Press conference with Lisa Paul
Subjects: Review of initial teacher education, international students and quarantine beds & East West Link
ALAN TUDGE:
Well, today I’m announcing a review of initial teacher education, and I’m pleased to be joined today by Lisa Paul, who’ll be heading up that review.
Teachers are one of the most important professions in our society. Now, after parents, they have more influence on our children than anybody else, and they are, the teacher effectiveness in the classroom is the most important thing which determines the successful outcomes of our kids.
Now, this teacher education review is going to be headed up by Lisa Paul, who is our longest ever serving education Secretary at the Commonwealth level – there for over 12 years – and has done other reviews of education systems as well. She’s respected across the Parliament, and indeed, across Australia. She’s going to be supported by an expert panel of three others, and that includes Bill Louden, who is a respected academic from the University of Western Australia, an Education Professor; Derek Scott, who is School Principal of the Year a couple of years ago, and runs the largest school in Australia; and also, Malcolm Elliott, who is the President of the Australian School Principals Association. So, a very capable panel.
And they’ll be examining two key questions. The first question will be, how can we continue to get the best and brightest into teaching? And then second, how can we ensure the panel will be addressing two key questions. Firstly, how can we ensure that we continue to get the best and brightest going into teaching? And secondly, how do we ensure that that the teacher students are best prepared, so that when they walk out of their studies they can be effective teachers in the classroom?
Now, this review is the most critical element of our efforts to lift school standards, because ultimately, teacher effectiveness is the most important element in driving school performance. When you look back over the last 20 years, unfortunately our school standards have declined quite markedly, despite a very significant increase in school funding.
Now, when you look at mathematics for example, a 15-year-old today is about 14 months behind what a 15-year-old was 20 years ago. And it’s similar in reading and in science. Now, this review is going to be looking at the most important factor to help turn around some of these education standards, and to try to help us get back to where we should be - and that is at the top league of nations in relation to education performance. We always used to be there, but we’ve declined over the last 20 years, and our goal is, by 2030 to be back near the top. And this review will be critical to that effort. And Lisa, I want to just ask you to make a few comments.
LISA PAUL:
Thank you very much, Minister. Well, I'm very grateful to the Minister and, and the Government for appointing this review, and for appointing me to lead it. It feels a great honour to be able to join with three other eminent Australians who, between us, I'm sure would have - and I hate to say this - well more than 100 years of education experience. The other three are all eminent Australians who will bring an enormous amount. We intend to make this a very consultative review; we will seek submissions; and we will talk to many, many people, right across all the areas that are involved in teacher education - the universities, the principals, the teachers, the students who are actually currently learning inside universities. Let's face it, teachers are the frontline heroes of our kids’ futures, and this is what we want to do to make sure they've got the best possible teachers in their classroom.
The last major review I think, Minister, was in 2014.
ALAN TUDGE:
2014!
LISA PAUL:
So, you know, it's timely that we now have a look at all those reforms - all of which are positive - and build on them. Wouldn't it be amazing if every student coming out of a high school wanted to go into teaching? Thanks very much, Minister. I’m looking forward to it.
ALAN TUDGE:
Thanks, Lisa. Happy to answer questions for either myself or for Lisa on this particular topic. And then we can take other questions.
QUESTION:
This focus on so, graduate teachers- the profession - that if our standards have been slipping, why not focus on, I guess, the teachers that are already there?
ALAN TUDGE:
Well, that's something that also needs to be looked at - how we can further enhance the professional development, which is offered to schoolteachers - and we’ll continue to be working with the states and territories on that. But if you like, one of the primary responsibilities of the Federal Government is the universities, and it's in the universities where the initial teacher training occurs.
And, some of my concerns when I look at the data is that, certainly of the people who are being attracted into teaching, today we've got 30 per cent fewer - let me say this clearly - today there are, of the top academic performers, a third less are now applying for teacher courses than they were 15 years ago. So, we want to be attracting the very best and brightest into teaching, and we’re not always consistently doing that.
Now, we have some brilliant people that go into teaching, we have brilliant teachers out there. But the best performing countries in the world consistently attract the best and brightest into teaching, and that's going to be one of the key things we're going to look at - how can we better do that? We particularly want to look at how we can get people who've got maths skills, because the biggest decline in our performance over the last 20 years has been in mathematics, and we want to ensure that we can get people who've got mathematics skills into the classroom because we know, again, from the data that we've got real shortages in that area. So that will be one of the key things.
One of the interesting things that Lisa is going to be looking at with her group, is how we can get mid-career people to be attracted to go into teacher training courses and then into the classroom. They might bring maths skills; they might bring other great skills. But at the moment the minimum course they've got to do, which is a real impediment for them, is a two year masters, when in other countries you can do a teacher education course in nine months, or indeed you can do an apprenticeship model, which might be more attractive to mid-career people.
QUESTION:
Where is Australia framed compared to other countries?
ALAN TUDGE:
Well, we used to consistently be in the top band of nations according to the OECD, and we've slipped down that to now - depending on which particular subject matter - but largely between ranked 15 and 20. So, significantly below that top band.
But equally importantly, we’ve dropped our standards relative to ourselves. So, in absolute terms our standards have, unfortunately, dropped over the last 20 years, despite a massive increase in school funding. I indicated mathematics where a 15-year-old today is 14 months behind a 15-year-old 20 years ago. In reading it's about 9 months and science it’s about 12 months.
Now, we need to reverse this. We should again be amongst the top group of nations educationally, and that means that every kid needs to have the best chance of reaching their potential.
QUESTION:
Has there been recommendation as part of the review?
ALAN TUDGE:
Absolutely.
QUESTION:
And is the Federal Government committing to adopting all of those recommendations? I know you haven’t sent your recommendations in yet.
ALAN TUDGE:
So, we're announcing the terms of reference today, and I'm certainly expecting some very clear recommendations from Lisa and the expert panel. And, of course we'll be taking this very seriously. I wouldn't be setting up this review if we weren’t planning on taking the recommendations very seriously. But of course, we’ll wait for the process to be undertaken and see what they are.
QUESTION:
And when will the review start? How long will it go for? Would you mind naming, again, the other three?
LISA PAUL:
Sure, so Professor Bill Louden, Professor Bill Louden is based in Perth, and he is kind of - do you think it's fair to say he's kind of Mr Education? He's done everything. He's been a Dean of Education, so he knows the university sector; he has been involved in almost every review, you can look him up and he’s a great asset to this review, he knows an enormous amount.
Derek Scott is the Principal of Haileybury School based here in Melbourne, but also based overseas - as the Minister said, Haileybury is the largest school in Australia. And he’s been a very innovative principal and was named Principal of the Year, I think, in about 2019.
And Malcolm Elliott is a really longstanding and proficient Principal based out of Tasmanian, but at the moment, he's the President of the Australian Primary School Principals Association.
And that means that all of us, and my own background is as a policymaker.
We've, we've kind of already started or at least we'll start officially today. But I’ve had one meeting with the Minister’s Department which has been very, very positive, and we hope to get out with a discussion paper and invite submissions in the next small number of weeks.
Our first meeting, formal meeting which will be in Canberra as a panel with the Secretariat that the Minister’s Department has set up, is on 29 April. The review will go for many months. We're hoping it, it will go, say, to about October, and yes, I would expect the recommendations. So, that’s probably all I need to say.
QUESTION:
And so, just another question for you, if I may.
LISA PAUL:
Yeah. Sure.
QUESTION:
I know the review will obviously look at all of this, but in your experience, what are some of the reasons why this data is, why have the standards declined?
LISA PAUL:
Yeah. It's, it’s actually very hard to unpick that - it's very hard to unpick why that’s happened. There are– there’s almost as many views as there are people interested in the topic. But it remains the fact, as the Minister said, that we have slipped, and we have slipped even against ourselves.
Now, we know from research that teachers - the number one factor inside a classroom in terms of students being successful is the teacher. And we know that we've got thousands of amazing frontline heroes in our classrooms right now. But it just behoves us to look at how we train them to be teachers, and that’s what this review is about.
QUESTION:
Liaising with the others on this panel - how will you be, conducting this?
LISA PAUL:
Yes. So, we're seeking submissions but we're also going to consult really broadly. So, it will be a very open and welcoming review. And we'll sit down with anyone - whether online through, you know, all the technology we’re so good at now, or one on one meetings, or meetings with the panel. And yes, I very much look forward to sitting down with maybe small groups of students who are currently in university training to be teachers and asking them about their experiences - I think that’ll be really powerful. As well as sitting down with small groups of graduates who’ve just come out of university and finding how they’re going in the classrooms.
ALAN TUDGE:
One of the things, just, just if I could just add. I mean, one of the other things that I was most disturbed at was looking at some of the OECD data which actually showed it surveyed teachers coming out of teacher education courses, and they themselves were saying they’re less prepared than what the OECD average is.
So, the data, which is international survey data, is saying that teachers themselves don't feel as prepared for the classroom as the average would be in our comparable countries. And we also know particularly that we've got real shortages in key subject areas, and particularly mathematics, and mathematics is so important of course for innovation more generally. And we do want to ensure that teachers are– that A), we’re attracting people who’ve got some, some of those math skills, but B), that they're being trained properly as well be able to teach effectively in those classrooms.
QUESTION:
What kind of costs will they going to be saddled with?
ALAN TUDGE:
Sorry? Say that again.
QUESTION:
What kind of costs are you looking at?
ALAN TUDGE:
I haven't got a precise budget for you now, but I can get that figure, but it will be usual costs associated with the review in terms of panel members, in terms of some travel, and if you need to get any expert advice that we can mention in those sort of costs. But it won’t be significant.
QUESTION:
There’s been multiple reviews over the years stating both Federal Governments have committed to inflating these standards. There’s been a push for, I guess, students to study STEM subjects for a couple of decades now. Why does this review fix what all the other reviews just haven’t been able to fix?
ALAN TUDGE:
Yeah, as I said the, the last review which occurred – and Lisa mentioned this – but, the last major review was back in 2014, and it was a very good review and most of those recommendations have been implemented, or are being implemented now, and there’s been exceptionally good reform which has come out of that. That includes, for example, literacy and numeracy tests, which is now part of initial teacher education. And our accreditation schemes been finally put in place as well. This will build on those reforms.
And I'm also asking Lisa and the expert panel to be innovative in their thinking and look at broader practises, think innovatively as to how we can get, for example, mid-career people who may have those maths and science skills and fast track them into the classroom if we're not consistently getting sufficient maths qualified people into teacher training courses. So, they’re some of the things that I'm asking the panel to look at. Think laterally, look abroad and be really innovative in our approaches.
ALAN TUDGE:
Is there any other questions on this? Otherwise I’ll ask Lisa to step aside for a moment.
QUESTION:
[indistinct]
ALAN TUDGE:
Yes, so we've been very successful in international education, but obviously we don't have any students coming into the country at the moment. We've always been very clear about bringing in international students, that states can bring plans to us which satisfy the criteria. One being that they must have quarantined there to above and beyond the quarantine beds available for Australians. And two, there must be measures which are ticked off by their chief medical officers. If those two preconditions are met, then we will consider such proposals. But to date, I have received no such proposals from Victoria or anybody else.
QUESTION:
So, Victoria hasn’t signed up?
ALAN TUDGE:
So, I haven’t received any concrete proposal which satisfies those two criteria from Victoria or anywhere else. Now, many jurisdictions are working on this. And I'm in consultations with jurisdictions and with university leaders on this particular question. But to date, we’ve received no proposals.
QUESTION:
What do you mean by quarantine beds? Because Victoria’s obviously, they have their plan for quarantine beds.
ALAN TUDGE:
Yes. So, Victoria's only just got hotel quarantine back up and running. But for us to consider any proposals to bring back pilots and international students, as I mentioned two criteria must be met. One being that any quarantine arrangements for those international students must be for beds which are above and beyond those which are set aside for returning Australians. Because ultimately, it’s the returning Australians which are our priority. And then if it’s above and beyond that for international students, then we might consider it. But on top of that, that has to be signed off by the chief medical officer of the particular state and territory jurisdiction as well.
QUESTION:
Does the Federal Government have any plans to bring back international students? Obviously the City of Melbourne universities are open to the Government to commit to a plan.
ALAN TUDGE:
Yes, so I made some comments on this a few weeks ago, where I said that my hope would be that we have greater numbers of international students by the first semester of next year. That's still my hope, but I also said very clearly that we can't make guarantees. Nobody can at this stage, given the uncertainty in relation to COVID and to how this is playing out. The Prime Minister said last week that the National Cabinet has asked the expert medical panel to provide some guidelines to get some markers as to how we might be able to reopen. And we'll be taking advice from that expert panel and at all times taking advice from our chief medical officer of the Commonwealth.
QUESTION:
Do you have any idea when that expert panel might back to you?
ALAN TUDGE:
No, I don’t.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:
Sorry Minister, just one last one from Simon Love at Channel 10 on the phone.
QUESTION:
G’day Minister. Thanks for taking my call on the phone.
ALAN TUDGE:
Yeah, thanks, Simon.
QUESTION:
I’m actually just about to arrive, we were running late from the previous event. Just about to arrive, so you’ll see me in about three seconds but I’ll start to ask the question.
ALAN TUDGE:
Okay.
QUESTION:
Just regarding the East West Link…
ALAN TUDGE:
Yes.
QUESTION:
I’m just walking up now.
ALAN TUDGE:
I can see you coming over now.
QUESTION:
You might be able to see me now. Just regarding the East West Link, is the $4 billion still on the table from the Federal Government for that project and they this morning said that if the East West Link doesn’t go ahead, essentially they would like that $4 billion to go to another project. So, what’s your response to that?
ALAN TUDGE:
We are 100 per cent committed to the East West Link. $4 billion is still on the table and we want to see it built, and hundreds of thousands of Victorians want to see it built, particularly those who get stuck on the Eastern Freeway every single morning going into work. It's the missing link in our network. The East West Link is the missing link in our freeway network in Melbourne. And it has to be built.
QUESTION:
So, could the Federal Government do it alone, though?
ALAN TUDGE:
Well, ultimately, we can't do the construction, only a state government can do the construction. But we want to see it built and we've put $4 billion aside, which is effectively the entire public contribution towards its construction. And so, we're asking any government or any future governments to get on with it for the benefit of hundreds of thousands of residents across Melbourne who just want to see that last remaining link built.
QUESTION:
I know you’ve got to go. But you have to give us a quick reaction to Joe Biden's decision to pull American troops out of Afghanistan.
ALAN TUDGE:
No, the Prime Minister addressed this yesterday that we’ll obviously continue to work very closely with our allies. And it wouldn't be appropriate for me to make further comments on national security issues. All right, thanks everyone.
[ends]