Education
-
Federal Court weighs antisemitism and free speech in Australian schools
The recently concluded Federal Court case brought against Brighton Secondary College in Victoria, resulting in a distressing confirmation of antisemitism during 2013-2020 is a case study in institutional bias against members of a minority group. Continue reading »
-
Anti-China rhetoric threatens thriving technology partnerships with China
Australia’s existing relationships and collaborations with China give Australian Industry and consumers a head start in the cost-effective use of some of the most important technologies of the future, including those vital to achieving net zero emissions. Most countries would give anything to be at the forefront of such developments, but Australian University researchers are Continue reading »
-
Conjuring up panic about teaching reading
Magicians regularly use distraction to trick us into perceiving one thing while another is happening. Politicians use similar tricks to signal concern about public policy problems. Recently there has been an organised campaign to get us to believe that NAPLAN literacy results can all be explained by differences in the methods used to teach reading. Continue reading »
-
With Universities in crisis, democracy is under threat
Gratifying it may be to see three of our top performing universities outranking Columbia and Johns Hopkins (with Melbourne even outranking Caltech and Yale (QS World University Rankings)), but as a sector our universities are in crisis. And such a crisis has dangerous implications for our democracy. Continue reading »
-
“Our last, best chance”: How our schools must change to help the most disadvantaged
Without reform, Australia’s schooling system threatens to create a lost generation of young people. Continue reading »
-
Nuclear subs challenge trains 10 year old children for war
It’s time for education ministers across the country to show leadership and protect our children from vested interests and pro-war propaganda. Continue reading »
-
Climate and housing left on the 2063 agenda
The Albanese government is tiptoeing as if it has all the time in the world. Continue reading »
-
Manufactured statistics for a university beat-up
The Jewish University Experience Survey of the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) and the Australian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) was prepared by the Social Research Centre, owned by the Australian National University. The Survey has gained lurid headlines in local Jewish media, the ABC, and around the world. Continue reading »
-
The ABC of university governance: an evaluation
What is the ABC of university governance? Public universities are uniquely orientated as research and innovation and teaching and learning institutions and, unmistakably, are fundamentally concerned with academic governance. Therefore, the ABC of university governance comprises three key dimensions: Academic (A) governance; Business (B) governance, and Corporate (C) governance. These dimensions, respectively, focus on scholarship, Continue reading »
-
The lost decade of school autonomy in NSW
It is just over ten years since the school autonomy program called Local Schools, Local Decisions commenced in NSW. It has been a lost decade. It was supposed to increased student results but high inequity in education continues with more bureaucracy, less central support for schools and bigger workloads for principals and teachers. Continue reading »
-
The ABC could improve political education greatly
The issue of the Voice referendum has again brought to light problems that have to do with a serious lack of understanding of governance systems in Australia and, even more seriously, where major problems exist, lacking a capacity to generate superior alternatives. Continue reading »
-
Mirror, mirror on the wall…a better and fairer school system
In the words of Nelson Mandela, ‘there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children’. The Review set up by the Albanese government to inform a better and fairer education system is an occasion for some serious soul-searching by Australians. Continue reading »
-
Australian Universities Accord lost in a mire of confusion about equity
The Australian Universities Accord Interim Report shows an echidna on its cover, in keeping, Education Minister Jason Clare acknowledges, with the spikey issues he is attempting to address in the education system. His goal is to reduce inequality in Australian society while improving the quality of education across the system. Continue reading »
-
Kits for killing: AUKUS goes to school
While Australians pride themselves, for the most part, in having stricter gun laws than most and not being warlike in disposition, their governing officials have increasingly thought otherwise. War drums are beating. The chatter about acquiring and building armaments is getting more frenzied. As a client state of the US imperium, firmly enmeshed in the Continue reading »
-
The Australian Universities Accord Interim Report: the devil is in the detail
The Australian Universities Accord Interim Report (the Report) was made publicly available on 20 July 2023. Since Labor regained office in May of last year and the Accord process was announced, hopes have not been high that either the process or the Minister would make any commitments to reforming what is widely perceived as Australia’s Continue reading »
-
President Xi’s daughter dilemma
China and the U.S. are not mates. These two massive nations bristle over Taiwan, snarling like dingoes protecting their territory, with China threatening “catastrophic consequences” in case of a dust up. Continue reading »
-
Students with authentic dysfunctional behaviour
In recent Pearls and Irritations essays there has been a difference of opinion between myself and Ross Fox, the Director of Catholic Education, Canberra and Goulburn. I believe this difference of opinion rests with the definition of students with severe behaviours and my assertion that private schools do not enrol them. Continue reading »
-
Lies, damned lies and school statistics
The recent exchange in Pearls and Irritations between John Frew and Ross Fox about teaching severely disruptive students comes at a time of frenetic interest in school reform, sparked by two current high stakes reviews. Continue reading »
-
Curiouser and curiouser – Western Australian Wonderland
It is often said that truth is stranger than fiction and indeed, that is the way I am feeling about the news that the Australian Medical Association (WA Branch), which has a registered training organisation (RTO) that offers a number of short courses and certificate and diploma programs, has recently advertised a Diploma in Nursing. Continue reading »
-
Nothing superficial about scientific-base to effective teaching
John Frew has some erroneous views about the students, teachers and principals in Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn that must be corrected. Continue reading »
-
The case for universal early childhood education
The implementation of universal high-quality early childhood education could be a game changer for Australian families and the economy. Continue reading »
-
Teacher training report reflects a superficial understanding of education
A well-publicised report on teacher training from Ross Fox, the Director of Catholic Education of Canberra, runs the risk of inferring that a ‘science of learning’ that works for a private school system that has no students with severe behaviours, will work for schools that have a high proportion of these student. Continue reading »
-
Australia needs to stop using the term “VET Market”
Education should not be seen as a “buy and sell” commodity. Continue reading »
-
The degradation of the University
Like other large public and private sector organisations, universities have now been pervaded by the activities and influence of consultants. This represents a degradation of the social and educational role of the university as well as a determined shift towards the privatisation of knowledge. Continue reading »
-
Public education’s ‘elephant in the classroom’
In the debate on the rehabilitation of public schools, there is an unpleasant issue that must not be mentioned. Not by the Unions, not the Government, not the Principals’ organisations and definitely not the private schools. ‘The elephant in the room’ is severe disruptive behaviour. Continue reading »
-
The future of Australia’s universities under the AUKUS regime
In one of his last posts on this site Dennis Argall contributed an extraordinary insight which needs to be kept, explicitly and unapologetically, at the forefront of all discussions about AUKUS and its bastard child, the Defence Strategic Review. The title of his piece was: “The Defence Strategic Review is a claim to command civil Continue reading »
-
A problem bigger than rich schools and funding
It’s easy to gain the impression that there are just two school sectors in Australia: elite private schools and public schools, the former being exclusive and over-funded, the latter inclusive and cash-strapped. True to a point, but in dwelling on this dichotomy we are missing bigger policy issues that cry out for resolution. Continue reading »
-
Welcoming the New TAFE, a spring-board to fulfilling working lives
A TAFE system built around ideas for running 1950s American car-making factories is pretty much an anachronism in Australia in 2023, particularly when our future depends on innovation and rising productivity. But before New TAFE starts, Old TAFE must have a long, hard look at itself. Continue reading »
-
$10 Million for consultants: a further step from reality
Last year the NSW Education Department paid almost $10 million to Deloitte Consultants for ‘expert’ advice, not to mention how much of tax-payers revenue went into the pockets of the disgraced PWC for similar nonsense. This reliance on outside know-how is a ‘logical’ step up from the failed policy of governments employing experts in leadership Continue reading »
-
Selling out our school system to profit multinationals
It was a shock but no real surprise to read that the multi-national company Inspired Education, which owns Reddam House school in the Sydney’s eastern suburbs, now plans to set up more fully for-profit schools in other areas (Sydney Morning Herald, 27/5). Who thought it would come to this? Where the inexorable march of the Continue reading »
