A vice-chancellor has downplayed the relevance of the ATAR as a measure of potential student success – especially when it comes to teaching degrees. Professor Peter Dawkins, of Victoria University, argued that ATARs are often meaningless when measuring a student’s potential in university. ...

Debate following the Senate inquiry into children with disabilities in schools must not descend into a fight about funds, the speech pathologists’ peak body has said. Speech Pathology Australia acknowledged that while funding is important for disability education, throwing money ...

A stigma against autism is “reasonably common” throughout Australian schools, an expert has argued. A recent Senate inquiry found parents of kids with autism are actively discouraged by some schools from enrolling their child. This occurs across the public, independent and ...

The government can pay for Gonski if it reduces tax concessions for the wealthy and clamps down on corporate tax dodgers, a public school advocate has argued. Trevor Cobbold, national convenor of Save Our Schools and former Productivity Commission economist, ...

Social wellbeing is more important than academic readiness when preparing kids for their first day of school, an expert has said. Professor Bob Perry, a Charles Sturt University expert on transitions to school, said parents should use the weeks before the ...

The University of Sydney is showing Aboriginal schoolchildren what it has to offer. Federal Education Department data reveals Indigenous enrolments at country universities far outweighs that at city counterparts, despite the fact that over the past two years, the Universities Admission Centre has recorded ...

Girl power can help solve Australia’s chronic shortage of engineers, and work on the career pipeline should begin in school, experts have expressed. Australia annually imports 12,000 engineers to fill job gaps. One quarter of these come on temporary work ...

Price is guiding many parents' choice of educational technology, a new survey has found – but it shouldn't be. A study from Microsoft Australia has revealed just under a quarter of parents purchased the wrong piece of technology for their child’s learning. The study ...

For-profit is the best model for educational enterprises to thrive, survive and teach – the co-founder of Maths Pathway has said. Maths Pathway, established by former teachers Richard Wilson and Justin Matthys, contracts with schools to develop mathematics learning models. It has delivered models ...

A prominent public school advocate has argued that well-off private schools are overfunded by $3 billion that would be better used to continue paying for Gonski reforms. Trevor Cobbold, national convenor of Save Our Schools, said in 2013 the total overfunding of ...