“Sink or swim” can no longer be a strategy for schooling.
The gap between academic achievers and strugglers has grown during the pandemic.
The phenomenon of “school refusal” proves many students don’t find school relevant, engaging or even welcoming.
Too many children are failing to master the essentials of reading, writing and maths in primary school – and most of them never catch up.
Primary schools have a duty to ensure every child can read, as the foundation for future learning. High schools must provide remedial support at all year levels for teenagers still wrestling with the “3Rs”, and celebrate students for their strengths, be it sport or art or kindness to classmates.
Australia’s privatised and academically selective schooling system is creaming off those students who are academically gifted, or were born to wealthy or educated parents. The damaging result is school segregation, whereby public schools in poor neighbourhoods become educational “ghettos’’ where many students struggle to excel, due to poor resourcing, peer-group pressures and community dysfunction.
The national curriculum, despite a recent review, remains overcrowded and cluttered with jargon that confuses and sidelines students who don’t have the benefit of a paid tutor to translate complex assignment questions.
Teaching ought to be rigorous yet entertaining, to inspire “digital natives’’ with short attention spans and infinite creativity. Students who are not academically inclined should not be forced through year 12 when they might be far happier if they take up a trade, or study at TAFE with an open door to university.
School absence levels have doubled during the pandemic, and gaming, social media and familial stress have produced a generation of children prone to anxiety, depression, bullying and eating disorders.
Education and health departments must work in lock-step to prioritise the welfare of children, for society’s sake.
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Minns beefs up hate-speech laws
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