Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Schools

  • EDUCATION

    How Catholic schools are failing the poor

    • Ross Fitzgerald
    • 24 August 2009
    25 Comments

    A neoliberal funding policy has undermined the ability of Catholic schools to meet poor children's needs. Instead, Catholic schools have allowed millions of tax dollars to be siphoned off public schools and given to the private sector.

    READ MORE
  • INFORMATION

    Catholic schools save governments money

    • Dan White
    • 24 August 2009
    2 Comments

    Ross Fitzgerald claims Catholic schools 'have become the instrument through which tax dollars are siphoned off public schools and given to the private sector'. His argument is a misrepresentation of the facts.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Freedom of religion important for Catholic social services

    • Denis Fitzgerald
    • 13 August 2009

    A religious purpose is at the heart of Catholic Social Services. Because of this purpose, organisations need to be able to recruit people who support the social mission of the Church, and whose conduct will not compromise or undermine the witness of the Church.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Limiting discrimination won't harm religious freedoms

    • Moira Rayner
    • 13 August 2009
    10 Comments

    Victoria's Equal Opportunity Act allows religious and quasi-religious groups and individuals to 'discriminate' lawfully. It's hard to see the relevance of the beliefs or lifestyle of a cleaner or clerk in an independent, para-religious school.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    League tables short-change students

    • Fatima Measham
    • 15 July 2009
    12 Comments

    Studies correlate teacher morale with student achievement, so ranking schools according to student performance may be counterproductive if it hurts teacher morale. Finland has the best education system in the world without resorting to league tables.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    The 'bad eggs' of Ireland's abuse scandal

    • Frank O'Shea
    • 05 June 2009
    24 Comments

    After a lifetime in schools run by religious orders, I am appalled to think abuse against children in institutions in Ireland was 'endemic'. I try to persuade myself that 'Brendan', the saintliest man I ever knew, cancels out the bad eggs.

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Judging the quality of education

    • Fatima Measham
    • 19 November 2008
    9 Comments

    Forcing schools to produce information on students' exam performance will never be a reliable strategy for lifting numeracy and literacy. Learning is as much about taking risks and failing as it is about getting the answers right the first time.

    READ MORE
  • MARGARET DOOLEY AWARD

    Learning to teach Aboriginal kids

    • Jonathan Hill
    • 10 September 2008
    5 Comments

    Teachers arriving in remote Aboriginal schools represent merely the latest in a long, transient line. What will separate them from their predecessors is their ability to listen and learn from the people whose land they now live on.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Don't boycott pro-choice Amnesty

    • Frank Brennan
    • 14 November 2007
    42 Comments

    Some religious schools have withdrawn from Amnesty because it has become pro-choice on abortion. But members of organisations such as Amnesty, which take a full spectrum approach to human rights, do not generally agree to every item in the organisations' policy statements.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Neither John nor Kevin is Lord

    • Kylie Crabbe
    • 14 November 2007
    3 Comments

    The Christian vote can't be bought, not even with tax-free fees for parents of children at religious schools. The early Christians were adamant that Caesar — the political ruler of the moment — was not Lord.

    READ MORE
  • CONTRIBUTORS

    Val Yule

    • Val Yule
    • 28 October 2007

    Val Yule is a writer on social issues and researcher on imagination and literacy. In the 1970s she was schools psychologist for disadvantaged Catholic schools with the Commonwealth Disadvantaged Schools Program.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    21st century moral education leaves Simpson's donkey behind

    • Frank Brennan
    • 25 October 2007

    Many Australians have reservations about a government poster espousing such values with a quote from an English novelist, George Eliot, proclaiming "Character is Destiny". Others wonder about Simpson's Donkey as the emblematic carrier of these values. But how do schools train their students to be moral agents in the 21st century.

    READ MORE