Melbourne Declaration: A Policy to Improve Education Standards in Australia

This paper discusses the Melbourne Declaration policy and its effect on the national, state, and school level in Australia. It focuses on the deteriorating education system and the need for quality teachers, proper curriculum, and infrastructure. The policy aims to promote equality and excellence in the schooling system of Australia.

Running head : EDUCATION
EDUCATION
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Introduction
Poor educational standard has become a matter of concern as many of the students are
unable to the score properly. The current education system of the country is failing the students
to extend their learning to the maximum. Poor performance by the students can be due to several
reasons like lack of quality teachers, absence of a proper curriculum, absence of proper
infrastructure and educational resources.
In response to the degrading standard of education as obtained by the PISA assessment,
“Melbourne declaration” was taken by the Australian education ministers. This paper would
focus on the policy “Melbourne declaration” with the aim to discuss its effect in the national ,
level , state level and school level.
International level
After the PISA assessment has been completed, it has been found that Singapore has
outperformed all the other participating countries in science. As per the data collected 20 % of
the students across the OECD countries have performed below level 2 (OECD, 2013). At the
level 2 most of the students can draw on science education for identifying appropriate
explanation. Australia government decided to enact a law policy with the aim of eradicating low
level of the performance school subjects. Some of the best policies which was realized as a key
factor to the low performance and a way of eliminating the worst performance were drafted and
given much attention before promulgated (Head, & Alford, 2015). The assessment and the
preview were generally based on the lower level and as it ascended to a higher institution with

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aim of giving a recommendation on the general performance of the Australian that depicts
declined designated performance of the mathematics from kindergarten to a higher level.
Based on the PISA results and the several international polices, especially the teacher
policy has been emphasized upon. The “teacher polices” comprised of policies related to the
growth and the development and the retention of the effective teachers (OECD, 2017). Similar to
this several policies have been developed, emphasizing on the school processes and the peer
relationship to a larger extent. In relation to these international policies and In response to the
shocking result of the PISA assessment since the year of 2005, the Melbourne declaration was
introduced by the Australian council for the Educational research in order to assess the reason for
the low grades of the student in the schools.
National level
Australia has performed above the OECD average in PISA 2012, with a decreasing
performance in mathematics and literature, but the performance has remained unchanged across
the PISA cycle (OECD, 2017). As per the report Australia contains a larger number of
underperforming students than the OECD average and the impact of the socio- economic
background on the performance of the student is below the average as per the report (OECD,
2013). Girls has been found to be performing better than the boys in a collaborative problem
solving in all the countries that participated in the assessment. Lower academic performance has
been observed among the aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander people and they also they have
an unequal access to the tertiary education than the national average (Mourshed ,Krawitz & Dorn
2015). Many aboriginal people still does not enrol in the primary schools. The “Melbourne

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declaration” has referred to several predicting factors responsible for the low grade among the
students- The mind-set subject orientation, the mind-set general, the home environment, the
school factors, the teacher factors and some other factors. The PISA shock alarmed the policy
makers towards the making of a sustainable policy that would improve the quality of education
in Australia.
In response to this, a policy was planned by the Australian education ministers, which is
known as the “Melbourne declaration”. This policy will be able to deliver better educational
outcomes among the teachers and the parents and will be able to provide a sound national
curriculum improved quality of teaching and certainty over the funding of the school. This policy
would focus on the practice that are directly related to the improvement of the schools. The goal
of Melbourne declaration is to promote equality ad and excellence in the schooling system of
Australia (Ministerial Council on education, employment, training and youth affairs, 2012). The
second goal is to provide world class curriculum by expert teachers. To strengthen the
accountability and the transparency and the teachers themselves has to possess essential skills
in literacy and numeracy and information technology (Head & Alford, 2015). Another important
initiative is to close the gap of illiteracy among the aboriginal people. The National focus should
be given on monitoring the school performance data, including the data related to school
attendance, school disciplinary attendances and the school disciplinary absences (Furlong,
Cochran-Smith & Brennan, 2013).

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State level
A national gender breakdown has shown that Maths 6.6% of the girl’s outperformed
more than the boys.
Queensland’s performance in the PISA scientific literacy has been found to be higher
than the OECD average. It has shown a fair decline across the various states between the years
2006- 2015.In terms of the high performers, the OECD PISA average8 %, whereas the QLD
PISA average is about 10 % (OECD, 2017). The variation in the proportion of QLD’s high
performer since 2006 is about a decline of 3 % . In terms of mathematic literacy, the PISA
average for the Queensland is not significantly different from that of the OECD average. There
had been a smallest decline across the States between 2003 and 2015 (OECD, 2017). Again in
the TIMSS, that assesses class 4 mathematics, the Queensland was the third lowest performing
jurisdiction and the performance was found to be improving in the years 2011 and 2015
(Ganimian & Murnane,2016). But, since, 1995, there had been a reduction in the proportion of
the low performing students. Again, in class 8 mathematics, the Queensland has ranked fifth out
the eight jurisdiction. Alarmed by thus situation, the “Melbourne declaration” policy was
endorsed by the Australian council for the educational Research for the commonwealth
department of education (Ministerial Council on education, employment, training and youth
affairs, 2012). The policy would act to help the new and the existing teachers to deliver quality
and flexible teaching. As per the policy, it would ensure that the national curriculum is improved
such that it teaches the things that they need, but the remains flexible for catering to a diverse
school community. The policy would provide the principles, parents and the teachers to have a
greater say about anything that occurs in school. The policy would encourage the school

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communities to have a greater say in how the schools run (Ministerial Council on education,
employment, training and youth affairs, 2012). More emphasis has to be given on the quality of
the teachers. Proper emphasis should be given on training the teachers.
School level
The PISA shock has revealed that, the quality of the student- teachers relationship can
affect the engagement of the student with the school and also the socio-emotional development
of the students. The school staffs and the children can assist the student by creating a respectful
and a caring learning environment (Kearney, 2012). Positive relationship between the students
are particularly necessary for the emotional and social wellbeing of the disadvantaged students
(Henry, Lingard, Rizvi & Taylor, 2013). Analysis of the PISA 2012 have shown elevating the
quality of the teaching can improve the performance level of the students. In relation to the
deteriorating condition of the schools and in associated with the Melbourne declaration, the Safe
school Coalition in Australia was the introduced in Queensland to create a safer and inclusive
environment in the schools (Queensland government, 2016). The Foundation for the Young
Australians was the national convener and has collaborate with many organisation of the country
(Safe school coalition, AUS, 2013).
At the school level the policy would ensure that all the students learn successfully. The
schools had high expectations from the attendances of the students, the engagement and the
outcomes (Ganimian & Murnane, 2016). The schools had been making efforts to comprehend
current achievement level of the students.

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The Melbourne Declaration is guided by a series of action plans. The action plan has
stated about the strategies that the Australian government would undertake in collaboration with
the other schools, but one of the limitation of the policy is that much emphasis has not been
given in relation to the improvement of the professional standards of the teachers.
Conclusion
On a concluding note it can be said that as per the PISA assessment and the several other
data collected, it has been found that the educational system of Australia had been deteriorating
and in education, especially in mathematics. This report had exclusively focused on the quality
of teachers that might be responsible for the deterioration of the grades. In relation to some
international policies like The Teachers Matter report has been discussed. However, the main
policy that has been discussed throughout the paper is the “Melbourne declaration” has focused
on teachers training and recruiting competent teachers who would be employing proper teaching
methodologies to improve the overall performance of the students. The declaration had also
emphasized upon the use of ICT in all the schools, especially the schools with more aboriginal
population. However, in spite of several policies and declaration, children still lack behind and
hence amendments are required on a school level.

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