This Month
Inside the fight to keep girls out of boys’ schools
This week on The Fin podcast, AFR Magazine contributor Brook Turner on why Sydney has become the epicentre of this battle and whether there is still a place in Australia for single-sex schools.
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.
- Sally Patten
December 2024
- Exclusive
- Private schools
Private school fees to rise at almost triple the rate of inflation
Prestigious schools have been gradually contacting parents over the past few weeks announcing new fee schedules for 2025.
- Julie Hare
November 2024
VCE boss quits after exam paper debacle
Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll said Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority boss Kylie White resigned over the weekend.
- Gus McCubbing
August 2024
- Community Engagement
- Higher Education Awards
A 50pc improvement: Unis turn the tide on disadvantage
The winner of the community engagement category is reversing the fortunes of disadvantaged children in a partnership that has lifted HSC results.
- Agnes King
Boys’ results plummet early in high school
After 10 years of compulsory schooling, about two in five boys are struggling to read and write at a high level. This is a big problem for the nation.
- Updated
- Julie Hare
July 2024
Stressed teens would rather finish school with no ATAR than sit exams
Students at co-educational schools reported the highest scores on emotional and mental wellbeing, and girls-only school students the lowest.
- Julie Hare
June 2024
Higher education key to bigger pay, Labor MP argues
When it comes to the relationship between education and earning capacity, research suggests more is better.
- Julie Hare
March 2024
Poor kids who choose the IB do better than rich kids who don’t: study
Jasmine Werneberg says the International Baccalaureate she did at high school was more academically rigorous than her business-law degree at university.
- Julie Hare
- Exclusive
- Education
Study shows why kids drop out of school
Schools need to respond to early warning signs and provide individualised support if high school dropout rates are to be averted, a study says.
- Julie Hare
- Explainer
- Political leadership
Our most and least educated politicians, in six charts
We analysed the educational backgrounds of all 226 federal politicians in Australia – and found they aren’t particularly representative of the broader population.
- Julie Hare and Cindy Yin
- Opinion
- Education
How ‘families’ of schools could spread educational success
Instead of hoping “superhero” principals can lift schools that fall short, a network bound together through a united executive team can increase the odds of improvement.
- Jordana Hunter
Private school parents save the education system $4.6b a year: study
A new analysis calculates that governments spend $4.6 billion less each year than they would if all students were enrolled in public schools.
- Updated
- Julie Hare
Have we just laid out a plan to kill the traditional university?
The universities accord says that the number of university students needs to double by 2050. That raises the question of what we actually want from our universities.
- Julie Hare
February 2024
Science supports rote learning in schools: report
A push to return classrooms to explicit instruction, phonics and rote learning is based on the science of learning.
- Julie Hare
One in three Aussie kids can’t read this headline: Grattan
Schools need to transform the way they teach reading so that fewer children get left behind, think tank report says.
- Julie Hare
Disruptive kids are on the rise in Australia’s classrooms
But a Senate report into disruptive classroom behaviour has only one recommendation - to create another inquiry into the matter.
- Julie Hare
January 2024
School fees paid? Then double your budget
Rising school fees are heaping stress on household budgets. And then there’s the extra cost of uniforms, sports gear, music lessons and camps.
- Julie Hare
Nobel Prize winner cautions on rush into STEM
The economist says the rise of artificial intelligence may boost the need for more graduates with empathy and creativity, rather than science and maths skills.
- Tom Rees
School leavers shun uni, enrolments hit near-decade low
Gap years were back in 2022, but the 8.2 per cent drop in first-year university students also confirms a worrying trend that young people are shunning degrees.
- Julie Hare