Education Department vs Private Sector – Who Wins?
This is one of my more “controversial” articles, but I believe it’s a topic that isn’t discussed enough. The education department (state and national) has an obvious monopoly on the educational standards in Australia, however the private sector of education (I’m referring to “outside of school” education such as coaching, tutoring, extra classes, etc) is taking off at the moment. Why is that, I wonder? Is it a sign of the times that the education department is not where it needs to be?
I think so.
Large institutions have a stranglehold on the educational system which leads to inequality in the classroom. Schools that are perceived to “do better” end up with so many out-of-catchment applications that their class sizes rise and this takes away from the educational experience. More and more parents are opting for private school education and lower class sizes, but this doesn’t change the system itself. With the educational department catering to the masses with their overloaded, visual-learning based curriculum and leaving very minimal one-on-one time for each student, there is no wonder that the private education sector of tutoring/coaching/external teaching is becoming the new norm.
If you think about it, a classroom teacher is only able to spend 8 mins per week, MAXIMUM, with a student one-on-one. If each class has 28 students and runs for 60 mins, if nothing is taught and the students get one-on-one time, each child gets just over 2 mins with the teacher. Multiply that by four classes per week (average is 3-4), then you get just over 8 minutes. IF nothing is taught.
Tell me, does that speak highly of the education department to you?
This further stems into Universities – we know that Unis are hell-bent on making money and have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to this, even world-renowned unis such as UQ have dropped entry points for courses such as medicine to enable them to recruit more students and therefore make more money. These large institutions claim they are here for the students, but are they really?
Just my thoughts of the day, comment what you think!