Education bureaucrats have failed the nation

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Education bureaucrats have failed the nation

    KEVIN DONNELLY       From: The Australian    December 12, 2012 12:00AM
   
AUSTRALIA'S substandard results in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study are an indictment of those academics, subject associations and teacher unions that have argued during the past 20 to 30 years that all is well with our education system.

Groups such as the Australian Curriculum Studies Association, the Australian Association for the Teaching of English and the Australian Education Union have been asleep at the wheel enforcing a dumbed-down, politically correct approach to the curriculum devoid of rigour and international best practice.

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AUSSIE students are falling behind their overseas counterparts in reading literacy, ranking 27th out of 45 countries.

And their performance in mathematics and science has flatlined amid calls for greater action to boost achievement in the classroom.

The results, revealed in two global surveys, undermine Prime Minister Julia Gillard's ambition to make Australia among the top five nations in reading, maths and science by 2025.

Slovakia, Croatia and Hungary are among countries to outperform Australia on reading.

The International Reading Literacy Study, which assessed 300,000 year 4 students worldwide, found around one-in-four Aussie kids failed to meet the global reading benchmark.

The result was similar to Bulgaria, New Zealand, Slovenia, Austria, Lithuania and Poland.

It is Australia's first international assessment of primary school reading.

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study surveyed 600,000 years 4 and 8 students in 63 countries.

With the exception of an improvement in year 4 maths, Australian students' performance in maths and science stagnated over the past 16 years.

Victoria held up well nationally, coming second to the ACT in year 4 reading, maths and science.

The state ranked third in year 8 maths and fifth in year 8 science.

Federal Education Minister Peter Garrett said the results were a "wake-up call" and provided further evidence a fairer school funding system and its response to the Gonski Review were necessary.

"These results just aren't good enough," he said.

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看来光家长焦虑督促不行，要全民政府重视教育