Local Musings - A New Way Part 2 (Part 1 can be found online in the August issue of the HT)

By Doug Patterson

Secondary education options must be expanded to provide for a much broader choice of educational opportunities offered by many more providers. These could include community organisations like the Red Cross, not-for-profit organisations like the Salvation Army, sporting clubs, businesses, schools and commercial training firms.

The objectives here are to expose young people to a range of further education options and to give them some practical and theoretical experience to ready them for entry into the work force, for taking up apprenticeships and traineeships, or for entry into TAFE and university programs; where TAFE Colleges and University Faculties would set their own entry criteria.

Again, it would seem more appropriate to fund these secondary options through learner vouchers and administered through contracts between the learner and the provider. While some programs would take several years to complete, others may well only take three months.

More focussed programs relevant to the learner’s needs and interests and contractual clauses should greatly reduce learner dissatisfaction and disruptive behaviour. Learners who repeatedly have their contracts cancelled will struggle to find secondary programs that would accept them and end up out of the system which is, after all, for education; not for child-minding, psychological counselling, punishment or rehabilitation.

Progress through the system is based on readiness, so the worst behaviour problems stemming from poor literacy and other academic skills should be largely eliminated. Likewise, the only students going on to tertiary education will have had to satisfy complementary readiness tests and should be able to cope with the rigour of tertiary programs better.

However, funding tertiary programs through a user pays, voucher system would not be viable due to the different costs in providing different degree courses. With a better prepared intake of students, it would seem like a sensible government investment to directly fund all tertiary courses for all Australian tertiary students.

The transition from a rigid, lock-step, known system, however dissatisfied we are with it, will be difficult and take time. Of courses, schools will still exist for some, even most, students; but education will look different, with outcomes that are much easier to measure, therefore it should be more effective.

Shifting the focus of secondary education away from curriculum-driven, by perceived and often unproven ‘State needs’, to the needs and interests of the learner within a less prescriptive State overview, should lead to higher student engagement and less disruptive behaviour in the learning environment. After all, education should be a positive experience for both the teacher and the learner.