Aussie teens lagging behind in maths, science and reading

SYDNEY: Australia’s 15-year-olds are lagging well behind their counterparts in other countries in reading, mathematics and science, a report shows.

The results have prompted a call from the Australian Council for Educational Research (Acer) for urgent action to address what it described as a worrying trend, ABC News reported.

Acer’s chief executive Professor Geoff Masters called for a national plan agreed to by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments with cooperation from parents and the business community.

“There’s been a decline in performance at 15 years of age in reading, in mathematics and science, and the decline in mathematics has been quite dramatic since the turn of the century,” he said.

“What we need to do is have a national conversation about what it will take to reverse these drifts in our schooling system. It’s a national challenge and it requires a national response.”

Masters said increased funding may be necessary but money alone was not the answer. His analysis revealed a growing disparity between Australia’s schools, which is linked to differences in socioeconomic backgrounds.

He also said it was clear the teachers of the future were being drawn from increasingly low tertiary admission scores, and Australia needed to make teaching an attractive option for the best students. “It would take some time to see the effect of that, but we know that high-performing countries have succeeded in making teaching attractive to the best and brightest school leavers and that’s what we need to be working at in Australia. Currently we’re going in the wrong direction,” he said.

Education funding is shaping up to be a key issue as the federal election campaign gathers momentum. The Coalition has promised A$1.2 billion for schools and Labor has budgeted A$4.5 billion.

The Australian Education Union said the Acer report proved the value of the Gonski model. Federal president Karina Hazel said the Gonski plan addressed resource gaps between schools.

“We have one in seven students currently in danger of leaving school without the literacy and numeracy standards that they need. We have a funding model that is just being rolled out. It’s at the very beginning in terms of putting resources into our schools and we need to see the full six-year transition,” she said.

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