Gonski. Explained and unravelled

What is the Gonski Review?

The Gonski Review (or the Review for Funding of Schooling) was commissioned by the Federal Government in 2010 and presented its findings in late 2011. The Review recommended an extra $6.5 billion be found annually for education.

Why do we need changes in the current funding model?

•  Four of the top five schooling systems in the world are in the Asia-Pacific region and currently Australia is not in that coveted top five. (The average 15 year old maths student in Australia is two years behind a 15 year old in Shanghai.)

• We need to improve the education of our poorer children. (By year 3, 89 per cent of children from the poorest quarter of Australian homes are reading below average.)

What changes are the Gillard Government proposing?

There are two main changes:

1. To create legislation entitled the Australian Education Act. Prime Minister Gillard said yesterday that this Act will be "the most important of 2013" and will "establish our nation’s support for a child’s education as one of the entitlements of citizenship – it will state our great aspirations for school education reform."

2. To introduce the 'National Plan for School Improvement'. This plan aims to:

• Lift teacher quality, including requiring more classroom experience before graduation and higher entry requirements for the teaching profession.

• Give more power for principals, including over budgets and staff selection.

• Make available to parents more information ands statistics on different schools through the My School website

The ultimate goal of the National Plan for School Improvement is to get Australia ranked as one of the top 5 countries in the world in Reading, Science and Mathematics by 2025.

This goal will be achieved, according to Prime Minister Gillard,  through 'providing our children with a high-quality and high-equity education system.'

To ensure Australia's education system is indeed equitable, every child's education is to be supported with a benchmark amount of funding called the 'Schooling Resource Standard' the amount of which is based on what it costs to educate a student at a school that already achieves strong results.

The government will also be introducing a system of 'needs loadings' whereby extra funding will be available to students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, indigenous students, students with disabilities and students with limited English skills, as well as helping with extra costs for particularly small and remote schools.

Given that the Federal Government has already funded schools for next year, these changes will begin to happen from 2014.

Prime Minister Gillard has not yet stated how much money her Government is willing to commit to these reforms. Currently, the Federal Government provides approximately 30 per cent of funding to public schools with State and Territory Governments providing the other 70 per cent. Gillard said yesterday that "State and Territory Governments must be prepared to play their part for change."

See the full transcript of the announcement here: http://www.betterschools.gov.au/news/prime-ministers-speech-national-plan-school-improvement

What do you think of the Gonski Review? Is your child's school getting enough funding and support?