Last week the Federal Government officially responded to the Gonski Report. I’m sure you heard the rousing call to arms from our Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
To avoid the risk of misquoting the Prime Minister, I’ve linked to the official media release.
In it Ms Gillard says:
Over the past decade Australian students have fallen from 2nd to 7th in reading, and 5th to 13th in maths compared to students in other countries. To keep winning the economic race, we have to win the education race.
By reducing education to the simple proposition that it is merely a case of getting kids from A to B in the quickest possible time, the government has potentially opened a Pandora’s box.
If winning the race is now the main focus, what sacrifices are we willing to make in order to beat our Asian neighbours?
As one letter-writer to the Sydney Morning Herald stated:
If we aim to improve academic performance, we must get back to basics and concentrate on essentials such as reading, writing, maths and science.
This means cutting the plethora of airy-fairy time-wasters from the school curriculum.
Countless hours every school term are spent on feel-good subjects such as environmental appreciation, harmony and co-operation, Aboriginal heritage, cultural diversity, empathy and understanding, personal hygiene, religion and ethics.
He goes on to refer to these areas of the curriculum as mumbo-jumbo.
The point is the government has framed this debate in this way, and by and large the media and public lap it up.
I’ve written previously about the impact that an overemphasis on NAPLAN tests can have on children’s wellbeing. We must be mindful that a win-at-all-costs mentality does not envelope our schools. If it does they will not be particularly healthy places to be.
With my tongue firmly in my cheek here are my top tips for winning the education race.
Author: Dan Haesler, he is a teacher, writer and speaker at the Mental Health & Wellbeing of Young People seminars He writes for the Sydney Morning Herald and blogs at http://danhaesler.com/ and tweets at @danhaesler
It’s very hard for me to watch year 12 students vomiting in the toilets before exams and families stressed to capacity while we “win the education race”. Something is definitely wrong somewhere. Love this article and will comment on it on radio this week.
I do love this story. Glad someone is talking about it. See this link for one solution:
http://www.songfishchoir.com/why-songfish.html dont miss the video on the divided brain at the bottom – it explains a lot. And please enjoy the spelling mistakes the kids made on this beaut music video: http://www.songfishchoir.com/songfish-hits.html
I fail to see the logic in the goal of raising Australian school students accademic status when tertiary education costs continue to rise to unachievable heights. Last year my son worked his hardest through a range of obstacles to achieve an OP 3, yet we don’t know how much longer we will be able to support him financially in the current climate of employment instability in the education sector. There has to be an ongoing plan to support education and learning past achieving a particular “status” as a country.
I’d have to agree with you Jo and I can’t believe they want to increase tertiary education fees, its a joke.