Adverts for Public Education.

Um, just a hint – if you’re going to write a long rant (and god knows, I’ve written a few), they’re a lot more readable if they’re broken up into paragraphs.

Interesting that with all this debate about schools and who goes on to uni that the latest figures show that Public School Graduates actually cope with the independant nature of learning at University better than Private School grad’s so I think that argument goes down in flames. As for the argument about how many Public School Grad’s go on to Uni, we only have to say ‘Thank You’ to Mr Howard for making University Education the most UNAFFORDABLE it has ever been in the history of Australia. Ask yourselves what you want for the future of Australia as a nation before you jump into this ridiculous argument about which schools are better. Hey, here’s an idea, let’s actually own up to the COMPLETE FARCE that seems to be perpetuated regarding funding issues: In the 1970’s the Government managed the most disgraceful rort in Australian Legal history, public funding for Private Schools! What did the Private Schools do with the money, why they invested in property and company shares etc, making millions over the years, leading to some of the more prestigious schools becoming Blue Chip companies. What did the Public Schools do… kept on using ALL of the resources at their disposal, accepting ALL students in an equitable manner, providing them with the best quality education they could afford based on ACTUAL LEARNING THEORY from the best Educational Theorists around the world. Now we have both federal, state and territory ministers dictating how education should be occuring based on decades old, outdates and PROVEN INADEQUATE theories instead of the cutting edge pedagogy (don’t know this word… LOOK IT UP) from new graduates and edcationalists. NONE of this is news, the MOST LITERATE nations in the world are the ones who VALUE their educational experts, schools etc and actually put them near the top of the funding list. Just to finish off… TRY TALKING TO YOUR CHILDREN INSTEAD OF GOING TO THE GYM OR OUT FOR COFFEE, THEIR OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES MATTER MORE THAN YOURS!! Hey, you might actually like to teach your kids something yourself. Just let the teachers teach, acknowledge that the energy needed to keep twenty to thirty kids motivated all day is more draining than anything you will EVER do in most jobs. Smile at them, say ‘Thank You’ occasionally and get off their backs when they actually pause to try and seek a salary the equal to the value of the job they do. Here’s a figure for you.. a recent study showed the life expectancy of teachers beyond retirement is around ten years, one of the LOWEST in this country. Now maybe you can realise how much teachers give, Private or Public they are, 99% of them amazing human beings who do the most important job we have. I’m married to one, you all know one so stop turning your backs on reality!!

It’s called being sarcastic.

As I have said Non-Govt schools CHOOSE who they will take, Govt schools DON’T have that luxury.

As a parent, I would send my child to the “better” school based on word of mouth and also by viewing the school.

I’ve worked in the “harder” Govt high schools and I can see why some parents choose to avoid them – it isn’t always pretty, but there are some great Govt schools out there – they are just being “ignored” as parents choose Non-Govt.

Both systems teach the same curriculum – minus R.E., so it is obvious that it isn’t the curriculum but rather the “discipline” of the school which attracts parents to Non-Govt schools.

ssanta, that’s because you’re cherry picking the best private schools and comparing them to the whole government sector. I could do the same thing and only choose the best performing public schools, but I’m talking about the whole government system compared to the whole non-government sector.

If you look at where most of the growth in the non-gov sector has been it’s not in the Grammars of the world it’s in the low fee, generally catholic, local schools, and these schools give no measurable educational benefit over the government sector (and I believe they may even underperform compared to our college system).

I’m with ssanta, why do you need to run an advertising campaign to advertise something that you have to supply as a community service ?

This is yet another way that we’re wasting money, instead of putting the money into resources and funding for the children, we’re looking at throwing the money into some silly little advertising campaign which is going to essentially say ‘since you have to put your children into a school anyway, and you can’t afford private schooling, send them to a public school’

Yay, I think a toaster has more flair than Ms Gallagher. Thanks for pointing out the obvious.

Areaman, what about the acceptance into uni on a year per year basis. I am sure that your grammars, radfords, darra etcs have a higher proportion of each of their final years progrressing into tertiary study than your govt schools. I am very much aware that this will start some form of a shitfight, but that is just metric that i think can be excluded.

excellent. then why are families moving towards non-govt schools education format? Is it that they have more disposable income to spend on their childrens education? Religious / moral issues? location? etc…

Will spending public funds that would be better utilised elsewhere on advertising for an area that is already well known actually help this?

That is essentially what i am after. On a head to head basis I am sure that there are infinately more students in the government education streams as compared to non-govt streams, so rather than advertising perhaps an almagamation of skills may be better, such as specialist campuses for arts, sports, IT, science etc. Just a thought.

ssanta, by pretty much any metric you choose to use (objective ro subjective) students at public schools in the ACT already do get an education are at least on par with what is being provided by the private schools.

perhaps thats why we ought not try to figure out an ad campaign and just focus on devlivering quality educational outcomes regardless of whether one is a govt or non-govt school.

The difference between the two systems is 1) Non-Govt schools offer more pastoral care (although the Govt school system is improving theirs) and 2) that Non-Govt schools can and do expel students with violent tendancies. Govt schools MUST take all students, Non-Govt can be selective.

So how do you sell that? “Govt education is great – we take anyone” or “Non-Govt education is great – we sort out the “good” from the “bad”.

That’s what sells Non-Govt education.