Inequalities in Australian Schooling

On Saturday 22nd October Chris Bonnor spoke to the Teachers Federation's State Council about the structural inequalities in Australian schooling. Chris is a retired public school principal and ex-president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council. These inequalities are largely caused by the Federal Government's schools funding formula which transfers 70% of education dollars to discriminatory private schools.

Naplan data demonstrates a very strong correlation between a child's SES status and performance on standardised tests. Unfortunately Prime Minister Gillard was wrong when she claimed that "demography is not destiny".

Chris reported on research and OECD data showing that 70% of a student's performance is determined by factors outside of the school. In other words, teachers and schools cannot overcome disadvantage on their own. Instead, governments must address poverty before children can reach their learning potential.

Interestingly, when comparing public, independent and catholic schools with similar SES and educational backgrounds, their is no significant difference in the performance of students. In other words, the largess shown by the Federal Government to private schools is a waste of money as they perform no differently to public schools serving the same students.

Chris spoke about the impact of middle class flight from public schools. The result is a lowering of the learning of poorer students as they lose positive role models as peers. OECD data shows that Australia has the worst performance when it comes to the negative effect of a school's disadvantage. In the NSW Department of Education's submission to the schools funding review, it was shown that the SES status of the school peers of a child can has a large impact on their learning. The difference between poor children in poor schools and poor children in rich schools is 60 points on Naplan tests. In Australia 60% of disadvantaged students attend disadvantaged schools. In NSW public schools the ratio of low income students compared to high income students has double in the past three decades.

Putting all of this data together demonstrates that the current Federal schools funding model is a monumental failure, being itself a cause of educational disadvantage. It is critical that the Gonski Review addresses these issues and that both sides of politics commit to ensuring that "demography is not destiny."