A Shorten Labor Government will deliver the most significant improvement in school education in Australia for two generations.

Labor’s Your Child. Our Future plan announced today will ensure:

• A strong focus on every single child’s needs;

• More individual attention for students;

• Better trained teachers – and more of them;

• More targeted resources and better equipped classrooms; and

• More support for students with special learning needs.

With Labor’s policy, every Australian school – and every Australian child - will benefit.

Ensuring Australia’s workforce is ready for the jobs of the future begins in schools – Your Child. Our Future will build the education system our children, and our nation, needs for the future economy.

To achieve this, a Shorten Government will fully implement and fund the Gonski reforms on-time and in-full.

Labor’s Your Child. Our Future plan will see an additional investment in our education system of $4.5 billion over school years 2018 and 2019 and a total provision of $37.3 billion for the package over the decade. Labor’s plan will drive innovation and opportunity by improving education outcomes for all Australian students.

Talk about innovation without a commitment to quality education is just talk.

Australian schooling is falling behind internationally and this presents an immense threat to Australia’s future economic and social prosperity.

In the year 2000, only one country outperformed Australia in reading and maths, and only two countries outperformed Australia in science. Today, 16 countries outperformed Australia in maths; 9 countries outperformed Australia in reading and 7 countries outperformed Australia in science.

That will change with a Shorten Labor Government.

Labor will invest in schools, Mr Turnbull and his Liberals will cut.

With Labor’s Your Child. Our Future plan, every student, in every school will get the support they need to achieve their potential. It will include:

• More individual attention to our students

• Tailored attention and more one-on-one time with students including  literacy and numeracy programs and support;

• More subject choices, extension classes and extra-curricular activities, so that every child is engaged at school;

• Funding based on  individual needs, which will give greater power and flexibility to schools to tailor programs to meet the needs of their students

• Real time analytics for teachers in the classroom, making better use of NAPLAN data to ensure students are on track.

• Better trained teachers

• Improving initial teacher education and toughening entry standards; More professional support for teachers in the classroom;

• Lifting the qualifications of STEM teachers in the classroom, ensuring that by 2020, all secondary STEM teachers are tertiary qualified in their discipline;

• More support for principals and better school leadership.

• More support for students with special learning needs

• More early intervention programs in every school and more one-on-one time with students including one-on-one literacy and numeracy programs and support, so no student is left behind.

• Providing $320 million over three  years in additional funding from 2017 – more than reversing the Turnbull Liberal Government’s cuts to students with disability;

• Work with the states and territories to fully implement the Gonski disability loading once data on the required levels of adjustment is available and fully

implementing the recommendations of the Senate Inquiry into the Education and Attainment of students with Disability.

Labor’s Your Child. Our Future plan will drive opportunity, innovation and the economy through education. 

Every Australian child should have the same chance of succeeding at school as any other kid in the country – no matter their background, no matter where they live, and no matter what type of school they go to – Government, Independent or Catholic.

Your Child. Our Future plan properly funds Australia’s schools to make them world class with new clear benchmarks, including:

• By 2020, Labor will ensure 95 per cent Year 12 (or equivalent) completion.

• By 2025, Labor will return Australia to the top 5 countries in reading, maths and science.

Today’s announcement puts education right at the centre of Labor’s positive program for government.

Today’s announcement is in addition to Labor’s plans for a strong TAFE and a stronger vocational education sector through the TAFE funding guarantee.

Labor will also make significant investments in higher education which, from 2018, will boost per student funding by $2,500 a year, compared with the Liberals’ plan. We will also drive a significant quality and completions agenda so that, by 2020, there will be 20,000 more graduates per year.

Education is a key driver of a country’s economic growth and  capacity to innovate and  Labor will provide the investment needed for Australia’s future prosperity.

Nothing creates equality of opportunity like access to quality education for all.

If we can equip all Australian high school graduates with the basic skills needed for the global economy by 2030, it would be the equivalent to adding 2.8 per cent to our GDP today.  This would represent a $44 billion expansion in our economy.

Labor’s Your Child. Our Future plan gives voters a clear choice.

Labor will invest in the education system that our children, and our country, needs for the future. Mr Turnbull and the Liberals will cut it.

Under the Liberals, education funding has been slashed with an average cut of $3.2 million per school – the same as sacking one in seven teachers.

At the next election, once again there will be a clear choice when it comes to education – invest in our children’s and nation’s future with Labor, or more of the same cuts to education under Mr Turnbull and his Liberals.

Labor’s Your Child. Our Future plan is fully funded by existing improvements to the Budget proposed by Labor including making multinational companies pay their fair share of tax, reducing superannuation tax concessions for millionaires, increasing the tobacco excise, ceasing the Emissions Reduction Fund, and scrapping the Liberals’ new Baby Bonus.

For more information on Labor’s Your Child. Our Future plan, visit www.laborsplanforeducation.com.au

A link to the policy factsheet is available here.

THURSDAY, 28 JANUARY 2016 

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