Otokonoko,

"it would be good to see education receiving a fixed share of GDP"

That’s actually a very good idea. If the education system can boost productivity, then the education system gets more money.

The education system would have to work with the country, and not be a constant drain on the economy.

Unfortunately, there is less and less chance of the education system boosting productivity, with maths and science now at critical levels, and the level of innumeracy and illiteracy in the workforce at quite high levels. Added to this is the constant importation of almost everything the education system uses, and the education system is not helping the country in the slightest.

@vanna, “Added to this is the constant importation of almost everything the education system uses, and the education system is not helping the country in the slightest.”

I just want to be a bit pedantic about the last part of that statement about the education system not helping. I consider myself a harsh critic of the education system, but on this issue, I can’t blame them, but governments of all political persuasions in the past 30 years, and our social expectations.

Firstly governments…education and health have always been political footballs with differing governments favouring one sector or the other, but raping one to feed to the other, creating inconsistencies in funding and the inability for administrators to plan ahead further than a government change.

Our social expectations…there’s a multitude of things that have changed, some of which include;

*We don’t like to grade “A’s” and “B’s” because we are concerned about the feelings of the students that gain lower grades;

*We don’t like the word “competition”, for it shouldn’t be about competition. It certainly shouldn’t be that way, but hey! Welcome to the real world, it’s a competitive rat-race out there. Better to get used to that fact in school, than be disenchanted when you’re an adult. It’s called “growing up”; which also happens to mean growing-up emotionally, and being able to accept that you are not the best at something, or everything or anything, but it’s all about striving for personal improvement, not whether Freddy is brighter than Johnny. The world needs social workers just as it needs quantum physicists.

*Everyone screams rights, with only a few speaking of responsibilities;

*The abolishing of corporal punishment. I’m not entering into debate about its pro’s or con’s, just noting the change amongst many others;

*Political correctness…we’re creating a society of litigation-crazy wusses that are precious, but more than able to meat-out their own form of financial terrorism, should you happen to look at them the wrong way;

TBC...

*The Internet has been the greatest tool to disinformation and propaganda in human history;

*The need for both parents to be in the workforce, combined with the technology available, has made nanny’s out of TV, video/DVD and computers…we’re breeding the characters of day-time soap operas and box-office crap. And add to that the amount of homes that have TV’s in the kid’s bedrooms;

*Computers and VCR’s/DVD’s in bedrooms have made us isolationists. The family unit of 4, for example, is now more so than in the past, 4 individual and alone units, not a unit of 4 components. Not a family of 4, but 4 people with the same surname living under the one roof, but living different lives. It’s not all, but it’s far more common, and becoming more and more common;

*And in the past 9-10 years, the combination of 9/11, the GFC and Sub-Prime Loan fiasco, has made the social focus on security and economic rationale, not on the staples of health and education that have been raped to feed the former mentioned.

The education system is a victim of our governments and of our own collective social lowering of expectations…we expect politicians to lie and break promises, we expect built-in redundancy and to up-grade…that nothing will last a month past its warranty. How can we possibly expect “tradition” or consistency when we expect change and shoddy workmanship? We make no demands of government to stop making health and education political footballs, so how can we expect them to stop doing that? We’re too busy arguing over a NBN to download our porn quicker!! That money can be far better spent! It’s BS. It’s a distraction.

As I have said, make health and education a percentage of GDP that gets reviewed every 5 years, or something of that nature, and allow administrators to plan ahead. But it’s up to us as the public to voice this demand and voice it loud!

Johnj,

I will NOT name the school at which I used to work, as I have a right to maintain a degree of anonymity on line. That doesn't make what I say 'rubbish'. There are quite a few state schools in Queensland with pools, including Springwood State High School and Wishart State School in Brisbane and Kirwan State High School in Townsville. It should be noted that neither of the high schools listed is a 'school of privilege': SSHS draws 53% of its students from the bottom quarter of the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (according to ACARA's MySchool website) while KSHS draws 72% from the bottom quarter. My point is simple: there are very well-resourced state schools and poorly-resourced private schools. There are also poorly-resourced state schools and well-resourced private schools. To draw a distinction between state and private as a boundary between opportunity and lack thereof is simply unfounded. One needs only to look at Brisbane State High School ("State High" to those in the know) to see that its facilities, resource and socio-economic catchment outshine almost every private school in Queensland.

There is at least one other public high school in central QLD that has a pool. It also has air-conditioning in every room, and carpets on the floor in many rooms.

The marks of the students at this school are mediocre, with boys marks probably below national average.

Interestingly, it doesn’t have a hat or sunglass policy, yet it is located in what is called the “Skin cancer capital of the world”, as the town has the highest rates of skin cancer of any town in the world. No one in the school seems to care about this.

Grade 10 science students at this school were being taught without a textbook, and had to rely on hand written notes from the teacher. One teacher with a thick Scottish accent. The students couldn’t understand the teacher, and seldom could they read his hand written notes.

The Biology master actually told grade 11 students that he wouldn’t recommend that they do biology, because the biology teachers couldn’t understand the curriculum, and didn’t know what they were supposed to be teaching.

The school was notoriously feminist, and the English teachers named the grade 12 Shakespeare subject “Just Dead White Males” not realizing this would be highly offensive and off-putting to the male students.

This public school was awash with government money, but the above would be some of the reasons why parents in the town choose to send their children elsewhere.

Gosh MC we don't always agree but I do wholeheartedley on your education analysis so I won't repeat the esentails of your already well articulated argument.

We stopped being about education when we got into competition between schools and then to top it off later on the corporatisation of the tertiary sector.

It is dressed up as quality assurance and only serves to futher disadvantage schools in lower-socio economic areas and there are far better ways to ensure funding to those disadvantaged schools and where there is a greater need for assistance for teachers dealing with large class sizes and remedial demands.