A few ideas on how to arrest our freefalling education system

How far behind are we falling?

The difference between Australian kids and the top performers in Singapore is so great, they might as well not be in the same pool. Story continues below advertisement AD

For maths it is 4 years, and for reading 2 years, and for science 3. That means a 13-year-old in Singapore is performing as well as a 17-year-old in Australia.

If our students were swimmers many of them would be drowning.

For example, just 48 percent met the proficiency standards for mathematics, and 28 percent scored the lowest proficiency.

And standards in Australia have been falling for as long as they've had PISA, while in Singapore there has been a significant improvement since they joined in 2009-even then, they were the top-ranked country.

In fact, standards have been falling in Australia since their peak in the 1970s.

What is the problem?

Well, as they say in the social science classics, it's multifactorial. And that means while there are lots of culprits, and possible culprits, it's hard to say who is the prime villain.

Teaching methods are an issue

One is teaching methods, particularly in reading, where education departments have taught student teachers "whole word" methods rather than phonics, even though the weight of academic studies supports phonics.

Perhaps upper socio-economics (SES) kids aren't as affected, because they have parents who can help out, but what about the lower SES kids?

No wonder the gap in some subject areas between the upper and lower SES levels is up to five years!

So the teaching faculties are part of the problem.