The frustrating thing when look looking at possible ways to improve this great country is the number of practical, effective, results driven solutions that could completely transform Australia but just aren’t being utilized.
In this instance, our outdated and largely ineffectual educational system doesn’t require money in order to improve.
Governments like to pledge money to projects as it looks like their doing something productive, however I’d rather see things actually achieved than seeing money simply thrown at a problem in the hope that something will happen.
Let me give you an example, the Australian Education System is failing.
The number of students that are simply poorly equipped to deal with life and be effective at their future careers, let alone can’t read, write and add up is enormous.
I’m a big believer that education is the solution to most of the world’s problems. It is also the fastest way to both improve the productive capacity of our country and ensure a great future for our country.
A better educated country leads to massive out-performance. Look at Singapore which has virtually no natural resources, but transformed itself from a third world country to a first world country in our lifetime and recently has achieved over 15% growth. This development was largely created by high level education and also a high degree of discipline, thus here are some simple ideas that can help to immediately improve our educational system.
1. Hire Super Teachers and pay them very well.
What I mean by Super Teachers is much more highly skilled Educators, ideally with real life experience and strong skill sets in their area of expertise to teach larger auditorium size classes for certain subjects.
Can we afford not to have this type of quality education?
Why have classrooms with 30 to 50 student’s on average for all lessons that run for 40 minutes when some lessons could be taught to several hundred students at a time and go for several hours?
It creates leverage and quality.
It makes it possible for select highly paid teachers to deliver select content in larger forums. It also prepares school students for University style teaching where large lectures are common or a live seminar format, which works better than school for accelerated and effective learning.
One could still break away to smaller classrooms for the rest of a student’s curriculum, however why not use efficiency to deliver better quality education?
2. Free up some of the school curriculum to have flexible free periods that schools can select content from pre-approved topics to better educate students in real life educational topics.
I.E: if there were topics available on
Success
Motivation
Time Management
Human Psychology
Investing
Share Market
Property Market
Entrepreneurship
Internet Marketing
Goal Setting
Mindset of a Millionaire
Emotional Intelligence
Global and National Economics.
And so on.
There are unlimited useful topics that could dramatically improve the quality of education and all this could be delivered and instantly added to our school system for almost zero outlay.
These resources can easily be added online for schools to download and use worksheets and play videos etc on required lessons. Until video download is ideal quality it’s still inexpensive to equip DVD content to every Australian school on unlimited topics.
To reduce the costs of hiring more teachers or even paying the costs of Super Teachers these large auditorium lessons or even smaller class room lessons at times could be delivered by video on large screen by highly trained presenters and filmed for DVD to improve content and student’s uptake of lessons.
This could be done right now and the only reason it isn’t because there is little or no leadership.
3.A complete overhaul of what’s taught at school to re create the entire school curriculum. To make it modern, relevant to today’s world and of greater interest to students who many feel like asking how is what I’m being taught at school going to help me later in life. If any current curriculum can’t answer that question one must review why it is being taught at all.
School for most is 12 years of their life and surely students should receive a significant real life education during this time, otherwise it’s an expensive babysitting service delivering a fraction of what’s possible.
4.School Teachers should have to have x number of years in an alternate job before qualifying as a teacher.
Students leaving school to go to University to become a teacher and then straight back to school to teach at an age as young as 21 surely doesn’t provide the level of practical experience our students surely deserve nor providing suitable education to equip our teachers.
5. School teachers to be completely retrained including trained in public speaking, considering they are educators and to have to be regularly trained every year to keep their education and knowledge growing.
6. A system to invite successful individuals including entrepreneurs and sports stars to speak at schools to provide some practical knowledge and inspiration.
And with video content an enormous array of content could be filmed and updated regularly from some of the best teachers on the planet, leaders, entrepreneurs and sports stars to inspire and educate students in the large super classes held as part of the school curriculum as additional education.
8. A resource website of all this content of real education made available to students for their relevant age so they could continue after school studies and for the most dedicated to rapidly advance their education.
9. A national education system that’s controlled at a Federal Level.
Why have varying state based education? Its one country and this would eliminate a lot more wastage and make change so much faster and easier to implement.
Imagine with this video content of resources which cost virtually no money to deliver, how much more powerful and effective our education system could become and the ongoing positive impact to our entire country could have.
Now that’s what would be a true education revolution that’s not simply paying lip service. It could actually save billions of dollars as having super classes taught by video as part of the curriculum would decrease the need for as many teachers, meaning more schools could be made available that aren’t possible now due to the lack teachers.It would mean more teachers so outside of super class lessons student numbers per class could be less improving the personal level of education.
And one more thing.
As controversial as this point maybe, let’s consider it.
Has the removal of Principles and Teachers being able to use the cane as punishment improved discipline levels at schools? Or has it led to the rapid increase of trouble students out of control, teachers at harm and increase in crime rates and juvenile delinquents? Combined with increase welfare which creates poverty and lower levels of self discipline this compounds the problem.
Boys in particular require discipline. Yet teachers can’t even command respect often as troubled students can abuse and show vagrant disrespect to teachers and know there is little recourse.
Few students get expelled as it’s difficult to do and requires mountainous paperwork and they have no fear of the cane as it isn’t allowed nor of teaches as teaches can’t touch them. Classes also need to be designed so poorer performing students don’t hold back better performing students. This frustrates better students and also leads to poorer students being neglected when they need additional support in separate lessons.
These are some simple ideas that can have dramatic impact on the quality of education. Maybe our Political Leaders should consider creating a real education revolution and one that doesn’t need to cost a cent, let alone $16 billion recently largely wasted on building shade cloth sheds at schools.
21st Century Education is more than happy to produce and deliver suitable video educational content and resources on suitable topics from many of the best Educators in Australia and the World. This will help to deliver a world class modern day education for life our youth surely deserve. And at no charge.
Jamie McIntyre
CEO 21st Century Education
Posted in 
Hi Jamie,
You have really made known important points you have considered for a better improved education system that accommodates and addresses education cirriculum with examples and forms of presenting education effectively with the use of large university style classes and more quality hours for students to absorb what they are being taught which also allows them to discuss subjects with super teachers, entrepreneurs, leaders, entrepreneurs, sports stars – people with real life experience.
There is a lot that needs to be done and like you I wonder when is it going to get done? What I do not understand is government leaders can see people such of yourself constantly speaking up what needs to be done which seems to fall on deaf ears and make one wonder what is so difficult and just where are they looking?
Jamie, a lot of changes need to take place and like you said, there is a need for leadership as the voices of others pointing the way is being overlooked which is really sad as time is short. It goes very fast. We live in the 21st Century not the 19th or 20th which means we need to think 21st Century. Is so easy to see what to do but nothing is being done.
Cheers
Ariel GB Kennedy
Sorry, I meant Super Teachers.
All the best
Ariel GB Kennedy
Jamie!
I love what you have written here.
I have learned more in 2 years of self development than I did for my entire schooling life! I could not see the benefit of what I was learning at school and how it related to me achieving success in life. So as a result, I became disinterested and partied my way through to an unsuccessful yr 12! I believe many others do the same.
In my mind the challenge with our education system lies in the mass ‘grooming’ or ‘numbing’ of young people to get ‘JOBS’.
If I had the capacity to choose and was told at the start of my schooling career (age 5), that for the next 13 years I would be taught to remember and repeat stuff, for the purpose of being able to get a job/career and work for someone else till the age of 65/70.(Which as you say the 90 something percent of people do). I would not choose this. I would choose self development. All of what you teach so effectively.
I dare to imagine where I would be now if the extraordinary 2 years of my self development was in fact 13!
As a result I am now committed to sharing this with the young people of Australia. And this is what I’m doing!
Jamie, Thank You. Your book and brilliant mindset has played a big role in who I am today.
Keep being awesome!
Regards, Abe Roder
Live LARGE
Jamie,
I’ll be the first (or third) to say that you’ve made some good points here but as a first year education student myself and being straight out of highschool I find that I must disagree with several of your points, including that of teaching to larger forums, much like they do in a university setting, for longer periods of time. It has been proven that the student attention span can only focus on a particular subject for roughly 30 minutes and yet most high school classes push that to 70 or more, also teaching to a larger group of a hundred or more is basically lecturing which takes away needed supervision for ‘on task’ work and the ability for student to question effectively. Many students of that age group are not mentally or emotionally secure enough to stand before their peers on a large scale and admit that they do not understand and often in a small class setting they still won’t but due to the smaller scale class the teacher is able to monitor their work more closely and their body language and pic up on their non-verbal responses to the content. Even in a class of 30 students it is very difficult to keep students enaged and on track, this I saw often as a student myself, but for the majority our teachers are doing what the can with what they have. I do not believe that the responsibility lays solely on their shoulders but also on the attitude that ‘we’ as a society place on the value of education and how important it is for students to study. “Those who will not be taught, cannot be taught”, before blaming others we must first look at ourselves and the attitudes we and society pass on to our children before they even enter the classroom.
Alex
There’s some potentially good ideas here. For plenty more, talk to just about anyone. You can always try starting your own school in the Sydney’s west and see how your vision actually works in practice.
Interesting piece… in some aspects I couldn’t agree with you more and others I disagree with. What I can definitely say is that the education system in Australia is failing. As a student about to sit my first HSC exam in 3 weeks, I hear too many stories of an ineffective system. I was shocked to hear that the Software Design and Development curriculum still tests students on using technology from the mid 80s.
Even some of the best teachers at school are against the idea of performance based salaries for teachers, but poor teaching is to the detriment of some 80000 hsc students in NSW alone. A state system of education seems to be of no benefit, and thus standardising education across Australia seems to be a smart move.
However, I often hear people talking ambitiously about state of the art video technology for education, but I worry that we don’t care about the little things that prevent a quality education. For Economics sometimes it takes me hours to find Australia’s productivity growth on the internet, it makes me wonder whether I would have been better off in the 1800s, jumping on my horse and riding to the library to find data. Technology has its place in education as an aid, but theoretically a good teacher and motivated students could get straight A’s with just a room and a chalkboard.
As for success and time management classes, it could benefit students however many subjects such as English have been enforced with good intentions, such as to expand the vocabulary, teach people to argue, and help people learn about other societies and cultures. Yet ironically one of the best arguers in my year consistently fails English, and one of the best in English within our year literally asked whether Mexico was the capital of Spain or vice verse. It just seems to me that any course can become so formalised that they become open to manipulation. Fred Emery ones said that in school we poke kids eyes out and in university we teach them braille.
The roots of these problems are that bureaucracies are not listening to students in order to improve the system. We have no say in how the education system governs us.