Australia's education crisis will deepen unless England's system of business-sponsored schools is adopted to properly equip students for the workforce, an education expert says.
Professor Brian Caldwell, who made headlines last year when he said thousands of government-funded schools should be bulldozed because they were in disrepair, is now targeting public school curriculums, saying schools should take private sector funds to overhaul their teaching programs and specialise in specific teaching areas.
The career education expert, once Melbourne University's dean of education, said Australia's public schools were no longer producing students with skills that business often needed.
"What's happening in Australia is unbelievable," Prof Caldwell said in a statement.
"We have practically no focus in developing links between business and schools and I just don't why."
Prof Caldwell has championed a system in England where 2,700 of the 3,100 state secondary schools have partnerships with business entities to specialise in areas such as sport, engineering, business, technology and language.
"The data is showing specialist schools in England outperform non-specialist schools," he said.
"We're talking about building bridges and linking business and schools up."
Many schools are getting the equivalent of $A117,000 in cash or in-kind donations if they produce a three-year plan on how their curriculum change will enhance overall student performance.
Each school offers at least one of 11 specialisations, which may involve more than one business partnership, while continuing to offer a general school curriculum.
Prof Caldwell said the change to England's school system took less than two decades, proving Australia could easily adopt a similar program.
"Business must help build the financial, intellectual, social and spiritual capital of schools," he said.
Prof Caldwell said the political blame game and minor changes would not benefit students or the economy.
He challenged federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd's proposed "education revolution", which Labor says it will introduce if it wins this year's election.
He wants Mr Rudd to plan a "serious education revolution", saying there were false starts by Labor in the lead-up to both the 2001 and 2004 elections on its education policies.
Before those elections, he said Labor's ideas for dramatic changes in education were dropped in favour of a battle with the government over funding of public and private schools.
"These new approaches need high level support from the government and the business community," Prof Caldwell said.
©AAP 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Labor wants to rank schools on scores
All states will be asked to rank their schools, so the performance of students in literacy and numeracy tests can be compared and assessed, if Labor wins the federal election.
Fairfax newspapers have reported that most state Labor governments oppose school ranking tables but opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith said the results of standardised tests in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 should be made public.
This would identify struggling schools, assist public policy decisions and identify the need for early intervention, Mr Smith said.
"If we can improve those kids' outcomes, we can improve our secondary school retention rates, and then ultimately we'll reduce the number of kids who eventually fall into unemployment or low-skilled jobs, which subsequently disappear."
In February, federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said the states had a wealth of data about individual schools but refused to publish it, and that parents had a right to know which schools were performing.
Western Australia is the only state to publish school rankings.
A spokesman for Victorian Education Minister John Lenders said any suggestion on how to improve the way information was used to benefit students, parents and schools would be examined on merit.
In NSW, legislation was introduced to prevent the publication of school league tables after one school, Mount Druitt High, was branded a failure in the media in a comparison of university admissions in 1996.
Australian Education Union federal president Pat Byrne said literacy and numeracy tests provided only a tiny indication of how a school was performing.
Results could be skewed by factors such as high numbers of children from non-English-speaking backgrounds, for example, Ms Byrne said.
©AAP 2007
Fairfax newspapers have reported that most state Labor governments oppose school ranking tables but opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith said the results of standardised tests in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 should be made public.
This would identify struggling schools, assist public policy decisions and identify the need for early intervention, Mr Smith said.
"If we can improve those kids' outcomes, we can improve our secondary school retention rates, and then ultimately we'll reduce the number of kids who eventually fall into unemployment or low-skilled jobs, which subsequently disappear."
In February, federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said the states had a wealth of data about individual schools but refused to publish it, and that parents had a right to know which schools were performing.
Western Australia is the only state to publish school rankings.
A spokesman for Victorian Education Minister John Lenders said any suggestion on how to improve the way information was used to benefit students, parents and schools would be examined on merit.
In NSW, legislation was introduced to prevent the publication of school league tables after one school, Mount Druitt High, was branded a failure in the media in a comparison of university admissions in 1996.
Australian Education Union federal president Pat Byrne said literacy and numeracy tests provided only a tiny indication of how a school was performing.
Results could be skewed by factors such as high numbers of children from non-English-speaking backgrounds, for example, Ms Byrne said.
©AAP 2007
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