From subsidies to stewardship

If reform becomes stewardship, Australia can build something rare – a national early childhood system that is trusted, equitable, safe, and professionally sustaining, where the default settings make quality the easiest business model to run.

The first democracy

Early childhood education should be valued for the positive impacts it has on children’s social and psychological development as well as the potential to shape more productive adults in the future.

Get serious about STEM in primary school

Primary school is when young minds are most open, before assumptions take hold about who “belongs” in science or technology, and so every child should have access to high quality STEM education.

My hands, in plain sight

Recent scandals have raised concerns about all men working in early childhood education but a country that can’t trust men to care for children will end up with fewer carers, more exhausted women, deeper workforce shortages, and children quietly educated into fear.

The strange death of academic publishing

Driven by the ‘publish or perish’ metrics of modern universities, the intellectual value and integrity of academic publishing has declined in recent years in inverse proportion to the commercial value of the publishing industry, a trend which will only worsen as auto-generated AI slop replaces actual research.

Playing hooky

11% of students are marked absent on a typical school day, a problem which has snowballed since the pandemic lockdowns, so how can we mobilise families and communities to ensure that children turn up every day to get the education they need.

Can you spell QWERTY?

Touch typing was a valuable skill half a century ago when typewriters were commonplace and was often taught in schools, but a new survey find that children are literally left to their own devices when it comes to keyboarding.

Why regulation alone won’t fix early childhood quality and safety

Australia must do more than merely respond to incident reports and regulatory failings in the early childhood sector. We should aim higher and build the high-performing, high-trust, high-impact system that our children and our national future deserve.

Reimagining the lecture

Facing empty seats and a digital dilemma, the future of the university lecture needs to be co-created to benefit student experience and wellbeing, but despite the challenges, in-person lectures still have a vital role to play in higher education.

The kids aren’t all right

University was once a formative social as well as educational experience for young people but the reality of expensive, online courses on dead campuses with little likelihood of a job as a reward is making many wonder what the point is.

From free education to $50,000 arts degrees in 50 years

The Whitlam government eliminated fees for higher education in 1974 but nearly 50 years later, an arts degree now costs $A50,000 successive governments and university administrators have passed on the costs of greater access.

Cuckoo in the nest

Australia needs stronger national and university policies to protect research and development from foreign government interference, theft and espionage.