[LINK] Schooling Review Fails to Address Digital Education Revolution

[Tom Worthington]

The Australian Government "Review of Funding for Schooling" released 
four independent research reports and overview paper on 31 August 2011. 
Public comment is invited by 30 September 2011.

The then Minister for Education (now Prime Minister), Julia Gillard, 
planned the review of all aspects of funding of all schools in Australia 
to report in 2011. The review panel is headed by David Gonski, Chairman 
of the Australian Securities Exchange, Coca-Cola Amatil and Investec Bank.

In my view the terms of reference for the review are deficient, in that 
they refer to "schooling", rather than "education for students". The 
review is therefore looking at how to fund isolated institutions in 
buildings at a particular geographic location (a "school"), rather than 
how to provide the best, most cost effective education for students. 
This is not a good way to allocate resources.

The Australian Government's Digital Education Revolution (DER) has made 
a start on a new approach to education, but with only minimal funding. 
Australia should adopt an approach for schools similar to that for 
vocational education, where courses are developed nationally and 
student's education is largely independent of where they happen to be.

Research reports released:

1.  Assessment of current process for targeting of schools funding to 
disadvantaged students, Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)
2. Assessing existing funding models for schooling in Australia, 
Deloitte Access Economics
3. Feasibility of a national schooling recurrent resource standard, The 
Allen Consulting Group
4. Schooling challenges and opportunities, The Nous Group consortium

See: 
http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/ReviewofFunding/Pages/PaperCommissionedResearch.aspx


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards 
Legislation

Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/