What Chris Golis should have told us but did not is that Singapore reformed its education system around 2003-04. That system along with others in Asia has since outperformed Australia's - a point mentioned in the recent Gonski report. I was also initially sceptical that the comparison was across cultural boundaries and had to do with rote leaning, but it is not so.. below is the link to the Grattan Institute report.. Thre were a number of reforms but the reprot speaks with more authority..

http://www.grattan.edu.au/pub_page/129_report_learning_from_the_best.html

"Entry scores into university courses are determined by demand Pelican - part of the KPI's that the tertiary and vocational sectors have learned to work by. The better the course, the greater demand and so the higher the entry score. The more students, the higher the score, the greater the funding that the university receives."

Understanding the current modus operandi Tartarus, and acknowledging these factors cannot be necessarily tackled in isolation, perhaps in a holistic approach there needs to be questions about the current commerical model under which universities operate.

But that aside, if the salaries of teachers are raised as an acknowledgment of the value placed on the profession surely that will increase demand.

The fact Singers performs better than Oz probably only has a little to do with how Oz teachers are performance managed compared with those in Singers. By far the greatest factor is the lower emphasis of Australian curricula in the areas measured internationally and flavour of the week new-wave teaching approaches, both forced upom teachers by the educrats and the politicians they advise/control.

"Good" teachers in Australia are defined as those that adhere to the the curricula and methodoligies set down by educrats who, with odd exceptions, couldn't teach a pig to be dirty.

To quote: 'The school had rapidly grown over the past two years and to the relief of the board and investors looked like breaking even in the New Year with the promise of substantially increased enrolments.'

That sounds to me like a school that's doing very well. So what was the point of letting a a few judgmentally loaded questions make the school board feel that both the teachers and students are just a bunch of underachievers?

Nowhere in this article was there a single thought given to the students - who have a right to a childhood. Looks like no time for that in this galloping education production line. And no time for teachers to enjoy their jobs with the perpetual threat of being one of the automatic 10% booted out each year hanging over their heads.

And for what? So that politicians can do a bit of boasting that the national grades average has climbed a few percentage points? Or that this year we beat the country that was just above us last year?

We're already wasting billions on an education system dominated by very expensive and time-consuming skills testing that keeps confusing education with the Olympic Games. This wastage bleeds money away from the much needed funds to support comfortable school environments, adequate resources, decent teacher salaries and smaller class sizes.

Killarney,

Spot on!

It's chilling in the extreme to realise that children (being the raw material) and their educators are reduced to being compared with funds and their managers.

Is there nothing to be said for a child's humanity - or does the sleekness of a system override all other considerations?

Singapore is a Low Entropy, High free energy, Highly ordered environment because of its proximity to 5000 years of culture to its North and Equatorial Sun to its South and a combination of the best that the Indian and Pacific Basins can offer.

The Education component takes care of itself. Free energy is supreme in human development both mentally and physically.

Australia has enemies to It's North, a frozen pole to its south and the worst of the trade winds from Pacific and Indian ocean basins.
Australia's Free Energy is locked up in 5-7Km deep Earth geological heat reservoirs at a minimum of 800Deg C.

Until Australia can unlock 100% of its primary energy needs from those Geothermal vaults, NOTHING you can do will change the education standards of Australians compared with Singaporeans.

What you are up against: "Jeez mate don't go waltzin the Matilda with us, get yer footy boots on and hit a coupla sixes and come on Aussie come on!"

Its all about Physics and Entropy. Ah Entropy! The only place I've ever felt it in Australia is walking at twilight around the Moore Reserve Wetlands at Kogarah Municipality in Sydney. Maybe you could build a school there!

Intelligence is ultimately environmental in nature and Australia's Environment is pussy-whipped, industrially and agricultrally Fcuked and politically betrayed at the drop of a hat. Even the UN has us in its bad-guy sights.