But for those who want to study past year 12,it’s a bleak field. Is either party considering? University funding has copped a hiding from the Coalition and led to While the prime minister and his posse of former education ministers tout the benefits of a trade education,TAFE defunding has seen more than. Education is being privatised,one way or another,from nearly every single option post school down to childcare.
What awaits anyone planning on university? Large classes,shorter classes,fewer choices. That’s for those enrolled in actual degrees. Universities are doing their level best to earn money in other ways,which may not measure up to rigorous academic work,a McDonald’s mentality. Companies pay universities to co-design credentials which fit with company culture (I’m reluctant to use the word ideology here,but you get me) andwho emerge with some kind of qualification. The modern jargon is “enterprise learning”. I remember getting into a hot argument at a university presentation about who would be in charge of ethics in such a situation. All concerns brushed away.
Then there are also microcredentials,tiny courses meant to chunk together like Lego to a bigger build. At universities,they are usually blocks for a bigger degree,but even across that sector. In vocational education,it’s become a smorgasbord of tiny courses without purpose.,both big (heading to a real qualification) or small (useless online learning without appropriate academic guidance).
Further evidence of privatisation? Look at such as Notre Dame,denied to all public universities even as revenue plummeted. No wonder universities are trying all avenues to raise money. TAFE too is battling. The Centre for Future Work’s Alison Pennington says the government throws billions of dollars at a broken training system of private,for-profit providers,including funding non-accredited training,when all that money should be directed to shoring up the skills the nation needs. TAFE offers many options but comprehensive job-qualifying training is its focus,such as trades apprenticeships.
“Education to jobs pathways have collapsed in Australia,” she says.
In the background,we have the government trumpeting. If you think it is hard to get a plumber now,then despair when you discover apprenticeship completions have collapsed 64 per cent since 2013. Lots of vocational training,yet lots of courses that don’t add up to a qualified tradie who can plumb or spark or chip in a sector that has been.
When I say privatised,I don’t just mean it’s being handed to private providers as it has in the vocational education sector. I also mean that you will be paying more out of your pocket. The idea that education is a public good and should be fairly funded and free is long gone. Both the Coalition and the Labor Party contributed to that demise. Labor under Hawke introduced,now,in 1989 and Gillard put the boot into TAFE as early as 2010 by. The Coalition has pursued that agenda with unlimited fervour – reducing funding to private schools has been off limits since John Howard frightened the entire electorate with tales of an ALP hit list on the fanciest schools in Australia. Mind you,recent news those schools have received makes you wish the hit list was real,even as public schools struggle for and. It is good to remind voters the federal government this way:$3,282 per government school student,$9,694 per Independent school student and $10,788 per Catholic school student.
And it is not just tertiary,secondary and primary. This government loves to prop up private – childcare fees are increasing faster than the subsidy. And who benefits? Georgie Dent of advocacy group The Parenthood is clear:“The answer is landlords and shareholders.”
Education is a public good,it should be free for everyone,a way of looking after the coming generation. Now we just need politicians on both sides to commit to that.
Jacqueline Maley cuts through the noise of the federal election campaign with news,views and expert analysis.