The international benchmarking convention in Winnipeg, Canada, on March 2 bought together educators from countries whose students do well on international measures of achievement, such as the Program for International Student Achievement (PISA) and Trends in Mathematics and Science Study ...

It is alarming to find that the Gonski report is to re-establish the battles between the major lobby groups in school funding. This outcome is inevitable and indeed appears to be one the objectives of the report. In a climate ...

Two years ago, central city high school Perth Modern was doing pretty well. It ranked third among government schools and 18th on the contentious Western Australia Curriculum Council league tables, representing year 12 students with scores in the top third ...

Peter Garrett, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, recently announced that the proposed scheme to reward the ‘top 10 per cent’ of Australian teachers with one-off bonuses had been scrapped and would be replaced by a new scheme ...

A massive shift is taking place in Australian early childhood services. Traditionally, the childcare sector’s role has been to offer a safe and caring place for children whose parents are working. That role, however, is expanding to be one of ...

The Northern Territory Minister for Education and Training Chris Burns is wrong to continue with English-only classes for indigenous children for the first four hours of each school day. In his article “NT backs multilingual approach” (Education Review, November 2011) ...

JAMES POON Master of Education at Monash University I was a civil and structural engineer before I switched to teaching. After working as a tutor, I became interested in a career change and eventually decided that, rather than build buildings, ...

JENNIE MARSTON Doctorate at Macquarie University I enjoyed doing my DipTeach at The Guild Teachers College and I couldn’t wait to get into the classroom. I worked in independent schools for five years before spending 11 years at home with ...

CARA SWIT Doctorate at Macquarie University I believe that teaching is a very powerful tool and as a teacher you play a significant role in the life of every child that you teach. It only takes one influential teacher to ...

DON HAUGH Master of Education at Monash University My career to date has been varied. I have been involved the trades, manufacturing, retail sporting goods, wholesale, and importing. I am currently the director and administrator of a private company in ...