Does Australia have a world-class education system?  If not, what kind of ‘education revolution’ would be required to achieve one? In this opinion article, ACER chief executive Professor Geoff Masters, examines findings from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) released earlier this month and finds that they shed interesting and timely light on these questions.

PISA assesses the scientific literacy, mathematical literacy and reading literacy skills of 15-year-olds.  In 2006, the main focus of the testing was on scientific literacy, with almost 400 000 students being tested worldwide.  In Australia, more than 14 000 students were tested in all states and territories and in government, catholic and independent schools.

At one level, it is tempting to conclude from the PISA 2006 results that Australia already has a world-class education system.  Only three of the 57 participating countries significantly outperformed Australia in the scientific literacy assessment: Finland, Hong Kong-China and Canada.  This was similar to the result in 2003 when four of 41 participating countries significantly outperformed us.  A more detailed analysis reveals that some Australian states and territories – particularly the ACT and WA – performed as well, on average, as high-performing Hong Kong-China and Canada.

Although some students in Australia performed poorly in PISA, by international standards, we do not have an unusually long tail of underachievement.  This finding runs counter to some commonly held beliefs.  The proportion of students in Australia falling below the ‘baseline’ set by the OECD is not different from the proportion in similarly high-achieving countries.  And this is true not only in scientific literacy, but also in mathematical and reading literacy.

Another indicator of the world-class nature of our education system is the observation that the relationship between socioeconomic background and student achievement in Australia is weaker than the OECD average.  In the popular jargon, Australia is a ‘high quality / high equity’ country based on our PISA 2006 performance.  And again, this observation is made not only in relation to scientific literacy, but also for mathematical and reading literacy.  

These are all reasons to celebrate the success of school education in Australia.  At 15 years of age, our students are performing well above the OECD average in key areas of learning and are outperformed by students in only a handful of other countries.  PISA suggests that we are within striking distance of being best in the world.

Despite Australia’s generally high performance, there are features of the most recent PISA results that may be a cause for concern and certainly should not be ignored.

First, there was a significant decline in the mathematical literacy skills of Australian girls between 2003 and 2006.  PISA adds to some emerging evidence that gains made by girls in Australia over recent decades may now be dissipating.  In PISA 2000 and PISA 2003, Australian girls performed at the same level as boys in mathematical literacy; in PISA 2006, girls were significantly outperformed by boys.

Second, there was a significant decline in the average reading scores of both boys and girls between 2003 and 2006.  This decline was due mainly to a decline in the proportion of Australian students performing at high levels of reading in 2006.  PISA draws no conclusion about the possible causes of this decline, although in some countries, including the United States, declines in teenage reading levels are being attributed to a reduction in the amount of extended reading that students now do.   Nevertheless, in other countries, including Korea and Hong-Kong, average reading levels increased during the same period. 

Finally, PISA 2006 draws attention to, and underlines, some well-understood challenges that we face in Australia. A first challenge is to reduce the number of students who are falling by the wayside in our schools.  Many students become disenchanted, disengaged, fall further behind each year and leave school with unacceptably low levels of the basics.  The OECD estimates that 13 per cent of Australian 15-year-olds are performing below the OECD ‘baseline’ and are at risk of not having the basics required for work and productive citizenship as adults.  Australia is not unusual in this regard (the OECD average is 19 per cent), but this remains a serious concern and challenge to Australian schools.

Worryingly, the percentage of ‘at risk’ students is much higher for some sections of the Australian population.  Approximately 40 per cent of Indigenous students, 27 per cent of students living in remote parts of Australia and 23 per cent of students from the lowest socioeconomic quartile are considered by the OECD to be ‘at risk’.

The challenge we face as a nation is to ensure that every student, regardless of their background or where they live, has access to high quality teaching and high quality resources.  To achieve this, we may need to increase incentives for our best teachers to work in our most challenging schools.

A second challenge highlighted by PISA 2006 is the challenge of attracting more young people to study mathematics and science.  Although Australia is one of the highest performers in scientific literacy, our students have one of the lowest levels of interest in learning science.  More than half of Australian 15-year-olds say they have little or no interest in learning about physics, chemistry or biology.  Levels of interest in science are particularly low in Queensland.  By international standards, Australian students also have relatively low opinions of the usefulness of science.  For example, in Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland, three in ten students do not agree with the statement ‘science helps me to understand things around me’.  It is little wonder that so few students now choose to study advanced science and mathematics in the senior years of school and at university.

The challenge we face as a nation is to improve the quality of mathematics and science teaching in our schools: to find ways to engage students and to help them appreciate the relevance and importance of mathematics and science to life in the 21st century.  To achieve this, we may have to rethink our current curricula and find innovative ways to attract highly able young people to the teaching of these subjects. 

PISA 2006 provides the most recent and most detailed picture we have of the scientific, mathematical and reading literacy achievements of Australian 15-year-olds.  There is much more we could learn from its findings.  In many respects, Australia already has a world-class education system, but PISA reminds us that we face significant challenges in ensuring that every young Australian benefits from a world-class education.

Geoff N Masters

« Back to eNews