Casting new light on existential threats to education in Australia and Quebec

Lessons from Canada – an equal school system is possible, is about opening different conversations about ‘where to from now’ for Australia’s schools. Those interested in long term policy solutions will want to know more about the possible scope and feasibility of school system reform.

In early 2025 two quite different reports appeared which cast new light on the existential threats challenging fairness, equity and achievement of school education in Australia and Quebec. The reports point to possible solutions for these two jurisdictions, both of which seem locked into inevitable decline, and both of which have attracted the interest of Australian Learning Lecture.

Chris Bonnor reviews the two articles Towards an education system for the common good: desegregating Quebec’s schools in a market context by Stephane Vigneault, and Systemic Inefficiency of Australian Schools: A Policy and Measurement Review by Michael Sciffer.

Stéphane Vigneault is the founder and co-ordinator for Quebec education campaign group, Mouvement L’école ensemble (the “school together movement”). Michael Sciffer is a PhD student with Murdoch University. He has co-authored a number of articles with Laura Perry and Andrew McConney on the impacts of school enrolment segregation.

Both are playing significant roles in increasing awareness about and reforming their respective systems. They met in October 2024 when Vigneault spoke with a group of twelve Australians visiting Canada in search of solutions to very significant and shared problems.

What these two writers reveal about the dimension of the problem and pointers to solutions, especially given the need to reduce the concentration of disadvantage, is important.

Firstly, Vigneault explains how the movement for reform in Quebec progressed. One of the challenges his team faced has been how to create school boundaries which will create a more even SES spread of enrolments in each school.

Secondly, Sciffer has developed a methodology which would create a more even SES spread of school enrolments in Australia.

But firstly, a general note on the Australian context

The last few years have seen increasing warnings about the accumulating impact of the socioeconomic composition (SEC) of enrolment on student learning, especially that created by higher concentrations of low SES students – effectively reducing the capacity of the school system to lift not only those students but also overall achievement. In this context Michael Sciffer refers to finding of the Productivity Commission, and a subsequent review commissioned by federal minister Jason Clare – as well as numerous research papers and articles.

To this has to be added Choice and Fairness from Australian Learning Lecture, the work of Michele Bruniges with the Paul Ramsay Foundation, and an ongoing initiative by the Australian Secondary Principals Association. In August 2025 the report Lessons from Canada was released by Australian Learning Lecture. The genesis of some of this work was created by the book Waiting for Gonski, how Australia failed its schools. In sum, all this focus on the need for serious structural reform of Australia’s overall school framework comes at a time when the school funding problem is declared to be solved (that’s another story) and within-school reform, while remaining important, is clearly not enough.

Read more:School solutions in Australia and Quebec[37]