February
How careers counsellors could help plug the skills gap
Encouraging teenagers to complete high school and giving them access to careers counselling are key to plugging the yawning skills gap.
September 2024
Childcare must be made universal
The Productivity Commission’s review of early childcare and education is welcome. Australia needs to follow others and make childcare accessible for all.
April 2024
This budget boost for working women will supercharge the economy
We wilfully under-utilise 50 per cent of our economic potential, creating a national emergency we could easily solve.
January 2024
How your kids can succeed – when they have no natural talent
Not every sub-par drawing or tuneless recital is a potential masterpiece, but if your child is the next Van Gogh, you’re worst placed to spot it anyway.
April 2023
Julia Gillard-led inquiry calls for three-year-olds to do preschool
A royal commission headed by Julia Gillard into early childhood education has recommended universal preschool be extended to all South Australian three-year-olds.
November 2022
The trouble with boys starts before they step into a classroom
Boys are behind girls academically from the get-go. And by the time they get to year 9, they have already fallen far behind their female schoolmates.
June 2022
The grandparents who help keep mothers at work, but at a cost
Grandparents play a huge and often invisible role in keeping working families in paid employment.
May 2022
Previous childcare splurge did not encourage parents to work more
Labor’s $5.4 billion childcare policy is called into question after evidence reveals few families took up cheaper childcare after the last big funding injection.
How the high cost of childcare holds back women and the economy
The cost burden of childcare on working women is denying the economy of a ready-made boost.
Everyone a winner under Labor childcare overhaul: economists
Recent tweaks to Labor’s policy means there is not a single scenario under which families using childcare would be better off under the Coalition.
December 2020
More class, more teaching
Education funding has been spent on the wrong things for decades. It's really time to stop.
November 2020
Why Estonia beats Australia on financial literacy
Citizens of richer countries are more likely to have bank accounts, familiarising them with some financial concepts. But some countries punch well above their weight when it comes to learning about money.
October 2020
A five-point plan for lifelong learning
With the pandemic intensifying the loss of unskilled jobs, a major vocational education reform agenda is needed to train Australia's human capital.
What women want out of childcare
Childcare subsidies produce neither the productivity that governments want nor the services that parents want.
September 2020
'Adding value' is a new curriculum priority
Researchers at the OECD say value creation has a wide range of interpretations including economic benefits.
August 2020
Classrooms are the key to recovery
Investing heavily in schools would be the best return on the vast amounts of money that governments are borrowing.
Why childcare must be made free
Expensive childcare is an unfair levy on jobs. And early childhood education would improve life chances all round.
March 2020
Schools face negligence risk from staying open
Lawyers and unions have warned schools and childcare centres may be breaching their duty of care by staying open as educators grow anxious.
January 2020
Navis mulls carve-up in Modern Star auction
It was Aristotle that famously said "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts".
November 2019
An economic argument for extending preschool to two years
Lobby groups are gearing up to ask for more early education funding.