FED: More spending does not equal smarter students: report

AAP General News (Australia)
02-11-2008
FED: More spending does not equal smarter students: report

SYDNEY, Feb 11 AAP - Teenagers' reading and maths skills have declined during the past
four decades despite education spending per student more than doubling, a new study has
found.

The study by Australian National University economists suggests today's 14-year-olds
are, in learning terms, about three months behind their counterparts from the 1960s.

The researchers from ANU's Research School of Social Sciences suggest the piling of
resources into creating smaller classes, at the expense of paying more for better teachers,
could be to blame.

Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said the government's national action plan
for numeracy and literacy would address the shortfall.

"The Rudd government understands that literacy and numeracy skills are the building
blocks of a good education," Ms Gillard told The Australian.

Opposition education spokesman Tony Smith said the report, released yesterday, highlighted
why "a real education revolution needs to be more than delivering computers in boxes to
schools".

Report researcher Andrew Leigh said the findings suggested the boost to school funding
over the past 40 years had been misdirected.

"There's a whole lot more money put into Australian schools and we don't seem to be
getting more out of them in terms of literacy and numeracy," Dr Leigh told The Australian.

AAP vpm/srp

KEYWORD: STUDENTS

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