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The education system in Australia is absolutely screwed.
I have a vague plan for how to fix this problem although it would have to be in the long-term. Short-term we're screwed and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it. People's attitudes are way too entrenched to change their minds at a moment's notice. And I know my plan will never come about because the politician responsible for it would become way too unpopular.
Anyway the plan is as follows: Embark on a massive publicity campain to raise the profile of teaching. I'm talking a billions of dollars here, not the token millions the governments like to throw at projects they're not really interested in but which will show them to be making an effort. Assuming the campain works, more parents will start seeing teaching as an acceptable career choice for their darlings and more kids will start putting it down as their university preferences. In turn this popularity will raise the UAI of the degrees, ensuring that only smart kids/kids who really want in will be able to get in. The sudden influx of teachers will start competition for teaching spots, which can only increase the quality of teachers being hired and have the side effect of raising teacher's wages (unless whoever it is who pays public school teachers wants to see all their decent teachers disappear into the private school system). And the higher quality of teaching will eventually trickle down into the kids, who will (I hope) gain more respect for their teachers. Or the fact that teaching in general will now be a more acceptable career choice will give them more respect for teachers (maybe.. I remember all too well what little brats kids can be).
As for the situation at universities, that can only be fixed by individual unis deciding to change their policies about what's required for tenure. In an ideal world academics who are lousy unmotivated teachers should be allowed to concentrate on their research and leave teaching up to those who care. Of course this would require universities to have more money so that they can afford to have extra academics lying around. Which would lead back to the Government choosing to throw large amounts of money at universities. Which wouldn't happen because it would make them too unpopular with the public. Which is why my entire plan will never come about.
The main problem with my plan is that it would require throwing large amounts of money at the problem for, oh I don't know, let's say ten years, before it started to have any real effect. And in the meantime it would be this horrible uphill struggle to keep ramming it through the Budget year after year until it started working and it would become slightly easier to get the money. Still difficult but somewhat easier. What really pisses me off is how easy it is in Australia to find the funding to build and maintain stupid Olympic-sized swimming pools all over the country (in the middle of a drought don't forget) but they can't be bothered funding education properly.
- Most teachers, at both uni and school level, have no passion for teaching.
At university level most academics only teach because it's required of them so that they can get back to their own research, not because they have anything worthwhile to say. And at school level I've seen too many teachers who are there because they had nothing better to do, not because they envisioned a future of imparting knowledge to young minds. - As a result of the lackluster teaching and of their parents attitudes towards their teachers, kids have little to no respect for their teachers. Which in turn leads to the teacher getting harassed until any passion they might have once had disappears, or they have a breakdown, or the like.
- Since everyone remembers their own behaviour towards teachers when they were a snotty little kid, and how badly all their teachers had it, almost no one's interested in teaching. And your parents don't want you to do it either because they know how much work it is and how lousy the pay is
- As a result, the UAI's(University Admission Index for those people who aren't Australian) for teaching are ridiculously low, making kids who scored well feel as though they're 'wasting' their mark by teaching and ensuring that teaching looks like an attractive option for stupid people, since it's one of the few non-manual-labour jobs they have a chance of getting into
- And as a result of this we then have stupid people as teachers, which doesn't exactly increase anyone's confidence in teaching as a profession
- Also in Australia there's a ridiculous amount of emphasis on physical achievements and virtually none on academic. Teaching is low-status as a result.
- And so on and so forth, repeat all the above steps in any desired combination to get an acurate picture of the state of teaching in Australia (well NSW at least, it's hypothetically possible it's better in other states. Although I doubt it)
I have a vague plan for how to fix this problem although it would have to be in the long-term. Short-term we're screwed and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it. People's attitudes are way too entrenched to change their minds at a moment's notice. And I know my plan will never come about because the politician responsible for it would become way too unpopular.
Anyway the plan is as follows: Embark on a massive publicity campain to raise the profile of teaching. I'm talking a billions of dollars here, not the token millions the governments like to throw at projects they're not really interested in but which will show them to be making an effort. Assuming the campain works, more parents will start seeing teaching as an acceptable career choice for their darlings and more kids will start putting it down as their university preferences. In turn this popularity will raise the UAI of the degrees, ensuring that only smart kids/kids who really want in will be able to get in. The sudden influx of teachers will start competition for teaching spots, which can only increase the quality of teachers being hired and have the side effect of raising teacher's wages (unless whoever it is who pays public school teachers wants to see all their decent teachers disappear into the private school system). And the higher quality of teaching will eventually trickle down into the kids, who will (I hope) gain more respect for their teachers. Or the fact that teaching in general will now be a more acceptable career choice will give them more respect for teachers (maybe.. I remember all too well what little brats kids can be).
As for the situation at universities, that can only be fixed by individual unis deciding to change their policies about what's required for tenure. In an ideal world academics who are lousy unmotivated teachers should be allowed to concentrate on their research and leave teaching up to those who care. Of course this would require universities to have more money so that they can afford to have extra academics lying around. Which would lead back to the Government choosing to throw large amounts of money at universities. Which wouldn't happen because it would make them too unpopular with the public. Which is why my entire plan will never come about.
The main problem with my plan is that it would require throwing large amounts of money at the problem for, oh I don't know, let's say ten years, before it started to have any real effect. And in the meantime it would be this horrible uphill struggle to keep ramming it through the Budget year after year until it started working and it would become slightly easier to get the money. Still difficult but somewhat easier. What really pisses me off is how easy it is in Australia to find the funding to build and maintain stupid Olympic-sized swimming pools all over the country (in the middle of a drought don't forget) but they can't be bothered funding education properly.
