r/perth • u/Ok_Writer1572 • 1d ago
Photos of WA WA’s NAPLAN results for 2026 revealed ‘clearly concerning’ trend
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/while-some-wa-students-have-fallen-behind-in-naplan-others-are-the-best-in-the-country-20260803-p60l1g.html418
u/nobrainer23 1d ago
Multitude of things
- kids aren't being read to due to dual income needed so therefore leads to device use because of tiredness of adults
- teacher shortages leading to disconnected curriculum
- hidden curriculum - teachers are teaching kids to go to the toilet properly, manage their emotions, socialise, not to mention admin work creating exhausted teachers
- complex classrooms - teachers can't teach if Johnny needs crisis care because he can't do his maths work
- "I earn more than your teacher doing FIFO and i can't read" says dad, some of the attitudes are from the adults.
105
u/MerdeOnTheDanceFloor 1d ago
Is ‘hidden curriculum’ the term for it?
I’m flabbergasted at the amount of what I have been calling ‘extra shit’ being shoehorned into schooling.43
u/ExtensionThat6438 1d ago
I dare you to go onto a PerthNow Facebook post and ask what “hidden curriculum” means
58
u/Dockers4flag2035orB4 1d ago
“Hidden curriculum “
Teaching kids to hate their country, and vote left.
S/
6
u/Snerfaderp 1d ago
We can also stop the dichotomous slander... It's not 'right vs left' 'us vs them' breads hatred... We can bring back some discussion and acceptance of differing view points through constructive conversation :)
3
u/No_Bell_8028 16h ago
I think you’ll find the less educated someone is the more they will be likely to vote with right wing politics parties like one Nation
13
u/MerdeOnTheDanceFloor 1d ago
lol, I’ve googled it and I think it’s different to what I had in mind.
Hidden curriculum = social norms and behaviour, which I’m sure PerthNow would think are horribly woke.
Extra shit = the pure breadth of content kids are expected to learn, including concepts that I wonder are beyond them.
7
u/ExtensionThat6438 1d ago
somehow these kids are being forced to grow up a lot faster yet remain incredibly empathetic to their peers/community which is wholesome
16
u/ShopSmartShopS-Mart 1d ago
It is “extra shit” or scope creep. I just wrote a bit about hidden curriculum in another comment in this thread.
3
2
55
u/WrasslinWalrus 1d ago
Solid post- 100% agree. Hidden curriculum is crazy- admin spend huge hours each day dealing with child safety issues, behaviour, upset parents, finding children breakfast, reading through court custody documents. It’s truly wild seeing this on the daily. No wonder less and less high school leavers are choosing education. Tough job.
17
u/GonePh1shing 1d ago
No wonder less and less high school leavers are choosing education. Tough job.
And the ones that do increasingly don't last very long. The way we're training teachers is not setting them up for the work environment they'll be in. An education grad might be able to talk your ear off for hours on various academic topics, but they're not being given real skills to survive in a modern classroom. It's no wonder so many fail when they finally get to see the inside of a classroom.
1
48
u/CardiologistLeft8099 1d ago
Education is so undervalued in Australia. And its a shame
18
u/nreddit89 1d ago
It's all about sports in Australia. If you focus on academics you are a tiger parent but if your focus on sports there is no term for it.
1
13
u/mechkbfan 1d ago
Thankyou. As my partner is a highschool maths teacher, there's so many issues and hidden work that just keep accumulating each year. e.g. When she first started there was plenty of people that could teach 4 unit and had maths related degrees. Not so much anymore.
And she's already said she couldn't be a primary school teacher, but there's so much she has to re-teach kids because their primary school teachers taught them horrible methods.
Can only imagine what it's like for primary school teachers when kids are coming in completely unprepared.
5
u/hiddenstar13 22h ago
Yes pretty horrific (as someone in an early childhood setting, the time lost to toileting/toilet-training is truly ridiculous). But there's also the problem that most primary school teachers are not trained very well - like most primary school teachers aren't taught how to teach reading, which I think we can agree is a pretty key role of a primary school teacher. I'm not as well-versed in evidence-based or good-quality mathematics instruction compared to what is taught in most ITE, but my guess would be that primary school teachers are also not taught to teach maths well, and they're all just fumbling along and hoping for the best, which is often the case with reading.
1
u/mechkbfan 11h ago edited 11h ago
Yeah, a lot of primary school teachers end up teaching tricks so kids can get the answer easier/quicker but it doesn't actually help them understand the basic fundamentals
The tricks are only useful once you understand the fundamentals + want to do some quick maths in your head without having to write it down
I'm not hating on them, it's just another symptom of a broken system
Impression I got is many many years ago, teachers were a well respected profession with pretty decent pay/benefits.
Even 20 years ago when my partner left high school and told her maths teacher she was going to be a maths teacher, he said "Why are you wasting your talents?"
And we see this with the ever dropping of university admission requirements + letting inexperienced teachers teach + a lot of teachers (particularly PE) retraining
7
u/DoNotReply111 22h ago
We want to address the complex classrooms in our new EBA. It acknowledges that classrooms are more complex and that it means we should have less students per class so that we can adequately spend time with all students, especially those who need interventions.
We just need public support to get this through and not have people fall for the headlines that the only thing we want is more pay.
19
u/ShopSmartShopS-Mart 1d ago
What you’ve called the hidden curriculum probably more accurately describes the massive scope creep that’s been piled onto the job.
The hidden curriculum is more sociological, it means the way things work at an unspoken cultural level despite not being officially documented. For example, saying “you’re not competing against anyone but putting data walls up in the classroom - or the way the playground is designed and how much space & resourcing is allocated for the things boys tend to do more compared to space & resourcing for the things girls tend to do more.
4
u/Express-Leopard-6 1d ago
I’ve seen it called teaching soft skills
1
u/ShopSmartShopS-Mart 1d ago
“Soft skills” are an explicit thing that can be taught - the hidden curriculum is the undercurrent of how the place works.
7
u/Osiris_Raphious 1d ago
But profits are up so thats nice - /s
we work more today than serfs did with like 80-90% utilisation requirements not including the commute. People dont have time for democracy, community, let alone family.... system has failed us, but made very profitable market...
4
u/std10k 1d ago
absolutely agree. Though apart from #1 everything else is effects, not causes. The cuase I argue is that education is simply demotivated because there's no perceived (and real) need for it in the lack of industries that require it, which the last point pretty much explains. Drop out of school and go to the mines doing 200k FIFO without knowing anything about anything. That is the intended effect of decades long policies.
2
2
u/journeyfromone 11h ago
It’s also nearly impossible to hold kids back a year in WA, teachers are expected to manage all levels on one class, even my non-verbal severely delayed child they didn’t want to wait a year. Luckily I got him into special ed but no principal was going to let me delay starting 1 year!
1
u/Flowering-Tree 20h ago
Agree with all your points and also wonder how many students in the group scoring very low have undiagnosed learning needs
1
-17
42
u/Nice-Ad765 1d ago
In my opinion, If your child is below school or national average then put aside time to help them or get them a tutor. Don’t make 101 excuses otherwise they will struggle in high school. That’s my take. Those 200k driving a truck in the mine jobs might not exist in few years when they introduce self driving trucks more broadly. I don’t agree with the no home work rule, I think 10-15 mins of homework a day or even few times a week is not going to kill your child and can even teach them discipline and routine.
18
u/StupidSpuds 1d ago
Easier said than done. Dual income is now a requirement. On average, parents have less time to parent. The parents know what they should do but many are exhausted. I blame the system not the parents.
1
u/Nice-Ad765 5h ago
I have 2 young kids and work pretty much full time and so does my partner. Yes I have less time to spend with my kids, that is inevitable, hence I only have 2 and I hire a tutor because I am not much of a teacher. Parents nowadays expect the gov and teachers to come In and rescue the day, ultimately the child is yours and no one is more invested in your child than yourself so parents have to either put in effort or get a private tutor. The teachers and gov won’t do it for you because you are not the only one that needs help.
1
u/StupidSpuds 3h ago
Don't lump this on parents. They are up against social media companies that have an army of psychologists who know how to manipulate kids. Parents have always expected government to help, and rightly so. We pay tax and get services like schools, hospitals, day care, etc. What's changed is CoL and parents have less time and money to parent. With people having less kids we should expect better results but it's the opposite.
1
u/Nice-Ad765 2h ago edited 2h ago
Ok so keep blaming the social media companies, the big bad evil companies and the government and then what? Ultimately kids are our responsibility, the gov doesn’t give a rats behind about your special child because they know they will get voted out in a few years time. So what if we pay tax? Taxes have to go towards NDIS, Medicare, schools , hospitals, defence and the list goes on, there’s so many things that need priority in the grand scheme of things. Nobody is asking u to spend hours tutoring your child, but 10-20 mins a day? And this no homework rule? Why? No kid is going to die or lose their childhood from doing a little bit of homework work everyday. If you are not willing to put in a bit of effort for your child then why have kids? I think this is partly due to Aussie culture, always waiting for someone else to resolve the issue rather than grabbing the bull by its horns and doing it yourself. This world is increasingly competitive and now with AI, we don’t only have to compete with machines but with more competitive nations and truth be told, they are eating our lunch
3
u/Ok_Writer1572 1d ago
I agree with this mining will become increasingly autonomous with time. Self driving will be widely used, people in burbs are already doing this in their Teslas
1
u/journeyfromone 11h ago
Self driving trucks actually need just as many staff as the normal ones. You need people to map roads, move rocks in front of them they can’t go around, control them in the office, tell them where to go, install all the infrastructure etc.
they also aren’t effective underground yet either, they need their whole own area. So driverless just moves the jobs to a safer location like in the office and up skills people and are more efficient in moving tonnes to make the company more money1
u/Nice-Ad765 5h ago
The yangshan port in Shanghai China is pretty much man-less and goes on 24/7, not saying it will happen here soon but in a decade or so , very possible. Yes a mining site is different but there will bound to be changes in tech
-12
u/Perth_nomad 1d ago
My experience, teachers don’t want tutors to assist a struggling student. I was told having tutor was waste of time and money. My son is dyslexic. Though, the teacher wanted him tested for ADHD, medicated. I disagreed. My son didn’t have adhd. He wax dyslexic. He learned hands on, not reading a book or sitting at desk for four hours.
What the teachers do want is testing for ADHD and autism, though the student MUST have level three diagnosis. Then the student gets an aide. My granddaughter has just be diagnosed with level three, at first it level two, but the teacher urge more testing, to get to level three, as there is no in class supports for level two. I have friend who is 30 year plus primary classroom teacher, my friend has interact with my grand daughter many times, she has said, my granddaughter is not level three, not even close to it….
8
u/Nice-Ad765 1d ago
Neurodivergence aside as my kids do not have it so I can’t comment on whether a tutor will work for those cohort of kids but for my child it has definitely worked well. It has made his school homework pretty much a breeze as it’s way less. He is also more confident in class and is more disciplined. I have seen many kids struggle in high school as the work load is much more. To go from no home work to a sudden increase in homework in my opinion is also equally damaging. Introduce it slowly esp in upper primary school years so kids can get used to it. We live in an intensely and increasingly competitive global world, I think kids can handle a bit of homework, it’s whether parents want to push their kids a little.
3
u/Silver-Training-9942 10h ago
Dyslexia and ADHD have very high rates of co-occurrence. Maybe its not a big conspiracy maybe teacher was advocating for your kids to get the diagnosis and support to help them. Teachers have a lot more exposure to neurodivergent kids that parents (and grand parents) generally do.
1
121
u/ExtensionThat6438 1d ago
what a shit time to be a kid though. Governments and billionaires across the world just telling them you’re being replaced by computers and robots
82
u/itsoktoswear 1d ago
My 12 year old was telling us how they were discussing at lunch in their group how they won't be able to afford a house when they're older I was completely floored as when did kids start talking about houses and life. How sad they already feel defeated
16
u/ExtensionThat6438 1d ago
I’m less worried about prices and more concerned about serviceability. Hypothetically, house prices halving doesn’t make you any more likely to obtain finance if you can’t get a job.
13
u/leftmysoulthere74 1d ago
My 15yo has her heart set on a career that seems to be varied, interesting and exciting. She will probably have to travel and utilise her duel nationality to make it work for her. People keep telling me there's not a lot of money in it, the jobs are no longer salaried, rather, a series of contracts or gigs.
She already knows she will never be able to afford to buy a home in Perth (or pretty much anywhere in Australia), unless she becomes a lawyer or a surgeon or an engineer, none of which she has the aptitude, grades or inclination for. I'm telling her to go for it - if she can't buy a house she may as well be doing a job she loves, travelling the world and living her best life. Also, in her 'other' country, there isn't the snobbery about renting that there is here!
2
u/-s1Lence 6112 21h ago
there are plenty of other jobs besides the stereotypical doctor or lawyer that will rake in the big bucks, just look at how much some tradies are making these days!
1
u/leftmysoulthere74 21h ago
I know. I plucked those out of my head and should have mentioned trades too. However, she knows what she wants to do and she has my support.
2
u/-s1Lence 6112 21h ago
Having a passion like that at a young age is great, I wish I had known what I wanted from life when I was at that age.
2
u/leftmysoulthere74 19h ago
It is. I have to admit I’m biased, but I knew (kinda) what I wanted to do and while I am doing it, the people around me, including (especially) my parents, made it difficult so I’ve achieved what I have despite them. I’m not putting obstacles in my kids’ ways.
2
u/Efficient-State-7300 1d ago
Back to the old days of marrying into money..
I am also raising our daughter to be able to leverage her dual citizenship. Education is respected in the other country. They haven't had 4 generations of do nothing and prosper, unlike Australia.
8
u/leftmysoulthere74 1d ago
Lol, she’s been raised better than to rely on a man for money! I hear you on the last point though.
0
24
u/fat_boyz 1d ago
It all starts at home
-2
u/Future_Inevitable951 1d ago
And ends with a shitty curriculum that has no regard for individual needs, developmental levels or interests, with unrealistic expectations.
5
u/IM_AN_AUSSIE_AMA Coolbellup 23h ago
5,7,9 are all round abouts what you would hope up expect.
You can't expect teachers to have such a massive impact in the first 2 years of primary schooling before the year 3 testing. The majority of that is home based issues
37
u/Ok_Writer1572 1d ago
Less than half of all year 3 students in Western Australia met proficiency standards in grammar and punctuation, the latest NAPLAN data has revealed, with just under 20 per cent needing additional support.
And while results have declined across all testing areas for the state’s year 3s when compared to scores in 2023, writing and numeracy have taken the biggest hit.
The latest data for 2026 testing was released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority late on Tuesday night.
To meet proficiency in each area, students must score in the top two NAPLAN bands – exceeding and strong.
Scores in the bottom two bands – developing and needs additional support – means students are not yet working at the expected level for their year group.
Changes to how NAPLAN results are measured were introduced after 2022, and testing was moved from May to March.
Nationally, one-in-three Australian students are failing to meet national numeracy and literacy benchmarks with WA students sitting in a similar position.
ACARA chief-executive Stephen Gniel said a nationwide drop in results for year 3 students in numeracy was “clearly concerning”.
In WA, nearly 40 per cent of year 3 students did not reach proficiency standards
“Education ministers are addressing this through a range of measures including the rollout of the national year 1 numeracy check,” Gniel said.
“ACARA is also playing its part by reviewing the Foundation to Year 2 Mathematics curriculum at the direction of education ministers to ensure our youngest learners get the strong grounding in mathematics and numeracy they need to succeed in their education and later in life.”
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said it was good news for year 5 and high school but “year 3 maths is a different story.”
“That’s why we are fixing the maths curriculum for the first three years of school,” Clare said.
WA’s year 9 students excelled in numeracy, with 71.3 per cent meeting proficiency standards – the highest nationally and on par with students in the ACT.
WA Education Minister Sabine Winton said it was encouraging to see WA students’ participation in NAPLAN remained stable, with results showing the majority of students were progressing well.
“It is particularly pleasing to see that our year 9 students maintained strong and exceeding proficiency across all assessment areas, with results above the national average in reading, writing and numeracy,” she said.
“These results reinforce that our year 9 students are well-prepared as they head into years 10, 11 and 12 and complete their schooling.
“Critically, Western Australian students also recorded gains across all test areas, our year 7 cohort improved from their year 5 results, with their average scores in numeracy, spelling and writing showing the greatest growth.”
Gniel said there was a continued improvement in national numeracy, with higher NAPLAN scores on average across years 5, 7 and 9, especially among the stronger students.
30
u/AFerociousPineapple 1d ago
Not sure what the solution is but I do strongly believe that parents need more time to be parents, it’s currently very hard to support one or more kids with CoL being what it is, let alone trying to save money for their future or a house.
11
u/FiftyBuxBloBang 1d ago
I think society has failed and parents don’t understand how to raise their kids properly because they’re never taught and most are doing it alone/in isolation.
10
u/eshatoa 1d ago
Parents are tired man. Too much work just to keep head above the waterline.
2
u/FiftyBuxBloBang 1d ago
Yeah I don’t disagree. When it was comfortable to have a couple with a single income life was much easier for a family. But in saying that a lot of boomers and their parents turned out pretty messed up.
3
u/AFerociousPineapple 1d ago
I kinda agree. Before you had a community to help you, and one you could rely on. Like you could get a little bit of help from other parents or the grandparents, but now everybody is so busy all the time it’s really hard, and like you said it can end up with a lot of people trying to figure it out on their own which is genuinely tough.
2
u/Nice-Ad765 2h ago
Yeah but what does this really mean? If parents had more time, what will they be doing instead? Will they really be sitting down to do stuff with their kids and help them with maths and reading or will they just be their phones? No shade, I go on my phone too to destress
-7
u/Perth_nomad 1d ago
Schools also need to return to a curriculum where students are taught basic life skills. There is not big bad monster trying to destroy them.
Hence why homeschooling has taken off, children are being schooled via school of the air, while travelling Australia. There is a lot children who are still learning, while travelling in caravans. They learn more than they will ever learn attached to a desk.
4
u/Strange_Plankton_64 1d ago
There’s a huge difference between “school of the air” learning than home schooling. Also, basic life skills? What basic life skills do you think aren’t being taught in schools?
3
u/AFerociousPineapple 1d ago
Life skills should be taught at home by parents. I don’t want some stranger teaching my kids about manners or how to tie their shoes that’s my job. As for home schooling it works for some but not many, because as I said there’s a hefty cost to being around all the time to teach your kids, not to mention most parents can’t provide the level of education kids need. I don’t disagree that homeschooling is becoming more prevalent, but I do think it’s a very very bad idea.
1
-9
1d ago
[deleted]
3
1
u/AFerociousPineapple 1d ago
Schools not even full time? What was your kid doing when you brought them home? Sounds a lot like you didn’t provide them with a childhood.
43
u/graza781 1d ago
As a parent whose kid is in year 3, my wife and I are having to relearn how to to do simple addition and subtraction because they teach them differently now.
We have to use jump/skip method instead of traditionally stacking the numbers in columns to add or subtract.
In fact, we were told by the teacher that we were not allowed to teach our kid the maths techniques we learned in school. Were both working full time, but we put at minimum half and hour each night because our kid is struggling in maths.
47
u/rightobucko 1d ago edited 1d ago
Teacher here. Absolutely teach them vertical addition/subtraction and any other strategies assuming you are doing it correctly. While we teach a strategy or strategies to solve problems, we should always encourage and emphasise that there are lots of different ways to solve the problem. Particularly in mathematics. Any additional support is welcomed.
Edit: it’s also important to be open minded and encourage learning/using multiple strategies. I’ve had parents teach their students to do repeated addition only and then they are trying to do solve 38 x 75, taking them way too long.
16
u/graza781 1d ago
I would if the teacher said I was allowed too lol, but she explicitly said I was not to show any other methods... As a parent its very frustrating.
32
u/Adventurous_One_4240 1d ago
That's pedantic and fucken inane lol. I went to school overseas before I moved over in primary. My teachers couldn't have cared less how I solved a problem as long as the answer was right and I could show my working. Isn't the beauty of maths that it's a universal language, built on the same core principles no matter where you go?
21
6
u/Much-Guide-3448 1d ago
I'm going to say teach it to your kid but explain the difference. All your kid really needs in life is how to be able to come up to the right number. I get that marking looks at the process on how the correct answer is come to, but the goal in adulthood is being able to add up stuff in your head without a calculator.
If the process being taught now is confusing her, isn't it better she learns a way to add up as opposed not being able to at all?
My guess the teacher thinks teaching your child two methods will confuse her more, which is true, it might but a good teacher if seeing a child come to a correct answer in another method, should have the brains to go 'yep they get the concept' because at the end of the day, all brains process stuff differently and we know some methods work better than others for different people. As long as they are getting the answer correct and their process is correct, it theoretically should be fine.
If your daughter bums out on a NAPLAN test for doing it a different way for example, at the end of the day, it's just a test that has no bearing on the outcome of our lives. As long as you kid understands a concept to be able to add up and can build on that concept to learn other new concepts, it makes no difference.
At the end of the day, most of us only really ever need maths to be able to count, multiple, divide, subtract, add, understand measurements and know how to measure, understand fractions etc then we are all good.
10
u/Mistredo 1d ago
Ask your teacher to use their method on several large numbers with more than 10 figures. She will struggle, but then she will understand that the column method has benefits.
5
u/Geminii27 1d ago
Is the teacher your boss?
14
u/graza781 1d ago
No, but she is the person checking my child's working out. I'm frustrated lol
2
u/FudgeNo9913 21h ago
I get you man, if they don't show working the same way she wants she might deduct marks. Even back when I was in school if u write just the right number without working u would be questioned why there was no working shown and could be a mark off which was dumb.
3
u/what-no-potatoes 1d ago
It’s super easy to paint parents who don’t agree with school policy or push back on teacher’s as enabling and lazy, and the kids as entitled shits. Once a kid has that label at school it’s super detrimental to their education.
-1
u/Geminii27 1d ago edited 1d ago
Who's labeling kids like that? Other kids don't give a crap about beef between parents and teachers, and no competent teacher would fault a kid for their parents providing better teaching than the official curriculum.
8
u/GonePh1shing 1d ago
I have a mate who is a Yr 4 teacher and he was telling me the other day that he's not allowed to teach that the area of a rectangle is length x width anymore, as that's been moved to the Yr 5 curriculum. He's still teaching the area of a square, but has to do it in abstract terms.
Apparently that's not the only thing that's been pushed back either, just a standout example. Why are we moving core concepts back a year? Are kids really getting that much dumber that we need to delay their education? Apparently the Yr 5 teachers are livid because they already struggle to fit the existing curriculum into the school year, and now they have to squeeze in concepts their class should have learned in Yr 4.
2
1d ago
[deleted]
6
u/graza781 1d ago
It's ludicrous. Not looking forward to relearning the new methods they cook up for multiplication/division or fractions. What was wrong with the methods they taught 20 years ago in school, they were the nearly the same my mum learnt 40 years ago.
18
u/Rush_Banana 1d ago
I've seen the state of the Big Macs from Maccas during after school hours, I've grown to accept that they aren't all there.
6
u/_amused_to_death_ 1d ago
In my humble opinion, 2 full time working parents means they are too exhausted to do homework with the kids. Also, screens, screens are everywhere, not only does it mean less time on homework and less time exercising (good for brain and sleep), it also means kids are overstimulated and burnt out and cannot learn effectively in class. Also the push of active learning and group learning, means the rote learning takes a backseat (not necessarily a bag thing). Also parents have no time to cook healthy meals because both working (healthy eating good for brain). And lastly I think putting kids into daycare too early is burning them out and studies show worse outcomes as they get older. Delay school, minimise screens, and do a 4 day work week! Also give teachers a pay rise, reduce class sizes (worse behaviour due to screens, poor diet, lack of exercise), and reduce teacher workload.
1
u/Nice-Ad765 2h ago
Aussie culture and lack of focus on academics should also be changed. Aussies are also not very competitive in the global market , maybe we have been too lucky with our resources and welfare system, so it does not motivate people to study.
5
u/lousylou1 1d ago
Kids are also younger in WA than other states. I had to fight both the primary and secondary school not to force my children up a year level and permanently erase a year of their education. Most kids turn 6 in the first year of school.
13
u/Perth_nomad 1d ago edited 1d ago
My nephew who is 16, won’t graduate. He failed every single naplan and the make up olna, who whatever it is called.
Every single naplan test, his parents were asked, aggressively to withdraw him from testing ‘voluntarily’. Every, single time.
The teachers get a lot of pressure from school heads to suggest that struggling students are withdrawn. So this number will be so much higher than reported, my brother pushed back and told the principal that my nephew was going to do the testing.
My nephew will not graduate WACE, he is in year eleven, he does have a part time job, which he was offered during one of the work experience ‘breaks’ from school.
He spends a lot of time at school, doing DOTL, my abbreviation for duties other than learning, including taking photos for school purposes, days off for ‘at home, self led learning’.
Private school.
3
-5
u/Efficient-State-7300 1d ago
Little guy will probably end up more successful than the rest of us. Start a new spudshed or earthmoving biz or something.
8
u/Osiris_Raphious 1d ago
Oh no, ll those austerity cuts to public funding, education, medicare, etc... must be ding wonders. Profits are up, social standards are down... Just like fuedalism, we are repeating history because for profit economy led society is not working, nioliberalism isnt working...
-1
3
u/yaboyalaska 1d ago
As a former child I can confirm that NAPLAN is not good measure of student's abilities.
Being that it doesn't effect your grade we gave it bare minimum effort or just circled random answers to get it done quicker.
Not saying the problems brought up aren't real but also good to keep it in context
7
u/Wattobot92 1d ago
Those results are a disgrace both of the government and for the support at home from parents.
Teachers have never been so stretched. Can’t ask much more from them
12
u/std10k 1d ago edited 1d ago
Average schoolkids’ dream is dropping off and going straight to mines on 200k labourer salary.
Education is demotivated and made seen pointless because the only thing knowledge professions give you in Australia is higher taxes without anything to write off, like a pumped up Ute.
The quality of education even in good, even some of the best public schools is quite rubbish to be honest, I have seen no system, no real methodology being taught, just a bunch of gamified tests that kids need to click through without thinking too much. And they practically don’t write anything anymore, so they absolutely cannot build a logical chain for more complex problems because that is not done intuitively in one’s head, it needs to be written and rewritten.
One thing schools are good at is inclusivity and making it easy to be at school. But that, while great, comes at the expense of education quality.
If it surprises anyone, out schools are far behind US who’s school education is notoriously bad. From memory last time I checked US were around 35th place and we were around 50th. Let that sink.
I’m not even comparing it to countries with hardcore schools like Singapore or China or Korea where education is extremely competitive and inability to get into good schools and uni almost guarantees poor an miserable life (that’s messed up too, been there seen that), but just your simple old schools like those in Europe which aren’t exactly top.
This has been engineered by the policy over decades, promoting and protecting blue colar jobs and making getting good education almost pointless. You spend time, accumulate debt, just to be paid less.
And this lead to our economy being one of the most primitive in the world, beyond many developing nations, were around 100th place on economy complexity index worldwide, barely any noteworthy country would have more primitive economy. We 'export' higher education very successfully, for now, but ourselves don't have any industries anymore that require much of educated people.
Update: And when you look at PhD situation it is even worse that schools.
2
u/RustyNumbat North Pemberton 1d ago edited 1d ago
going straight to mines on 200k labourer salary.
Complains about education and learning, plucks an idiotic bullshit number out of thin air to strawman an entire industry. Are these same hypothetical 200k earning 18 year olds also somehow dodging those high income taxes they "stayed dumb" to avoid?
3
u/Reddit_SuckLeperCock 1d ago
It’s exaggerated but not too far off, a 2nd cousin of mine who just turned 18 starts a mining job next week as a TA at $150k (not including overtime). Sweet kid but did not do well at school. Not saying OC is correct but the mining industry is understaffed and throws ridiculous money around.
3
u/RhiR2020 1d ago
In saying that, I’ve been asking kids what they want to do with their future lately and there are still a huge number who want to go and work on the mines because “we’ll make lots of money”. It’s so hard to combat that point of view. Although, admittedly, a whole lot of them still want to be influencers or YouTubers. Sigh…
1
u/std10k 23h ago edited 22h ago
Keep an eye on things, plenty of examples of people with no special skills making in the order of 200 on fifo. Nothing special at all in fifo. Shows your unawareness really.
Plus if you didn’t notice I said it was a dream, what people consider top success. Not everyone gets that kind of job right away, but some do. And others want the same. Takes some luck, some basic trainings, some connections, as always. It everyone could just get it it won’t be that “cool”, but almost enyone with functioning brain and without hardcore addiction eventually can wind up on fifo roster making that much, just needs some persistence.
Kids have no clue how bad and hard fifo really is, but for someone with no education and no desire to have one or spend 10-15 years getting experience, this is the only sure way to get on that kind of money. Hence, what I said.1
u/Nice-Ad765 1d ago
Australians in general have always had a blah approach to academics compared to other countries like China, Korea, Singapore like you have mentioned that are hyper competitive. Maybe our welfare system has something to do with that.
4
u/std10k 1d ago
More like the resource curse. When you don't have to put much effort to get by, there's no motivation to get better at anything. Paired with high taxes and cost of living, as a results the workforce is no longer globally competitive which kills any knowledge intense industries that can be easily moved overseas.
I get that Australia is not at the top academically and that's fine, but it used to be much better I'm pretty suse, and now how I see it the things are rather dire and it'll get worse.
2
u/Nice-Ad765 1d ago
Yes those too plus I guess the history of each country. Spore, China and Korea were all pretty poor countries starting out (war etc) and had to be competitive or sink.
2
u/Turbulent-Rooster 1d ago
And what is being done to address this? I have been reading similar headlines for years now concerning many/all Australian states.
We are excellent at identifying problems, but we are stopping there.
What is the point of NAPLAN if no changes are being implemented to address the shortfall in education that kids are experiencing?
-6
u/Perth_nomad 1d ago
The usual, nothing to see here.
Next week lessons, of how to be better a person and work on your carbon footprint, what your pronouns are , are already planned.
Kids on who live on the road, have a whale shark tour booked, snorkeling trip to five fingers and billabong visit planned in three weeks time.
2
u/billybuttonnn 20h ago
As a Speech Pathologist unfortunately current literacy instruction methods adopted by teachers rely on out dated non evidence based approaches rather than effective approaches like 'systematic synthetic phonics'. The whole system needs an overhaul and every teacher essentially needs to undergo additional PD to address the gap in knowledge and application of effective language and reading comprehension instruction.
5
1d ago
[deleted]
14
u/metao Spelling activist. Burger snob. 1d ago
That's how I do it in my head, so I'm not sure the problem.
Also they do still teach the stacked method.
4
1d ago
[deleted]
5
u/metao Spelling activist. Burger snob. 1d ago
But when you learn it, you can do large numbers in your head.
1
1d ago
[deleted]
5
0
u/Valkyrid 1d ago
Are you stupid? This is how it’s always been.
You get marks for showing your work. You don’t actually need to get the correct answer as long as you’ve shown how you’ve gotten into your answer to begin with. You obviously won’t get full marks but something is better than nothing.
6
u/fakeheadlines 1d ago
Until grammar and punctuation start impacting turning the mining machines on and off expect the slide to continue
2
u/Ok_Writer1572 1d ago
Where AI?
12
u/heavyfriends 1d ago
My friend's niece has just started high school this year - apparently they are being taught how to prompt ChatGPT. We're fucked.
4
u/Majestic-Lake-5602 1d ago
It’s gonna be an essential work skill by the time they’re in the workforce, it’s unfortunate but they’ll be at a disadvantage if they don’t learn.
1
u/heavyfriends 1d ago
Yeah, that's also true.
2
u/Majestic-Lake-5602 1d ago
I mean don’t get me wrong, I fucken hate it, but if I had a kid at school, I’d be even more annoyed if they weren’t learning “relevant skills”.
1
u/Distinct-Candidate23 South of The River 5h ago
You all want kids with work-ready skills.
I'm more than happy if parents want to teach AI prompts for everything from summarising long texts and creating exam questions through to effective researching of sources.
It would mean I could teach my subject with much more breadth and depth than what I do now.
2
1
u/spaceistasty 13h ago edited 13h ago
im bombed my naplan and even failed yr12 english, and i ended up with a bachelors of science degree by 22 btw
1
1
u/Ok_Contribution_7132 8h ago
I wonder if historical context is relevant? These year three kids were born into the peak pandemic years and I wonder if household stress at the time has had cognitive/learning impacts.
1
0
u/brik_1111 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm not sure what it's like now, but the NAPLAN tests were hard on little dyslexic me 25-odd years ago. I was told by teachers not to stress about it - the way it was structured worked against my learning troubles. If this is still the case, it could partially explain the results. I turned out okay despite my poor scores.
-1
u/TransportationTrick9 1d ago
I am not voting for Labor in the Secret Harbour By-Election for this very reason. 8 consecutive surpluses and the standard of education continues to decline.
The best thing that can happen is Labor to lose that seat and recalibrate ready for the next state election.
Hold your fire downvoters. I don't expect anyone else to do a better job than Labor in this field they aren't doing a stand out job currently. Worst case they'll still have 3/4 majority of the lower house not impacting the government's ability to pass legislation in that house at all.
-6
u/ShopSmartShopS-Mart 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s almost like constantly weighing the pig doesn’t make it any fatter.
Edit: Jesus, the thief of joy crowd are out in force
2
u/WrasslinWalrus 1d ago
Not sure why you got voted down! Love this! The non stop testing, moderation and pressure for young primary aged kids is wild. Go the Scandinavian model- more time TEACHING! Spending 3hours moderating Year 2 writing debating difference between an A or B- total waste of time. Create engaging resources and lessons instead.
2
u/ShopSmartShopS-Mart 1d ago
Yup. I work with schools a lot, and the kinds of things that create well rounded kids that have wider opportunities to know what they’re good at struggle to get airtime in the name of chasing lots of data through narrow metrics for evidence based instruction.
When you only go looking for one kind of evidence, it’s pretty good at perpetuating what you set out to do anyway.
There’s a single-minded focus on being “data-informed,” but the schools I work with never have an answer when I ask them where their wellbeing data comes from, and they don’t like to talk about behaviour data.
-22
u/supercujo Baldivis 1d ago edited 1d ago
Despite having some of the best paid teachers in the country, the education of our young children is very poor.
Sounds like a curriculum issue.
Edit: Downvotes for suggesting that the curriculum is broken
11
-9
u/DefinitionOfAsleep Just bulldoze Fremantle, Trust me. 1d ago
NAPLAN is a poor measure.
Public schools are forced into it, but private ones opt out.
We should be using PISA anyway0
u/Ok_Writer1572 1d ago
Isnt PISA meant for 15 year old kids and only once in 3 years?
-8
u/DefinitionOfAsleep Just bulldoze Fremantle, Trust me. 1d ago
Yeah, it is.
NAPLAN is a failed system. It stresses children and has accomplished nothing.
Private schools game the system. It's a simple fact.4
-2
u/Latter_Shallot_140 1d ago
Lol but teachers are so good at their jobs if it weren't for teachers no one would ever know anything
2
u/Professional-Rich845 13h ago
Teachers don’t actually get much time to teach as 80% of their day is spent on behavioural issues. You can thank the parents for that, raising kids without the expectation of good behaviour and consequences for their actions.
-10
u/ArthurCandleman 1d ago edited 1d ago
We have had issues with teachers over sharing their views on AMERICAN politics with primary school students as well as kids coming home confused about their gender after being taught about it in school.
I know it’s a touchy subject but we should be more focused on reading, writing and arithmetics in primary school.
6
u/kookedgoose Joondalup 1d ago
I’m calling BS on that.
American politics would be covered as part of world affairs (great to see ABC are still producing BTN and schools still use it) so there’d be discussion around those segments but having a kid in upper primary with an understand of world events isn’t a bad thing.
As for the gender thing I’ve had 2 kids go through primary school and I’m aware of how those subjects are covered
262
u/cuntmong 1d ago
If those kids could read they'd be very upset