Education in Queensland II

It is now well known that Qld has done very badly in the latest national tests. We came second last, scraping home just ahead of the Northern Territory. In addition, in international comparisons Queensland is way behind the top rank players such as Taiwan. In maths, Taiwan has 45% of it students in the ‘advanced’ bracket whereas Qld managed just 3%.

To her credit, Premier Anna Bligh commissioned Geoff Masters of the Australian Council for Education Research to investigate the reason for Qld’s poor showing. Unfortunately for the Premier, an important finding of the report indicates that the usual excuse of the state government, that Queensland students are a little younger than their interstate counterparts, is not entirely valid. According to Masters, in the 1960’s and 70’s Queensland was on top of the league table in Mathematics, and our students were just as young in those days.

Although the Masters report concentrated mostly on basic numeracy and literacy in the lower school years, the problems in the high schools are probably just as bad. Masters hinted at this with the comment relating to junior high school maths “the decline in the government system between 1964 and 1995 was larger than in any other state and has been estimated as the equivalent of ‘more than two years of learning’”.

So how did we go from first to last? Firstly it is not only the fault of the present Labor government - the decline has been continuous for decades and occurred during a succession of Coalition and Labor state administrations.

One of the main problems with the Qld system is the Queensland Studies Authority (QSA). The QSA must not be confused with Education Queensland. The former is in control of the syllabus; the later is responsible for the nuts and bolts of running schools. By developing the syllabi, the QSA is responsible for what is taught in every school in Queensland, both private and public, and has developed some of the most crazy syllabi and assessment methods in the world. The QSA has consistently denied that any problems exist despite being told by University teachers that a significant decline in standard is evident in first year university students. The QSA thinks it has developed the most advanced education system in the world. The national testing system and the Masters Report has been a nasty shock for the idealogues of the QSA though they still deny they are partly responsible.

QSA syllabi are characterised by a very limited description of what is to be taught, extremely complicated and subjective assessment schemes, and an overemphasis on assignments especially in subjects such as Maths, Physics and Chemistry. The new Queensland syllabi completely de-emphasize content and facts. According to modern education theory, you don’t actually have to know anything; you only have know how to find out information.

It is interesting to look at Western Australia that introduced a similar system to Queensland a few years ago. Following a public outcry and a campaign supported by the West Australian newspaper and a community organisation called PLATOWA, the WA government did a complete U turn and have reintroduced a more traditional approach to their syllabi. The education debacle in WA was one reason for the fall of the Labor Government in that State

I am quite sure that the Bligh government is completely committed to improving our education system, but I am worried that the smooth talking education bosses in the QSA will deflect attention away from themselves.

If that is the case, there is only one thing to be done. Schools must change over to the International Baccalaureate system. They can then avoid the second rate QSA syllabi. It is interesting to note that Education Queensland’s Elite academies have already done this and so have many good solid public and private schools.