Since 2010, we have known that 44% of Australians are not functionally literate; i.e. they do not have the skills to understand, let alone be critical of, what they are reading.
Is it any wonder that a significant segment of the population cannot identify election misinformation?
Speaking as a former teacher, I maintain, one of the weakest links is the training, recruitment and ongoing up-skilling of teachers.
I worked alongside teachers who thought Captain Cook bought the First Fleet to Australia, and that he personally slaughtered thousands of Indigenous Australians by his own hand.
Also, these days schools are frightened to ask parents to participate in their child’s education. While 20 years ago, encouraging reading and writing at home was a role parents were expected to play, now, any mention of homework literacy is non-enforceable and left to the school. In my experience, those children whose parents truly value education by encouraging literacy at home consistently maintain excellent results.
How can an Australian population critically assess any election material, any news, any political policy, let alone contemplate its consequences, without these basic skills?
Paul Keating’s banana republic is fast becoming a reality.