Grattan Institute analysis of 2022 NAPLAN data shows the learning gap more than doubles in reading and numeracy between Year 3 and Year 9.
 
In reading, for example, students in Year 3 whose parents did not finish school are two-years-and-five-months behind students whose parents have a university degree. By Year 9, this learning gap has grown to more than five years.
 
Small-group tuition – where teachers or other educators work with about three students at a time in short, focused sessions about three times a week over one to two school terms – can add, on average, an extra four months of learning over a year, helping many students catch up.
 
The economic and social benefits of getting this right are enormous, because people who do well at school have access to a broader range of opportunities and go on to earn more.
 
If one in five students received high-quality small-group tuition in 2023, they could collectively earn an extra $6 billion over their lifetimes – about six times the annual cost of Grattan Institute’s proposed small-group tuition program.

Key recommendations:

• Improve guidelines for schools on how to embed high-quality small-group tuition, including a focus on prevention and early pinpointing of learning gaps.
• Review schools’ capacity to do this well, then give schools and tutors the support and training they need, especially to provide evidence-based literacy and numeracy tutoring.
• Fund rigorous trials and evaluations to identify the most cost-effective ways to deliver high-quality small-group tuition.

A special guide for principals and teachers, which accompanies this report, identifies the steps schools can take now to embed high-quality small-group tuition for their students.