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education
education January 24, 2026
How public school students will start the year
On the final day of school last year, a public high school catering to a very disadvantaged community presented its students with a gift pack. It included a young adult novel, a classically popular picture book – so the student could read it to a...
education December 13, 2025
The trashing of State Library Victoria
My 17-year career at State Library Victoria ended two years ago, after months of white-anting by management and the most miserable time of my working life. When news of the library’s most recent restructure plan appeared in the press, I received a...
education December 13, 2025
Confronting harassment in uni STEM courses
Sitting in my mandatory coding workshop, I felt a spray on the back of my neck. As the thick smell of men’s deodorant spread and sank into my clothes, I saw my tutor slip the can back into his bag before sitting down next to me. I stayed quiet,...
education October 11, 2025
Stacked boards driving ‘rotten’ university sector
The chair of the recent Senate inquiry into the quality of governance at Australia’s universities, Tony Sheldon, can describe the situation in a single word: rotten. While not employing the same colourful language, the Senate’s interim report,...
education September 27, 2025
The segregation crisis in schools funding
In the Albanese government’s first term, Education Minister Jason Clare observed that Australia has one of the most segregated education systems in the OECD. What is deeply shocking – though not surprising to anyone who has been following this issue...
education July 26, 2025
How the student debt cut still fails students
As promised, Labor’s first act in the 48th parliament was to cut 20 per cent off all student debt. It’s a long-overdue move and undeniably welcome. Students have spent years shouting into the void about the rising cost of degrees, and this...
education May 24, 2025
The next three steps to help public schools
Australia has the resources, the talent and now a government with enough political capital to build better and fairer education systems, if we’re brave enough to act. With its landslide victory, the second Albanese government has the power to honour...
education March 1, 2025
We must not risk going backwards on racism
Nearly every day, my phone buzzes with messages of distress: community leaders, faith groups, families and individuals from all walks of life, each carrying the weight of racism’s impact. A mother fearful for her child’s safety calls after yet...
education February 8, 2025
School funds delayed are funds denied
“School funding has become such a politically poisonous area that public schools have to be pathetically grateful for anything they get.” This is how Professor Helen Proctor, Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney,...
education October 17, 2024
University reform should be a major issue at the next election, given the decline of the sector. Some institutions are in a precarious financial position, raising doubts about their longer-term financial viability. This is the outcome of successive...
education September 21, 2024
Why the new plan for fairer schools will fail
The latest results from the annual national literacy and numeracy tests in schools shows what we already knew: Australian education systems are not getting any better or fairer. The Better and Fairer Schools Agreement (BFSA) that the federal...
