The Australian Education Union said today a new OECD report highlights the need for an overhaul of school funding arrangements in Australia and a far greater investment in public education.

The report entitled Equity and Quality in Education – Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools, was released last night.

It warns of the dangers of competitive school markets saying they led to greater segregation of students and had severe effects of education outcomes.

``School choice advocates often argue that the introduction of market mechanisms in education allows equal access to high quality schooling for all,'' the report says.

``However, evidence does not support these perceptions, as choice and associated market mechanisms can enhance segregation.”

``The highest-performing education systems across the OECD countries are those that combine quality with equity.”

AEU Federal President, Angelo Gavrielatos said the report's warnings had to be heeded by policymakers in Australia in responding to the release of the Gonski Review on Monday, February 20.

“It is clear in Australia that with the creation and funding of a competitive market in education we have seen a deepening segregration of students along social divides,” Mr Gavrielatos said.

“Instead of helping to overcome inequality in education, the funding arrangements we have in place that allow private schools to operate at much higher resource levels than public schools are actually entrenching it.

“The resource advantage has allowed private schools to recruit a far greater proportion of students in high SES areas. No increase has been registered in low SES areas.

“As a result of this segregation and the under-resourcing of public schools, our overall achievement levels have fallen and there are growing gaps between the performance of students in wealthy communities and those in disadvantaged communities.

“This OECD report correctly identifies the need to invest more heavily in schools in disadvantaged communities which are overwhelmingly public schools in Australia.

“It is only through the provision of public schools of the highest quality in every community can we achieve the twin goals of quality and equity.”