Student makes history, heads to coding Olympics
Henrietta Cook, Education Editor "That stereotype of men with nerdy glasses in a dark room is starting to go."
Latest education news
Is standardised testing putting too much pressure on kids?
Kelsey Munro 9:07 PM "School is not for everyone," well-meaning people kept telling Lucy Clark, as her daughter struggled in high school.
Why parents need to be vigilant about tutors
Kelsey Munro 12:15 AM In the past three years, 1849 people have been barred from working with children in NSW. Yet parents rarely check private tutors or their working with children status.
$24 million funding for 'extremist cult' schools
Eryk Bagshaw 3:05 PM "Sharp questions need to be answered" about funding of schools that preach "utter hatred" of the outside world, says Labor.
'This is an awesome possibility': School community targets Wentworth Park
Eryk Bagshaw, Jacob Saulwick The Ultimo school community - including the Barrett family - says the government has been given "an awesome possibility".
Student numbers plummet by 80,000 in NSW VET sector
Eryk Bagshaw and Kelsey Munro Report finds negative perceptions of scandal-plagued sector affects enrolments as thousands of students choose to go to university instead.
The loophole that could let paedophiles teach in NSW
Kelsey Munro An unvetted teacher used another's identification to gain employment in a NSW public school. He taught for two days before he was busted.
Exclusive Brethren MET school gets record funding
Eryk Bagshaw A private school run by an "extremist cult" receives more in government funding per student than up to a third of the state's public schools.
SCA: Sixty students to take on Sydney Uni
Eryk Bagshaw Visual arts students are claiming "deceptive conduct" as a merger looms.
Dodgy educational salesmen exploit 'grey area'
Michael Bachelard Year after the watchdog stepped in, vocational education scheme rorters have learned some new tricks, allegedly falsifying English language tests and skirting bans on free laptops.
NSW government prison teachers plan 'an abdication of hope'
Kelsey Munro There's not much to do in jail, says former prisoner Ken Casey.
Bullying in Australian schools is falling, but remains 'unacceptably high'
Henrietta Cook, Eryk Bagshaw Bullying in Australian schools remains “unacceptably high,” a new report has found.
Four things teachers really want
Swetha Das Much is said about education funding during election campaigns
'No friend of the arts': University of Sydney slammed by associate professor for closing art school
Andrew Taylor Sydney University is no friend of the arts and set up its art school for failure as anger rages about the merger of its art school with the University of NSW.
National Art School, UNSW merger 'on the cards'
Andrew Taylor Sydney may be left with just one tertiary art school, with the head of the National Art School conceding the institution may be forced into a merger with the University of NSW.
'Deliberately sneaky': schools cost blowout slammed
James Robertson It was meant to streamline the education department's administration software but the Learning Management and Business Reform project has been dogged by technical faults and delays for years.
'It was a bit of a shock': Cost of putting a child through uni
Inga Ting Louisa Wilson's parents are up for five figures - and that's without paying her HECS.
Is a NSW preschooler worth less than a Victorian child?
Kelsey Munro Is a NSW child worth less? – asks the campaign run by the community childcare peak body.
Foley's plan to build even more schools
Kelsey Munro The opposition leader saw a perfect spot for a new school in his electorate. But the land was quickly put out of reach.
How the parties can deliver economic growth
Jessica Irvine Labor wants to throw money at education while the Coalition wants to cut corporate tax. Which one will deliver bigger economic growth in the long run?
Could you beat the Class of '67?
Eryk Bagshaw The very first students to sit the HSC had no calculators. Can you answer the questions they faced?
Make maths and science compulsory: PM
Eryk Bagshaw Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called for maths and science to be made compulsory for all students finishing high school to arrest a steep decline in Australia's standards across both subject areas.
The hardest schools to get into in Sydney
Catherine Armitage Two out of three students who competed for a Year 7 place at a selective high school this year missed out, Department of Education figures suggest.
'It's not just a free-for-all playtime'
Kelsey Munro For Randwick mum Emilie Capes, sending her two- and three-year-old to preschool is a crucial investment.
TAFE: enrolment system dumped
Eryk Bagshaw The NSW government had dumped part of a $531 million enrolment system from the state's TAFE network after years of chaos and budget blowouts.
'Billions of tax dollars being squandered'
Kelsey Munro Private vocational courses cost taxpayers seven times as much as TAFE, new analysis finds.
Teacher withdrew $1.9 million in cash, court told
Eryk Bagshaw Teacher was a relative of the college's owner and told the court she could not remember where the money came from.
'A casualised, unstable world of work'
Kelsey Munro Young people have it a lot tougher than their parents' generation, new study shows.
HSC Geography
Helen Rhodes Geography is an investigation of the varied character of the earth and its people.
Latest education news
Unis pull the trigger on political correctness
Timna Jacks University students are being warned when classes contains graphic or sensitive content, including sexual abuse, rape and transgenderism, to protect their mental health.
Private schools locked in facilities arms race
Henrietta Cook and Timna Jacks Private schools are outspending Victorian public schools by four to one.
Students taken to hospital after taking drugs
Henrietta Cook and Nathanael Cooper Two students have been taken to hospital after they overdosed on drugs at a school camp
Religious groups rise up in state school classrooms
Henrietta Cook Religious groups are running anti-bullying, girls empowerment and mentoring programs in Victorian state schools, as cash-strapped principals outsource extra-curricular activities.
School choice is clogging our roads
Henrietta Cook Almost 60 per cent of Melbourne students are bypassing their local school, according to world renowned academic John Hattie.
St Catherine's deputy principal sues
Henrietta Cook, Nick Toscano Students were stranded by a cyclone, hospitalised with gastro and caught an aggressive strain of conjunctivitis during a school camp.
Schools battling to balance books
Henrietta Cook Victorian principals are struggling to make ends meet, with almost one in four state schools in deficit.
Journalism academic suspended
Henrietta Cook He tweeted that Sky News viewers were "masturbating chimps" and asked a commerce student whether he was happy to fail. Now he wants his job back.
Roz Ward get her job back
Henrietta Cook La Trobe University has withdrawn all allegations of misconduct against controversial academic Roz Ward and reinstated the Safe Schools founder.
The school the kids designed
Henrietta Cook They had grand visions of water fountains that spluttered cola and slides that carried students from the second floor to the playground.
Opposition vows to dump Safe Schools program
Josh Gordon, Henrietta Cook Victoria's controversial Safe Schools program will be axed if the Coalition wins the 2018 state election.
Suspension of Safe Schools co-founder condemned
Henrietta Cook and Timna Jacks Lawyers say La Trobe University may have broken the law by suspending Roz Ward.
The formula for the perfect principal
Henrietta Cook and Craig Butt but it's so complex principals, and many parents, can't understand it
Five hacks to fix Victoria's schools
Henrietta Cook Victoria might be called "The Education State", but its schools are far from perfect. Here are five ways to help fix it.
Uni suspends Safe Schools' Roz Ward
Henrietta Cook La Trobe Uni suspends the co-founder of Safe Schools Coalition after she said the Australian flag was racist in a Facebook post.
Calls for better sex ed for international students due to spate of abortions
Timna Jacks, Henrietta Cook Poor sex education and unwanted sex has led to a spate of abortions among international students, according to insurers and health experts.
Parents enter alliance with private school
Timna Jacks There's a little-known trick to scoring a sizeable discount at one elite private school in the south-east.
Single-sex schools in transition as transgender students gain acceptance
Henrietta Cook The peak body for girls schools, the Alliance of Girls Schools Australasia, is urging its members to support transgender students.
VCE text test sparks censorship concerns
Timna Jacks VCE texts could soon have to meet a new test to ensure they don't offend different cultures in a move that has triggered concerns of "censorship".
Melbourne school talks to astronaut in space
John Elder "My name is Jake. What different jobs do you do on the space station. Over?" Long-distance education can be a revelation when a primary school can talk to someone in outer space.
Convicted cocaine trafficker allowed to teach
Henrietta Cook A woman convicted of trafficking cocaine and sentenced to nine years in a Spanish jail has been given the green light to teach in Victorian schools.
Opinion, Analysis
'White flight' parents are missing the big picture
It isn't racism – middle-class families are deserting schools based on class prejudice.
Middle-class life: when expectations are both high and narrow
Last week, The Age Education pages focused on the tragedy of parents hostile to education. But in middle-class families, the either/or choice of doctor or lawyer can be similarly soul-destroying.
The returns from better education are hard to beat
Don't look now, but this election is being fought on actual policy grounds.
'I make no apology for the success of my school'
The principal of Melbourne Girl's College tackles accusations of elitism and the notion of middle-class "white flight" from more disadvantaged schools
Learning true value of teachers
Good teaching and well-resourced education underpin the fabric of our society, writes Michael Short.
Australia's cultural heritage: parents who despise education
For every tiger mother pushing for high achievement, Australia has a pool of families that are anti-education and they condemn their children to a life of struggle.
Why parents must unplug their kids to improve their literacy
When teenagers switch on their phones and ipods, reading goes out the window and the evidence of this is in declining NAPLAN results between years 5 and 9.
A tale of two brains is more fiction than fact
Myths about left brain and right brain functioning stereotype children's capabilities and limit what parents and teachers expect of them.
No more classes, no more books ... and no permanent teachers either
Modern tertiary education has become a detached affair with online classes and e-books and that's just for the students. For teachers, the experience is mostly a casualised, isolated affair.
Turnbull's bias revealed in school funding plan
The government proposes turning its back on the schools where most Australian children get their education.
The school reform options we should be debating
Schools funding from 2018 onwards has been kicked down the road until early next year – after the election. Voters deserve to know what the Turnbull government is planning.
New curriculum is almost impossible to assess
Changes to the curriculum mean new challenges such as how success can be measured in ethics, social competence and creative thinking.
Cost shifting by Victorian government has short changed schools
Successive state governments have used increased federal government education spending as a way of reducing their own contribution.
New report: early development delays go on to mar educational achievement
Children who enter their first year of school behind in any of the five key areas of development are, without intervention, likely to remain behind throughout their education.
Culture shock awaits disadvantaged students who make it to uni
Enrolling at university is a huge achievement for disadvantaged students but once on campus they discover cultural and financial barriers remain.
University born of a dream of opportunity for all
Footscray Tech was begun in 1916 by a former Antarctic explorer with a dream of creating opportunities for young men from the western suburbs.Today that school is Victoria University.
What if passion is the highest qualification you need?
Worry less about ATAR and choosing the perfect course - the future demands flexibility and adaptability so passion will be the quality to carry young people further.
A 30-year teacher looks back with gratitude
The average tenure of a teacher today is three years; a three-decade veteran reflects on what he loved about the profession, what inspired him and why it is time to go.
Schools crisis comes with massive waste of tax dollars
Fishermans Bend provides a stark lesson in how not to plan a new community.
The private school myth that doesn't add up
Our grossly inequitable education system is propped up by a lie that even kids would find hard to swallow.
VET sector: a get-rich scheme for shonks and shysters
Competition policy is all very well, but beware the pitfalls of privatisation that led to the great unwinding of vocational education.
