Megan O’Connell and Kate Torii (The Conversation, 14.12.16) examine government spending on education in Australia:
‘While all education stages may not need the same amount of money, they should still receive equal attention when reforms are being considered. This is to make sure money is allocated where it will have the greatest impact.
‘By global standards, Australia’s education system provides some significant causes for celebration.
We have almost all four year olds enrolled in preschool.
We achieve above OECD average scores on international school tests.
And some of our universities and training centres are among the best in the world.
‘But if you remove global comparisons and look closely at our own performance over time, it begs a question around whether money is hitting the right targets.
‘There is a significant imbalance in expenditure on tertiary education, our performance in literacy and numeracy has slipped, and disadvantaged children in particular are still missing out on the right amount of early education to prepare them for school.’
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