Category Archives: Education

Catholic schools still benefiting from very favourable funding deal from Howard Govt days

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Gene Tunny

I’ve received several interesting comments on my post Large savings for Qld Govt from shift to private schooling, including the comment below from a representative of independent schools (i.e. non-Catholic private schools such as BBC, Somerville House and the grammar schools): … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Large savings for Qld Govt from shift to private schooling

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Last week I posted on trends in private school enrolments, and my colleague and friend Brad Rogers commented to me that the shift to private schooling is bringing significant savings to the State Government. While State Schools receive the bulk … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Trends in private school enrolments – big change in primary school enrolments

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Gene Tunny

A significant trend in education in recent decades has been the strong growth in private school enrolments as many parents have become convinced private schools offer a better and safer school environment. Queensland Treasury’s information brief on the new ABS Schools … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Queensland has too many low-performing schools

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Gene Tunny

One major challenge the current Queensland Government faces is the need to reform a school system that historically has had a disproportionate number of low-performing schools. The extent of poor performance among our secondary schools is pretty clear in data … Continue reading →

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Further TAFE job cuts likely in new contestable training market

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Gene Tunny

The effective corporatisation of TAFE Queensland last year (see Qld TAFE to become statutory body) and the push for greater contestability in training funding – both of which I support – will no doubt lead to a rationalisation of Queensland … Continue reading →

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Why is training in oil & gas drilling fee-free?

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Gene Tunny

The Queensland Government’s blueprint for reform of vocational education and training (VET), Great Skills Real Opportunities, which was released in June last year, goes a long way toward creating a more efficient and responsive VET sector, but falls short in … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Labour market, Mining | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Improving teacher quality key to lifting student performance

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Gene Tunny

The new OECD report showing Australia’s educational performance is slipping has gained a lot of media attention this morning (e.g. Queensland students lag behind national average in maths, science and literacy) and should inspire policy makers to push for further … Continue reading →

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Teacher pay revamp long overdue

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Gene Tunny

I’m very pleased the Queensland Government is considering linking teacher pay to teacher performance (see today’s Courier-Mail), as improving pay for the best teachers will help stop the leakage of the best teachers out of the education system and may … Continue reading →

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More CSG-LNG jobs than previously forecast, but minerals job vacancies have plummeted

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Yesterday I attended the Energy Skills Queensland (ESQ) Annual Conference at the Royal International Convention Centre at the RNA Showgrounds in Brisbane. At the Conference, ESQ released its Queensland CSG to LNG Industry Workforce Plan, which received coverage from ABC … Continue reading →

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Higher education reform important in improving budget balance

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Gene Tunny

I’m broadly pleased with the new Federal Government’s planned reforms of the higher education system (reported in the Brisbane Times article Christopher Pyne reveals university shake-up). Policy targets are generally useless, as they are rarely achieved and are often misguided, … Continue reading →

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