Australia’s education ministers must fully fund public schools as “soon as possible” and increase transparency on where finances are directed, an independent expert education panel has recommended.
The panel’s review informing the upcoming National School Reform Agreement (NSRA), released on Monday, made seven key recommendations to improve equity, wellbeing and the teaching workforce.
The review will form a key part of negotiations between education ministers, with targets and funding changes to be announced in 2025.
In its report, the panel, chaired by Dr Lisa O’Brien, said persistent funding inequity was an issue that required “urgent action”.
According to the schooling resource standard (SRS), agreed to by governments as part of Gonski reforms more than a decade ago to provide a baseline education to students, 98% of public schools are underfunded and the majority of private schools are overfunded.
“Full funding to 100% of the SRS is a critical prerequisite for successful education reform and student learning and wellbeing improvement across the country,” the report read.
The report also recommended ongoing screening on student progress in literacy and numeracy from year 1, with catch up supports for under-performing children, greater professional development among teachers and a strengthened link between schools and community health services, including a national wellbeing measure.
It also called for reforms to data collection and funding transparency and accountability, with parents and communities to gain public access to how needs-based funding was being allocated and used.
It recommended the next agreement last 10 years, instead of five, with a mid-way review point to give governments time to implement lasting reforms.
The education minister, Jason Clare, said Australia’s education system could be “a lot better and a lot fairer”.
Following a meeting on Monday, he and his counterparts vowed to place equity at the centre of the school system, agreeing the next NSRA must deliver on the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration, which was released in 2019 and set out a national vision to improve educational outcomes and equity.
“We’ve got to fix this funding gap and fix this education gap,” Clare said. “That’s what the next agreement will be all about.”
The Smith Family chief executive, Doug Taylor, said it was “tremendous” to see a focus on equity underpinning future reform.
The report also recommended a commitment to increasing First Nations educators via First Nations Education Policy, to support cultural safety and inform the design of the national curriculum.
Taylor, who was on the ministerial reference group informing the NSRA, said it would be crucial to target measures at improving learning outcomes for disadvantaged students and boosted financial support to underfunded schools.
“We need to give young people chance at catching up,” he said. “For those who’ve fallen behind, it doesn’t make sense why we’re not funding public education at the level we’ve agreed to previously.”
Taylor said clearer focus on targets and independent assessments would ensure there was public accountability on how funding was spent.
The report warned there were too many data gaps, particularly relating to equity cohorts and students with disability. It recommended the establishment of an independent body to deliver a more “mature” approach to data sharing.
“One of the great challenges is we’re not drawing out the data we need,” Taylor said.
“Particularly for equity groups, there’s often not much in way of meaningful visibility of low SES students and how students with a disability are tracking.”
The Australian Education Union federal president, Correna Haythorpe. said the expert panel had made “unequivocal” recommendations about the critical need to fully fund public schools.
“New school funding agreements were delayed 12 months so that the panel could conduct a review,” she said. “There can be no excuse for further inaction and delay by governments.”
Haythorpe welcomed recommendations for the expansion of tutoring services as part of an increased focus on early intervention and the development of full-service schools to improve wellbeing, while cautioning recommendations on reducing the teacher workload “do not go far enough”.
“The panel has emphasised that many teachers do not feel adequately supported or valued and that better employment conditions, improved remuneration and recognition are needed to attract and retain teachers and school staff,” she said.
The Greens spokesperson for education, Penny Allman-Payne, said it was “critical” a timeframe to fully fund public schools was confirmed at the start of the next agreement in the new year.
“We need it at the start of the next NSRA in January 2025,” she said. “We’re now at a crisis point and Labor can’t lock in another decade of underfunding.”
The national convenor of the public education lobby group Save Our Schools, Trevor Cobbold, also urged ministers not to delay any further.
