New Australia

School Reform Ideas

Here are some ideas to revitalise schools and incentivise students and parents.

• Fund schools based on need.
• More resources for struggling schools with high disadvantaged student numbers.
• Less resources for schools with three heated swimming pools.
• Pay teachers reasonably for the hours they work. This means more money than now - they deserve it.
• Think about more specialist classes in primary, i.e. not one teacher for most of the year. This might be done by having teachers move classes rather than the students moving. Teachers would not be expected to be a 'jack of all trades' and specialist teaching would avoid students and teachers getting sick of each other.
• No NAPLAN. This seems to be narrowing the curriculum and does not provide useful answers other than that disadvantaged schools get worse outcomes.
• Convert Years prep to 12 to Levels prep to 12.
• Graduation to the next level based on exam, assignment and behavioural results through the year. Hopefully this will motivate students and parents and reduce teachers wasting time trying to manage behavioural problems.
• Feedback to students and parents through the year to avoid surprises.
• Learners permit available to students graduating from Level 10 who can reach the pedals.
• P-plate and vote available to students graduating from Level 12 (VCE, VCAL or whatever). We consider this the best way to re-focus the minds of the more disinterested students.
• A special highly-resourced education stream would be needed to cater for students who are not able to graduate through the standard levels through no fault of their own.
• Level-to-level graduation results would be used as one of the measures of teacher performance. Consistently poor results could indicate a career change or retirement may be in order.
• Immersive Language Education. Each region would have a common second language for all schools. The second language would be used extensively throughout the schools on signage, the newsletters and the canteen .

Free Kindergarten

Kindergarten should be added to the public education system. This can be funded through the abolition of the Baby Bonus and a small part of the multi-billion surplus.

TAFE & VCAL

We support re-funding quality TAFE and VCAL tertiary courses at the expense of funding for private tertiary providers.

Intelligent Design

NewAustralia opposes the teaching of 'Intelligent Design' or other ideas emanating from a particular religion as science in schools. These ideas should be discussed within the faiths that they originate from. Schools should only teach science that has been well tested in the peer reviewed literature.

State Control

NewAustralia proposes the States take full control of Education and Health while the Federal Government should take full control of Transport.

This creates clearer lines of accountability and reduces blame-shifting.

Education disaster

11^th Dec 2012: Australian children were beaten by students from 26 countries in year four reading in the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. Article.

Ideology over evidence

5^th Sept 2012: As in so many areas of policy Education is also suffering from the dogged implementation of failed ideas. Article.

Sabotaging Gonski

27^th August 2012: Both parties now seem to be determined to tip even more money to the elite schools. Article.

Closing TAFE to build prisons

18^th May 2012: Victorian premier Ted Baillieu slashes TAFE spending to build more prisons. more...