December 6, 2023
The Rudd government has released a “Quality Education” plan as the next chapter in its “Education Revolution”.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that a “world class education system” is needed “to help build a stronger economy for Australia’s future”.
The plan is in three parts: improving the quality of teaching, measuring school performance and helping disadvantaged school communities.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Education Minister Julia Gillard have announced a school reform agenda that they have dubbed an Education Revolution.
The program aims to improve the quality of teaching and reward top teachers. It proposes a program of measuring school performance, including the public reporting of the progress of schools on key measures, including national test results.
The plan was unveiled by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, during his address today to the National Press Club.
Australia is facing “new” and “great” challenges and requires “new leadership”, according to the Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd.
Addressing a press conference in Brisbane, Rudd warned of a situation where “nothing changes” if the coalition is returned at the November 24 election.
Australia requires someone to say “the buck stops with me”, Rudd said, citing Labor policies on education, health, climate change, industrial relations and foreign affairs as areas requiring new leadership.
Education policy is also about nation building, according to the Leader of the Opposition, Kevin Rudd.
Speaking in Melbourne, Rudd announced Labor’s directions in education by arguing that “education is the pathway to prosperity”. Rudd said: “OECD research shows that if the average education level of the working-age population was increased by one year, the growth rate of the economy would be up to 1 per cent higher. Another recent study found that countries able to achieve literacy scores 1 per cent higher than the international average will increase their living standards by a factor of 1.5 per cent of GDP per capita. So whether it is through focusing on literacy levels, or increasing the average number of years spent in education, the evidence invariably shows that more educated economies are wealthier economies.”
Rudd and the Shadow Minister for Education and Training, Stephen Smith, released a 30-page document titled “The Australian Economy Needs An Education Revolution”.
This is the transcript of Kevin Rudd’s Address to the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne.
Labor is a party of reform. Labor is a party of economic reform. Labor is a party of social reform. Labor is also a party that has reformed Australia’s view of our place in the international order.