{"id":211956,"date":"2025-09-09T04:52:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T04:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/211956\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T04:52:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T04:52:13","slug":"could-a-new-federal-education-super-commission-be-the-answer-to-addressing-public-school-drop-out-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/211956\/","title":{"rendered":"Could a new federal education super commission be the answer to addressing public school drop out rates?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dropout rates are rising. Test scores are falling. And the divide between rich and poor students is widening.<\/p>\n

Creating a new federal super bureaucracy might sound like an unusual way to fix state-based public education systems currently leaving hundreds of thousands of, often disadvantaged, students behind.<\/p>\n

But Education Minister Jason Clare believes it’s the answer, and has today highlighted growing teenage dropout rates in public schools to justify a new federal “Teaching and Learning Commission”.<\/p>\n

The new super commission would represent a new level of federal involvement in state-run education systems.<\/p>\n

And following from a $16 billion funding deal announced with states, it would aim to ensure that money wasn’t wasted, and the reforms promised as part of the deals would be delivered.<\/p>\n

\"High<\/p>\n

The new super commission would represent a new level of federal involvement in state-run education systems. (ABC News: Michael Lloyd)<\/p>\n

In a speech at Curtin University on Tuesday, Mr Clare said the entire education system needed to be reformed and “this is the big one”.<\/p>\n

“In independent and Catholic schools completion rates are high and are either stable or going up. It’s in our public schools where the real challenge is. And where a lot of the heavy lifting happens,” he said.<\/p>\n

“In the last decade the percentage of young people finishing high school has dropped in public schools from about 83 per cent to as low as 73 per cent.”<\/p>\n

The current ‘code red’ crisis in Australian public schooling<\/p>\n

Recent NAPLAN results have also shown one in three students are not meeting minimum expectations in literacy and numeracy<\/a>, which one analyst called a “code red”.<\/p>\n

Education analyst Glenn Fahey from the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) said Australia’s school results were not good enough \u2014 both in NAPLAN and international tests.<\/p>\n

Analysts sound alarm on latest concerning NAPLAN results<\/a><\/p>\n

The annual test of literacy and numeracy for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 shows some isolated improvements but largely stable results.<\/p>\n

“For two decades the education system has been underperforming \u2014 poor outcomes for students, new teachers under or poorly-prepared, and an ever-growing layer of chalk-pushers piling on red tape,” Mr Fahey said.<\/p>\n

He said education bureaucracies have hindered rather than helped attempts to improve the system \u2014 and Clare’s idea to merge four existing agencies was aimed at dislodging that roadblock.<\/p>\n

Among the agencies he would merge are the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority (ACARA), which administers NAPLAN, and the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO), which aims to build an evidence base to improve classroom practice.<\/p>\n

A 2023 study by AERO revealed just how deep-seated the problems in schools were, finding that only 20 per cent of students who fell behind in Year 3 ever caught up to their peers.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Unidentifiable<\/p>\n

Only 20 per cent of students who fall behind in Year 3 catch up to their peers, research found. (ABC News: Michael Lloyd)<\/p>\n

The new school funding agreement aims to remedy that by providing public schools with the Gonski money promised years ago<\/a>, and the new commission will be tasked with ensuring the money isn’t wasted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clare said that money is squarely targeted at the hundreds of thousands of students, whose testing results showed they were being left behind “through no fault of their own”.<\/p>\n

“This funding is tied to reforms to help them catch up, keep up and help more young people finish school,” Clare said.<\/p>\n

“Things like evidenced-based teaching. Like phonics checks and numeracy checks in Year 1 to identify kids who need additional help.”<\/p>\n

‘A jumble of acronyms that rarely pull in the same direction’<\/p>\n

Mr Fahey said there was a good argument for merging the four federal agencies ACARA and AERO, as well as Education Services Australia (ESA) and the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL).<\/p>\n

“Each of the individual parts of the national education architecture have a legitimate role: ACARA on curriculum and assessment, AITSL on teacher standards, ESA on technology delivery, and AERO on providing independent evidence,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But the truth is that across these agencies, the sum is less than its parts. They duplicate, overlap, and sometimes work at cross-purposes. The outcome is not a national policy system, but instead a jumble of acronyms that rarely pull in the same direction.”<\/p>\n

\"Glenn<\/p>\n

Glenn Fahey from the Centre for Independent Studies, says there’s no guarantee of a better outcome. (ABC News: Chris Taylor)<\/p>\n

But invigorating the agencies is only the first challenge.<\/p>\n

Next the minister will need to convince the states to support a greater federal role in what’s in the past been a jealously-guarded responsibility.<\/p>\n

That’s why Clare is stressing this is just an idea, not official policy. It needs the imprimatur of state education ministers at their next meeting.<\/p>\n

It also remains to be seen whether federal agencies, a long way removed from the coalface of classrooms, can implement the changes to teaching practices widely viewed as the path forward.<\/p>\n

“It is unlikely the new commission will do harm but there’s also no guarantee of better outcomes. Clare will need to show that the new agency brings clarity, not just more centralisation into a bigger, blurrier bureaucracy,” Fahey said.<\/p>\n

\"NAPLAN<\/p>\n

Recent NAPLAN results show one in three students are not meeting minimum expectations in literacy and numeracy.<\/p>\n

It’s a signal, though, that the federal government is serious about the improvement goals in NAPLAN testing and Year 12 completion rates that are tied to the extra funding.<\/p>\n

In the past the federal government has struggled to influence outcomes in classrooms despite now funding 25 per cent of the cost of the nation’s public schools.<\/p>\n

And there was an early warning sign it may not just be state premiers and education ministers that needed convincing.<\/p>\n

The Australian Education Union welcomed the proposal but said teachers would need to be “reassured” their interests were a priority.<\/p>\n

“We welcome a national discussion facilitated by the Minister for Education, however we seek the formal commitment from government that the voices of teachers and unions will be central to the development of any proposals going forward,” AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Australian Education Union’s president Corenna Haythorpe hopes the proposal will prioritise teachers’ interests. (.Supplied)<\/p>\n

“All education ministers across the country should be asking: how does the current architecture fit the actual needs of teachers, what is the teaching profession’s connection to these four bodies, and how do they support teachers to provide high quality teaching and learning for all students including those with high-level complex needs in the classroom?” she said.<\/p>\n

The announcement was welcomed by the federal opposition, which said it would work “constructively” with the government to “support the reforms”.<\/p>\n

“There needs to be an urgent focus on ensuring our children have an excellent education in reading, writing and maths \u2014 especially given that one in three students across the country are struggling with basic literacy and numeracy,” Shadow Education Minister Senator Jonno Duniam said.<\/p>\n

“Whilst Commonwealth funding per student has more than doubled in the last two decades, school performance continues to go backwards.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dropout rates are rising. Test scores are falling. And the divide between rich and poor students is widening.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":211957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[116091,116093,4740,116090,116092,116089,116087,116086,66704,50,116088],"class_list":{"0":"post-211956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-acara","9":"tag-aero","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-curriculum-and-assessment-reporting-authority","12":"tag-australian-education-research-organisation","13":"tag-curtin-university","14":"tag-federal-education-minister","15":"tag-jason-clare","16":"tag-naplan","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-teaching-and-learning-commission"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115172549920122928","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}