Originally Posted by NKSK version 2

In my opinion, the UK has certainly gone too far in terms of assessment. But Australia is too far at the other end of the spectrum.

I find it worrying that Australia will allow teachers into teacher training courses who 'failed' (for want of a better word) their last two years of schooling and then will not hold them accountable in any way for student progress. Moreover, it is just about impossible to remove a teacher for incompetence in Australia.

The UK has also accepted people onto teaching undergraduate courses with very low A level grades but at least there exists a system of accountability in UK schools and the UK is taking steps to make it easier to remove incompetent teachers.

I wonder how many people reading these boards would be happy about having their child educated at the equivalent to GCSE and A level by a teacher who last studied the subject in question when they were 13...
I never heard of this occurring in my 7 years of teaching in the UK. I have seen it operating in Western Australia on many occasions over the last 4 years.

Originally Posted by NKSK version 2

To be honest it isn't just NOR schools. Many state schools in Perth underperform in relation to the socio-economic nature of their catchments.

One of the key reasons is that many parents in NOR suburbs send their children to state primaries but then send them to private secondaries. Not all of the kids who are left in the state schools are disruptive but there is probably a higher concentration of children from parents who don't think that education is something to be valued - and therefore greater problems exist in these schools.

Why do parents take their kids to private schools? Because they perceive that the education experience will be better. Is it better? In many cases probably not.

There are huge issues caused by a lack of teacher accountability in WA (and in Australia generally). Not only that but the entrance qualifications for teacher training are extremely low - meaning that we have the irony of kids who perform poorly in schools for whatever reason going on to teach others in the very same schools in which they scored poorly.

There is also a lack of local autonomy for schools in Australia - there is a big brother approach to education which centralises huge amounts of decision making - including in many instances the recruitment of teachers. I don't believe that this provides a firm foundation for creating excellent schools.

Having said all of that, I am currently more optimistic about education in Australia than at any time in the last 4 years. The move towards greater accountability - pushed by the federal government; significant pay rises for teachers in WA; Julia Gillard puashing a form of Teach Australia and greater numbers of 'gifted' streams occurring in state schools (streaming is always contentious but it's something in which I firmly believe). All of this bodes well for education. There seems to be recognition at last that Australia is slipping behind the rest of the developed world.

Originally Posted by Zenshin

I would say the high school teachers would definitely have the required knowledge to teach their subjects.

Originally Posted by aussietobe

I am sorry but students who perform "poorly" can NEVER become teachers (and would not want to be) Students who perform poorly end up at TAFE not uni. You stilll need to be a "B" average student to get into teaching training, and to be honest, I have never met a dumb teacher, only lazy ones. That said, as a teacher in the WA system, there are many things that could be done better.

Originally Posted by daddyofthree

I had a history cover lesson about 5 months ago (Feb/Mar). I have not studied history since taking my 'O' Level 28 years ago although I do enjoy the subject. The kids loved my lesson and one student kindly said he had learnt more in this lesson than he had all year! Nothing as planned as the teacher forgot to leave work (!) and we just talked as a group with me guiding them. To me, it's only so helpful to have knowledge, it's about enthusiasm, personlity, discipline and relationships. The point I'm making is don't get to concerned about teachers who failed years ago or are teaching outside their subject. Quite often these teachers will be working twice as hard to be successful.

Originally Posted by Dorothy

Maybe you should ask for opinions from people whose children have actually attended those schools before deciding that they are "bad". My children attend one of the so called bad schools and do quite fine, thank you.

Do people think that just because they pay a lot of money to send their kids to private schools there are no problems with them? From what I've seen there are just as many bullies, gangs, drugs, etc at private schools as the public ones, it's just covered up better.

Originally Posted by Family of 3