National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) Catholic Education Leaders Forum

Thank you very much.

I begin today by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people, Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather today, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. 

I also acknowledge:

• NCEC Chair, Nicholas Moore AO
• NCEC Executive Director, Jacinta Collins
• Directors, principals, leaders from Catholic education who are with us today. 

Jacinta asked me to give you an update on the reforms and the changes I'm seeking to make to build a better and fairer education system. 

There’s a lot happening.

At one end of the system, I'm wiping $3 billion of HECS debt.

And introducing paid prac – financial support for teaching and nursing and social work students while they do the practical part of their degree. 

That’s in the Parliament right now.

And this morning, after this, I'll introduce legislation into the Parliament to establish a National Student Ombudsman.

Someone whose job it will be to investigate student complaints and resolve disputes with universities.

At the other end of the system, tomorrow I will introduce legislation to give our early educators a 15 per cent pay rise. 

Helping more than 200,000 early educators and teachers across the country.

And at the same time, put a cap on fee increases for child care centres of 4.4 per cent. 

Helping more than a million parents whose children are in early education.

And it's the first logical step that we need to take to build what the Prime Minister's describes as a universal early education system, where more children, regardless of where they're from, where they live, can get access to a more affordable, more accessible early education system. 

And in the middle of all of this, is you and the reforms that we need to make to our schools and why. 

I've told you the story before about how I’m the first person in my family to finish Year 10. 

And in those years, in the 1980s and the 1990s, something was happening.

The percentage of students who finished high school right across the country almost doubled. From 40 per cent to almost 80 per cent. 

A lot of those kids are us. 

And it changed us. Not just as individuals. But as a country. As a nation.

We are a different country because of it. The economy is different. Jobs are different. 

What we used to call micro-economic reform. 

And it was education that did that. 

It’s education that’s at the heart of that and that change hasn’t finished. It’s still happening.

I released a report called the Universities Accord a few months ago.

What it says is that by the middle of this century, it won't just be 80 per cent of students finishing high school. 

We'll have a workforce where 80 per cent haven't just finished school, but they've gone on to TAFE or to university as well. 

And what that report says is that's not going to happen unless we make the sort of changes that help more young people from the outer suburbs, from poor families, from the regions, finish school and get a crack at going to TAFE or to university.

That’s what a lot of the Universities Accord reforms are about. Helping more young people from poor families, from the outer suburbs and the bush get to uni and succeed when they get there.

But we are not going to hit that 80 per cent target if we just focus on universities.

We have to reform every part of our education system. 

And this is what worries me the most.

In the last seven years, the number of kids finishing high school has gone backwards. 

It’s dropped from 85 per cent to 79 per cent. 

And it’s an even bigger drop in our public schools.

If we are going to hit that 80 per cent target we have to fix this. And turn it around.

That’s why, when I talk about fixing the funding of our schools, I also talk about tying that funding to reform. The sort of reforms that will fix this.

The changes I want to make to school funding, aren't about tearing up what David Gonski put together, it's about finishing the job. 

But more than that, they are about making sure that we tie that funding to real and practical reforms so we don't just close the funding gap, but we close the education gap that exists in our schools as well. 

You know the statistics. 

One in 10 children are below what we used to call the minimum standard according to the latest NAPLAN results. But it’s one in three children from poor families; it’s one in six in the regions; and it’s every second children in the really remote parts of the country.

And terrifyingly, only 20 per cent of those kids who are below the minimum standard when they are in Year 3, catch up by the time they’re in Year 9. 

If we're going to do something about declining numbers of people finishing high school, then we’ve got to go way back and identify those children who are falling behind when they're little, before they've done Year 3 NAPLAN. 

And that means things like phonics checks and numeracy checks in Year 1 to identify children who are falling behind and then intervene early with things like evidence-based teaching practices and catch-up tutoring, where children are brought out of the classroom.

What we call multi-tiered interventions.

You would have noticed that I am having a bit of an arm-wrestle with some of my state and territory counterparts around money. 

It’s a tale as old as the Federation. 

We’ve done a deal with WA and the Northern Territory.

I want to do a deal with the other states and territories as well.

But the point I do want to make here is that while there's an arm-wrestle over money, there's no debate about what the money needs to be spent on. 

Which, to be honest, is a bit of a surprise. 

When I first got this job, I thought a lot of my time would be consumed by the reading wars. 

What’s the best way to teach children to read. 

The truth is it hasn’t. That war is effectively over. 

That’s largely because of the weight of evidence, here and overseas. 

And you are a critical part of that. The work that the Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese has done in implementing the Catalyst program – focused on the Science of Reading.

We are seeing Catholic Education Tasmania and the Melbourne Archdiocese also leading the way on implementing evidence-based practice. 

Just look at what the Victorian Government announced a few weeks ago: Embedding evidence-based teaching and learning, putting explicit teaching in every classroom, including best practice teaching of phonics in the early years.

In July, NSW announced something similar. 

We are also now seeing it in the ACT.

And in Tasmania. 

It’s also embedded in the new national agreement, the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, that Western Australia and the Northern Territory have signed up to. 

It’s also embedded in the changes we are making to teacher training. 

Across the board we have agreed to change what teaching students are taught. 

To change the curriculum so teaching students are taught the fundamentals about how to teach reading, writing and maths.

There is no real disagreement here.  Not amongst Ministers. Not amongst most educators.

And to continue that reform work today I wanted to provide an update on the Workload Reduction Fund. 

For those who don't know, that fund is designed to support states and territories to trial new ways to reduce teacher workloads. 

And today, I'm happy to advise you that both New South Wales and South Australia have recommended that we invest money in the non-government sector in proposals that they have put forward for the next round of the fund. 

Both states have recommended that we support the mastery mathematics work that you've been doing with Ochre. 

I understand that program's already been rolled out in Year 7 and 8, and now plans to expand to Year 9 and 10. 

This kind of thing helps reduce teacher workload. Instead of preparing lessons for students, it gives teachers access to high quality, evidence-based teaching resources, and that saves hours of time. 

It's also particularly helpful for new teachers and out of field teachers. 

And I look forward to making a formal announcement about this very soon.

Can I repeat again what I said last night – thank you for everything that you do. 

For the education of our children, for helping lead the way in so many areas, for so long, for more than 200 years. 

I spoke last night about teacher Rebecca Johnson and about the extraordinary work she's done at John Paul II Catholic School in Tasmania. 

She represents more than 88,000 educators, just like her, right across the Catholic education system doing the most important job in the world. 

The most important cause for good in this country, the education of our children.

And I'm so grateful for everything that you do.