Produced for online by Leia Comegna.

Queensland’s Education Minister Simon Birmingham says the federal government must give states more money if school standards are to improve in line with the latest Gonski report recommendations.

Birmingham says it was imperative every student was extended to their maximum ability.

“We want to see a system out of this report where big students stretched the maximum of their capabilities each and every year over the 12/13 years of their schooling,” says Birmingham.

Queensland Legislative Assembly member Grace Grace says the Queensland government is committed to ensuring teachers are better trained and classrooms are better equipped to turn around the decline in academic performance Australia has experienced since 2000.

However she says improvements to schools cost money which should at least in part come from the federal government.

David Gonski’s second major review into Australian education is being described as a blueprint to lift Australia’s lagging educational performance.

It says the country must urgently modernise its industrial-era model of school education and move towards individualised learning for all students.

And it says too many Australian children are failing to reach their potential at school because of the restrictive nature of year-level progression.

The report was commissioned by the Federal Government last year.

Australian Education Union president Correna Haythorpe says they are concerned the new Gonski report is coming at a time when the Federal Government is cutting funds to public schools over the next two years.

“We do have outstanding teachers across Australia who are delivering a very high quality curriculum. The reality is that they are missing out on the resources that are needed to close the student achievement gap for this report, not be a distraction from that fact,” says Ms Haythorpe.

Ms Grace will meet on Friday with other federal, state and territory education ministers to be briefed by Mr Gonski, who will outline the report’s 23 recommendations.

The federal government has already given in-principle support to the recommendations which include ensuring teachers prioritise basic literacy and numeracy in early years and the creation of an online tool for teachers to regularly assess student progression.