One in five Year 9 students do not meet the national minimum writing standards, according to new research.

The paper reveals Australian students’ writing skills have suffered a 10 year decline due to experimentation in English literacy education and changes in technology.

Adjunct Scholar at the Centre for Independent Studies, Dr Fiona Mueller, told Oliver Peterson the statistics are damning.

“This is a real problem,” she said.

“20 per cent of our students will be really disadvantaged as they move into the senior secondary years and then out into the workforce.”

The study also revealed those affected by the decline may currently be teaching in schools around the country.

“We know from multiple studies that a significant proportion of aspiring teachers come out of their university studies with very low levels of confidence in their own writing skills. This has been decades in the making. Teachers are expected to be experts and yet they’re also not given the sort of teacher training they really need,” she said.

Dr Mueller believes other countries with high performing education systems are doing the basics better than Australia.

“We need to make sure that we have the foundational knowledge and the foundational skills before we ask our students to do much creative and sophisticated work. You have to walk before you can run,” she said.

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