Economic analysis commissioned by Learning Creates Australia has revealed that for every dollar invested in social and emotional learning (SEL), a $4 return to the economy can be expected as well as better outcomes in school, work and life.
The report, The economics of more capable young people, is one of two to be released as part of a new series titled The New Economics of Education, looking at how investment in broader recognition and capability development has the potential to deliver strong returns for both individuals and the economy.
This is seen in the form of enhanced earnings, productivity, mental health, and workforce participation, but also lower welfare costs, reduced crime, plus better social cohesion, civic engagement and national resilience.
CEO of Learning Creates Australia, Bronwyn Lee, says too many young people are leaving school disengaged and under-prepared for the world they are entering.
“The evidence shows that focusing on social and emotional skills improves behaviour, engagement with learning and academic achievement, and that this is especially true for students who are already facing disadvantage,” she says.
“On top of this, employers are looking for graduates who have these skills so they can collaborate, adapt and self-manage as they enter the workforce.”
At a time when record numbers of children are refusing to go to school, feeling disengaged and disconnected, and with declining mental health and countless skills gaps in the nation’s workforce, Lee says we are at a critical turning point for how we educate young people.
“We need to shift away from treating academic results and broader capabilities like social and emotional learning as separate given the evidence continues to show us that they are interconnected and essential to learning success,” Lee says.
Lee says that while in primary school and middle school years, there’s more breadth to the curriculum and a focus on skills such as communication, teamwork, collaboration, problem-solving, in senior secondary school, “as a nation, we really narrow to an academic view of success - and we’re one of the only countries in the world that ranks our students at the end of school”.
It has become increasingly clear, Lee explains, that high stakes assessment and the ranking system that follows through the ATAR is no longer fit for purpose.
“In fact, over 75 per cent of young people don’t actually use their ATAR, because its primary use is an entry mechanism to tertiary education and the pathways into tertiary education have rapidly expanded to make the ATAR only usable to about 25 per cent of students,” she tells EducationHQ.
Parents and many students, however, still see the ATAR as an important measure of achievement, one which can really have an impact on wellbeing and where many are disengaged or struggling because of that narrow definition of success.
“There’s many ways to be successful, and academic knowledge is absolutely part of that story, but it’s not the whole story,” Lee shares.
“So how do we value what young people know and can do in a way that both increases their sense of wellbeing and engagement, but also more formally acknowledges the breadth of capabilities that they have, and then set them up to be better matched into a post-school pathway?”
That’s really the essence of what Learning Creates Australia is trying to shift - that challenge of improving the post-school experience into further education and training.
Different jurisdictions are doing better than others, Lee shares.
“In South Australia, for example, there’s commitment to recognising broader definitions of learning success being driven by the State Government.
“[There’s] really strong jurisdictional leadership around wanting to support schools through the SACE board and through the department to be able to measure broader capabilities and success.
“And then you’ve got other jurisdictions where there isn’t that state-level leadership, you have really innovative schools that are just getting on with it and trying to tailor solutions for their students.”
Lee says while many think of education as one system, it’s actually many systems.
“And so, it’s very hard to change because there’s so many institutional players - you’ve got each state (that) has their own certifying authority for Year 12, then you’ve got all of your tertiary admissions processes, then all of the vocational and tertiary providers.
“None of those people really tend to the learner because they’re institutions that really think about their own interests, and so for the learner, particularly a disadvantaged learner, it’s a minefield to navigate and that’s just the process.”
Lee says she’s optimistic that our complex education landscape can coordinate to create meaningful systemic change.
“There’s a few reasons for that. I think we are at a point where our system is increasingly not serving people well, and so that creates a context in which change becomes more possible, right, because when things are not that bad it’s harder to change, so I think there is that increasing sense that teachers are leaving the profession.
“Schools need backing so they can effectively prepare our young people for the world they are entering,” CEO Brionwyn Lee says. “This means supporting local adaptation and rethinking how success is recognised.”
“I think as well, things like the ATAR’s usefulness really diminishing, also creates a context where there can be the opportunity to rethink some of those key mechanisms that hold some of the current system in place.
“I do think there is a really growing group of practitioners from really diverse contexts - whether that’s system leaders, school leaders, individual educators, students - that are just getting on with doing things differently in a way that is transformative.”
Lee says the other reality is that tech is rapidly transforming the learning experience.
“Young people are using AI and getting on with augmenting that into their lived experience, and the potential for that to completely transform how learning can be delivered and personalised, that’s not the future anymore, that’s the now.”
It’s a clear opportunity, “a boiling pot of things going on at the moment”, Lee says, that has created this window, “where we could move beyond that incremental reform which creates more complexity in the system” to something that is more transformative.
“And that’s really what Learning Creates, is trying to drive – how do we move beyond tweaks – because you actually end up with a more complex system, which is what’s happening with education in Australia.
“You would never design what we have today, it’s been the result of many cycles of reform and politics.”
The report ‘The economics of more capable young people’ was commissioned by Learning Creates Australia and developed with research partner, Impact Economics and Policy, who led the economic modelling.
