PM Acknowledges that Australian Education Standards Are Falling Relative to Top Asian Nations. (January 25, 2012)

Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, citing the latest compilation (2009 data) from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)*, "which focused on reading and also assessed mathematics and science performance", sounded a strong cautionary note when interviewed recently by The Australian's Matthew Franklin: "There are disturbing signs that countries in our region are getting in front of us and we need to address that. We don't seem to be extending as far as we can the kids at the top and we have a pool of kids who don't meet the standards, and that's highly correlated with disadvantaged kids from poorer households."

It's certainly true that the percentage of GDP earmarked for education has risen to 1.9% up from the 1.6% provided by the Howard Coalition government. Nevertheless Ms Gillard noted that:

Four of the top five performing school systems in the world are in our region and they are getting better and better.

On average, kids at 15 in those nations are six months ahead of Australian kids at 15 and they are a year in front of the OECD mean.

If we are talking about today's children tomorrow's workers I want them to be workers in a high-skill, high-wage economy where we are still leading the world.

I don't want them to be workers in an economy where we are kind of the runt of the litter in our region and we've slipped behind the standards and the high-skill, high-wage jobs are elsewhere in our region.

The Prime Minister went on to say to Mr Franklin that in 2000, 15 year-old Australians ranked equal 2^nd in the OECD on reading literacy. But in the 2009 PISA figures the ranking tumbled to 9^th.

In numeracy the ranking dropped from equal 5^th in 2003 to 12^th in 2009, and in science our 15-year-olds drop from 4^th in 2006 to 10^th in 2009.

In short in relative terms we're retrogressing.

Mr Franklin then quotes Ms Gillard:

We're positioning so our nation can seize those opportunities and come up winners. But in order to do that we need to be very focused on this challenge that we win the education race.

And "the Prime Minister pledges a fresh effort to lift education standards in the light of the PISA report", but how this is to be done, remains a mystery. Without a concerted, bipartisan, decadal approach progress toward the rear will continue, and there remains little sign of effective remedial action.

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* Which compares educational standards among 15-year-olds across the OECD.