Keep up your good work Kevin. I suspect that the corner has been turned and that OBE will thankfully be eased out over the next decade or so. Unfortunately a lot of young people, including my grandchildren will have suffered as the result of their experience with it.

Most people do not understand OBE and this is obvious from many of the posts on this site.

In effect in OBE learning objectives have been rewritten. Traditionally they were almost exclusively about academic matters. In the OBE model the objectives (called outcomes) are a combination of social, behavioural and attitudinal matters tacked on to academic matters. Having broadened the objectives it is only common sense to conclude that less attention will be given to academic matters, leading to academic dumbing down. This is what has happened. In terms of things academic, young people know less and can do less. It is a deadful shame.

But there is hope. Far more people are coming to understand the flaws in OBE and politically the message is getting through that it needs to be put aside and replaced by a curriculum model that maximises academic standards.

As a student who has had to live through this crazy educational experiment I must say Kevin is spot on. It's sad that educational theory is never decided on results but rather philosophy. I mean its just a way of writing the syllabus and people still get narky about it, its just easier to tell teachers what they need to teach.

I have taught in Government High Schools in the ACT for nearly 15 years now, and I am irresistably drawn to the conclusion that OBE is wrong.
I note that the ACT has the most advanced forms of OBE in Australia and that the ACT also has an enormous drift from the Government to the (largely non-OBE) Private sector - so much so that no less than 39 Government preschools and schools are currently listed by the ACT Legislative Assembly for closure and/or amalgamation. That's a lot of schools for a population not much bigger than that of Geelong in Victoria!
I now work in a predominently non-OBE model school with an enrolment waiting list (!) - it would appear that educated parents are voting with their feet. Even in "OBE-speak" two plus two does indeed equal four.
My OBE students at my previous school had not been taught to read independently beyond "functional literacy", whereas my current school's "traditional academic curriculum" students are taught not only to read Shakespeare, but perform and interpret it as well (not to mention the fact that they could also write basal readers if required).
We are paying a very, very heavy cost for OBE in the ACT Government sector.
My poor students from my last school were robbed; they should have been taught to read and write - OBE is educational poison to be avoided at all costs.
TAC.

Well said TAC and Ace.

The more people become informed the sooner this OBE experiment can be done away with and replaced by something that values strong academic standards.

I am a fan of outcomes as a concept, but will concede that their implementation has been less than perfect. If we think of outcomes as a minimum standard - what we want students to achieve - then surely they serve as useful guidelines for students when constructing their assignments, as well as benchmarks for teachers when assessing them? There is still a place for criteria-based assessment, but the criteria assess the extent to which the students have achieved a certain outcome.

I think education has always had outcomes, but in the past they have often been implicit rather than explicit. Teachers knew what they wanted their students to achieve - and knew what the state wanted their students to achieve - but this wasn't always laid out clearly in a simple statement.

Thus the problem may not lie with OBE as a whole, but with the outcomes themselves and with the way schools implement them in their curriculum. I am the first to admit that the outcomes in QLD's Junior SOSE Syllabus are terrible. Trying to piece a work program together that recognises the world beyond Asia-Pacific is nearly impossible. But I don't blame the Outcomes system for that - I blame the outcomes themselves. When the next OBE syllabus comes out, hopefully it will have a broader-reaching focus and will allow me to include a wider scope in my courses. But I, for one, hope that the next syllabus DOES have outcomes in it.

• Saintfletcher ..."What we-still-have is the old 'moratorium-system' from Victorian-times, that is, cram-the-rooms with as-many-bodies as-possible, shove-them-in, then push-them-out as-fast-as possible with-minimum-expense. Scrutiny-is be-placed on the teacher constantly, and lengthy-reports from-this-huge group-of-students have-to-be presented-to the Principal. That-is-how the NSW Education System functions now. Everyone knows-that-something has-gone-wrong with-this-pretention of an OBE system. Most-of-all, the teachers themselves".

Yeah, where-a-fair teacher's award should be: YOU TEACH PROPERLY AND YOU WILL KEEP YOUR JOB"! Contrary elders-of-zion sought-plotted-outcomes! Where-so-profoundly hand-picked damn-kosher-gurus are conditioned to perplex elementary-schooling and rigorously monitor-universities-buffer, at-the-great-cost to the civil society. Where one may-be-excused for having dejected-perception at-times of being just-an-alien visitor from some-distant-planet. Thus having-to-face a user-pay consequences. Which must-be contemptible for the conscientious-citizens within a country where ensuing generations of youngsters grow and proceed into the adulthood without having a single elevated role-model. Someone to-look up-to (as our maverick Mark Latham), towards the impending achievements to-come.

Still-a-lone voiced Professor-Messel, vocally protested over the years against the rampant rot-n-ruin within our educational establishment. In-turn to-be bucketed with lots-of-filth, coming from the connived-zionist-quarters. Countered by a typical his commentary ... The tall-poppy syndrome is a major deterrent-to-excellence in Australia. We're the greatest-group of the knockers in the world. If we put-as-much effort into-being positive and supporting things as-we-knocking, there would be no-nation-equal-us. The state-schools were in-chaos and allowed the students who could-not-even-read, to-graduate.

What I have to say, will undoubtedly-be-disputed vigorously by many people. And especially the radical, liberal-education-reformists. They been-successful-beyond their wildest dreams so that today even the slow-learners graduate with-near-credit or distinction letters-of-commendation from their teachers. The fact that, in-some-instances a student can't even-read what the teacher wrote, appears to-be of-little-consequence. Chaos seems to-be the ruling-system while our educationalists keep boasting about what-excellent-results they have-been-achieving.

The university degrees becoming less-n-less meaningful. As it now often-indicates roughly that the student has-achieved a knowledge-level equivalent to that, what should-have-been achieved by the end of high-school. The education standards were plummeting, because-cultural-change in Western-Society was destroying the family unit. Which meant children-no-longer got loving-care, attention-and-discipline. I'm fighting for something of the vital-concern to Australia.

For an-eye-opener proceed to Socrates principle exposé ... http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=4632#46140