Education Policy in Australia

The report evaluates the education policy of Australia and identifies the key factors of this social policy. It evaluates the history of this policy and the reasons behind implementing this policy. Furthermore, the impacts of this policy will be evaluated in the report to understand how this policy has changed the Australian Society.

0 | P a g e
Australian Social Policies
Education Policy in Australia

1 | P a g e
Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................2
Education policy in Australia......................................................................................................2
History and Reasons for this policy............................................................................................3
Impacts of the change within Australia society.........................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

2 | P a g e
Introduction
The objective of introduction of social policies is to provide services to citizens by
governments for their growth and development such as social and welfare services. The
Australia government has implemented various policies in order to address different issues
in the country and provide effective growth opportunities to the citizens and others. This
report will focus on evaluating the education policy of Australia and identify the key factors
of this social policy. This report will evaluate the history of this policy and the reasons
behind implementing this policy. Furthermore, the impacts of this policy will be evaluated in
the report to understand how this policy has changed the Australian Society.
Education policy in Australia
Australia has a population of over 24 million people, and there are over 3.84 million
individuals who enrolled in Australia schools in 2017 (ABS, 2017). The government has
introduced Education policy in Australia which focused on providing appropriate educational
facilities to these schools and students. The education policy complies with the provisions
given under the Education Act 2013 based on which it focuses on delivering recurrent
funding in all Australian schools to ensure that they are appropriately funded in order to
deliver high-quality education to all students (Hartley, 2015). This policy also covers the
governance of schools in the country along with ensuring that schools have a positive
learning environment with well-prepared teachers and appropriate infrastructure which is
important to student learning. There are different strategies introduced by the government
in the Education policy of Australia which target different issues relating to educational
system in Australia. A good example is the National Early Childhood Development Strategy
2009 strategy which was implemented by the government in order to eliminate
discrimination with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and improve their
performance (OECD, 2013). This strategy targeted the inequalities in the education system
of Australia in which Indigenous people face discrimination in education than compared to
non-indigenous individuals. This strategy focused on providing support to indigenous
students to ensure that receive appropriate academic knowledge. Another good example is
‘Students First’ strategy which was introduced in 2014 which affect four key policy areas

3 | P a g e
which include developing a sound national curriculum, improve teaching quality, expanding
principals’ autonomy and engaging parents into how the schools are operated.
History and Reasons for this policy
The initial stage of education policy was implemented by the government in 1964 by
introducing capital funding for schools in order to uplift the education system along with
performance of students. Since then the education policy has come a long way by
introducing different strategies to improve the standard of education system in Australia
(Jones & Hillier, 2012). The primary reason for introduction of this strategy was to provide
funding to schools in order to improve their infrastructure. Furthermore, the policy
continued to introduce new strategies for addressing different educational challenges such
as availability of well-educated teachers, avoiding discrimination between indigenous and
non-indigenous students, involving parents in education process and others. The main
objective of these changes in the policy is to ensure that students in Australia have access to
appropriate educational facilities which enable them to improve their academic skills which
assist them in building their careers (Jenkinson, 2006). The changes in this policy also target
discrimination in the education sector to ensure that students did not suffer discrimination,
and they receive equal growth opportunities in the country.
Impacts of the change within Australia society
The introduction of this policy was focused on addressing various challenges related
to education in Australia, and many changes are made by the government in the policy to
achieve this goal. The quality of education system was improved since the introduction of
this policy along with the performance of students. The policies assisted both governmental
and non-governmental support to schools situated in Australia by providing them
appropriate funding to improve their infrastructure which assist them in providing
appropriate facilities to the students (Lingard, 2010). Thus, the introduction of the policy
and changes made by the government had a positive impact on the Australian society by
improving the educational standard to an international level; however, this is not the case
with the upcoming changes in the policy. Australia had become 12th in the world in term of

4 | P a g e
reading, however, the performance of Australian students have been reduced between
2009 and 2015 which resulted in a significant change.
The performance of students declined by 12 points in this period, and only 61
percent of Australian students were able to achieve the National Proficient Standard
(Riddle, 2016). This is a good example which shows that the changes made in the education
policy by the government are not suitable enough to uplift the quality of education in the
country. In the past decade, the government spending of the education system and policy
has increased substantially, however, the proportion of the Australian students who are
proficient in science, maths and reading have actually declined in the same period. This
shows that the changes made by the government in the education policy are focused on
mere monitoring their operations rather than engaging with them in order to improve the
quality of education (Perry & McConney, 2010). Moreover, the government is not able to
address the issue of discrimination suffered by indigenous people and the changes in the
policy are able to uplift their academic standards. Therefore, there are negative impacts of
the policy and its changes on the Australian society since they were able to achieve their
objective.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the educational policy in Australia has implemented by the
government in order to address the issues in the educational sector of the country. By
providing appropriate funding to schools, well-educated teachers, and other services, the
policy was able to uplift the education system in Australia and achieve international
standards. However, the changes made in the policy remain ineffective since they were not
able to achieve the objectives of the policy. The policy is not able to eliminate discrimination
between indigenous and non-indigenous students, and the performance of Australian
students is decreasing on international standards, thus, the policy has both positive and
negative impact on Australia society.

5 | P a g e
References
ABS. (2017). Schools, Australia, 2017. Retrieved from
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4221.0
Hartley, J. (2015). Australian Higher Education Policy and Inclusion of People with
Disabilities: A Review. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 28(4), 413-
419.
Jenkinson, J. C. (2006). A history of learning difficulties Australia: Part five‐the journal
(continued). Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties, 11(4), 185-196.
Jones, T. M., & Hillier, L. (2012). Sexuality education school policy for Australian GLBTIQ
students. Sex Education, 12(4), 437-454.
Lingard, B. (2010). Policy borrowing, policy learning: Testing times in Australian
schooling. Critical studies in education, 51(2), 129-147.
OECD. (2013). Education Policy Outlook: Australia. Retrieved from
http://www.oecd.org/education/EDUCATION%20POLICY%20OUTLOOK
%20AUSTRALIA_EN.pdf
Perry, L., & McConney, A. (2010). School socio-economic composition and student outcomes
in Australia: Implications for educational policy. Australian Journal of
Education, 54(1), 72-85.
Riddle, S. (2016). PISA results don't look good, but what can we learn from the latest test?.
Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-07/pisa-australia-ranks-
poorly-but-what-can-we-learn/8097546