When all is said and done, much more is said than done.

For federal labor to change the system, the first thing it needs to do is read the riot act to the teacher unions.

The one thing the unions hate is measurement of performance as measured poor performance precipitates action. The introduction of measured school performance will leave many parents asking "why are my kids getting a substandard education compared to other schools"

This will also call into question the seniority based promotion system where the incompetent float to the top and the young stars leave in desperation for either the private system or industry.

I think Julia Gillard might have the b*lls that Kevin 747 lacks to pull it off.

In 2010 we will see whether the change promised by labor means reform or different faces in charge of the same system.

The education revolution is needed and on so many levels. Nationally we need to have a more careful look at how education is organised, administered, funded and accessed and the focus of this must be to improve our education outcomes for all people in the community. As a teacher, I for one am tired of the wheel being reinvented with new jargon and buzz words replacing what good operators know works. I look forward to a exciting national discussion about learning and how to reignite the awe that learning should spark in schools. For my mind the first (and probably most complex) thing is to arrive at an agreed national curriculum which allows some appropriate movement for engagement and innovation. Assessment is crucial but we need to be logical about how, when and why we do it and the purpose should be to assess where the student, teacher and school are going: this is a beautifully complex relationship which needs to be done with skill and care. Education is an on-going process not an end-point and with this in mind, any 'education revolution' needs also to look the increasingly financially exclusive domain of university education.

There is no revolution except in the Govt's management of the media and publicity machine. Its now all about what story they can spin not what is actually done. Catchphrases, promises about a brighter tomorrow, blaming Howard and the Liberals for lack of progress, War against everything, publishing documentation of their "achievements" after 100 days and 1 year. Its all bluff and bluster. Unfortunately, if you say Education Revolution enough a computer will magically appear in front of each and every child in Australia. Apparently not.

I have to agree with Atman's comments that education departments are now basically marketing machines producing feel good stories and statistics when in fact basic public education in this country is going into (perhaps) irreversible decline. I tutor at university (science) and my partner teaches a trade at TAFE.

The problems that I have encountered in what should be pretty basic literacy and numeracy skills (not being able to construct a graph to use to interpret results, not being able to write clear sentences that describe a process) amongst some undergraduate students need to be seen to be believed.

Trades teaching is worse, with students behaving so poorly as to compromise safety and the bar set so low that machining apprentices no longer know basic trigonometry; they are ticked off after getting a basic question right (so called 'competency-based' training), but they are never asked to comprehensively show their understanding. Worse still, many of the so-called 'new apprentices' will never complete lengthy in class training, instead they will be 'RPL'd' (recognition of prior learning) if they can show they have held down a job that may have passing resemblance to the so-called 'competencies' that represent the watered-down trade qualification.

The sad thing is that these kids have been passed from grade to grade, told they were doing just fine and would be fine to pass into the world of adult responsibilities and rights. No one can do fine if they do not know how to calculate a percentage or effectively use written english. These kids are ripe for exploitation. Not only that they have missed out on the enrichment that only reading and the development of the intellect can bring - sad.

The degradation of education is due to both left (kids don't need discipline and phonics they just need love and self-esteem and to learn how to read by osmosis) and right (education is for cost cutting and the occasional ideological battleground isn't it? and the parents who vote for us send their kids to private schools anyway). It leaves me with no major party left to vote for.

If there was to be a genuine revolution in education, these things would happen: parents would be trusted to make choices for their children; funding would be directed to children rather than schools and teachers; funding would be strongly biased in favour of the least disadvantaged; and all schools including Government schools would need to be registered by an independent body, as is now the case in Victoria, and those which fail to meet the standards would be de-registered.

This would dramatically reduce the public-private debate and place the responsibility for school choice with parents, who could then choose whether high fee, low fee or no fee schools were appropriate for their children. Their choices would be made, of course, on the basis of full disclosure of school performance. The time for over staffed Education Departments to 'manage' school education should have passed long ago.

Chandralekha

Thank you for pertinent observations in relation to assessment in schools. Having put 5 children through the school system in the past 20 years it is glaringly obvious that achievement levels are being set ridiculously low. We are all pretending that our children are making progress but we are deceiving ourselves!
As you point out, on leaving school many of our children still cannot write well enough to make themselves understood. It is appalling!

Fortunately for our teachers this appears to be a world-wide trend and our children remain 'above average' when compared internationally. That is poor consolation for the children who cannot read or write.

When it comes time to 'measure' the performance of schools will anyone be surprised if the 'bar' for public schools happens to be set very low? All that will be achieved by this will be to make education an even bigger political football than it already is!