Julie Bishop on the 7:30 Report

Bishop talks up boost for education funding

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 09/05/2007

Reporter: Kerry O'Brien

Kerry O’Brien discusses the implications of new education funding with federal Education Minister Julie Bishop. She sheds some light on details of the endowment fund outlined in the Budget and explains how she thinks the Coalition policy allows Australian universities to achieve a world-class standard.

Transcript
KERRY O'BRIEN: I think we understand the situation. It is clear from your comments that you intend to use this fund to push universities to embrace your policy agendas for diversity and specialisation, in other words if they run the universities the way you want them to, you'll reward them with money from the fund.

JULIE BISHOP: Essentially, what we want to achieve is world class institutions. We want our students to be able to attend universities that can hold their own on the world stage. Currently, our universities over a number of decades have been pushed into a one size fits all comprehensive university model where all universities are offering the same courses to essentially the same students. We want our universities to compete on the world stage and they are recognising this.

Already we are seeing universities move to much more diverse mixes of courses and specialisation. If our universities want to focus on particular areas, whether it be Engineering or Medicine or online delivery, to be a diverse, vibrant, dynamic sector, then we will support that.

KERRY O'BRIEN: But, essentially, you are saying to them "if you go our way on this, if you meet us on this, our response will be that you are more likely to get money from the endowment fund".

JULIE BISHOP: Well, the endowment fund will be a competitive process. How it will work is the $5 billion that the Treasurer announced last night will be invested. The guardians of the Future Fund will make the strategic decisions to hopefully enhance the earnings from that fund. Then each year the earnings will be distributed to universities and I will seek advice from an advisory panel, a committee, of people who have vast experience in higher education and universities will submit proposals for funding for capital works and for research facilities. We want them to be diverse. We want them to specialise. We want them to focus on excellence. That's what students are looking for. That's what the academics and researchers and the universities themselves are seeking to pursue. We have now given them the means to be able to pursue those goals and those ambitions.

KERRY O'BRIEN: And you'll have the last word on who gets the grants? On who gets the money?

JULIE BISHOP: Yes, I will with advice from a panel of experts on higher education.

KERRY O'BRIEN: OK. On your plan to provide $700 vouchers totalling hundreds of millions of dollars to privately tutor children who fail literacy or numeracy bench marks, doesn't that amount to a huge vote of mistrust by you in the vote of public schools to resolve those problems?

JULIE BISHOP: What we are essentially saying to parents is that the Australian Government will provide a safety net for your child if your child does not meet the minimum standards required in literacy and numeracy in reading and writing and mathematics in years 3, 5 and 7 and 9. Now, states currently conduct their own testing. Next year for the first time there will be national assessments, the same test across the country for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in literacy and numeracy. While many Australian students do very well in literacy and numeracy tests, there are a worrying number of students who are not meeting minimum standards. We are saying to parents, "if your child is in that category or eligible, we will provide you with a $700 voucher so your child can receive one on one tuition".

KERRY O'BRIEN: Privately?

JULIE BISHOP: Well it will be done on the basis of accredited tutors that can include teachers from schools, it can include retired teachers and professional educators.

KERRY O'BRIEN: But surely if you have some trust in the public education system it would be more efficient for you to direct those hundreds of millions of dollars per year to the education system which, arguably, would more efficiently provide the teachers within the system to bring those extra services direct to the students who need them?

JULIE BISHOP: Kerry, this funding is available for government and non-government school students. So I'm not making any distinction. What we are saying is if there are students that fail the national literacy and numeracy testing, if they fail to meet the minimum standards - we are talking about minimum standards - then we will provide funding for a voucher so they can receive tuition.

We are not going to ignore these children or let them fall through the cracks. We are going to provide a safety net, if you like, to ensure they are equipped with these fundamental skills that they need to go on to further education, training, to find a job. I mean these are the fundamental skills children need for the 21st century. Already we know from international testing of Australian students there are an unacceptable number of students who are not meeting minimum literacy and numeracy levels and we will support them.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Julie Bishop, thanks for talking with us.

JULIE BISHOP: Thank you.

The thing about this interview I found fascinating was Kerry O'Brien's obviously logical question about putting the money into the schools for better teaching support for literacy and numeracy rather than the tutorial system, and her response to that. My personal question about the whole thing is whether or not there is an income test involved. Should this not be, if it were to be, focused upon families who cannot afford tutoring? Would this be money 'wasted' if wealthy families sending their kids to wealthy schools were to access it, and how many low-income families in need would miss out if this were the case? Another question: would parents then be even more likely to rely upon the education system and the tutorial funding to teach their kids literacy and numeracy rather than take the responsibility for that themsleves (like 'our friend' whose daugther couldn't read)?