Buti Needs to But into the ATAR Debate

Did you know that the same Minister who is responsible for the aboriginal heritage policy fiasco is also responsible for the education of our children.

Toni Buti is the Minister for Education, having been drafted into the role back in December 2022.?

This self described ‘pretty average school student’ from Kelmscott High, is a good role model for students having ground his way up using education as his tool of advancment.

Today he is a high achiever who has taken his school education and gone on to earn various degrees, including teaching and law studying at two of the world’s most prestigious universities, Oxford and Yale.?

When not emenshed in the world of academia he has even written a few books himself, covering topics such as the stolen generation, human rights and discrimination.

Hence if anyone should have an understanding of the importance of education in creating opportunities for kids coming from battling families, it is this Minister.

When he first took up the role just under 12 months ago, he set himself the task of finding out the reasons why there had was a long-term decline in the proportion of Year 12s choosing to take the hard subjects that are key in opening up high paying career opportunities in for example the health, science, and engineering professions.

At the time he said he was worried that Western Australia was developing a culture in which students were seeking the “easiest possible” pathway into university rather than tackling “challenging content”

In other words metalworks vs maths or phys ed vs physics..

As a result he flagged his intention to seek data from universities on the progress and success rate of non-ATAR students as they travelled through our school system.

This got the approval from those responsible for university admissions, as its the unis who have to deal with students who don’t have the maths, chemistry, physics or even english skills, to undertake the courses they have been accepted into.

Former Murdoch University academic Andrew Taggart, who now chairs the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre, has publicly complained that “Our State is in peril of heading down a low achievement-oriented high school curriculum, students need to be challenged academically.”

So, 12 months in as the next cohort of students in their final year of school face up to the final exams, what has our Minister for Education done when faced with the challenge of challenging our teachers and students to take the hard road and not the easy road into university, and with it increasing students chances of undertaking a hard but ultimately high paying degree.

Not much.

He no doubt has looked carefully at the States declining ATAR participation data and matched it up with the declining results in many of the states lower social economic schools which he then matched up to the five years that this government has been in power, and decided to do what all weak Ministers and Governments do when it all gets too hard, he moved to bury the problem rather than tackle it head on.

The Minister has allowed the WA School Curriculum and Standards Authority to continue with their decision from January 2022, to no longer compile a ranking list of WA schools based on the median ATAR achieved by students in the graduating cohort.?Something that has been available for the past 15 years until abolished by this government.

Nothing to see here students, move along parents, your local high school has a good vibe, no need to know how many year 12s sat 4 ATAR subjects, or if the school is improving or falling compared to its contemporises.

Problem is there is lots to see, under this government WA’s ATAR population has declined from the last year of the Barnett government in 2016 when we had 13,540 students doing ATAR, to just 9643 students in 2022, an almost 20 per cent drop over a time when student n=numbers are rising.

Its a disgracful result.

WA’s ATAR participation rate has dropped to 31 per cent, whereas most other Australian states are sitting above 50 per cent.?

Not our fault claims the government, it’s the fault of the mining boom sucking kids into the easy subjects and then into trades, which ignores the fact that the Barnett Government also had a massive mining boom to contend with and the drop out rade of trades training has hit a all time high.

Kids that have followed the easy path are not capable of applying themselves when it gets harder.

Unfortunately we as taxpayers and parents have no real idea of how our schools and students are travelling as the Minister is too scared to show us the data.

No doubt the decision to keep the school tables buried from parents eyes has brought the Minister a great deal of support from the teachers union, (a tick for his next preselection).

The union would much prefer to have a public discussion on class sizes and teacher salaries than on actual class and school outcomes.

Forget about the needs of the parents or the students in poor performing public schools, the ones stuck in the government system because they can’t afford to buy their way out into the world of private schools which are forced to perform by their fee paying parents.

No doubt labor governments wish the private system would fade away, as its too their embarrassment that many of the battlers who vote for them, are forced to scrimp and save to avoid the low standards that their local public school sets itself.

The lame arguments that the league tables are unfair and don’t take into social economic challenges of the local community or don’t reflect the full offering of the school experience are a pure cop out.

The uncomfortable truth is we need to benchmark against all schools to see what’s working and what’s not and sure schools in lower social ecxonomic areas will struggle as they struggle to attreact good teachers but without that data how can you focus resources.

Parents are not stupid, they understand that schools in the wealthy western suburbs will be different to schools in the eastern suburbs.

What they need to know is if the government is pouring the resources and incentives into attracting teachers to the schools that are struggling.?

Without the acid test of the league tables being published the government is off the hook on having to make any changes to how the system operates.

No doubt, post the 2023 ATAR results in two months time, we will read a press release from the Minister congratulating students for a successful 12 years at school with encouraging words of moving forward into the next step of their lives even if most left without a useful ATAR.?

The only school comparison data that is now available is the federal governments NAPLAN tables, no doubt the State government would if they could cancel those results as even they have our state schools going backwards under this state government.

Recall how this Minister wanted to expand the data base on where all the aboriginal heritage sites were on private land with details publically available. Note how this is more important than publicly releasing the data of how the state schools he is responsible for are travelling.?

If he was really interested in protecting not just the past of aboriginal people but also their childrens future along with the future of all the other students in the state he should reverse the decision to hide the school data.

After the heritage debacle Butis on notice by his backbench, after this years ATAR results come out he will be on notice by the states parents, by the next election if he does not leave his mark on education he will be like those kids who did not take the hard route through school.

Wondering what his next job will be.