Academic and Cultural Orphans: The Legacy of Policy Reforms in Australian School Education

Academic and Cultural Orphans

The New Report on Australia’s Failing School System

📄 Read the Full Report (PDF)
🗒️ Download the Executive Summary (2 pages)

A generation is leaving school underprepared, uninspired, and unsure of their place in the world. 

For decades, Australia’s education policy has drifted from its purpose. Despite record spending –  $85 billion in the last year alone – outcomes are falling. Literacy is declining. Numeracy is sliding. Teachers are burnt out. And classrooms are increasingly shaped by ideology instead of evidence.

What’s gone wrong?

Our new report, Academic and Cultural Orphans, lays out the uncomfortable truth:

• Academic decline: Student performance in core subjects has deteriorated, with major gaps emerging between metropolitan and regional areas.
• Teacher pipeline failure: Entry standards are low, degrees lack rigour, and too many graduates are ill-prepared for the classroom.
• Governance inefficiencies: Despite four national bodies (ACARA, AITSL, ESA, AERO), reform efforts remain poorly coordinated and often redundant.
• Policy fatigue and drift: Australia has cycled through decades of top-down reforms without meaningful long-term improvement.

We’re not failing because we’ve spent too little – we’re failing because we’ve taught the wrong things, in the wrong way, for too long.

A Roadmap for Reform

The Page Research Centre proposes bold, practical reforms to turn the tide:

1. National Inquiry: A full-scale forensic review into 60 years of education reform and its consequences.
2. Education Commission: A new, independent National Education Commission with oversight of teacher training and national objectives.
3. Voucher-based funding: Let funding follow the student, with transparency and choice built into a national model.
4. Curriculum overhaul: A shorter, more academically rigorous curriculum aligned with national goals.
5. Assessment alignment: NAPLAN and other assessments must better reflect curriculum content and educational research.
6. National Certification: Introduce three national credentials to establish consistent, comparable standards across jurisdictions.
7. Teacher training reform: Establish new institutions for teacher training, outside university education faculties, focused on practical and evidence-based instruction.

The decline in educational outcomes is not inevitable. It is the result of deliberate choices, and it can be reversed. This report is an invitation to take responsibility and lead with seriousness, clarity, and courage. The future of our children depends on it.