Australian governments cut spending on education during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, as most of the OECD did the opposite, according to a new report.
the main points:
- Australia was one of the minority of OECD countries whose public spending fell during COVID
- Australian teachers get paid better than their OECD counterparts, but have longer days
- In 2019, 18 per cent of primary and secondary institutions in Australia were privately funded
The latest OECD Education at a Glance report shows that spending on Australian public education fell by about 2 per cent from 2019 to 2020, and by comparison the OECD average rose by about 1.5 per cent.
Of the 38 powerful OECD member countries, only one – Hungary – cut spending more than Australia at the time.
The organization’s annual report card compares education financing and policies across OECD countries, providing a mixed picture of Australia’s education sector.
As in previous years, the report shows proportionally, Australia has one of the largest private school sectors in the world.
The report also shows that while degree-qualified early childhood, primary and secondary teachers in Australia command higher wages than the OECD average, they face larger classes and less planning time.
The support students need
With the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, many Australian schools started online classes with most students being asked to stay at home.
The report described the impacts on children across the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and said student support measures remain critical.
“Public funds will be needed to protect students and reduce learning losses associated with COVID-19,” she said.
However, according to OECD data, Australia was one of the minority of countries whose public spending was declining at the time.
This was despite the steady growth in investment per student over the previous decade.
Australian Education Consortium Vice President Meredith Pace said the decline in investment shows that governments have left teachers in a difficult position.
“At a time when schools and students were doing very difficult work as we entered the worst of the pandemic, they needed support.”
Ms Pace said she was also concerned about the relatively high proportion of private funding that Australia relied on to educate its students.
“We have a funding model in place first that directs significant amounts of federal funding toward private schools, as we see that the vast majority of students in our public schools are not funded to the resource standards set by the federal government itself.”
In 2019, primary and secondary institutions in Australia were funded from private sources at about twice the OECD average, according to the report.
Most of these private sources were fee-paying families.
Waiting for Gonski’s author and Center for Public Development Fellow, Chris Bonheur, said the creation of Australia was creating a two-speed education system.
“There is no gain at the top and no real gain at the bottom,” he said.
“If we continue segregating students in this way on the basis of their families’ merit and wealth, we look to the continuing decline in overall student achievement in Australia, and that decline has been going on for two decades.
“We know from Gonski’s review that peer influences on individual student outcomes … are more substantial … and their peers in schools, and their influence is even greater than that of the student’s family.”
Teachers’ salaries are good, but work in stricter conditions
Meredith Pace of the Education Union said she was also concerned about the performance of Australian teachers compared to other countries.
On the other hand, the report offers good news – Australian teachers in all fields earn higher salaries than the OECD average – even as early childhood teachers.
“Pre-primary teachers in Australia earn 5 per cent more than the average tertiary education,” the report said.
However, Ms Pace said she was concerned about the amount of time Australian teachers were expected to spend in the classroom.
“The report highlights that we have more hours of instruction in the classroom than many of our other international countries.”
Across the education sector, Ms. Salam said, issues beyond wages contribute to the significant current vacancies.
“Our manpower shortage goes straight to workload issues,” she said.
“This is the number one issue that teachers talk about that is pushing people out of the profession.”
It is a problem that Australian governments have said they are committed to fixing.
Education Secretary Jason Clare convened a working group with his state and territory counterparts to find solutions, to report by December 2022.
Contacted for comment.
from San Jose News Bulletin https://sjnewsbulletin.com/public-education-funding-declines-in-australia-during-the-covid-pandemic/
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