http://www.newsweekly.com.au/articles/2004jun19_b1.html
BOOKS:
WHY OUR SCHOOLS ARE FAILING, By Kevin Donnelly
by
John Smith (reviewer) 19 Jun 2004
WHY
OUR SCHOOLS ARE FAILING:
What
parents need to know about Australian education
By
Kevin Donnelly
Duffy
& Snellgrove
Available
from News Weekly Books for $22.00 plus p&h
Almost
every aspect of primary and secondary education in Australia has undergone
significant change in the last four decades.
Kevin
Donnelly is a former teacher, educational consultant and currently adviser to
Federal MP, Kevin Andrews. Donnelly draws on his extensive research and
experience and argues that much is awry in our educational system, going so far
as to imply that the system is in crisis.
As
the subtitle suggests, this book is written not so much for the educational
establishment, as for the parents of students. Much of Donnelly's thesis is
based upon a comparison between the Australian educational system and those of
overseas countries.
Flawed
system
Donnelly
argues that one of the significant flaws in the current system is its
curriculum/outcomes-based approach and lack of comprehensive testing at various
levels.
Before
the mid-1960s, each of the State education departments issued clear syllabi for
each subject, which detailed knowledge and skills that students were expected to
attain at each year level. Teachers had to teach to the syllabus and students
were examined on both their knowledge and skills. Inspectors were employed by
the various departments to ensure that this process was
observed.
Students
who failed to meet the minimum required standard had to repeat the year level,
and testing was used as a means of monitoring the effectiveness of instruction.
This approach was abandoned for one in which the emphasis was on listing the
competencies students should develop during certain blocks of years in their
schooling (e.g., Years 9 and 10). The teacher is given a wide latitude in
writing the syllabus. Accompanying this change was the introduction of a range
of educational techniques such as open classrooms and whole-language approach to
teaching English, many of which have since been
discredited.
These
changes, according to Donnelly, have been integral factors in the decline of
standards. Research conducted in 1996 indicated that in Year 3, 27 per cent of
students did not meet the minimum standard and 28 per cent the minimum writing
standard. Students with poor skills were allowed to be promoted to the next year
level with the result that foundational literacy and numeracy difficulties were
not addressed.
By
contrast, those overseas countries which have either retained or have
re-introduced rigorous testing are the ones which achieve better numeracy and
literacy results.
Donnelly
cites the example of Britain where improvement in these areas has been the
result of the Blair Government's initiatives in education, namely regular
testing, school inspectors and league tables that publicise schools'
performances.
Given
the freedom allowed by the curriculum approach, some students will still leave
school, having read significant works of English literature and with a fair
knowledge of the narrative of world history.
Others,
however, will leave school having studied little more than pop culture such as
Neighbours, The Simpsons or reality TV and with
little knowledge of the key events in history, thus leaving them culturally
illiterate.
Too
many students are presented with an education that is pervaded with left-wing
ideologies, such as Marxism, feminism and postmodernism. For example, Australian
history has become a deprecatory litany of the evil deeds of white settlers, and
geography a thinly disguised promotion of extreme
environmentalism.
This
is consistent with a left-wing view which sees education, not so much as a means
of developing individuals and preparing them for their role as adults in
society, but as a catalyst in the struggle for equality and social change - or,
at its most extreme, as a means of "smashing the capitalist
system".
Lack
of values
Perhaps
one of the clearest indicators of parental dissatisfaction with government
education is the significant rise in the numbers of parents who have abandoned
government education for independent schooling, with many citing a lack of
values in the government system as a significant reason.
Perhaps
it would be more accurate to argue that in many cases parents object to the
approaches to education that are taken, for example, prohibitions on teaching
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
because it defines heterosexuality as the normal sexual orientation, thereby
marginalising gay and lesbian students.
It
may also explain why a growing number of families are choosing to homeschool
their children.
Why
Our Schools Are Failing
presents a controversial challenge, not only to parents but also to governments,
educational bodies and teachers' unions.
The
recent $700 grant offered to parents whose children are experiencing numeracy
and literacy difficulties can be interpreted as an acknowledgement by the
Federal Government that the current educational system is not providing for the
needs of these students.
Donnelly's
thesis deserves consideration. A solution to high rates of illiteracy and
innumeracy is needed to prevent many of our youth from being condemned to a life
of unemployment and poverty.