Teenagers want more practical skills taught in schools, study reveals

AUSTRALIAN teenagers have revealed the skills they are desperate to learn in the classroom. And their plea comes with a blunt message for their teachers.

EXCLUSIVE

AUSTRALIAN teens are desperate to learn more practical life skills in the classroom to set them up for success beyond the school gate.

News Corp Australia can reveal a major national study of 14-16-year-olds and their attitudes towards education by UNICEF Australia has found that half of all teens (51 per cent) say they would like to learn more practical recruitment skills for getting a job.

Fifty per cent said they want to learn more practical on-the-job skills, such as working in a business for a day, 48 per cent want to learn more financial skills, such as how to budget, 40 per cent want to learn practical living skills, such as how to be healthy, eat good food and exercise and 41 per cent would like to learn about practical social skills, like how to get on with others.

As Australia’s educational rankings continue to slide students who took part in the survey — conducted by YouGov — said schools were “training them to pass exams, rather than retain useful knowledge and life skills”.

Teens also said that their teachers did not do enough to motivate them and wanted teachers to “be as highly regarded as surgeons because they hold your life in their hands”.

Among the students who identify as being at the bottom of their classes, 73 per cent said that one of the main things that would have helped improve their academic performance this year was if they had a better teacher, and 84 per cent said it would have helped if they had received more help from their teacher.

The survey also found 45 per cent of 14-16yos said they are reading newspapers (or had done so over the past 12 months.

A total of 76 per cent had read a novel over the past 12 months and 46 per cent had read a magazine.

The findings come on World Children’s Day and UNICEF Australia’s Director of Policy Amy Lamoin said the time was now for government to take drastic action in the education space.

Australia currently ranks 30 out of the 41 high income countries assessed on educational performance.

Many teens say their teachers do not do enough to motivate them.

“UNICEF’s perspective is we need to seriously look at what have other countries done that have shifted their education systems and outcomes for children,” Ms Lamoin said.

“Gonski has not gone far enough. I think we need to make it a national priority and be prepared to have a big conversation about it. We can’t afford to squabble over this politically, this goes beyond funding … it is critical for every single young person in Australia.”

Megan O’Connell, director of the Mitchell Institute said without a national conversation on what Australia wants from its education system we were letting our young people down.

“Knowledge is important but without skills and capabilities, and the ability to apply knowledge in a nuanced fashion, we are letting students down,” she said.

“We need an education system that supports students to grow into capable, healthy, confident adults and to do this, we need to change what we measure.”

Alys Gagnon, executive director at The Parenthood said the pressure on student testing was playing into lower educational outcomes.

“The Parenthood, as well as many other education advocates, share the concerns of young people about the impact of testing on what happens in the classroom, where teachers feel pressured to teach to standardised exams like NAPLAN. That’s why we’re calling for a comprehensive review of NAPLAN,” she said.

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