Australia needs a new national conversation on school education. We should seize the opportunity provided by the Commonwealth's Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools (known as the 'Gonski 2.0 Review'). The Turnbull Government commissioned the Gonski 2.0 Review in an effort to ensure the extra Commonwealth money going into schools over the next decade is spent wisely by the states and territories. But this report warns against over-reach: too much Commonwealth intervention into school education could be counterproductive and costly. Under the Gonski 2.0 funding deal struck last year, schools will get an extra $23 billion in Commonwealth funds over the next ten years. But the Commonwealth's need for reassurance about how the money is spent must be kept in perspective: the extra federal funding is only 3 per cent of all government spending on schools over the period. Much more important is that all government money for school education is spent effectively, regardless of where it comes from. This report first identifies the big system reforms needed to improve students outcomes. Most of these reforms are the responsibilities of state and territory governments. Then the report considers what few things the Commonwealth should do to help. The biggest advances will be made only.

Society, Schools, and Progress in Australia focuses on the principles, methodologies, practices, and measures employed in education in Australia. The book first offers information on historical influences and organization of public education. Discussions focus on local communities and schools, teaching in state schools, administration within states, educational policy, secondary education, geographical and social background, centralization, question of state aid, and background of the education acts. The book then ponders on schools and society, pattern of higher education, and teachers. Topics include economic change, organization of technical education, future development of technical colleges, adult education, diversification of tertiary education, teaching in universities, and reorganization of secondary education. The text examines education and national growth, including changing balance of the federation, social teaching, quality of teachers, aspects of national development, and social change and educational change. The manuscript is a dependable reference for students, teachers, and educators wanting to study the form of education in Australia.

Society, Schools and Progress in the West Indies

Commonwealth Education Partnership 2007 is an essential overview of the development of education systems in the Commonwealth, focusing on international collaborations and on the partnerships in member countries between government, NGOs and the private sector in education. Focuses in this edition: increasing access and the right to quality education; supporting teachers for quality education; resourcing; and education for the good of all. Published for the Commonwealth Secretariat by Nexus Partnerships.

Despite the Australian Constitution implying school education to be a state responsibility, the Commonwealth has increasingly interfered with state school education. The Australian Government Muscling in on School Education therefore offers a historical account of this government involvement in Australian education, from federation to the present day, providing a much-needed, fully updated and relevant overview the topic. Arguing that education has become an arena for competing political forces, this book examines the powerful influence of the Commonwealth over education and the political motives behind it, exploring how politics influences aspects of the curriculum, teaching standards, assessment and reporting, funding, teacher selection and policy more broadly. Ultimately questioning whether this influence is in the interests of the members of the community who depend on education, the book holds government engagement in education to account. Taking the major epochs of federalism as an organizing framework, the book’s chapters include explorations of: The efficiency dynamic and the progressive years (1919–39) Postwar imperatives and the Menzies years (1949–72) Coordinative federalism and treading softly: the Whitlam years (1972–5) and Fraser years (1975–83) Corporate federalism: the Hawke/Keating years (1983–96) Supply-side federalism and globalization: the Howard years (1996–2007) National control and the Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison years (2007–15) A thorough and significant examination of the historical engagement of the Australian government in education, this book is essential reading for student teachers and postgraduate students in education studies and politics.