John,

I tried to check out Ontario, but I found the website user-unfriendly, which is what I find with most government websites.

In any case, my argument is not that what you suggest cannot be done, but that it should not be done. It’s like all programs that get elevated to priority one. Other things have to give way, until some years later the No. one priority is made to give way to the new No. one priority. Having eight subjects in a year is not more than the current system. At my school, year 9s had English (9 periods a fortnight), maths (9), history (6 for one semester), geography (6 for one semester), PE (6), science (6), integrated studies (6) and six electives (6 each for one semester each). That makes 13 subjects. Anyway, the year 9s under your idea would only be there half a day and thus have only two subjects in any week.

If a school went to your system for VCE, that would mean a reduction in units, as students currently do 22 over a two-year period.

My objection comes from a lot of thought that I have done about timetabling, what it is meant to achieve and how it can do so. Basic timetabling principles are:
‘1.1 To provide students with a range of educationally valid learning experiences which maximise their learning opportunities.
1.2 To distribute workload across staff in an equitable manner.

‘Allotments should support sound learning principles; i.e.,
they should ensure properly qualified teachers teach in their preferred subject areas,
encourage a team feeling and focus in each subject area,
expose students to a limited number of teachers over the year,
ensure that no class is split between different teachers,
support an even spread of classes between the two weeks,
maximise the number of cases in which teachers in the junior school can double up on their classes.

John,

‘Allotments should fairly distribute workload; i.e., they should
be based on a standardised allotment system that fairly allots all staff,
provide the maximum preparation and correction time consistent with covering the required classes,
limit the number of different classes each teacher has,
limit the difference in a teacher’s load between the two weeks,
provide teachers with a minimum number of different classrooms,
implement our local conditions package for all teachers, except when a specific direction to do otherwise is issued.

‘A timetable should support sound learning principles; i.e., it should as far as possible:
ensure classes are evenly spread over the timetable cycle, both between weeks and among the different periods of the day,
provide appropriate doubles and singles,
allocate specialist classes to specialist rooms,
ensure each class has all lessons for a particular subject in the same room.

‘Year 7 and 8 classes should be taught all subjects not requiring specialist rooms in home rooms.
Classes in blocks should, as far as possible given the limitations of resources, be taught in the same room for each period; where this is not possible, they should be taught in the minimum number of rooms possible.
Teachers should, within the above principles, have the minimum number of different rooms possible.’

My school did move to a four-period day. The teachers voted against doing it, were overruled, believed it was a disaster but were prevented from getting rid of it. I have taught in 40-, 48-, 50-, 60- and 72-minute periods, and I believe that 48-50 is the best, with the proviso that some doubles (96-100) can be included too.

In any case, I do not see why the timetable has to be the same each day to allow students to do things outside of school. The timetables I did were not the same each day, but the VET and VCAL programs had many students doing things outside of school with little disruption to their in-school work and no disruption to the rest of the school.

Chris you mistake units for credits.

In Ontario a credit is 110 hours, there are no half credits except two that must be taken successively resulting in another full 110 hours course.

The units you make mention of in VCE do not amount to that. In Ontario students need at least 30 110 hour courses to graduate high school. That is 3 330 minutes of instruction over four years 9 - 12. I've done the math and that is not what a Victorian student will get from 9 - 12, she/he will get much less, even when you total the units. Same holds specifically in VCE (our 12) Ontario students must take at least 6 110 hour courses to graduate and enter university, that is much more than a VCE student - and we don't finish school early for VCE, a full year for every student in every grade.

John

ps I think we've milked this. Thanks for the interest.

Oops, that's 3 300 hours of instruction over four years...bloody typos.

I don’t believe Australia has a skill’s shortage, but a shortage of men currently employed in their trade.

From what I have seen, men so often leave their trade because they can’t proceed any further in their trade without higher formal qualifications. Without higher formal qualifications, they have a minimal career path.

So after about 10-15 years of working with tools, they leave their trade and look for something else, even if it is owning a newsagency or a milk run.

I have known schools to be pushing boys into apprenticeships as early as possible, and I think this is a growing trend amongst schools, particularly schools that have a feminist agenda and want universities for girls only.

I have also known many tradesmen telling their sons to go as far as they can in their studies before they do a trade. I agree with the tradesmen, and not the schools.