Federal education minister Christopher Pyne has announced a scheme to make Australian schools “more autonomous”. Amid the fanfare of the announcement there was little detail except the hope that by 2017…
“The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.” While Aristotle’s axiom is purposefully exaggerated for dramatic effect, modern research confirms that there is indeed an…
Australia has on average had one review of teacher education every year for the past 30 years. As I have noted previously: Each inquiry reaches much the same conclusions and makes much the same recommendations…
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Kevin Donnelly, one of the men tasked with reviewing Australia’s national curriculum, had argued in a 2004 book that “many parents” think the “sexual practices…
Late last year, education minister Christopher Pyne announced a review of Australia’s demand-driven system (DDS) of higher education. Pyne wants to know if it is: Increasing participation (particularly…
The Coalition has unveiled a A$70 million Independent Public Schools Fund to entice a quarter of Australian public schools to become independent by 2017. The initiative builds on its pre-election promise…
Announcing his review into the national curriculum late last week, education minister Christopher Pyne said that the government fears it has a partisan leaning towards leftist politics and doesn’t recognise…
Education minister Christopher Pyne has announced a sweeping review of Australia’s national curriculum to weed out a supposed “partisan bias” in what’s taught in Australia’s classrooms. Announcing the…
As Rousseau nearly said, universities are born free but are everywhere in chains. Education Minister Christopher Pyne promised earlier this week to be the great liberator, signalling that the Abbott government…
For every opposition, the prospect of taking office – attaining politics’ ultimate prize, often after years of hard grind – can be relied upon to drown out the little noises of self-doubt and self-criticism…
“The OECD says that we are a high equity nation in terms of our students… I don’t believe there is an equity problem in Australia.” – Education Minister Christopher Pyne, Lateline interview, 26 November…
Federal education minister Christopher Pyne has managed to upset the states and the education community with his declaration to “go back to the drawing board” on the Gonski funding scheme. Although Pyne’s…
“There is a fox in the chicken coop in this plan and that is that the federal minister for education will have unprecedented power over state schools, and Tasmania, Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria…
Tony Abbott has made an important shift in the Liberal position on gay marriage. In another step on the road to a likely eventual change in the Australian law, Abbott now says the policy on the issue will…
On the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night, Shadow Minister for Education Christopher Pyne was asked what the Liberal Party would do about the national (history) curriculum if they came to power. Pyne’s…