‘We need a more academic-based curriculum and parents have a role to play’: Education boss Kevin Donnelly

New research has found Year 4 students across the world are outperforming Aussie kids when it comes to maths — and one of the nation’s top educators says it will only get worse until we address “the elephant” in our classrooms. Results from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study released in December revealed that Australia was outperformed globally by 22 countries in Year 4 maths, compared with eight countries in Year 4 science and just six countries in Year 8 maths and science. Now a fresh analysis of the data by the Australian Council for Educational Research suggests a key factor could be the low proportion of students who start primary school with foundational literacy and numeracy skills. It includes recognising some letters of the alphabet, reading and writing some words, recognising numbers above 10 and doing simple addition and subtraction. Eduction Standards Institute director Kevin Donnelly said the findings were not surprising. “There’s general agreement now that whatever we’re doing, it’s not working,” he said. Mr Donnelly said a major impediment to kids becoming proficient in maths and other subjects was the learning environment itself. “People don’t want to talk about it often but the elephant in the room, for our classrooms compared to internationally, is we have some of the most disruptive classrooms with badly behaved students,” he told The West Live. “So we need to look at what’s happening in the classroom in terms of teaching practice, we need to have a more academic-based curriculum and parents have a role to play, too.” Mr Donnelly said the role of parents in teaching basic literacy and numeracy skills was crucial to addressing the academic decline. He said there was no such thing as “too early” when it came to educating our own rug rats but that did not mean sitting them in front of a smart device and letting an app do all the work. “A lot of young kids go to school now and when they’re learning to read, you give them a picture book and they swipe it because they think it’s an iPad,” Mr Donnelly said. Listen to the full interview with Kevin Donnelly at The West Live link above.