Kids in Tasmania can now attend school from age 4½, but they don’t have to, the Tasmanian Government announced last week. The government's move from its previous position – mandatory school at age 4½ – comes after much pressure from political opponents and advocacy groups. ...

While teaching the teachers of Nauru, associate professor Pep Serow has learnt one thing – Australian teachers could do far more with the resources they have. Serow, along with professor Neil Taylor, leads the University of New England’s Nauru Teacher Education Project, which ...

It could be said that school education’s equivalent to the Olympics is the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). While Australia’s performance on the world’s sporting stage guarantees passionate discussion, our international performance in education doesn’t share quite the ...

An expert has warned of a discipline war among the STEM subjects, with engineering coming out on the bottom. STEM is the oft-used acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the focus of politicians and educators who are trying to lift ...

It’s her manifesto on everything wrong with Australia’s education system. In Lucy Clark’s nonfiction book Beautiful Failures, she examines “how the quest for success is harming our kids”. Clark says the intense pressures and stresses of high school led to ...

Excellent teachers need to be recognised for their work and for their strengths in various areas, but not with performance pay, the dean of one of Australia’s top teacher schools has argued. Melbourne Graduate School of Education professor Field Rickards said good ...

One of the leaders behind a program mentoring high school students from refugee backgrounds is marking this year’s World Refugee Week by calling for those on temporary protection visas and asylum seekers to be eligible for federal government assistance to meet ...

Australia is not alone in analysing its school education system and questioning its future directions based on national and international test results. Over the past few years, I have been a member of two OECD review teams that have examined ...

In its long list of recommendations to the next federal government, the Grattan Institute is calling for tougher entry standards into teacher education. Grattan school education program director Peter Goss estimated there has been roughly one review every year, for 40 ...

‘Let’s get rid of homework and grades.’ Any teacher who told a classroom this would probably become very popular with the kids. ‘Now let’s get rid of giving rewards if you do what I tell you.’ The kids may scratch ...