Education
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LINDA SIMON. VET system a dud? I don’t think so.
The VET system has again been criticised by the Government, this time by the Prime Minister in his recent address to the National Press Club, when he referred to it as a ‘dud’ system. Continue reading »
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DAVID SHEARMAN. After Covid-19 the ‘New Normal’ must have ‘Real Universities’ acting on the Climate Crisis
The Market Forces UniSuper divest campaign details continuing UniSuper investments in fossil fuels despite many concerns expressed by academics and despite the progressive climate change crisis. Do the Universities have responsibilities? Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. Tertiary education after COVID-19: part two
Are we finally seeing the end of the Dawkins era? If so, what next? Continue reading »
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GWILYM CROUCHER and WILLIAM LOCKE. A post-coronavirus pandemic world for Australian higher education: Part 2
The pandemic is magnifying existing pressures for universities but is also providing new possibilities. How universities respond will determine their future Continue reading »
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GWILYM CROUCHER and WILLIAM LOCKE. A post-coronavirus pandemic world for Australian higher education: Part 1
The pandemic is magnifying existing pressures for universities but is also providing new possibilities. How universities respond will determine their future. Continue reading »
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RIVKA T. WITENBERG Promoting Tolerance and Acceptance through Education
The role of education is to encourage moral and socially moral/ethical individuals who develop a robust sense of fairness, justice and empathy which will influence tolerance and acceptance. Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. Tertiary education after COVID-19. Part 1
One thing COVID-19 has done is shatter laborious bureaucratic reform processes that so often breed inertia rather than change. I marvel at how quickly education systems have adapted to the lockdown. Continue reading »
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TONY SMITH. Promoting ignorance over education.
True education is open minded and open ended. It is the antithesis of propaganda and works to free minds, not control them. The federal government has a minister who lacks any understanding of basic educational principles. Continue reading »
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LEANNE SMITH. What Matters to Australia’s Young Citizens?
If we want our children to have a stake in our democracy and our society, we have to treat them as valued citizens and engage with their concerns. Not because of the leaders they might one day be, in our own projection of what that means, but recognising their legitimacy and leadership as it stands Continue reading »
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LYNDSAY CONNORS. Learning the value of teachers’ work
The shock of dealing with the realities of the coronavirus pandemic has forced our prime minister to realise that schools are fundamental to our democracy and that teachers are on the front line of society and should be valued accordingly. Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. This virus might lead to education reform.
Education reform is well overdue. As the need to act with speed has seen governments jettison rusted-on assumptions and ideologies in areas such as employment, health and welfare – can school education be next? After all, there are just as many education problems sitting in the too-hard basket, many of them extremely wicked and ignored Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Education and Entertainment after COVID-19
COVID-19 has let the genie out of the bottle. Education and entertainment will not return to their traditional forms. Continue reading »
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ALEX MITCHELL: Defending TAFE is a winner for NSW Labor
Created by the Whitlam Government, TAFE tuition was free, offered trade and technical training to a generation of young men and women and upgraded education and career opportunity to all those who wanted it. Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. Two very wicked problems in school funding
Australia certainly isn’t short of policy headaches, but one promises to be of migraine proportions: our school funding regime has reached new heights of absurdity and needs urgent review. Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. The pendulum swings (yet again) for NSW schools
One thing we used to tell beginning teachers was to never punish the whole class because a few students were misbehaving. Continue reading »
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LYNDSAY CONNORS. What the blaze(r)s!!!
If you search for St. Kevin on the internet, you will find that the references to this Irish saint are vastly outnumbered by references to the Australian boys school that bears his name and that has been dragging that name through the mud in recent times. Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. SMH Schools Summit flies many kites
If you want a headline or two, put on a big event. That has just worked for the SMH with its current Schools Summit. Continue reading »
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KERRY BROWN and EMMA LUO. Degrees of espionage(Chatham House/The World today 13.2.2020)
Fears are rising in countries…that China is wielding undue influence through its supposed infiltration of universities and institutions and by its spying on companies and government. Continue reading »
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New Figures Show Huge Funding Increases for Private Schools & Cuts to Public Schools
New figures show that government (Commonwealth and State) funding increases massively favoured private schools over public schools between 2009-10 and 2017-18. Continue reading »
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Disadvantaged Schools in Australia Are Far Less Resourced than Advantaged Schools
Data from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018 show that Australia allocates more and better quality teacher and physical resources to high socio-economic status (SES) secondary schools than to low SES schools. The gaps are amongst the largest in the OECD. The highest performing OECD countries generally allocate resources more equitably Continue reading »
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TOM GREENWELL. Less choice, less affordability: the private school subsidy paradox
It’s become an annual ritual: the media reports on private school fee rises, then the various school spokespeople dig out last year’s talking points and it’s on again…until next year. But there is more – and it goes back a long way. The biggest news of all is that the decades-long expansion of public funding Continue reading »
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OECD Says 3 in 4 Australian Students Do Not Try on PISA Tests
The hand-wringing over the continuing decline in Australia’s PISA results misses the issue of whether students try their best on the tests. The OECD’s report on PISA 2018 shows that about three in four Australian students and two-thirds of students in OECD countries did not try their hardest on the tests. There are also wide Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. School fixes and fantasy
Two weeks ago I commented on the forthcoming Education Council of Ministers meeting and how it was apparently going to tackle our latest reported dive in student achievement. I declared that the chance of an enduring solution emerging from that gathering amounted to fantasy. True to form, the ministers emerged from that meeting with strong Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Re-emergence of Dodgy VET Colleges
Since January 2018, the Australian Skills Quality Agency (ASQA) has cancelled the registration of around 450 private VET colleges. This is after years of such cancellations being relatively rare. A spokesperson for ASQA has said this reflects an improved “ability to better target regulatory activities on providers demonstrating the highest risks to VET in Australia”. Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. PISA – the never-ending story
It’s PISA time again and Australia’s student achievement levels continue to be miserable. The finger-pointing is in full swing…again. Someone should re-shoot ‘Groundhog Day’ around the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), with a cast of education ministers, their shadows, a teacher unionist, journalists, the odd academic and crowd shots of everyone else with an Continue reading »
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The marketing of Australian universities
There seems to have been a long period of quiescence in higher education, with the interests of the top end of the university sector (identified as the G8) coinciding with the desire of successive governments to shift costs away from their regular budgets and on to overseas consumers. But some chickens have come home to Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. Britain’s private schools in the firing line
It seems that there is more to UK politics than Brexit: Britain’s Labour conference has passed a motion to effectively abolish private schools and redistribute their students and even their properties to the state sector. Are there implications of such proposals for Australia and what would a similar move cost in this country? Continue reading »
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HAIQING YU. Chinese students in Australia and our responsibility
The discourse on China’s influence in Australia has recently shifted its focus to Chinese students on Australian university campuses. They are seen as pro-Chinese Communist Party nationalists who sing the Chinese national anthem and shout profane abuse at pro-Hong Kong-protest supporters in our universities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Continue reading »
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From little things, big things grow, but problems can arise
In 1984 the number of international students in Australian was minimal and I found Australian University Vice Chancellors very sceptical about encouraging international students to study in Australia .They feared the displacement of Australian students. But in the Department of Trade we pressed on and now there are almost 700 000 international students in Australia. Continue reading »
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Slogans like “those who have a go get a go” are no substitute for rational, coherent policy
The status of Jean Blackburnas one of the finest contributors to Australia’s education policy is confirmed by the recently released biography by Craig Campbell and Debra Hayes covering her life and work. Above all, Jean Blackburn understood the interrelationship between schools and society. Schools both reflect and shape reflect the nation’s broad political, social and Continue reading »