Australia is lagging behind the world's best when it comes to teaching, with a new report showing a five-to-six-year gap between the most and least advanced students at any given age.
The Grattan Institute report says the system fails to stretch the most advanced students or support the least advanced students.
"A range of studies show that at any given year level there is a five to six year difference between the most advanced and the least advanced ten per cent of students," the reports states.
"A study of 3000 Victorian and Tasmanian students shows that in Year Eight mathematics there may be as much as eight year levels difference between the top and bottom students.
"The spread of achievement makes it essential that schools and education systems target teaching to the individual needs of every child. Despite heroic efforts by many teachers, our most advanced students are not adequately stretched while our least advanced are not properly supported."
The Melbourne-based think tank suggests the national rollout of a highly-regarded NSW program to the bottom 20 per cent of primary schools at a cost of about $300 million a year.
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