Australian colonies originally accepted responsibilities on a number of fronts….age limits relating to admission, entry and compulsion, the kinds of schools, the length of primary schooling, the treatment of private and alternative schooling, and the kinds of curriculum offerings.\u00a0 They borrowed ideas from each other while maintaining a rigid independence in structural terms.\u00a0 In Australia it has become messy and requires\u00a0 re-thinking by school people if schooling is to be treated as a national enterprise.<\/p>\n
The mess is well illustrated by the names given to the first year of schooling.\u00a0 NSW and the ACT call it Kindergarten<\/em>; Victoria,\u00a0 Tasmania and Queensland call it Preparatory<\/em>;\u00a0 South Australia calls it Reception<\/em>;\u00a0 Northern Territory calls it Transition<\/em>;\u00a0 Western Australian calls it Pre-primary<\/em>.\u00a0 Believe it.\u00a0 After the first year of schooling pupils then move into Year 1 !\u00a0 Try to believe also that there is no effort to standardise the names at this time.\u00a0 Whenever, such things are mentioned at meetings of the Ministerial Council for Employment,\u00a0 Education,\u00a0 Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], \u00a0it seems that they are given short shift.<\/p>\n What is so difficult for a country as small as ours [1] to have a standard age of entry such as turning 5 years of age by a set date and [2] to call the child’s first year at school Year 1…and for the child to progress year by year to Year 12 or 13 [whatever is determined]? !!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The age of entry to schooling is different for each state and there is no standard entry date to schooling so equivalent year-level ages are askew.\u00a0 [7. Ages of Compulsory Schooling]<\/a> <\/span>Examination of the impact of standardisation has been considered by MCEETYA.\u00a0 It has, over the years, received submissions about\u00a0 [a]\u00a0 all pupils in Australia spending the same number of years at school;\u00a0 [b]\u00a0 providing the same opportunities to learn the same age-appropriate material;\u00a0 [c]\u00a0 consistent curriculum outcomes across state boundaries.\u00a0 Appearing to treat compulsory schooling lightly, it has suspended thinking too deeply and does not appear to be in a hurry.<\/p>\n It was in the 1970s that the Australian Primary Principals Assopciation and\u00a0the Conference of Directors of Primary Education asked the meeting of the Commonwealth Ministers to take action on the age of admission to schooling.\u00a0\u00a0Fast movers…\u00a0in\u00a02004… almost thirty years later, the\u00a0august collective\u00a0examined a Position Paper.\u00a0 It decided that further detailed analysis was needed \u2018to be undertaken by a suitable consultant’.\u00a0 One could name a few hundred such consultants who are presently running schools who\u00a0could have\u00a0performed the task \u00a0in their spare time. Instead they must have hired an external consultant or used one of their office staff.<\/p>\n In April 2007 MCEETYA “…decided not to proceed with the implementation of a national eligible schools starting age given that no educational benefit had been demonstrated and affected State and Territories would incur significant costs”.\u00a0 Can matters of standards, leadership and transparency be judged as effective while there is such a crass attitude to important issues of schooling?<\/p>\n Does it seems sensible to impose \u00a0national tests and standard curriculum requirements on\u00a0such a\u00a0mixture. For instance:- what does ‘Year 3’ mean\u00a0?\u00a0 Is the third, fourth or fifth year of school ?<\/p>\n Sorting out the inter-state\u00a0confusionn is a very serious undertaking and needs to be undertaken asap. The orders at present are : “Ready ? FIRE !\u00a0 Aim.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australian colonies originally accepted responsibilities on a number of fronts….age limits relating to admission, entry and compulsion, the kinds of schools, the length of primary schooling, the treatment of private and alternative schooling, and the kinds of curriculum offerings.\u00a0 They borrowed ideas from each other while maintaining a rigid independence in structural terms.\u00a0 In Australia … Continue reading Standardisation<\/span>