Every once in a while, we get a planetary alignment of evidence so significant that you have to pay attention.

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In the past month, two completely different datasets have pointed to the same basic problem in Australian schools: student behaviour.

Released last week, the latest Programme for International Student Assessment found Australian 15-year-olds have fallen in mathematics and reading since 2022, continuing a substantial decline over the past two decades.

Compared with when Australia first participated in each subject, our students have gone backwards by the equivalent of more than two years of learning in maths, almost two years in reading and around one year in science.

There are many reasons for our ongoing national slump, including increased screen usage.

But one clear factor is apparent when Australian students are asked about behaviour in their science classes. Australian students reported a worse classroom climate than their peers in 68 countries, and substantially worse than the OECD average. 41 per cent of Australian students said there was noise and disorder in most or every science lesson, compared with 31 per cent across the OECD. About one-third said students did not listen to what the teacher said, or that the teacher had to wait a long time for students to quiet down.

These responses are not being driven by policy stakeholders with an agenda. They are simply Australian students describing their own classrooms.

And the results reinforce what teachers themselves are telling us.

In our recent representative national sample of 377 teachers, respondents estimated that, on average, nine minutes were lost to misbehaviour for every 30 minutes of teaching time - almost a third of a lesson.

More than half estimated losing at least a fifth of their teaching time. Four in 10 said misbehaviour interrupted teaching or learning in most or every lesson.

The........

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