The report PISA 2015: A first look at Australia’s results, related to testing undertaken by more than 14,000 Australians from 750 schools for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

“These results are more evidence of the need for the full six years of needs-based Gonski funding to lift Tasmania’s results and close the gap with other states,” an AEU federal spokesperson said.

“PISA showed that too much of a students’ results depend on where they live. Australia now has gaps equivalent to three years of schooling between students from rich and poor areas, and that is what is dragging our results down.”

The AEU said Australia’s PISA results had declined from 2000 to 2015 during a period where school funding became more inequitable.

“Between 2009 and 2014 total combined government funding per student to Tasmanian public schools rose by 19 per cent, while funding to private schools rose by 40 per cent,” the spokesperson said. 

“Malcolm Turnbull’s plan to scrap the last two years of Gonski funding after 2017 will cost Tasmanian schools $70 million. That’s funding that could be used for extra support in classrooms or for extra literacy and numeracy programs.”