The 2021 PISA results will be announced later this year. Since the early 2000s, Australia's PISA rankings in English, Mathematics and Science have been trending downwards.No one will be surprised if this downward trend continues.
A recent article by Annie Fogarty in the West Australian newspaper (7/7/2022) titled, “Our poorest falling behind” reminded us that every Australian child deserves quality education. Ms Fogarty also highlighted the growing achievement gap in Australian schools. The gap between the Have and the Have Not schools.
Ms Fogarty said that children living in “disadvantage and dysfunction” suffer higher rates of mental illness which have a significant impact on school achievement. She echoes the words of respected US educator, Dr Diane Ravich, who participated in the US National Assessment programme. In this role she sacked many principals and teachers in under performing schools. By 2009, Dr Ravitch had changed her mind. In her bestselling book, “The Death and Life of the Great American Public School System,” she regretted having sacked so many hard working principals and teachers, saying “Poverty, not poor teaching, is the major cause of failure in schools.”
In 2008, Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, concerned about education standards, commissioned successful businessman, David Gonski, to investigate the situation. Gonski discovered what became known as the Education Gap. This gap was the huge difference in achievement outcomes between high and low achieving schools.
In 2010, Gonski presented his review the the new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Gonski believed the education gap could only be closed by allocating additional resources to schools in need. The Gonski Review was sought to eliminate
the gap between high and low achieving schools. It sounded too good to be true
and it was. Politicians, who generally act for political reasons rather than educational reasons, soon changed Gonski’s
focus. In the decade since the Gonski Review’s release, federal and state
government spending on private schools increased fivefold in comparison to
spending on government schools. Trevor Cobbold, an economist and national
convenor for public school advocacy group Save Our Schools, says “Gonski didn’t
fail. It is governments that failed Gonski, and thereby failed disadvantaged
students,” he says. Some people say that Gonski failed. The fact is Gonski was never tried, never implemented.
As a result, the achievement gap in our education outcomes grew wider. Our PISA ranking dropped. Many politicians and some in the media called for the problem of Australia’s falling PISA ratings to be fixed. How? Well, they all said, teachers need to work harder. They need to be much better trained. They need to be more highly qualified. Teachers should be paid according to performance. Those wanting to be teachers must be selected from the very highest achievers with ATAR scores in the top 10%. There were frenzied calls for "Back to basics." They wanted quick fixes. Hard working teachers have heard that sad song before.
Unfortunately, amid all the tumult and shouting about how to fix Australia’s education problems, there is little reference to what actual educators think about the achievement gap in Australian education. Pasi Sahlberg is an educator. He was in charge of education in Finland when that country always appeared in the top four of the PISA rankings. He is currently a Professor of Education at the Gonski Institute for Education at the University of NSW. Speaking about the declining PISA results a few years ago, Sahlberg reminded everyone that Albert Einstein once said, ”We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
Sahlberg made three points. Firstly, he said the inequitable distribution of resources in our education system was the major cause for the growing achievement gap. There was, he said, a need to revisit the Gonski reforms to ensure that school in need were better resourced, so that there would be “high-quality education for all, individualised support for those who need it and valuing whole-child development throughout schooling.”
Secondly, Sahlberg said we need to make health and wellness in schools another priority. He said the data shows “That the decline of youth wellbeing has happened at the same time as slipping PISA scores in Australia…a student who suffers from anxiety disorders, depression, sleep deprivation or suicidal behaviours is not likely to be successful in school.”
All teachers know that most of the social, emotional, psychological and behavioural problems that they deal with on a daily basis, originate from outside the classroom. Low socio-economic status, domestic violence, drugs, alcohol, physical and sexual abuse all impact on a child’s school performance.
Finally, Professor Sahlberg warned against employing the quick fixes so favoured by politicians. He said quick fixes do not fix equity or student wellbeing. “It is the wrong strategy because it does not address educational equities and enhance students’ wellbeing, so that every student would have a fair chance to succeed.”
The evidence is clear. Schools in lower socio-economic areas generally perform below schools in the “leafy green” suburbs. Everyone knows that. State Education Departments know it. They have known it for over fifty years. Those hard working teachers in those under resourced school are like soldiers provided with inferior weapons and very few bullets being criticised by their superior officers for not winning the battle.
Sahlberg suggests it is more rational to get back to the real basics. Instead of indulging in teacher bashing and school bashing we need to inform ourselves of the educational research and implement equitable resourcing policies that will close the achievement gap by providing equity and wellness for all students.
Sadly, Pasi Sahlberg pointed out how to solve Australia's education gap three years ago. But nothing has changed. His advice was not heeded by those politicians with the power to do something about it. We still have politicians saying we need to recruit teachers in the top 10% of ATAR. We still have politicians saying we need more highly qualified teachers. We have still have politicians saying we need to start teaching formal literacy and numeracy skills at a younger and younger age. It is no good pointing out to these politicians that PISA high flyers, like Finland and Singapore, do not start formal primary school education until children are seven. Pasi Sahlberg has given them the solution but our politicians are still sprouting quick fixes that they feel are political vote winners. That is no way to run an education system.
During the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, politicians and the media
deferred to the wisdom and knowledge of the health experts. Likewise, it is
critical for the future wellbeing of our students, our schools and our society
that principals, teachers and other education experts, like Pasi Sahlberg, be
listened to and their sensible advice be implemented
It’s pretty basic, really.
