Education
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NSW Public Schools Benefit Under Gonski 1.0
New school funding figures show that public schools were the main beneficiaries of the Gonski 1.0 funding plan in NSW. Public schools received a funding increase nearly double that for private schools and it reversed the previous trend of large funding cuts to public schools. However, public schools in NSW remain significantly under-funded while private Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONOR. The elite schools’ arms race goes nuclear
Yes, it was Sunday and the news is usually more sensational than during the week. But the extravagant building plans of some ‘elite’ schools, revealed in the Sun Herald, were certainly eye-opening. According to the report, two of these schools are already funded by governments well above their Schooling Resource Standard. The combined cost ($365m) Continue reading »
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COLIN STEELE. Who Owns Australian Research?
Who owns the results of Australian research? Certainly, not Australian researchers, as they, and their institutions, continue to give away publicly funded research to multinational publishers. As a result, Australian research is largely locked up behind expensive multinational publishing firewalls, constituting a form of information feudalism. Continue reading »
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Indigenous education: closing – and opening – the gaps
The reports and narratives around the strategy to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians are quite well-known, if only because they don’t change much from year to year. With the possible exception of education, not many targets are being reached. The gains in education in numeracy, reading and school retention will be welcomed by Continue reading »
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MICHAEL MULLINS. Joyce’s schooling is the real scandal
It is unhelpful to judge Barnaby in the way the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull did on Thursday. It’s better to focus on a critique of the culture. His leadership of the Nationals may be no longer tenable, but the best thing our political class can do for the long term is to make laws that Continue reading »
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PETER BUCKSKIN. Closing the gap on Indigenous education must start with commitment and respect.
There were angry rumblings at last week’s meeting of Indigenous leaders and the Prime Minister and in the Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee Report. They will get significantly louder with today’s release of the 10th Annual Closing the Gap Report. Continue reading »
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PAUL RODAN. Colleges of Advanced Education.
Roger Scott’s trilogy on the state of higher education raised a number of important issues, several of which might have led me to the keyboard, but his observations about the former colleges of advanced education (CAEs) seem particularly worthy of further comment. Continue reading »
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DON AITKIN. Whose universities are they, anyway?
Roger Scott’s extended rebuttal of Ross Gittins’s excoriation of ‘money-grubbing’ universities, and the publication of three books about the recent past and possible future of higher education, suggest that all is not well in academe. While all has never, at least since the end of the second world war, been well in academe (the AVCC Continue reading »
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ACT private schools have the mother of all special deals
The Turnbull Government promised to eliminate all special deals for private schools under its Gonski 2.0 funding plan. However, new data released through Senate Estimates reveal that the $58 million adjustment fund for ACT private schools announced last year is the mother of all special deals. Continue reading »
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ROGER SCOTT. Postscript on Australian universities: ‘are we near the Kodak moment’? Part 3
In March 2017, under a headline ‘Digital disruption lowers costs of pricy masters degrees’ the Australian Financial Review reported: A round of price-cutting has broken out in the market for high-priced masters degrees with four Australian universities offering students a pathway to complete part of their degree online at a steep discount. [Tim Dodd, AFR Continue reading »
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ROGER SCOTT. Response to Gittins on higher education – Part 1.
‘Ross Gittins says We’ve turned our unis into aimless, money-grubbing exploiters of students (Canberra Times, 17 September 2017] What is there to say about Gittins’ comments, I was asked by John Menadue. How valid are his general contentions and how valid are his criticisms? Like the curate’s egg (and the university system as a whole) it is Continue reading »
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LINDA SIMON. What has happened to enrolments in the TAFE sector?-The creeping commercialisation of education.- A REPOST from October 6 2017
Enrolments in the TAFE sector have dropped in many qualifications. Tracing the reasons for this change at a time when Australia needs more skilled technicians and paraprofessionals is complex. They appear to be tied to the overall changes in funding of tertiary education, the increase in student fees as well as the status of the Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR AND CHRISTINA HO. Selective school decisions coming back to haunt us.
Almost alone in Australia, New South Wales has been expanding its number of selective schools, accompanied each time by arguments about the need to increase choice and cater for the gifted and talented. And each time we are left with one less school for local students, together with an ongoing trail of collateral damage to Continue reading »
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ROGER SCOTT. 1987 and the “Dawkins Revolution”.
This is part 2 of my response to an invitation to share my memories linked to the release of Cabinet papers from 1987. Here I will focus on the tertiary education reforms instituted by federal Education Minister John Dawkins. Continue reading »
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Govt. Failure to Ensure Private School Systems Distribute Funding According to Need Will Continue Under Gonski 2.0
A recent report by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has slammed the Commonwealth Government for failing to ensure its funding of private school systems is distributed according to need and for not knowing how private school systems distribute their funding. The report is a scathing indictment of a massive failure of ministerial responsibility and Continue reading »
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Schools: will we ever join the dots?
I have this little website, Edmediawatch, which monitors media reports about schools. It is a long-running repository of policies, decisions, research and commentary. I even have an ‘Edu-fact check’ section which uses a variety of f-words to pass judgment on claims about school education. It’s worth doing, but the site is quite a depressing catalogue Continue reading »
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PETER GOSS. How to achieve excellence in Australian schools: a story from the classroom
A new Gonski review is examining how to achieve educational excellence for Australia’s 3.8 million school students. The success of the review will ultimately depend on whether its recommendations lead to better practice in the classroom. And the best way for policy makers to improve classroom practice is to develop a more adaptive education system. Continue reading »
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FRAN MARTIN. Overstating Chinese influence in Australian universities
Both Australia’s national government and its security agency ASIO have expressed concerns over the influence that the Chinese government exerts on Chinese student groups studying at Australian universities. They have also accused Beijing of using those groups to spy on Chinese students in Australia. Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. The way ahead for VET
The Productivity Commission’s five-year review, Shifting the Dial, recommends reforms in vocational education and training (VET). These are based on ‘the key premise…that skills formation is one of the central pillars for productivity improvement, even if its benefits are not immediately realised’. That caveat is important: neither skills acquisition nor other knowledge gains are easily Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. Wealthy parents flock to public schools
The results of the 2016 census are continuing to roll out. This time it is the turn of school education to grab the headlines, most recently with Fairfax telling us that wealthy families are turning away from elite private schools. Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. Labor’s National Schools Forum – Gonski 2.0 in a day?
Remember the newly elected Rudd Government’s 2020 Summit back in 2008? It was a high-profile gathering of a sympathetic audience to address pre-selected policy issues and options. Far from coming up with answers, the education sessions at the Summit managed to avoid the urgent questions – to such an extent that a group of unusual Continue reading »
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Productivity Commission shirks real problems in VET
The Productivity Commission has undertaken a five year review of Australia’s productivity performance, identifying skills and the VET sectors as an area of concern. But have they got the answers? Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. The growing social divide.
There are ominous signs that Australia is breaking up into different social tribes. Our claimed egalitarianism and social mobility are under serious challenge. A mixed society is the best guarantee of social cohesion and social improvement. That social cohesion arising from ‘inclusive growth’ is also good for the economy. But social cohesion rather than economic Continue reading »
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SUSAN RYAN. Skills retraining still more miss than hit.
Like car manufacturers who, despite decades of notice, still left many workers stranded, NAB’s more sudden announcement underlines the fact that massive redundancies are not only a feature of “old” industries. Continue reading »
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DON EDGAR AND PATRICIA EDGAR. University reforms needed for the longevity economy.
Tinkering at the edges of university financing and student loan repayments ignores the tsunami of social change that is the real challenge for Australia’s future higher education system. Nick Xenophon is right to call for a full-scale inquiry into higher education; it is a mess, not catering to Australia’s future needs. Continue reading »
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LINDA SIMON. Axing access and equity in VET!
The axing of TAFE NSW Outreach programs as part of a current restructure process, highlights the importance of these programs to individuals and the community. It also raises the issue as to VET’s role in delivering access and equity programs and why governments should make them a priority. Continue reading »
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MERRIDEN VARRALL. Chinese student furore reveals Australia’s poor integration strategy
Why does Australia encourage international — including Chinese — students to study within its borders? Australian universities are about teaching and learning, but they need to be properly resourced to do so, so one reason for encouraging foreign students is the funding they bring to Australian universities. Another more important aspect is the potential to Continue reading »
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MICHAEL KEATING. Should VET be contestable?
The introduction of contestability into training markets is often cited as a prime example of the failures of privatisation. However, the totality of the evidence is rarely examined in support of this allegation. This article aims to fill this gap. It finds that a contestable training market can fail if not properly regulated, but now Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. A rare opportunity to fix schools
A little news item can tell a big story. This week the Guardian reported on a survey that revealed that Australian parents want schools to teach more social skills. It raises many questions: whose job it is anyway, what will fall off the curriculum to make space, how will we know if it works? But Continue reading »
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Elite Melbourne Private Schools to Get Big Funding Windfalls
Several wealthy Melbourne private schools are set to get large windfall gains from the Turnbull Government’s Gonski 2.0 funding model after revisions to their assessed student need. Many of the schools will get increases of $1-$3.2 million between 2018 and 2027 because their student need has been revised upwards due to implausible stories about disabilities. Continue reading »