From Term 1 2025, all Victorian public school teachers will spend a minimum of 25 minutes a day on “explicit teaching” of phonics and phonemic awareness in a bid to improve the reading outcomes of students from Prep to Grade 2.
Earlier this year, a study from The Grattan Institute found that in the typical Australian school classroom of 24 students, eight can't read well. In Victoria, the latest NAPLAN school test results show that about a quarter of students are not meeting the new national proficiency benchmark in reading.
Under the updated Victorian Teaching and Learning Model, all of the state’s schools will adopt a uniform practice for the teaching of reading, clearing up confusion that many schools had been experiencing.
‘A win for Victorian students’
Australian Catholic University (ACU) Executive Dean of Education and Arts Professor Mary Ryan said the announcement to mandate the practices as part of an update to the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model, was “a win for the state’s school children”.
“As Australia’s largest provider of teachers, we are thrilled that the commitment we’ve made in our undergraduate and postgraduate teaching degrees, as well as our microcredential courses, to strengthen the focus on systematic phonics instruction and explicit teaching is being backed by this Victorian Government decision,” Professor Ryan said.
“We know through the research being done by our experts, including those who are spearheading our Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy and new ACU Literacy Clinic, that explicit teaching and the use of phonics instruction are at the core of improving student outcomes.”
The Centre’s inaugural Director Professor Rauno Parrila also supported the announcement and stressed the importance of ensuring future and existing teachers had the skills needed to implement the new mandates.
“We need to ensure that both the teachers of the future, as well as current teachers, receive high-quality training and ongoing professional learning underpinned by rigorous empirical research to achieve the positive student outcomes this announcement is aiming for,” he said.
“The best way to ensure reading instruction is evidence-based is to make sure there is sufficient expertise in every school to meet the daily challenges that come with the diverse student population schools serve.”
However, others fear the changes will only add to teacher workloads and exacerbate workforce shortages.
Fears changes will push teachers over the edge
A joint union statement accused Deputy Premier and Education Minister Ben Carroll of showing a lack of respect for the profession, warning the changes “will simply drive more people to leave” the profession.
“More change, more workload, less autonomy, and less respect for the profession will simply drive more people to leave,” the statement by the Australian Education Union (AEU) Joint Primary and Secondary Sector Council said.
“The Education Minister’s focus should be on ensuring that Victorian public schools are fully funded, rather than making uninformed announcements that will add to the burdens currently experienced by schools.”
The statement said the Minister has an “inadequate grasp” on work already undertaken by teachers and the complexity of that work,
“It would be impossible for Victorian public school students to lead the nation in Year 3 NAPLAN reading outcomes if Victorian teachers were not currently and competently teaching all skills required to enable students to become proficient readers,” the statement read.
“Teachers as professionals have and continue to develop deep pedagogical expertise throughout their careers, based on a detailed knowledge of the context in which they are teaching, the needs of the students in their classes which are increasingly complex, the curriculum and a deep understanding of how students learn in the subject areas they are teaching.”
‘The reading wars aren’t quite over’
Minister Carroll told The Age that he expected some pushback from teachers not yet willing to embrace the change
“The reading wars aren’t quite over … I’m stepping on potentially a hand grenade, but I just believe this is so important.”
The AEU’s Victorian Branch, which claims the state’s teaching profession was not properly consulted over the changes, is now demanding an urgent meeting with Minister Carroll and the Allan Government.