Governments have fostered a sense of entitlement in private schools. They should be enforcing the principle of putting students first. (more…)
Category: Education
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Government is contorting itself on overseas students
High student visa refusal rates and extreme fee increases are blunt, haphazard tools for cutting net migration. Australia needs a long-term migration plan it can explain and defend. (more…)
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Why teachers sometimes disagree with the evidence
There is a gap between research and the schoolroom. It can be bridged by creating a reciprocal relationship between knowledge and practice. (more…)
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The bamboo ceiling: Australia’s business failure in Asia
Australia’s parochial company boards are failing to equip themselves for Asia. This is a major barrier to developing our potential in the region and improving productivity. (more…)
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Education reform must fix the system, not just the funding
Australia’s education debate must move beyond funding and sector structure to confront a deeper governance problem: school systems that measure constantly but fail to learn from teachers, principals and communities. (more…)
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Public education needs a level playing field to flourish
Australia’s school system will remain unfair while private schools can combine public funding, fees and selective enrolment practices, and a common framework is needed to give public education a genuinely level playing field. (more…)
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China fear is weakening Australian research
Australia needs to manage research security risks, but exaggerating the threat of collaboration with China could weaken national security by cutting Australian science off from leading researchers, global expertise and crucial STEM talent. (more…)
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Don’t destroy public education in the name of reform
Save Our Schools rejects the idea that fully funding private schools would achieve equity. What is needed is proper support for public education. (more…)
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The students we aren’t seeing
Displaced Palestinians are seeking ways to continue their education. These aspirations need to be part of the screening process, which has become too focussed on risk. (more…)
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The real question in school funding is where the money goes
Australia’s school funding debate has focused on headline spending figures while obscuring whether resources counted toward the Schooling Resource Standard are actually reaching classrooms, students and support staff.
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Australia needs a new model of higher education built around equity
Advances in digital technology make it possible to rethink higher education around equity rather than geography, cost and institutional prestige, with a distributed university model offering broader access to learning and research.
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More than 1 in 3 Australian adults are functionally illiterate
Australians spend more money per capita on education than most comparable nations. We should therefore have high levels of literacy but we don’t, with persistent levels of functional illiteracy among Australian adults. There is evidence to show how to fix this. (more…)
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Antisemitism is rising and we’re not being honest about why
For years, the response to antisemitism has been predictable: more education, awareness campaigns and structured teaching designed to help people recognise antisemitism when it appears; Holocaust remembrance. These tools are no longer enough because they are not fully engaging with the world people are actually reacting to now. (more…)
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Why at-risk children keep falling through the net
Child protection and research systems rely on the presence of a functioning parent, leaving many of the most vulnerable children unseen and unsupported. (more…)
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Australia has a teacher shortage – and an untapped workforce
Australia faces acute teacher shortages, yet thousands of qualified migrant teachers remain underemployed due to systemic barriers to entry.
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Australia’s school system is driving inequality – not fixing it
Australia’s school system has become a self-reinforcing cycle of inequality, and without structural reform, the divide between advantaged and disadvantaged students will continue to widen.
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No one likes the Job-ready Graduate scheme – so why does it still exist?
The architect of the HECS scheme Bruce Chapman, says economists agree, the Job-ready Graduate scheme is bad economics. (more…)
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Job-ready Graduates has failed – a first step to fixing it is on the table
The Job-ready Graduates reforms have increased student debt, failed to shift enrolments, and entrenched inequality across Australia’s higher education system. (more…)
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Does AI mean more uni students are plagiarising their work?
Long-term research suggests student plagiarism has declined over two decades, despite concerns about AI. But more than half of students still engage in it at some point.
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School funding is undermining equality and cohesion
Australia’s school funding model is widening inequality and weakening public education. Without reform, it risks undermining social cohesion, productivity and democratic stability. (more…)
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When charity no longer means need
Australia’s charitable framework now rewards compliance over need, allowing well-resourced institutions and contested activities to sit alongside genuine relief of disadvantage.
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Half the truth: defending public education requires more honesty, not less
Criticism of public schools is not entirely wrong – but by ignoring unequal conditions, it misdiagnoses the problem and misplaces responsibility.
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Underfunded public schools, overfunded private ones – the gap grows
Private schools are pulling further ahead as funding policies deepen inequality across Australia’s education system. (more…)
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Bill Shorten’s university proposal breaks the deadlock – but design will decide its value
Bill Shorten’s proposal for a university fund tackles a long-standing funding problem – but its impact will depend on how it is designed and delivered.
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Prevention that pays: stop ranking children and start understanding them
Standardised testing and rankings dominate school systems, but improving student wellbeing and engagement requires deeper integration between education and health support. (more…)
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The Albanese controversy shows how universities have lost their way
A cancelled venue for a UN rapporteur’s appearance highlights how universities are increasingly restricting debate about Israel and Palestine under pressure over antisemitism.
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Abbott’s finger pointing on overseas students is pure hypocrisy
Tony Abbott blames record numbers of temporary residents and international students on recent governments. But policy changes introduced and maintained under his own leadership played a central role in driving that growth.
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Regions, not postcodes: the structural reality of rural public education
Educational disadvantage in Australia is often framed as urban or socioeconomic. But across regional and remote communities, public schools operate with structurally thin staffing, services and support – and the consequences are cumulative. (more…)
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Universities expose racism’s scale – and the dangers of unequal responses
New national data shows racism is widespread across Australian universities. The challenge is responding fairly, without elevating one community’s suffering over another’s. (more…)
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How elite private schools distort Australia’s teaching workforce
Fees charged by elite private schools go on rising. But who is paying the price? (more…)