Shrashen: By their fruits ye shall know them, and the fruits of whole of language learning is quite massively increased illiteracy; and Australia falling further and further behind our international peers, in the world of education; but particularly, in science!
Yes sure, one needs numeracy in science.
But given English is the international language of science and or commerce, it is as at least as important as excellent maths, for whole of life best scenario outcomes.
Most of the defenders of whole of language learning miss the most important point, which is our kids and the whole of life outcomes for them!
Our currently very flawed teaching systems, (fundamentally flawed intellectual concepts) imposes on our kids some shocking and entirely unnecessary whole of life, ultra-negative outcomes.
US studies show, kids who leave school as illiterates or semi literate, as the first visible consequence of flawed teaching systems, form the major part of our prison populations?
They form the minor percentage of home owners, but the major part of the working poor!
And we have to stop just shrugging our shoulders, or blocking our ears and singing la la la to ourselves, in the face of very constructive criticism, merely to defended a thoroughly disgraced intellectual concept.
We need to accept our responsibility for outcomes, rather than continue to whitewash or paper over the principle causative factors!
Some highly opinionated Professors think it's all about them?
And to them I say, no it's not!
The central issue here is our kids, their futures, and the best possible outcome, (and the best bang for our bucks) for them!
No private sector enterprise would accept the current results, without some very high profile heads rolling!
Rhrosty.

The central issue here is our kids, their futures, and the best possible outcome, (and the best bang for our bucks) for them!
Rhosty,
So it SHOULD be but it isn't. The most efficient way to dumb down potential future consumers & make them extremely profitable is to let them pass exames, give them good points & drum into them that because they have certificates they're just so above everyone else. This is how they became the burden that they're now. Unfortunately, they've applied the same system in the public service where it has been fine-tuned as the Peter Principle.
I have senior managers from that fallout & working under these morons has to be akin to living in a war zone. The frustrations are extreme. It's all due to our education system.

While there are exceptions, English is estimated to be 84 percent phonetic. One letter may be off, but the word is mostly predictable. And the other roughly 16 percent are not that far off when things like word origin are taken into account. It is estimated that only four percent of English words are truly irregular. After being very unhappy with the answers from their teachers about the methodology teaching how to read, I taught both my daughters to read using phonics and the Hay-Wingo books. It took around two years and I regard it as one of the most important things I have ever done.

I was with MacTiernan right up to, at the end: "It is time for federal intervention. The states have shown an inability to address this problem."

Eh? Where did that conclusion come from, exactly? Particularly when, only a couple of paragraphs earlier, the problem was identified as "higher-education providers of education...still puddling around in post-modernist claptrap"

And who oversees the higher education sector? The FEDERAL government! Accordingly, on this basis it's the states that should be taking back management of universities!