99.7.
Not only had academic standards of teachers fallen, but evidence shows that increasing numbers of students choose to study education because it is cheap, easy and it does not extend or deepen knowledge gained during year 12.
While the Archdiocese of Sydney's Catholic Education Office (CEO) operates a "Targeted Graduate Employment Program" as a way of sponsoring and attracting the best teachers to work in the city's Catholic schools, there are few if any similar schemes operating within the public school system.
"Australia won't attract high calibre people to teaching until we treat teaching like a profession, and right now if you're a young person looking for a career and you look at teaching, you discover your salary will plateau after about five years and no matter how hard your work, how early you come in, how much you give to your students, you will not earn a cent more," Mr Pyne warned the Sydney Institute.
Professor Prasser agrees and like Mr Pyne is impatient with the unions and government's continued focus on class size despite repeated Australian and international studies finding no correlation between class size and education outcomes.
"More teachers, smaller classrooms and more money is the catchcry. But this scatter gun approach that simply has more money sloshing around the system is not a solution," Professor Prasser says and calls for target spending on appropriate groups and areas.
While the Gonski Review into education called for a further $5 billion to be spent on education, he does not believe this will lead to high student achievement or more equitable outcomes.
"So much was promised, so much was needed, so much was expected but in the end the Gonski Review delivered little and did not focus on the real issues such as teacher training, institutional flexibility, competition, parental investment, choice and diversity."
According to Professor Prasser the sort of flexibility, competition, parental investment and involvement, choice and diversity needed is already in operation at Catholic schools as well as at other private and independent schools.
As he points out, principals at Catholic schools have long been given able to hire and fire their own staff, have input and oversight into the way their school is run and have flexibility to adapt the curriculum to better help students. Under the Catholic education system, there is usually close liaison and interaction with parents as well as with the local community.
But above all, Catholic schools go out of their way to foster and encourage quality teaching and put strategies in place to retain their outstanding teachers over the long term, he says.
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
20 Jul 2012
Professor Scott Prasser, Executive Director
of the Public Policy Institute
of the Public Policy Institute
"Unions continue to insist public schools need more money for education and more teachers. But in the past 10 years although there was a 44% increase on the amount spent on education, there has been no improvement in outcomes, with some areas even slipping backwards," he says.
Not only do Australia's highest achieving students now lag behind their counterparts in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong, but despite the government's massive financial investment in education, there has been no improvement in the nation's lowest achievers.
The one-size-fits-all-approach adopted by the public school system which rewards seniority rather than performance does not encourage academically gifted students to choose teaching as a profession.
"What we have to do is raise the bar for people doing teacher education and insist on stronger and better standards," he insists.
Professor Prasser's concerns at the decline in teaching training at university level as well as the people it attracts to the profession are shared by Coalition spokesman on education, Federal MP Christopher Pyne.
Catholic students consistently raise the bar and
outperform their state school counterparts
outperform their state school counterparts
Not only had academic standards of teachers fallen, but evidence shows that increasing numbers of students choose to study education because it is cheap, easy and it does not extend or deepen knowledge gained during year 12.
While the Archdiocese of Sydney's Catholic Education Office (CEO) operates a "Targeted Graduate Employment Program" as a way of sponsoring and attracting the best teachers to work in the city's Catholic schools, there are few if any similar schemes operating within the public school system.
"Australia won't attract high calibre people to teaching until we treat teaching like a profession, and right now if you're a young person looking for a career and you look at teaching, you discover your salary will plateau after about five years and no matter how hard your work, how early you come in, how much you give to your students, you will not earn a cent more," Mr Pyne warned the Sydney Institute.
20 percent of all Australian students
attend Catholic Schools
attend Catholic Schools
"More teachers, smaller classrooms and more money is the catchcry. But this scatter gun approach that simply has more money sloshing around the system is not a solution," Professor Prasser says and calls for target spending on appropriate groups and areas.
While the Gonski Review into education called for a further $5 billion to be spent on education, he does not believe this will lead to high student achievement or more equitable outcomes.
"So much was promised, so much was needed, so much was expected but in the end the Gonski Review delivered little and did not focus on the real issues such as teacher training, institutional flexibility, competition, parental investment, choice and diversity."
Coalition Shadow Minister
for Education,
Christopher Pyne
concerned about
declining standards
in teacher training
for Education,
Christopher Pyne
concerned about
declining standards
in teacher training
As he points out, principals at Catholic schools have long been given able to hire and fire their own staff, have input and oversight into the way their school is run and have flexibility to adapt the curriculum to better help students. Under the Catholic education system, there is usually close liaison and interaction with parents as well as with the local community.
But above all, Catholic schools go out of their way to foster and encourage quality teaching and put strategies in place to retain their outstanding teachers over the long term, he says.
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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