Category Archives: Education

20% of Queensland youth not fully engaged (i.e. in full-time work or study)

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Gene Tunny

The slowdown in Queensland’s economy since the financial crisis has disproportionately affected young people (aged 15-19), many of whom are obviously waiting for the good times to return rather than go to TAFE or university. The chart below is from … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Labour market, Macroeconomy | Leave a comment

School halls taskforce gives tick of approval to Qld Govt

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Gene Tunny

While the Building the Education Revolution (BER) Implementation Taskforce has come down hard on NSW and Victoria (BER waste blows out to $1.1bn), Queensland has received a good report from the Taskforce: The only state government that can claim to … Continue reading →

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Australia ties with NZ for second in digital literacy in OECD – Korea on top

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Gene Tunny

From the OECD today: 28/06/2011 – Korea tops a new OECD PISA survey that tests how 15-year olds use computers and the Internet to learn. The next best performers were New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Hong-Kong China and Iceland. PISA 2009 … Continue reading →

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Teacher bonus scheme a worthwhile experiment

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Gene Tunny

PM Julia Gillard’s announcement today of a bonus pay scheme for teachers is good news, as it signals the Government’s commitment to improving teacher quality, which is a very important contributor to the educational outcomes of Australian children. The ABC … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | 1 Comment

Don’t be surprised if your removalist chats about Proust

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Gene Tunny

In another sign there is a large over-supply of university graduates in Australia, the commuters’ afternoon newspaper, mX, reports today: University graduates struggling to find jobs in their field are knocking down the doors at blue-collar workplaces. The February jobs … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Macroeconomy | Leave a comment

My School identifies heavily subsidised regional schools

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Gene Tunny

My School identifies the poorly attended and, hence, high cost per student schools that, arguably, are being over-subsidised by taxpayers, such as the Irvinebank State School on the Tablelands in Far North Queensland, which received over $70,000 for each of … Continue reading →

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Trainee teachers will benefit from Gillard schools plan

Posted on December 31, 2010 by Gene Tunny

Queensland’s teacher transfer system, which sees trainee teachers earning brownie points through hardship posts such as Mt Morgan and Mt Isa, is threatened by PM Julia Gillard’s school autonomy plan: School plan fails remote students This is a positive development. … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | 2 Comments

School autonomy plan a good start

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Gene Tunny

The Gillard Government’s plan to give state school principals the power to hire and fire teachers and full control over school budgets is a good start to much needed educational reform: Julia Gillard plan to liberate schools We’ll need to … Continue reading →

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Reading performance of Australian students deteriorating

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Gene Tunny

From the just released OECD PISA survey of educational performance (p. 19 in the Executive Summary): Since both PISA 2000 and PISA 2009 focused on reading, it is possible to track how student performance in reading changed over that period. … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | 4 Comments

Improving teacher effectiveness

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Gene Tunny

Melbourne-based think tank the Grattan Institute has just released a great paper on teacher effectiveness, which it argues is critical to boosting our educational outcomes and productivity: Investing in our teachers, investing in our economy The paper argues in favour … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | 3 Comments