It’s an article of faith that education is the key to overcoming disadvantage and opening the door of opportunity. However young people don’t commence their education from the same starting line as Professor Stephen Dinham explains in this opinion article.

Some beginning primary students are already ahead of the pack.  They come from families where English literacy is part of day-to-day life.  They’ve been read to from an early age, received a variety of intellectual stimulation, attended preschool and have begun to acquire essential literacy skills.  They have had their emotional and physical needs met. These students are ready for schooling and will receive on-going parental encouragement, support and direction.  Providing they receive quality teaching in supportive and challenging schools, they will be well set to succeed.

Others enter primary education well behind their peers.  Their parents may lack English literacy skills and many won’t have had the benefits of preschool. Their development and achievement will be compromised by poverty, disadvantage and health issues.  Parental support may be limited, particularly when parents themselves under-achieved at school.

Once schooling commences, it’s not a level playing field.  For some students, school is an uphill obstacle race while for others it is straightforward.  Initial and continuing advantage and disadvantage can widen achievement over time.

Struggling students are loaded up with handicaps and encounter new obstacles which hinder progress. Some experience a series of false starts as they move from school to school, each transition undermining achievement.  By the end of primary schooling the achievement gap can be five years or more. 

A key factor in student success is the quality of teaching each child receives, particularly in literacy, given that literacy underpins every aspect of schooling.  School welfare programs and support for students are also important.  Unfortunately, students from certain backgrounds and whole schools can be categorised and stigmatised, resulting in low expectations and a self-fulfilling prophecy of underachievement .  When this inevitably occurs it reinforces prevailing attitudes and stereotypes  – “You can’t expect much of children from --- ”.

Once students commence high school, previous achievement powerfully predicts future accomplishment.  Some students are well equipped academically and socially for secondary schooling.  Others quickly lose momentum.  Their inadequate skills, especially in literacy and numeracy, see them falter while their peers move ahead.  Parental support and guidance often falls away. Lack of progress can result in disengagement and behavioural problems, further undermining achievement. 

By the second and third years of secondary school, some students actually go backwards in academic capability, such deskilling leaving them up to seven years behind some of their peers.  They ‘hit the wall’ and have little chance of completing high school. Their life options, and those of their children are severely limited.

There are a number of imperatives from this situation that any ‘education revolution’ must address.

All young Australians need access to quality preschool education. This is especially so in poorer, rural and remote areas, where parents have a non-English speaking background and parents have poor literacy. Poor literacy is debilitating and the illiteracy cycle must be broken. Those least able to assist their children need help. Parents and community members need access to quality adult literacy programs.

Health is crucial.  Health problems compromise initial and on-going academic achievement. Diagnosis, intervention and support are required. State and federal health, education and welfare portfolios and programs need closer alignment.

Teaching, especially in literacy, is key. The quality of the classroom teacher is the largest in-school influence on student achievement. School leadership and teachers’ professional learning are major influences on the quality of classroom teaching students receive. Both need attention, investment and development. High and realistic standards and expectations in schooling are also important. Settling for second best must not be an option.

A fully supported national curriculum is overdue. Effective student assessment and reporting are needed to target intervention and investment.

Parents should have choice in the school their children attend.  However this choice should not be dictated by family circumstances or the relative impoverishment of one school or sector. We need a more level, equitable playing field in educational funding and provision.

Across Australia in the coming weeks another group of students commence their primary schooling. If education is going to be the means to personal fulfilment and opportunity, we need to ensure that all these young people and their families are given the support they need to succeed. If not, then the education process will reinforce disadvantage, not overcome it, to the detriment of us all.

Professor Stephen Dinham
Research Director, Teaching and Leadership, ACER.

Versions of this opinion article were published in:

The Advertiser ('Family support the key to education,' by Stephen Dinham, The Advertiser, 18 January 2008, page 20)

The Courier-Mail ('Every child deserves the best,' by Stephen Dinham, The Courier-Mail, 24 January 2008, page 38).

« Back to eNews