What about a National school starting age first?

While I have some reservations about what might really be proposed in a national curriculum, I believe there is a more important issue at stake in this whole debate.

Serious consideration of a national curriculum is of little relevance until such time as the critical matter of school starting ages is addressed. The current national environment where students, to a significant extent, complete their secondary schooling in Queensland aged on the lower side of 17 compared to those in southern and other states who are generally above this and closer to 18 (generally), makes it very hard to understand the pedagogical logic in a national curriculum.

This is quite a mouthful and probably reflects the confusion and levels of disparity that exist between states in matters of education. It is a fact that every child develops at a different rate. How can valid comparisons of performance between students in states where school starting ages are so different be made? It is a reality that the age difference may almost be as great as 18 months. Given an individual student’s age and years at school, it is very hard to see such a national curriculum focus providing a level playing field for students around the nation.

Apart from the need to ensure that there are elements within a national curriculum that take account of region specific details perhaps (eg in history), the real matter for resolution first, in my view, needs to be agreement to school starting ages around the nation.

Welcome

The ongoing debate on how to strike a balance between work and family will not be solved by letting children spend more time at school while their parents work longer hours. I raise this concern despite the recommendation by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission that schools should open an extra four hours a day.

I recognise the need to assist working parents, but putting the issue of family responsibilities onto schools is not the solution.

At Fahan for example, we offer before school, after school and holiday care. However, giving all parents the option of dropping their children at school earlier and picking them up just before dinner time means the upbringing of children is predominantly left to the schools, with less and less responsibility being accepted by parents.

The real issue here is the children. Will they benefit from spending a tiring 12-15 hour day at school, to then be bundled up and rushed home in time to be fed and put to bed? What about the parents who have also been working long hours? Where is the opportunity for them to really enjoy quality time with their children? I think we all understand that at the end of a long day, the sort of time I am talking about is not as productive as it might be.

We have children to enjoy life with them – to watch and help them learn and grow, to love and care for them. I am no politician but it seems to me that governments should be looking at ways of assisting parents be with their children during their formative years especially, not encouraging them to further our culture of ever increasing long working hours. Parents are spending less and less time with their children during their formative years.

Let’s not just take the easy solution and lob another responsibility onto our schools, which incidentally, seem to be continuing to take more and more responsibility for raising children already.