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 to head up their departments. What return did we get? After all this time, NSW school system is on life support evidenced by the abject failure of this experts’ approach. (more…)
Category: Education
-
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 privatisation of schooling in this country would reach a point where even schools in the private sector begin to sound the alarm. (more…)
-
Is that all there is? A bad deal for government schools
This year’s budget will not set school education alight. It contains too many harsh lights, some bright lights and certain very soft lights. Funding arrangements have endured in the budget that will mean the diminishment of government schools and the expansion of non-government schools. (more…)
-
Universities and the future of humanity
The University Accord has yet to address a future which recognises the huge health and environmental threats to society. It should provide a vision of the university as “A centre of learning to ensure the sustainability of the planet and the human race”. (more…)
-
Is NSW education in for big changes? Let’s hope so
With the NSW election behind us the media is mulling over what Labor has in store for the premier state. The Sydney Morning Herald recently unpacked the agenda of education minister Prue Car. There is much to cheer about, but will she deal with deep-seated problems? (more…)
-
Treatment and support services for gambling harm
For someone who is experiencing gambling harm, either due to their own gambling or someone else’s gambling, finding a quality service is often difficult. (more…)
-
Antisemitism and the IHRA definition
In a positive development, the University of Adelaide has rejected the adoption of the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism, because to adopt it would have been potentially counter to “the principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech”, according to the University Council. (more…)
-
The education challenge facing Labor
On any measure since the mid 1980’s successive governments both Federal and State have progressively destroyed public education systems. (more…)
-
Australia’s China illiteracy has dangerous consequences
The deficiency of Australia’s Asia literacy — and as a subset, China literacy — has been recognised for decades by successive federal governments. Despite government investments to boost Asia literacy, the result has been dismal. (more…)
-
The ‘climate change’ crisis bearing down on schools
Australian education can learn something from climate change. For a long time, people ignored the truth about the climate. We no longer can because the evidence is clear: there is a looming crisis, and we need big structural solutions to enable widespread change and action. (more…)
-
The crisis of academic values and governance in Australian universities
In Australia, public universities face a crisis that threatens the future of this country. (more…)
-
AUKUS and militarising Australia’s universities
In a recent piece by Guardian Australia’s higher education reporter, an academic, who preferred to remain anonymous fearing institutional retribution, likened the modern Australian university to a supermarket. Students were the customers filing through the self-checkout counters; the staff, increasingly rendered irrelevant, were readily disposable. (more…)
-
Parachuted professors
In a who-cares-about-standards world, the appointment of some university professors looks very much like insider trading, secret patronage, and who you know, not what you know. How else to explain appointments as professors of public figures, seemingly agile enough to vault over the usual obstacles straight to the top of the academic hierarchy? (more…)
-
A fizzled campaign to muzzle free speech
Antisemitism, like all forms of racism, is a scourge and Australia has not been immune to it. Traditional antisemitism is not hard to identify or call out whether it is in graffiti, slogans or slurs. However, when it comes to debate over Israel and Palestine, what is or is not antisemitic is a highly political issue. (more…)
-
An education strategy to combat Australia’s “China threat”
In recent years a contemporary China Threat narrative has emerged in Australia and elsewhere related to defence capabilities. An equally important China Threat though, is ignorance. Our knowledge of China and our Chinese communities has declined dramatically over the last thirteen years. How can we combat this threat? (more…)
-
Do universities with medical schools fail on fossil fuels?
The greatest threat to human health is environmental destruction, primarily due to climate change, and worsened by biodiversity loss and pollution. It needs addressing immediately by cooperative action throughout society. (more…)
-
Asian languages education: how did we end up in this mess?
How do we end up with an ALP government stupid enough to sign up for the ludicrous AUKUS proposal and the accompanying bogus, China threat scare? (more…)
-
How can it be that Australia has actually gone backwards in knowledge of China?!
At exactly the same time as proclaimed “experts” from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute are telling us to prepare for war with China within three years or so, people who have done proper research on the situation with China studies are saying our record is disappointing, indeed getting worse, not better. (more…)
-
Australian public universities: for society or for profit?
The Guardian of 3 March 2023 carries a story entitled “Australian university sector makes record $5.3bn surplus while cutting costs for Covid”. The sub-heading states “Department of Education figures reveal all but three universities reporting a surplus, including $1bn for the University of Sydney”. (more…)
-
“Long tail” of COVID-19 impacts disadvantaged Australians’ education most
COVID-19 disproportionately impacts disadvantaged and vulnerable Australians. What does that mean for their engagement in post-secondary vocational education and training (VET)? (more…)
-
The Labor Essayists: Chalmers, Rudd and the failing market of schools
There are echoes of Kevin Rudd’s 2009 essay in Jim Chalmers recent tome. Themes of social justice, equity and fairness still resonate. But this time around, Labor needs to think beyond the lofty ideas to confront what it all means for Australia’s schools. (more…)
-
Neo-colonial dreams: Australia eyes the Indian education market
Over the last week or so, Australian politicians and representatives of the university sector got busy pressing flesh in India, hoping to open avenues that have largely remained aspirational. It was timed to coincide with G20 talks in New Delhi, which has seen a flurry of contentious meetings traversing security, economics and education, all taking place in the shadow of the Ukraine War. (more…)
-
Seeing university reform through an ethical lens
The current review of Australia’s higher education sector, the Australian Universities Accord (the Accord), aims ‘to drive lasting and transformative reform in Australia’s higher education system’. We propose that this review be undertaken through an ethical lens. (more…)
-
The silicosis epidemic – a symptom of wider regulatory failure
The epidemic of silicosis amongst tradespeople working with manufactured stone was predictable, preventable, and an illustration of a broken OHS system across NSW and the rest of Australia. (more…)
-
The death of Hong Kong?
In 1996, I was offered an untenured post in the department of philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. What made the offer particularly attractive is that I could live in a large subsidised flat on Hong Kong Island, with a balcony overlooking the ocean. The main reason I was offered such beautiful accommodation, I came to realise, is that I am a white man from Canada. (more…)
-
Shocking Inequity in NSW school outcomes and funding
The latest NAPLAN results show shocking inequalities in school outcomes between highly advantaged and disadvantaged students in NSW. (more…)
-
School reform: shift the deck chairs, forget about the ship
The school year has started with the usual flurry of excitement about new policies and reforms, but flaws in the structure of Australia’s school system still aren’t on any agenda. (more…)
-
Belling the cat in NSW private schools
NSW needs a government prepared to bell the cat when it comes to the ongoing provision of public funding to grossly over-resourced private schools. Funds provided on the grounds of assumed entitlement are funds diverted from distribution according to demonstrated need. (more…)
-
Did China ban online education?
According to Australian news sources, 40,000 Chinese students are being forced to rush back to Australia incurring many thousands of dollars in costs, face difficult times finding accommodation and it’s all China’s fault. (more…)
