¡Nuevo trabajo! / New project! Asignatura: Historia de los países de habla inglesa/History of english-speaking countries ✏ Título: "Quality education in Australia: development throughout the years and future goals" #ODS 4: Educación de calidad / #SDG 4: Quality education. By: Ada Alonso Gragera

1. QUALITY EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA:
Development throughout
the years and future goals
By Ada Alonso Gragera

2. INDEX
oBrief historical background
oStructure of the education system
oCurrent goals
oCurrent problems and issues
oGoals for the future
oBibliography: links and sources
SECTION 1
SECTION 2
SECTION 3

3. AUSTRALIAN
EDUCATION SYSTEM:
historical
background
SECTION 1

4. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
 Back in 1901, when the continent of Australia got
inhabited by British colonies, six states were formed
at Federation from these.
 These states ended up surrendering part of their
powers.
 By the end of the 20th century, the educational
system was primarily led by the federal government.
 Each state, however, developed their own separated
educational policy.

5. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
 By 1999, Australia’s population faced a decrease which
tried to be solved through immigration, which resulted
in a larger number of younger inhabitants in need of an
education.
 The first forms of education in Australia (starting in
1810) were mainly religious, based on sermons and
biblical readings, in response of the moral needs of the
society.
Reverend Richard Johnson:
the first schoolmaster, provided
by the Anglican church

6. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
 As the country prospered, residential schools were
born.
 These started as private schools, ran by clergymen,
who only admitted those in a good financial
situation, expecting its students to be able to run a
business or work abroad in the future.
 In the 1830s it was suggested an alternative
education system based on the Irish model, but it
kept getting shadowed by the catholic schools.

7. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
 By 1850, elementary education started functioning more succesfully, even if
most schools still faced financial problems, opposite to the catholic system.
 Finally, between 1880 and 1900, a system of compulsory, secular and free
education was implemented.
 This led to a significant strengthening of overall education departments, and
eventually education and health coalesced into forming an effective welfare
system, leading to a stronger economy.
 This economic boom presented noticeable benefits towards institutions such
as universities or private grammar schools, as well as allowing the rise of a
wealthier urban professional class.

8. AUSTRALIAN
EDUCATION SYSTEM:
structure
SECTION 1

9. STRUCTURE
 School education
 Tertiary education
• Primary school (from Kindergarten/Preparatory to year 6 or 7)
• Secondary school (from year 7 or 8 to 10)
• Senior secondary school (years 11 and 12)
• Higher education (including universities)
• Vocational education and training (VET)

10. STRUCTURE
 Language of instruction: English
 Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF):
• Established in 1995.
• Covers qualifications from the tertiary education, in addition to the Senior
Secondary Certificate of Education.
• 10 flexible levels which allow to comfortably explore career paths.
• Help prepare for both future studies and working life.

11. STRUCTURE
The personal testimony of Emily Pischke, an Australian student (which started secondary
school in 2015, currently in year 12), offers a deeper insight into how her high school arranges
its study levels and courses.
 From years 7 to 10, every subject offers a division of four levels which adjust to each student’s
academic needs, meaning that the first level encompasses those students who handle the
subject with ease, and level four being designed to help those who may face more difficulties.
 “There is options to drop down classes too, which I did for maths as the course in 1st math class
was too difficult for me, which in the long run was a good choice for me to make.”
 By years 9 and 10 students are given the possibility to choose elective subjects in order to
personalise their learning, with some compulsory subjects such as science or history still on their
timetables.

12. STRUCTURE
 The four-level system is dropped by years 11 and 12, just remaining elective
subjects and advanced and standard classes.
 Everything taught during these two years is aimed towards the HSC (Higher
school certificate).
“Just this year there has been a website created for senior students called Edrolo, which has
every course summarised in comprehensive videos, multi-choice activities and other practice for
the HSC. I used Edrolo and it’s extremely helpful for revision, its videos are really easy to follow.”
“The HSC years are stressful as you progressively get closer to the actual exams, which is one
reason why there’s a couple of practice exams in order to prepare students and test their
knowledge for the conditions of the HSC.”

13. AUSTRALIAN
EDUCATION SYSTEM:
current goals
SECTION 2

14. CURRENT GOALS
 Policy initiatives
• Equity
• Higher education and training
• Quality schools and quality teachings
• Robust and transparent assessment measures
• Indigenous education
• The New Colombo Plan
• Resourcing schools

15. CURRENT GOALS
 EQUITY:
• TIMMSS results showed that Indigenous Australian students have a lower performance
than their urban counterparts.
• This has been addressed since 2009 through initiatives in early education.
 HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING:
• 84% of 25-34 year olds have attained an upper secondary education (2% above the OECD
average).
• In 2008 it was commissioned a review of higher education, aiming to increase higher
education enrolments by 2020.

16. CURRENT GOALS
 QUALITY SCHOOLS AND QUALITY TEACHINGS:
• In 2010 the establishment of AITSL (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership)
was designed in order to provide guidance towards this area.
• A standarized framework for teachers was established between 2009-2013, aiming towards
a better teacher quality.
 ROBUST AND TRANSPARENT ASSESMENT MEASURES:
• All Australian schools take part in the NAPLAN (National Assessment Program, Literacy and
Numeracy) in years 3, 5, 7 and 7 as to evaluate its students’ progression.
• The My Skills and QUILT websites help provide helpful information about teaching centers
and other education-related surveys.

17. CURRENT GOALS
 INDIGENOUS EDUCATION:
• In 2008 the COAG (Council of Australian Governments) established a series of targets to
reduce inequities, three of which focus on education:
“To ensure access to early childhood education for all Indigenous four-year-olds in
remote communities within five years.”
“To halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for children within a
decade.”
“To halve the gap in Indigenous Year 12 achievement by 2020.”
• The most recent Close The Gap report (February 2020) reveals a significant and
heartening improvement in these targets, especially in contrast to the results from the
same survey in 2017.

18. CURRENT GOALS
 THE NEW COLOMBO PLAN:
• This project is aimed towards undergraduate students, and its intent is to raise knowledge
of the Indo-Pacific region, as well as strengthen institutional relationships through study
and internships.
 RESOURCING SCHOOLS:
• By the end of 2011 the Gonski Review was released, which gave an insight into funding in
Australian education.
• The results showed lack of coherence and an unnecessary complexity.
• In 2017 the Australian Education Amendment Act was updated in order to fix these issues
and provide a more balanced and just funding method.

19. AUSTRALIAN
EDUCATION SYSTEM:
current problems and
SECTION 2

20. CURRENT PROBLEMS AND ISSUES
 Main issues
• Decline in student performance
• Neglection of science
• Monolingual education
• Non-qualified teachers
• Low early learning participation

21. CURRENT PROBLEMS AND ISSUES
 STUDENT PERFORMANCE:
• Australian students around 15 years old have shown a noticeable decline in
their academic results since 2000 (especially in areas such as maths or
literature), while the same statistics in other countries have risen.
• An assesment ran by IEA (International
Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement) showed that Australia’s
academic performance had been surpassed by
England and the USA, which had previously
been classified as inferior in this field.

22. CURRENT PROBLEMS AND ISSUES
 NEGLECTION OF SCIENCE:
• A large percentage (around 75%) of the fastest growing occupations rely on science, yet
the Australian education system neglects focusing on areas such as technology,
mathematics or engineering.
• Maths, for instance, is not a compulsory subject at
senior secondary studies, except in the South and
a fraction of the North.
• Fewer tan one in ten students applied for
advanced maths in 2013, also bringing up the
noticeable gender gap, with just a 6.6% of girls
studying this area.

23. CURRENT PROBLEMS AND ISSUES
 MONOLINGUAL EDUCATION:
• In 2013, only an 8% of students were learning a foreign language for
their HSC (the lowest percentage ever recorded).
• In 2016 the percentage increased slightly but not significantly, with
still only a 10% of year 12 students applying for a foreign language.
• This might be due to the fact that, since a large number of Asian
population already engaged with the English language (due to both
immigration and trade business), the thought of learning a second
language is dismissed.

24. CURRENT PROBLEMS AND ISSUES
 NON-QUALIFIED TEACHERS:
• A study made in 2014 indicated that Australia’s teacher
education policies fall short in comparison to high-achieving
countries, such as Finland or Canada.
• For reference, teacher education
degrees turned out to have the
highest percentage of students with a
low ATAR score (Australian Tertiary
Admission Rank).

25. CURRENT PROBLEMS AND ISSUES
 LOW EARLY LEARNING PARTICIPATION:
• In comparison to most countries belonging to the OECD (with an average
70% of early learning participation), only an 18% from Australia took part in
it, as stated in a survey from 2014.
• In 2017 this number rose significantly, but not as much as to save the gap
that separated Australia from other comparable countries from the OECD.
• The sector of the population that misses most this early learning are three
year olds. This results in an obvious disadvange for them, since a study
affirms that one in five children are developmentally vulnerable when
starting school.

26. AUSTRALIAN
EDUCATION SYSTEM:
future goals
SECTION 2

27. FUTURE GOALS
 Attracting high achievers (students with higher ATAR scores) to
study education-related careers in order to improve the teaching
quality.
 Enhance the teaching of science-based subjects.
 Spending funding on early education, which in the long term will
be beneficial to the whole academic development of students.

28. FUTURE GOALS
 Promote international colaboration in order to expand students’
culture and knowledge of the world.
 Individualise students’ learning, aiming to optimise their performance
by allowing them to progress at the pace that suits them best, in
addition to fulfilling their personal capabilities and needs.
 Enhance creativity and personal values as to help students become
enterprising and resilient members of society.

29. FUTURE GOALS
 Promote the responsible use of technology as a useful tool for learning,
and help students to adapt with ease to future technologies yet to
emerge.
 Prepare students for being able to learn in both formal and informal
teaching spaces, and being resourceful within different environments.
 Educate the youth about their country’s governnent, history, religion and
overall culture, building an open-minded space.

30. BIBLIOGRAPHY: links
and
sources
SECTION 3

31. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 https://www.studyinaustralia.gov.au/english/australian-education/education-system
 https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/75/Australia-HISTORY-BACKGROUND.html
 https://www.pmc.gov.au/news-centre/indigenous-affairs/closing-gap-
2020#:~:text=Today%20the%20Prime%20Minister%20tabled,and%20numeracy%2C%20employment%20and%20he
alth.
 https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5866
 https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2015/03/16/six-ways-australias-education-system-failing-
kids/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAw_H-BRD-
ARIsALQE_2OfpWdrsIiJ3g7lNbH943vB1nTRjxmvIM43QS0V2Ksq3rHl3kkX9IUaAub1EALw_wcB
 https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1014&context=teacher_education
 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-04/top-ranking-education-systems-in-world-arent-there-by-
accident/11766042

32. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/australia-s-spectacular-failure-in-
languages#:~:text=Australia%20is%20not%20just%20failing,and%20this%20includes%20native%20speakers.
 https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/schools/latest-release
 https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/australian-education-system-foundation.pdf
 https://theconversation.com/early-learning-report-card-australia-is-improving-rapidly-but-theres-more-work-to-do-83706
 https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/582d057a-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/582d057a-en
 https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/new-declaration-next-decade-
education#:~:text=%EF%82%B7%20Goal%201%3A%20The%20Australian,informed%20members%20of%20the%20community.
 https://studyabroad.shiksha.com/australian-education-and-training-as-compared-to-other-countries-articlepage-136
 https://uploadstorage.blob.core.windows.net/public-assets/education-au/melbdec/ED19-0230%20-%20SCH%20-
%20Alice%20Springs%20(Mparntwe)%20Education%20Declaration_ACC.pdf