Learners: we need YOU!

Have you seen that old cartoon? The first frame shows a picture of a student, eyes downcast, parents with steam coming off their heads and a teacher smiling behind a desk. The parent is saying to the student: Explain these bad grades! That frame is labelled ‘1950’. The second frame has the same scene but this time the parent is demanding of the teacher: Explain these bad grades! That frame is labelled ‘today’.

It’s funny. Yes, people nowadays look for others to blame. Yes, parents nowadays all think their children are delicate geniuses. Yes, students nowadays are entitled and expect to be treated like valued customers.

That last one really sticks in the throat, doesn’t it? Students aren’t customers. We don’t owe them anything. Education is a privilege not a retail experience. So, a quick warning: the rest of this article is going to argue why that’s exactly how we need to start thinking!

I recently heard an interview in which Professor Patrick McGorry tried to explain the incredible challenge that we face in providing the support services we need to address the challenge of mental health in this country. According to Professor McGorry, we know what we need to do but we are faced with a critical shortage of psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, counselors and social workers that will staff the services.?At the same time on another channel, I’m pretty sure someone senior in the mining industry was bemoaning the lack of engineers, boilermakers and electricians. On yet another channel, someone from the hospitality sector was complaining about the scarcity of chefs, the head of the navy was worried about staffing our future nuclear submarines, the Minister for Aged Care was being grilled about a campaign to recruit carers from the Philippines, and the head of the ACCC was talking through the latest report on the rising incidence of sophisticated financial scams and frauds!

Never in history have we needed so many highly educated people. We need them for our health, we need them for our wealth, we need them to solve the problems of global conflict, poverty and climate change.

Never in history have we needed so many highly educated people.

When I did my last year of school in Australia in the mid 1980s, just under half of year 10 students went on to complete year 12 and under half of year 12 students went on to university. By the mid-1990s, 75% of year 10 students continued on to year 12 and the percentage of 19 year olds in higher education had risen to nearly 25%. Fast forward another 20 years and more than 40% of 19 year olds were enrolled in higher education.

What we are witnessing is the kind of shift that has already happened several times in history. In his review of the NSW curriculum[1], Professor Geoff Masters describes a pattern in which “steadily growing demand for higher levels of education” has led to each “phase” of education (primary, lower secondary, senior secondary) going from an elite endeavour to a more or less universal experience. As “almost the entire age cohort participates in the phase”, two things occur: student participation is made compulsory and the significance of entrance examinations for the next phase reduces dramatically.

Examinations for grade six students to enter high school are long gone, as are the School or Leaving Certificates for year 10 students. In most jurisdictions around Australia, the compulsory school leaving age has increased to 17. University education is not universal but there are enough places in university and TAFE for every school leaver in Australia who wants to go on to further education. We want as many young people as possible to complete year 12 and go on to university or TAFE. In fact, we don’t just want it, we desperately need it.

There are enough places in university and TAFE for every school leaver who wants to go on to further education

So why do we still have high stakes year 12 examinations, certificates and the dreaded ATAR? Why do we still act as if the last year or two of schooling is a Squid Game competition to find the best and brightest, the last student standing? Why is our senior secondary system designed around the few hundred students who end up studying medicine at the University of Sydney or law at Monash, when universities and TAFEs are trying to get hundreds of thousands of learners into their courses? We know we need many thousands of highly educated new nurses, teachers, psychologists, engineers, researchers, scientists, project managers, accountants, tradies, speech pathologists, etc, etc, etc, so why are we constructing barriers in the way of students progressing to further levels of education? As a former colleague of mine might say, this is a recruitment problem not a selection problem.

This is a recruitment problem not a selection problem.

It often takes time for our thinking and behaviour to adjust to major changes. Our habits, routine behaviours and instinctive reactions take time to catch up with what we understand on a rational level. Just as individuals take time to adjust to new realities, whole societies can behave in ways that only make sense if you understand what was, not what is.

The ground has already shifted under our feet. It is now time for us to change our thinking and behaviour. Today, we need the vast bulk of the population to be highly literate and numerate and to go on to ever higher levels of education and training. Instead of finding the rare diamonds in the rubble and polishing them into fine cut gems, our education system needs to help every learner find the diamonds within. We need to make sure that all school students develop the skills, understandings and attributes that will enable them to participate in further education and be the nurses, psychologists, engineers, creatives, carers, designers and managers of the future. This is vital not just for the life chances of our young people but for the future prosperity of our country and the world.

So goodbye to unnecessary high stakes examinations and competitions for scarce places and hello to maximising the educational opportunities for every learner. Let’s start treating students less like participants in a cut-throat reality TV show and more like valued customers entitled to an education. The truth is, we need their business.

[1] Geoff N Masters. Nurturing Wonder and Igniting Passion, designs for a new school curriculum: NSW Curriculum Review. (2020) Available at: https://works.bepress.com/geoff_masters/304/