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"It's not who provides services to indigenous communities, it's who most effectively provides those services to deliver what is the agreed national set of policy outcomes. "That’s where the real debate is. It's not in debates about public or private ownership or classical divides between Left and Right. The key thing here is to have a clearly defined set of objectives for the nation. Then the legitimate intellectual and policy debate for the country, given that we've been elected, is how we best reach those objectives."
The quote in The Australian is at this web page.
Following its successful PISA programme for testing the educational attainments of 15-year-old high-school students, the OECD is to assess the knowledge and skills of adults. The OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) will assess the level and distribution of adult skills across countries, focusing on the skills needed for participating in today’s work environment. Further information is at this web page.
Trades training boost of $400 million for Australian schools The Australian government is spending AU$400 million on trades training in schools to help combat the trades skill shortage. Private and public secondary schools are eligible for funding through the programme. Programme details are at this web page. A story in The Australian is at this web page.
More labour market results wanted from Australian tertiary education Australian education minister Julia Gillard wants to improve the tertiary education sector’s contribution to higher productivity and labour market participation. The idea is one of six objectives for a review she has ordered into the tertiary education sector. The other five are:
Further information is at this web page.
Degree standards 'must be ranked' Australia should have a ranking system to help employers distinguish between university degrees from high- and low-quality institutions, The Australian has reported. Australian National University vice-chancellor Ian Chubb suggested comparing student work across universities or having graduate exams so the country could “safeguard the reputation” of Australian qualifications in the international marketplace. A story in The Australian is at this web page.
Private beats public for percentage increase in student numbers Australian private school student numbers increased by 21.9 percent from 1997 to 2007 compared with a 1.7 percent increase for public, an Australian Bureau of Statistics report shows. In 2007, there were 3,416,523 full-time school students in Australia. The proportion of these students attending state schools was 66.4 percent, down from 70.3 percent in 1997. The Australian Bureau of Statistics report is at this web page.
Student loan debt could fund university infrastructure in Australia The University of Australia has proposed using future student loan repayments to secure government bonds which could be sold to create a student loan (HECS) fund for university facilities and maintenance. A story in The Australian is at this web page.
School choice programmes show dramatic growth in US Student enrolment in United States private school choice programmes increased by 84 percent over the past five years, according to the School Choice Yearbook 2007. The Yearbook was released this month by the nonprofit Alliance for School Choice. According to the yearbook, there are 16 private school choice programmes, including voucher programmes and tax credit programmes, in nine states and the District of Columbia serving 150,000 children. Last year, legislators in 40 states introduced legislation to advance private school choice programmes. The Yearbook is online at this web page. Media information about the Yearbook is at this web page.
Improving urban schools needs academic and economic research Scholarly research into management strategies and economic research into the need to improve incentives are important for improving school performance, a new research paper says. The National Bureau of Economic Research paper can be purchased from this web page.
Obama open to private school vouchers US Democrat and presidential hopeful Barack Obama is reported saying he is open to supporting private school vouchers, provided research shows they work. Education analysts say it is the closest a Democrat presidential candidate has ever come to embracing the idea of vouchers. New York Sun stories on the topic are at this web page and this web page.
Single mums benefit from performance-based scholarships Research suggests performance-based scholarships can have a large, positive effect on academic achievement among a predominately female, single-parent student population that faces multiple barriers to completing college. Further information is at this web page.
Swedish school voucher success inspires UK Tories A 'radical' system of independent state schools, financed by vouchers and which has transformed Sweden's educational performance, has inspired Britain’s Conservative Party in its blueprint for schools. Information on the topic is at this web page.
India considers PPP model allowing profits The Indian government is considering a public–private partnership model for education and health that would allow private companies to profit. At present, schools are run on trusts that are not supposed to make profits, the India Times reports. The India Times story is at this web page.
Education 12 percent of Korean household spending Educational spending has more than doubled in Korea in the past decade and now makes up 12 percent of household spending, Korea National Statistical Office data shows. Further information is at this web page.
Private university construction underway in Vietnam Construction of Tay Do University, the first private university in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, began this month. Further information is at this web page.
Report looks at costs of 'not educating' A new United States report highlights the private, economic and public costs of inadequate education. Scholars in economics, education, demography and public health attach hard numbers to the relationship between educational attainment and income, health, crime and dependence on public assistance. Further information on The Price We Pay: Economic and Social Consequences of Inadequate Education, edited by Clive Belfield and Henry M Levin (Brookings Institution Press, 2007) is at this web page. |
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