Former Dean of Education at The University of Melbourne Gives His Prescription for an Education Revolution, and an Adjunct Professor of Science Communication at UTS Gives His for Science. (December 6, 2007)

In today's Age Brian Caldwell, the managing director of Educational Transformations and a former dean of education at the University of Melbourne, adds his voice to the chorus pointing out that a worthwhile

Credit: CSIRO - Science and Education Minister Malcolm Fraser and local Country Party MP Mr. England are led across the Parkes telescope's dish during their 1969 visit to the facility

 renovation of Australia's education sector will require rather more than ready computer accessibility for the primary and secondary school student population.

Professor Caldwell then notes: "There have been elements of two revolutions in Australia's schools in the last half-century. One was the landmark reforms of the Menzies and Whitlam governments that delivered financial support for and fostered choice among government and non-government schools. Another is the adoption of information and communications technology that has transformed learning and teaching. Much of Rudd's promise of an education revolution is a continuation of the first and completion of the second." But he also cautions: "The McKinsey report [How the world's best performing school systems come out on top] contained seriously disturbing evidence that Australia nearly trebled its per student expenditure on school education from the early 1970s to the mid-1990s but average attainment by students did not increase. No other country had such a poor investment record in this period," and that, "The gap between our high and low-performing students is among the widest in OECD nations."

He is drawing from his and  Jim Spinks' just published Raising the stakes: from improvement to transformation in the reform of schools and declaims: "As suggested in the McKinsey report we need root-and-branch reform to create a world-class profession."

He then gives the following advice to Mr Rudd, Ms Gillard and company:

• Every teacher in Australia entering the profession from a university should have a master's degree — as in top-performing Finland — with targets for minimum ENTER scores progressively raised to match those for entry to other highly sought degrees.

• There should be incentives to attract outstanding graduate practitioners from fields other than education in disciplines of high priority in schools, with further higher degree work blended with professional practice.

• At least 20 days per annum of professional development should be required of all teachers. There should be significant increases in starting salaries and upper level salaries for teachers as well as for principals and other school leaders. Allowances of up to 25% of salary or equivalent in negotiated benefits should be available to ensure top-flight professionals take up appointments in remote or difficult-to-staff schools.

• There should be financial and non-financial rewards to acknowledge high-performing teachers and principals, on either an individual or team basis, with these weighted to favour achievement in challenging circumstances. Except where it is neither feasible nor efficient for this to occur, all government schools should select staff to meet local priorities and administer a budget that covers most aspects of school expenditure.

• Targets should be set to rebuild or refurbish in a major way schools that are judged to be run-down or educationally obsolete. Innovative financial arrangements such as public-private partnerships should be adopted to ensure capital is raised to enable this to occur immediately for large numbers of schools.

• There should be a personalised learning plan for every student in every school. Special schools already do this well but it should be an expectation for all.

• Targets should be set to ensure that within five years every primary and secondary school has a partnership with a business that operates in an area of a school's specialisation or in other ways makes good educational sense.

Targets should be set to reduce the amount of system-wide testing of all students and public/semi-public release of results. There is a place for sampling of student performance to ensure that standards are maintained. It should be noted that Finland — the highest performing nation in international tests — does not have a national system of tests.

And concludes with the caveat and carrot:

None of these strategies can succeed without unprecedented levels of co-operation between the different levels of government. Success will attract attention around the world, because no other country with multiple levels of government each with a major role in education has been able to achieve it.

While the prospective education revolution has been getting considerable media attention, the effect of the change in government on Australian science has been all but ignored -- but not quite.

Julian Cribb an adjunct professor of science communication at the University of Technology Sydney and editor of www.sciencealert.com.au writing in yesterday's Australian reminded his readers that the now Labor Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr stated during the election campaign that Australia now ranked 22 in the world for innovation, behind countries such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. Drop below that, and it's an automatic fail.

However, professor Cribb reminded the Senator that "the rot started well before John Howard, in the Hawke-Keating era, which was equally neglectful of the main enabling force for a 21^st century economy. No Australian federal government in a quarter of a century has managed to get this one right."

And as Professor Caldwell is prepared to draw his road map for progress in education, Professor Cribb is not shy sketching his for science with the admonishing preamble "that education alone can't deliver in a world moving as fast as ours, unless you also acquire new knowledge to educate people with. Garbage in, garbage out, as the IT people have it".

So what should Labor really be doing with science and technology policy, the engine of our tomorrows?

• Place core science funding on a predictable 10-year basis.

• Link science appropriations directly to GDP, rising as a percentage over time, to ensure new knowledge grows faster than the economy (so the economy may grow faster).

• Regenerate science infrastructure eroded in the past 25 years.

• Mandate an end to short-term contracts to retain talent.

• Halve fees on all tertiary science courses to encourage bright recruits.

• Remove the requirement linking research to short-term commercialisation.

• Significantly increase direct subsidies to commercialisation of new S&T, to offset risk.

• Commit to keeping public science free of political influence and fads.