Controversial Education Issues: Declining Standards in Public Schools:

One of the most controversial education issues today is the continuing decline in student learning standards at state schools throughout Australia, which is an issue of concern to both the public and the government. Hardly an election, be it State or Federal, goes past without the education band wagon being wheeled out, with promises of reform and greater spending to cure the problem.

Yet the problem persists despite a myriad of "solutions" being applied ranging from increased spending, shifting the focus onto e-learning and various curriculum and assessment frameworks.Why is this problem so persistent? Despite intermittent efforts by the media to make teachers the scapegoat for the drop in standards, the blame lies neither with them nor with the students involved. At present, students can only be kept from progressing to the next year level if the parents of the student give permission. This sounds fine in theory, but in reality this permission is rarely if ever given. In the ten years I have worked as a teacher in Australian government schools, I have only seen one case of this.

This means that students are promoted to the next year level regardless of their skill level. The students are aware of this and as a result the completion of set work in the classroom has become optional. It is worth noting that private schools are not subject to this ridiculous situation.

Since there are no standards for moving up to the next year there are many students at any given year level that are well below the expected standard. This not only increases the workload of the teacher taking the class, but also diminishes the learning opportunities of those students who are interested in the work.

Education Issues in the Classroom is Much About Parenting not Class Size or Assistants:

Often people in our civilization and society are very quick to blame our educational system and or the teachers. Others will blame the school district and the number of kids per classroom and although the number of kids per classroom is vitally important to learning and individual one-on-one help, we should not forget all the facts. For instance, many of the educational issues and problems in our schools are not so much about classroom size, but rather behavioral patterns that the children learned from their parents, which they take to the classroom and act out. Without control of the classroom there will be little teaching going on because it will be more like babysitting.

Many people believe we need more teacher assistants in the classroom, this is hard to deny and yet we look at other cultures like China and Japan where there are many many children per classroom and yet all the children learn and they are behaving at the same time. So, whereas classroom size is an issue one thing we are not addressing enough of are the unruly children who show up for school each day. As parents often like to blame the school district, principal, teachers and everyone else but themselves, in the end many other problems that these kids have in school they bring to the school from home. We need to address the issue of poor parenting and how that affects performance in the classroom. Please consider this in 2006.

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