Universities Australia "Applauds" Government's Support for the Gonski Report. (September 3, 2012)

Universities Australia through its Chief Executive, Belinda Robinson, has given strong support for Prime Minister Julia Gillard's response to the 286-page Review of Funding for Schooling delivered to the federal government in December 2011 by David Gonski, Ken Boston, Kathryn Greiner, Carmen Lawrence and Peter Tannock.

On the other hand The Australian reports that:

Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne described the government's plans as "their most outlandish promise of all", a promise of "all foam and no beer" that begins in three elections' time. Mr Pyne denied the need for extra funding for schools, one of the key findings of the Gonski Report, and said money had been put into struggling public schools for 10 years.

"In the past 10 years, we have spent 44 per cent more on schools and we have gone backwards in terms of our school outcomes.

"What that proves to me is that the focus of our education policies should be on teacher quality, on the curriculum, and on principal autonomy."

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According to the report, however:

The required additional investment

On the basis of the determinations made by the panel for the purposes of the modelling, the results indicated that if these arrangements had been implemented in full during 2009, the additional cost to governments would have been about $5 billion or around 15 per cent of all governments’ recurrent funding for schooling that year.

Based on its current proportion of total funding, the Australian Government would bear around 30 per cent of the increase. How the additional cost is actually borne will need to be discussed and negotiated between all governments.

Transition

The panel acknowledges that governments will need to work collaboratively to finalise the necessary details, funding responsibilities and transition arrangements.

But the bottom line remains that the salaries offered to teachers, recognition of their their importance and the infrastructure with which they are equipped must be sufficient to attract the quality of individuals required. There is stick in Ms Gillard's response to the Gonski Report mixed with praise for the nation's teachers in her National Press Club address, but damn all carrot being specifically offered.

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And the report's overall conclusion:

There is universal agreement among governments, teacher unions, principal associations, parent bodies, schooling systems and sector organisations on the need for school improvement and educational reform in Australia.

All Australian governments and schooling sectors have demonstrated a willingness and ability to work together through the national schooling reform agenda. This agenda has provided a solid foundation for reform and has started to drive improvements in Australia’s schooling system. The ability to build on and strengthen these reforms through continued collaborative partnerships between governments and the non-government school sector will be key to the success of the funding reform recommended in this report.

Additional resources are required to achieve sustained improvements and move Australia to a high-performing and high-equity schooling system. These resources must be targeted at those school-based and classroom-based teaching and learning strategies which are critical to success.

The panel understands the challenges for governments across Australia in implementing its recommendations. The new funding arrangements it recommends will—year by year—steadily make real the shared aspirations for Australian schooling, and for the cultural richness, competitiveness and prosperity of the nation.

Australia and its children, now and in the future, deserve nothing less.

Click to watch Prime Minister Julia Gillard speaking to the

National  Press Club on the recommendations of the

Gonski Report.