The Australian argues that before debating and voting, all politicians should study trends in Australian education over the past decade, an era when much was promised but little delivered despite the billions of extra dollars invested in all sectors.
The Australian points out that the performance of schools and students have not been improved in the past decade despite the billions of extra dollars invested in all education sectors. Therefore all politicians, especially Senate crossbenchers, should study trends in Australian education over the past decade before debating and voting this week.
It also argues that too little has been heard in the current debate about how the Gonski 2.0 reforms would address the problems at the heart of the current malaise. And it says these include ineffective teaching of the basics, literacy and numeracy and the lack of implementation of many of the reforms recommended by professor Kenneth Wiltshire and Dr Donnelly, who reviewed the national curriculum for the Abbott government.
The paper has pointed out the problems in the education sector since 2013 but, it say there has been little improvement: Never in the history of public education has so much money been spent for such little benefit ... it is difficult to see the pay-off in improved teaching, higher standards or a better learning experience for students ... teaching standards, the neglect of basic subjects such as English, science and maths, declining results by international standards are piled high in the in-tray of a future administration.
