The new Education revolution

[1965]

Am I the only one that thinks Christopher Pyne will take us back to the fifties.


The Minister for Education has his own ideas on how and what school children should be taught.


It is a vision of the future - grounded in the past.

New Education Minister Christopher Pyne invites us to imagine classrooms where teachers return to old-school instruction - becoming more of a deliverer of facts, less of a convener of activity-based learning. He wants young readers to sound out words - and public school administrators to enjoy more of the freedoms of their private education counterparts.

The so-called history wars of the Howard government era are back with a vengeance: Pyne believes the national curriculum has too much focus on progressive causes and ignores the role of the Coalition political parties in building Australia.

''My instincts tell me that a back-to-basics approach to education is what the country is looking for, what parents feel comfortable about,'' Pyne says in an interview with the Herald.

One of his targets is child-centred learning. He defines this as an approach whereby the child learns through activities, projects and research - rather than being instructed directly in facts. ''I'm sure there's a place for child-centred learning but unless children are given the basic skills and knowledge required in an area, it's hard to expect them to successfully research an area of study,'' Pyne says.

He would prefer greater use of direct instruction - or, as one education expert explains, ''telling'' children information.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/say-after-the-minister-old-is-new-again-20130927-2ujhn.html#ixzz2g84ybWi8

[Yeahright]

Good idea

[mightytiges]

I couldn't resist 




Isn't there also a push to ban kids from attending school until they're at least five years old and encourage kids to start when they are six? I started school when I was 4 1/2 and it didn't do me any harm. The younger you are the faster you learn as a young kid's brain is a sponge. Why wait until a kid is six so they are still in primary school when they become a teenager and are almost 20 by the time they finish their main schooling .

[dwaino]

I couldn't resist 




Isn't there also a push to ban kids from attending school until they're at least five years old and encourage kids to start when they are six? I started school when I was 4 1/2 and it didn't do me any harm. The younger you are the faster you learn as a young kid's brain is a sponge. Why wait until a kid is six so they are still in primary school when they become a teenager and are almost 20 by the time they finish their main schooling .

No learning until independent thought is drummed out of you. It's the Christian way.

[Chuck17]

Am I the only one that thinks Christopher Pyne will take us back to the fifties.

Should be nostalgic for you

[1965]

Am I the only one that thinks Christopher Pyne will take us back to the fifties.

Should be nostalgic for you

Born in 55 so I can't remember much of the fifties.

 

[🏅Dooks]

I couldn't resist 




Isn't there also a push to ban kids from attending school until they're at least five years old and encourage kids to start when they are six? I started school when I was 4 1/2 and it didn't do me any harm. The younger you are the faster you learn as a young kid's brain is a sponge. Why wait until a kid is six so they are still in primary school when they become a teenager and are almost 20 by the time they finish their main schooling .

 

No learning until independent thought is drummed out of you. It's the Christian way.

[Chuck17]

Being back the cane too I say, put respect and the fear of god back into teaching

[1965]

Being back the cane too I say, put respect and the fear of god back into teaching learning

 

[1965]

Interesting pointer to what future funding for schools might look like.

And guess where Liberal voters send their kids.

 


Why funding private schools is a smart idea
 
February 4, 2014

Kevin Donnelly

There's plenty of evidence to show private schools are not a drain on the public purse.
 
The school year has only just begun and, already, it's open season on attacking Catholic and independent schools.

With headlines like ''Private schools do not deserve a cent from our public funds'' (The Guardian, 28/1), ''Private schools reap government funding at expense of public schools'' (The Sydney Morning Herald, 28/1) and ''Abbott's Gonski to hit public schools harder'' (The Age, 30/1), parents could be forgiven for thinking that private schools are a drain on the public purse and that they do not deserve financial support.

Wrong. Instead of being a drain on taxpayers' funds, private school parents pay taxes for a public school system they don't use plus school fees. The fact that 34.9 per cent of students around Australia are enrolled in Catholic and independent schools saves state, territory and Commonwealth governments billions of dollars every year.

The savings to the taxpayer represent the additional cost to government if the private school sector closed and students had to be enrolled in state schools.

As noted in the just released Productivity Commission's Report on Government Services 2014, while governments invest on average $15,768 per government school student in terms of recurrent costs, the figure for private school students is only $8546. The reality is that even though Catholic and independent schools enrol 34.9 per cent of state and territory students, such schools receive only 22.4 per cent of what state and Commonwealth governments spend on education in terms of recurrent costs.

Instead of private schools ''draining government schools of much needed public resources'', as argued by Luke Mansillo in The Guardian, the fact that such schools exist frees up funds that governments can then redirect to their own schools.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/why-funding-private-schools-is-a-smart-idea-20140203-31x70.html#ixzz2sJX5k6Mj

[tiga]

Well hang me up and call me Geez! 

This is the first time I have actually agreed with 65's sentiments on one of his news articles.

Pine is a fool if he thinks shoving stuff down kids throats is the way to a good education. 
Next thing you know they will be rolling in blackboards, platforms and chalk dusters! I had a teacher who used to spend half the class writing crap on the blackboard and the other half was us writing it down in our exercise books. 

[1965]

Worst teacher I have ever seen had her Yr 12 class copying down notes from the whiteboard that she was copying out of the textbook.

 

Yes Pine is showing his bias towards Private Schools.

Mind you the article is quite correct. If you stuff the funding for Private schools, the exodus to the public system would cripple it fairly quickly.

A dilemma for most governments.

 

[mightytiges]