$309.6 billion set aside for Australian schools

Plus ?a change, plus c'est la même chose?

Our newly appointed Education Minister, Dan Tehan has set out his mission for Australian education. There has been no change in government, just a change in Ed Minister to accompany our rotating PMs.

There's nothing radical in Tehan's article, published in the Weekend Australian today. But it is surprisingly reassuring to read a clearly stated position, even if I may disagree with some of Tehan's assertions and planned initiatives.

Here are the 10 points that I take away from Tehan's article:

1. $309.6 billion will be provided to all schools over the next decade and that this a record level of funding.
2. The 2019-2020 Australian Governments' Education Council will be asked to consider whether the Australian Curriculum requires reviewing and refining.
3. The government will support only a national curriculum that aims to provide the foundations of knowledge for every Australian child. He explains that the curriculum must focus on the teaching of literacy and numeracy.
4. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) will take the lead in advising the Education Council.
5. ACARA's advice needs to be informed by leading international research.
6. The Australian government will not support a pan-national education project.
7. Learning progressions will be developed.
8. These learning progressions will not replace the Australian Curriculum; they will provide support for teaching the curriculum.
9. The government will not abolish the use of grades in reporting student achievement to parents.
10. The government continues to support the principle of a national testing program (NAPLAN).

Tehan ends with a statement that every teacher and parent would agree with: When it comes to what we expect from our education system, the bar can never be too high.

So will Tehan be education minister in a decade's time? Going by our track record of the last decade, it is not unrealistic to expect seven different education ministers over the next ten years. We can only hope that education does receive the promised record investment, that the Education Council does set a high bar for our education system, and perhaps most importantly, that the funding is used on initiatives that will lead to schools exceeding the Council' expectations.

Of particular importance to me, is that we hold the government to account to its promise to examine properly the leading national and international research on developing curriculum and learning progressions so that Australian children can take their rightful place in the world community.