High school children are the target of a new long-term program that seeks to foster social responsibility in the country’s youth through volunteering and ultimately a gap year abroad. Young People Without Borders (YPWB) is an initiative of the Foundation ...

Pupils studying the same subject may be marked using different methods under sweeping changes planned for Victoria's public school system. Under the reforms, which would be introduced in 2013 at the earliest, students could elect to be assessed by sitting ...

The federal government has denied its education revolution is at risk of stalling after Labor found a billion dollars in savings from the sector in its mid-year budget review, released on Tuesday. Several prominent school sector programs have been delayed ...

Australian schoolchildren would be required to learn an Asian language under a proposal put forward by Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop. Bishop said she will push to have the plan adopted as coalition policy before the next federal election. "I ...

The federal government’s early years reform will push the wages of teachers and workers up by 10 per cent while childcare fees could rise by 15 per cent, a new report warns. The Productivity Commission’s Early Childhood Development Workforce inquiry ...

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has revealed the first major plank of her election strategy, promising to set aside half of liquefied natural gas (LNG) royalties for a new education trust. The initiative will quarantine an estimated $1.8 billion over the ...

State school principals in Queensland could be given the power to hire staff, and the schools could be given cash grants to spend on capital works, under a proposal to shift decision-making back to them. The Queensland government released a ...

A thousand schools across Australia will have more control over hiring and firing staff, their budget and even school hours from next year, under the federal government’s Empowering Local Schools initiative. However, the precise form that autonomy takes will largely ...

The Productivity Commission has said the federal government should defer its national performance bonus scheme for teachers until it is known how to design one effectively. In a draft report on the school workforce, released last Thursday, the commission said ...

A Western Australian high school teacher had been recognised at an international event for her use of technology in the classroom. Athena Hain-Saunders, a science teacher from Newtown Moore High School in Bunbury, Western Australia, was awarded the first runner ...