Simply throwing money at a problem like education is only one part of the solution, as student participation is also of most importance, and good luck with that.

While emerging nations are pouring money into education, I would suggest it's fair to say that their students, on the whole, are better disciplined and far more committed than a large portion of our students.

Perhaps it's time we segregated our public schools, into the students that show determination and 100% commitment and those who really don't care and treat school more as a social event, rather than an education source, evidence being in the constant attachment they have to the likes of face book.

So, before we go throwing money away, perhaps we need to address the social problems which are much of the cause of our drop in our education standards, as pouring money into anything, without plugging the holes really represents poor value for the tax payers dollars.

If we think the likes of India and China are going to take our future jobs, we are right, but it's also about attitudes, as much as it's about funding, as students today know their rights, and teachers are all but powerless to make them do anything they don't want to do.

Gosh, rehctub, your middle-class puritanism knows no bounds.

What a great idea!

It'll be just like back in the good 'ol 1800's.

We could have one section for the "Jumped-up Petite Bourgeois" and another for the "Ragamuffins".

So your idea of addressing "social problems" is to ignore the basis of the problem and penalise the children by segregating one bunch into no-hopers and the other into "kids worth bothering about"?

What a good recipe for social cohesion and advancement.

Amazing!

Well, maybe it is 'middle class puritanism' Poirot. But I have to say that the Aussie attitude to education is surely a big part of the problem, and one rarely discussed. I'd be interested in seeing what teachers actually think about that, especially in high schools.

My own experience after raising four kids and actually knowing several teachers is that the attitude to learning is a major issue. Hells Bells, it was like that when I was at school too.

When parents raise their children with a desire to learn and to do well in life, and schools back that up, you will often see children who strive to achieve. But it seems to me this is increasingly not the case.

And when you add in the counter productive influence of social media, television (the great mediocrotiser) and social attitudes, well, I am afraid all the money in the world won't make it better. As well the crazy notions in schools now that everyone is meant to 'feel good' regardless of how crap they are and well...

lefties always need more and more money because its usually their failed dogmas that create the problems such as in education. Everyone knows its dysfunctional homes that leads to disadvantage and yet the lefties have been trying to destroy functional homes for decades. Look at the millions wasted on fixing the aboriginal communities. Not a thing to show for it except the mantra that more money is needed.

Poirot, a lovely, but fool sentiment. It is that thinking that did away with streaming, so no one got a decent education. Every kid equally stuffed. Surely better to give those who want it, the best we can do, & the rest what ever they can handle or actually want.

Aren't you involved in home schooling? The ultimate form of streaming, & growing rapidly. It does seam a negative to me, as how can a home schooled kid access university, with no school results to assess.

Regardless, it is the kids, or their parents, who select themselves out, not any one else. It is of no use to try to force these kids to learn, it just will not happen.

I told you of the system of keeping them out of interfering with others learning at our local school, & gaining something themselves, & you appeared to agree. Whatever, school is not the place to address social problems.

That requires the hand out mentality eliminated, not some half baked bit of social engineering in schools. The many "B" graders we have teaching schools are often struggling to do the teaching job, let alone doing social work as well.

Paying the same teachers more won't help anything, except perhaps have a few better dressed. Sacking 30% of them, then spreading the kids & the pay saved between those worth paying would work, but only after selecting those kids worth bothering with by exam results.

Well, yeah, guys...silly me....I can now see the merits in rehctub's idea of "segregation".

I'd be interested to know, however, how it might be implemented.

Given that a goodly portion of "schooling" is given over to the covert objective of teaching humans to line up or sit in serried rows, to react to bells and whistles, and judge their value by the number of stickers and merit certificates they collect, I suppose the segregated no-hopers can just be taught to toe the line and bugger the rest of it.

Hasbeen,

There are nay number of ways to approach university, if a young person feels that is their calling. our young man happens to be quite adept at thinking for himself, having endured years of liberty in self-motivated independent learning (poor little guy:)...although he doesn't have a huge collection of stickers and merit certificates (It's a wonder he has such a good opinion of his own abilities, in that case!)