Exodus! screams this newspaper article.

Official figures released yesterday showed 66.4% of the nation’s 3.4 million full-time students were at government schools last year, falling from 66.8% a year earlier and 70% in 1997.
In Victoria, which has the second highest proportion of students in non-government schools after the ACT, just over 35% of students, or […]

I can’t wait to see if Julie Bishop picks this idea up and runs with it.
Schools in New York City are trialling financial incentives to encourage students to learn:
School districts nationwide have seized on the idea that a key to improving schools is to pay for performance, whether through bonuses for teachers and principals, or […]

I see the Master Builders’ Association is having one of its regular whinges about shortages of skilled labour. Apparently this will force house prices up and Something Must Be Done. By whom? Well by Da Guvmint of course:
Mr Jones says he is encouraged that the Federal Government wants to address the skills shortage, but says […]

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No I didn’t watch the stupid debate, but I did catch the last few minutes. I was half hoping the audience would have stood up and turned its back causing Howard to lose it again, or the journos had stopped asking Rudd questions because he’d already posed them to himself, or something else unexpected. But […]

The NSW Higher School Certificate started this week. As usual, the SMHerald is running daily stories on each exam paper with potted comments from students and teachers.
One of yesterday’s exams was in Industrial Technology. It included a question about ‘the impact of government legislation on employees’.
It’s important that kids entering industry understand the extent […]

There are quite a few very nasty examples of corporate bullying about at the moment, but I think this takes the prize.

Catholic schools have been urged to withdraw their support from Amnesty International, after the human rights group changed its neutral stance on abortion.
The director of the Catholic Education Office, Stephen Elder, yesterday wrote to […]

I was surprised to Julie Bishop cop a caning by conservatives in this story in the Weekend Australian (”Labor ‘winning’ the education debate”):
Traditionally strong supporters of Coalition policy on education are increasingly dissatisfied with Ms Bishop’s performance. Critics argue she has mishandled several key issues, requiring John Howard to come in over the top of […]

“Give me a child when they are seven and I’ll show you an invoice for
$12,477″ - Catherine Deveny

Please, Sir, can I have a realistic allocation of Federal funding?
Fairfax newspapers are pretty much oozing rightwards year by year, as I see it, so it’s a pleasure to read Catherine Deveny’s op ed articles. She’s a […]

I was surprised to see The Australian declare the Budget a ‘masterclass’ the other day, because on the same front page several of its writers mentioned how Costello had ‘stolen’ and ‘pinched’ the idea from Rudd. It’s a weird ‘masterclass’ that indulges cheating and doing homework the night before it’s due, which is what this […]