Science Education News (SEN) Journal 2017 Volume 66 Number 4 December 2017 | Page 35

ARTICLES
Australia’s Education Asset (continued)
in results across Australia from testing rather than teaching were
evident there might be some argument for it, but there is not. Yet
testing continues unabated – I hear that Year 1 are going to be
tested soon!
afterwards. I was convinced. This was to be the greatest, and
essential, advance in School (and subsequently University)
Education since Whitlam’s insightful action.
It was so good, in fact, that Tony Abbott promised there would
be a “Unity Ticket” on the Gonski reforms. No doubt that
neutralised the issue in the eyes of voters, but unfortunately for
Australian School Education it was untrue. In its first Budget in
2014 the Abbott Government passed a Bill through the House
of Representatives that would finish funding the Gonski plan at
the end of 2014, an effective cut of $30Bn from the Education
Budget! It received an enormous outcry from a broad range of
Australians, including many universities that had adapted their
teacher training courses to prepare trainee teachers for the
future, not the failed past. The Senate refused to pass it, and
required the Abbott Government to continue funding the Gonski
scheme till the end of 2018. Eventually Mr Abbott was forced to
agree in order for other parts of his Budget to pass through the
Upper House.
Peter Garrett
By 2012 it had become apparent to the ALP Federal Government
of the time that berating teachers and being miserly with education
funds was leading to disaster. The OECD Teaching and Learning
International Study (TALIS) Report of 2009 was bad news for
Australia. Our ranking in STEM-based subjects had dropped
to 33rd. Their reports from new teachers in Australia showed a
plea for decreased face-to-face classes for the first few years,
and a demand for experienced Mentors to aid them through
those initial years. I had the fortune to be in an auditorium at
Revesby when then Education Minister, Peter Garrett, presented
the Gonski Plan to the audience. He required no notes, no
microphone, as he stood for 55 minutes explaining the necessity
for this Education Review. 80 000 children change states every
year, and have to start a different syllabus – so an Australia-wide
curriculum (ACARA) was needed, with an investment of an extra
$6.5Bn into School Education every year, to provide specialists
for children with language, cultural or learning difficulties, plus
further support for teachers, presumably to include provision of
Mentors. The plan was to achieve three essential improvements
by the end of 2025:
Tony Abbott
1. To increase the ratio of students taking STEM-based subjects
up until the end of Year 10, i.e. Science, Technology,
Engineering Studies and Mathematics;
2. To increase the ratio of students undertaking STEM-based
subjects up until the end of the HSC;
3. To increase the ratio of students undertaking STEM-based
subjects in Universities.
David Gonski
Following the 55 minutes Mr Garrett accepted questions from the
audience for a further 45 minutes, and shook numerous hands
35
SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 66 NO 4