Quality of School Education: The Senate Reports. (September 14, 2007)|
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News & Views item - September 2007 |
Quality of School Education: The Senate Reports. (September 14, 2007)
On February 8 this year Australian Senate referred to the Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee an inquiry into the current level of academic standards of school education.
The 159 page report, published yesterday is, depending on your viewpoint, either timely, long overdue, or little more than a hand-waving exercise rehashing viewpoints long in the public domain. An attachment to the report lists 22 previous school education reports that had been "commissioned by the Howard Government".
The Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, responded to the report with what might be termed reply #1, i.e. the Government would look closely at the recommendations.
And the Senate's terms of reference supplied to the committee?
In total the report brought down 11 recommendations. Seven were signed off by the committee as a whole with the opposition committee members providing an additional four.
Recommendation 1
The committee recommends that efforts be made to give the
national benchmark tests more credibility and usefulness as teaching
instruments.
Recommendation 2
The committee recommends that the Government consider ways of
restructuring teacher training courses so as to encourage and require aspiring
secondary teachers to commence their studies in arts, science and other relevant
disciplines before undertaking specific studies in education by degree or
diploma.
Recommendation 3
The committee recommends that schools and school systems take
particular measures to improve teacher professional development in mathematics.
Recommendation 4
The committee recommends that the Minister take up with
Universities Australia the need for administrative changes of a
cross-disciplinary nature so as to allow schools and faculties of education to
draw on expertise elsewhere in the university for the purposes of giving
specialist tuition to trainee teachers in their teaching discipline.
Recommendation 5
The committee recommends that the Minister take up with
Universities Australia the need to encourage a more rigorous and evidence-based
approach to the preparation of trainee teachers in regard to literacy and
mathematics method.
Recommendation 6
The committee therefore recommends the Government and MCEETYA
work expeditiously toward the negotiation of a comparable Year 12 curriculum
that will embrace the principle of common standards and expectations of
achievement at designated levels of study, and agreed common standards of
assessment, including a significant component of external examination.
Recommendation 7
That the Government takes steps to improve the remuneration of
teachers so as to raise the profession's entry standards and retention rates by
providing incentives.
Opposition members' additions
Recommendation 1
Opposition senators recommend that the committee conduct an
audit of inquiries into school education over the past decade, including an
assessment of the government's response to recommendations.
Recommendation 2
Opposition senators recommend that additional targeted funding
for schools should be provided on the basis of need and fairness to address
inequity in educational outcomes, social disadvantage, and rural and regional
locations.
Recommendation 3
Opposition senators recommend urgent action to improve the
status and quality of teaching, including a program to reward quality teachers
for what they teach and where they teach.
Recommendation 4
Opposition senators recommend a National Curriculum Board led
by an eminent educationalist with representatives from each state and territory
as well as the Catholic and independent sectors be established to develop a
national curriculum.
So Twenty-three school education reports later the summation seems to be: Canberra we seem to have an incompetence problem.
On the other hand Ms Julie told the ABC...
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