section: Education

  • EDUCATION

    Will a real university please stand up

    • Neil Ormerod
    • 29 July 2010
    7 Comments

    In 2012 Australian universities will experience a radical shift in government policy, resulting in a marketplace where universities must hawk their wares in a bid to attract the best and brightest. Whether all the present universities will survive in this competitive marketplace is an open question.

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  • EDUCATION

    Why NAPLAN boycott must happen

    • Fatima Measham
    • 28 April 2010
    19 Comments

    Julia Gillard has not truly engaged with concerns from teachers, principals, academics and parents regarding the overemphasis on NAPLAN-based school comparisons. For many teachers, the professional and only ethical thing is to oppose such moves.

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  • EDUCATION

    The trouble with school ethics classes

    • Neil Ormerod
    • 16 April 2010
    22 Comments

    The Sydney Anglican diocese is concerned that proposed ethics classes in schools might attract students away from existing scripture classes. This looks more like a matter of turf wars, of seeking to maintain numbers and so justify their continuance.

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  • EDUCATION

    Gillard student numbers don't add up

    • Fatima Measham
    • 26 February 2010
    5 Comments

    Many teachers argue that NAPLAN test results should be used to improve the standard of education, and not a lever for market-based competition. These critics are called secretive and defensive. Perhaps this is how Rudd and Gillard want them to be seen.

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  • EDUCATION

    Delivering justice in the schoolyard

    • Vic O'Callaghan
    • 01 February 2010
    4 Comments

    Brian was in tears. A sheen of skin had been removed from his right knee and his left hand was grazed. Michael was into his mantra of accidental cause — 'He tripped over my foot' — while Sam stuttered in astonishment: he'd seen Michael deliberately push Brian off the handball line.

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  • EDUCATION

    Best of 2009: Stairway to international student security

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 05 January 2010
    5 Comments

    After midnight, a group of international students, on a break from their night jobs as waiters, gather in a concrete stairwell and share their stories. Victorian premier John Brumby could learn a thing or two in that shabby stairwell. September 2009

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  • EDUCATION

    Why universities welcome theological colleges

    • Neil Ormerod
    • 18 November 2009
    7 Comments

    The movement of existing theological schools into the university structure restores the ancient place of theology as a discipline within a university. But universities could be more interested in money than theology, with theological colleges bringing healthy student numbers and value for money research outputs.

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  • EDUCATION

    Sex, schools and students

    • Fatima Measham
    • 20 October 2009
    7 Comments

    A Queensland father removed his children from a Catholic primary school in protest against the graphic sexual education given to his children. Schools are best placed to cover sexual health because students can be supported in developing a mature sexual ethic.

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  • EDUCATION

    Stairway to international student security

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 30 September 2009
    7 Comments

    After midnight, a group of international students, on a break from their night jobs as waiters, gather in a concrete stairwell and share their stories. Victorian premier John Brumby could learn a thing or two in that shabby stairwell.

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  • EDUCATION

    Antique religious education policy needs reform

    • Teresa Russell
    • 29 September 2009
    20 Comments

    According to NSW education policy, if a parent wants their child to opt out of religious education, that child is not entitled to any instruction during this period. An alliance of parents and educators is pushing for an ethics-based alternative to religious education.

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  • EDUCATION

    Parable of the long-suffering teacher

    • Fatima Measham
    • 26 August 2009
    5 Comments

    Students are more proficient in technology than their teachers and are accessing information their elders would not have known. They wonder, if they can already function as if they have finished school, then what's the point of school? It's a fair question. 

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  • 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.

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