Gonski Review Final Report
Feb 20, 2012
David Pisoni MP
Shadow Minister for Education
Shadow Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education
Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Development
Gonski Review Final Report
Today the Gonski Review into school funding highlighted the need for targeted funding for disadvantaged students.
The report exposes Australia slip from second overall in reading and scientific literacy to today’s position of seventh.
Yesterday Federal Schools Education Minister Peter Garrett stated:
”A large proportion of kids from lower social economic backgrounds will be years behind kids from better off backgrounds.” (Channel 10, 19/02/2012)
Gonski’s final report confirms that the last ten years have seen a steady decline in student outcomes and a growth of the discrepancy in learning outcomes between the rich and the poor.
“The facts are that across the country over the last decade government schools have been run in the main by state Labor Governments and in South Australia for that entire period,” said Shadow Education Minister David Pisoni.
“Labor cannot walk away from the fact it is largely responsible for the widening education gap between middle Australia and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
“Premier Weatherill, when Education Minister, and his successor Minister Portolesi have even dismissed South Australia’s declining Naplan results by blaming our higher proportion of lower social-economic families as being to blame.
“The Gonski report confirms that Labor has failed to deliver education outcomes in South Australia and despite overwhelming evidence from around the world of the need to change the way we manage our schools Labor has continued to deliver more of the same year after year."