There is a looming crisis of growing special needs requirements and threatened council bankruptcies, according to a damning new report by MPs
education
John Frew’ s recent essay asserts that public schools are increasingly burdened with students facing complex challenges while private schools lure more desirable students with questionable claims of better academic outcomes and stricter discipline. As a principal of 20 years, I must disagree with Frew’s depiction of public schools as a “toxic environment in which Continue reading »
Announced by the incoming Labor government, the University Accord process and review is being touted as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine the role and funding of Australia’s 40-plus universities. With 1.5 million students enrolled, including 500,000 international students, and generating $35 billion in revenue, universities have been struggling in the wake of COVID-19. Andrew Norton, Continue reading »
There is a belief widely held across the Western world: Chinese students are schooled through rote, passive learning – and an educational system like this can only produce docile workers who lack innovation or creativity. We argue this is far from true. A repost from November 05, 2024 In fact, the Chinese education system is Continue reading »
A more robust analysis by the commission might have yielded different priorities or recommendations for childcare. The Productivity Commission’s report, A Path to Universal Early Childhood Education and Care, presents detailed information and a range of studies supporting universal early childhood education and care (ECEC). However, there are significant issues with its analytical framework and recommendations, Continue reading »
Over the last 10,000 years or so societies have evolved from relatively simple and loosely structured groups of people to the complex entities of the present nation-states (and even a nascent world society), but in this time period the human being, as an organism, has not changed significantly. So, what has changed? The interaction between Continue reading »
Lyndsay Connors (Pearls and Irritations, 14 November 2024) takes issue with my argument that the Commonwealth should get out or be pushed out of schooling. The argument for a Commonwealth exit is this: – By just about every indicator Australian schooling has been on the slide for at least 20 years, despite the Rudd/Gillard governments’ Continue reading »
As you may have noticed, the Government has announced changes to student loans and debts, subject (eyeroll) to their re-election. Tick; even the Greens are taking credit. But, and here’s the but, they do little about how the current system, and I am moderating my language for publication, screws over students by burdening them with Continue reading »
Hysteria around Labour's VAT on private schools and inheritance tax on farms are not the existential threats they've been made out to be in the press
The changes to Tertiary Education funding announced by the Prime Minister last weekend, mostly benefit former students. Arguably there are other higher priorities to restore the funding of higher education and remove anomalies in the fees charged. Last week started badly for Albanese with allegations about his Qantas upgrades, which he took too long to Continue reading »