The best teachers are the ones that can take something as boring as maths and turn it into an stimulating and interesting fun time.
Rhosty,
Who needs best teachers when just teachers would suffice. It's not about the best it's about having teachers in the first place instead of lurk & perk chasers.

Poirot, no nation can afford to only depend on parental interest for the success of the next generation. It is not just about anything as reasonable as the 'rights' of each child for equal opportunity, but simply that we pay for education, through our taxes, and therefore have a right to expect a high quality resource, as in human resource, in an educated population.

The wealth of any nation lies first and foremost in the citizens. Nothing happens without humans doing what needs to be done. From digging stuff out of the Earth, to building houses and bridges, to coming up with new innovations and solutions, to providing governance.

We cannot afford to ignore the consequences of an increasing number of poorly educated Australians.

Hi, Elephant-in-Room here,

Immigration plus women being allowed to have more than one child are creating a population RATE increase. This is why education is failing, along with health, roads, policing, no go suburbs(Auburn) and local government services. Too many newcomers getting politically motivated handouts for overcrowding run-down suburbs and services. Newcomers who kiss-butt politicians while sneering at the taxpaying Australians(Skippys) whose tax pays for their upgraded lives and whose blood sweat and tears paid for the now hopelessly inadequate infrastucture (schools in this case) they so disgracefully take for granted.

Yet the benificiaries of this stupidity, Politicians and mass marketeers like all the fat cat CEOs pulling adds off Jonesy, butt-licking migrants, and multi-baby bonused-up-the-yazoo women think this form of DICTATORSHIP is somehow a wold class democracy.

Well, these emperors in new clothes are stark naked in their Greineresque disregard for decency and human values is OUTED.

The net result is that Australia, despite all the media propaganda that is needed to keep Autralian governments in safe power HAS and will continue to go backwards in education and all other quality of life standards.

To move away from this abrogation of the spirit of demaocracy, Several things must be done:

1. Vote incumbent governments out at every election till the penny drops that this is NOT a bloody dictatorship and that vote rigging via immigration and baby bonusing will NO longer be tolerated

2. All migrants living in Capital cities must pay $300,000 infrastructure levies in a HECS style payment scheme.

3. Women who have had more than one child will no longer get bonuses a nor be able to vote, thus negating the EASY return of pro-pop self serving dictatorial governments.

Without these measures, anyone concerned about future education standards is hereby WARNED:

THIS ISSUE IS NOTHING BUT A POLITICAL FOOTBALL and you will die before any improvements are made.

I lived in Finland in the late 60s. Coming from the UK the contrast in the standards of educational outcomes were stark. Check out girls in supermarkets speaking fluent English and no, they were not Univ students trying to make some money.

The Finns as a nation give great emphasis and reverence to education. I cannot say that about Australia.

What the hell has this got to do with left right politics?

Disappointing to see the discussion deteriorating into the old class warfare, interestingly, by the conservatives.

Put simply we need to look at all options re education reform, not just US and UK, who perform less well than OZ. There are systems using different approaches to standardisation that are porforming better then us, let's not be too quick to dismiss them, as both sides of politics seem to be doing.

The coach of a football team is unlikely to follow the methods used by a team that is well below it on the table. It will look above. So let's do just that. Rather than the public private debate (yawn) lets look at what makes them tick and what gives them better outcomes for all kids.

Yvonne,

You posed the question as to why private schools enjoyed better outcomes than public schools even though they both employed the same curriculum.

I replied that from my perspective the reason was likely to be attitudes within the home environment.

I'll add here, that for society to dismiss parental/home influences - and influences in general beyond the school gates - as superfluous and of little weight, is one that will fail to fully round its next generation.