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Skill Gap in Western Countries

Western countries are heading for a crisis. Young people are not being taught skills that are of use in the workforce. Australia under Prime Minister Tony Abbott is moving back to the three "Rs" - reading, writing and arithmetic in schools. However, it will take at least a decade for this to take effect.

It looks unlikely that future Australian governments will keep this change going. More and more irrelevant subjects are being introduced into an already crowded curriculum. Students are studying different things. There is no uniformity in education.

Will we reach a stage where machines run the world and there are no technicians with the skills to repair them? This is a strong possibility. It is just a short step back to primitivism, back to the stone age.

Students are not applying to enter the scientific field. Scientists are an aging bunch. Much research funding is channelled to them because they have proven themselves. Bodies with funds do not have any faith in new science graduates.

The skill shortage is not only in science. It is not possible for everyone to be employed at the checkout where computerized tills do the adding up and show the exact change to give. This is now an unskilled job. When the older generation of tradees retire there will be no young eager people to do the work. The government is not listening. Funding on TAFE education has fallen dramatically.

Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan

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Australian Teachers Do Not Need to Copy Asia

There is nothing wrong with the quality of Australian teachers. Saying that we can learn a lot from Asian teachers is absolutely wrong. It is the culture of the student that determines whether he/she will be successful in becoming educationally proficient.

Children of Chinese immigrants to Australia do much better than offspring of many other subcultures. Native third generation Australians do worst of all. This is because their parents get on with living their own lives and leave their kids to learn by themselves. There is nothing wrong with this policy. Chinese parents do similarly, but they do help much more financially with education.

Mao Tse-tung was once asked by a Western reporter what was the most difficult thing about governing China. He replied it was teaching children to believe in Communism when Chinese are born Capitalists. Trading has been an important part of Chinese culture for thousands of years so calculating and finance are important.

To be successful in life high academic achievement is paramount. Children of immigrants know this as well as their parents, particularly those from Asia. There is one issue that is problematic for even these children. That is the paranoia about rote learning in the West, even though rote is still held to the fore in Asia. Independent thinking is necessary. However, if you wait for a child to understand everything naturally without explaining the answers you will wait forever.

East Asians will pay for their children to "cram" learn with private coaches. This is not part of Australian culture. Nonetheless, this service is available in Australia. The Asian mother drives her offspring forward no matter where they live in the world. This drive is "absorbed" by the child.

Chinese also know that core subjects like maths are more important than choice subjects like surfing for example. The number of Australians who make a living at surfing can be counted on one hand. It is clear that Australian education is not managed well. Some decisions are not rational at all.

Education by Ty Buchanan

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We are Heading Toward a Drugged-Up World

A new survey has found that school children under 17 years who smoke cannabis are less likely to complete their high school education. This is not surprising as cannabis "kills" the rational part of the brain and makes users impulsive, unable to control their actions.

Addicts are driven through a path in life from one pleasurable thing to another. They avoid all uncomfortable situations immediately, seeking the nearest pleasure at hand. This is why they end up breaking the law and becoming incarcerated.

Suicide is high amongst cannabis users because good experiences are not always for the taking. When one works at a job it is not pleasant, nor is it truly sought after. However, unless the discomfort is suffered there will be no pleasure from spending the income.

Legalization for medical use is another step toward general access. Many young people are already unfit for the workforce because schools do not teach work related skills. Education needs radical reform. We need to turn the clock back. Get rid of the choice subjects and make all students do fundamental, core subject like in the old days. Rote is not a dirty word. Every older person knows the twelve times table by heart even in old age. Having all student repeat things out loud, together is a good thing. How are they to discover the answers on their own?

Like in ancient days in China when people spent their days slothfully wasting time sitting under a tree waiting for ripe fruit to fall, we are heading toward a world where everyone expects welfare and someone else will do the work. Drug taking is bringing this closer.

Culture by Ty Buchanan

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Neither Labor Nor Liberal Understand the Needs of Education

With fewer students choosing not to maths and science, or even worse doing badly in the subjects, there is a real shortage of people who can work in big data tech. Research scientists for universities are simply not there. Business pays twice as much as universities. Basically, universities need more money. The government is doing nothing about this commercial reality.

Labor took a big chunk out of university funding with its educational reforms. The Liberal national government has promised less for both universities and schools, despite the Abbott back down. Just what the government plans to do is unknown at present. The Gonsky reforms are up in the air. Some states are not yet on board and states who have signed want the money promised by Labor.

Universities are in the wings waiting for some kind of positive action by the government. If the Gonsky funding goes ahead there will very little left for the tertiary sector. Robbing tertiary to fund schools does not make any sense. Both should have got a larger slice of the money pie. This is like taking money out of high schools and giving it to kindergartens. It is not rational. Education is a complete working body, from top to bottom. Maybe Chrisopher Pyne was right in his claim that we need a new start, but his version announced as cutting future spending in all educational sectors is not on.

Education by Ty Buchanan

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Education by Ty Buchanan

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Too Many Maths and Science Graduates

For many years it has been said that Australia lacks maths and science graduates. Maths teachers are in short supply we are told. Professor Ian Chubb, a chief scientist, certainly pushes this case.

Unfortunately, data does not support this premise. Like qualified information technology people, maths and science graduates find the job market difficult. It seems there is real demand only in geological science. A little more than half of graduates say their qualifications are relevant to their work. They hold down jobs only in distantly related fields.

One would think that with science and technology moving forward at a rapid pace such qualified people would be sorely needed. Employment in agricultural science is falling because young people are leaving rural towns and refuse to learn about farming. It is seen as glorified laboring.

Getting a post-graduate qualification does not help to find work. Employers see higher degrees as narrowing educational scope. Government is continuing to push universities to offer science and maths teaching despite labor demand falling. Places for teachers are available, but when first employed new teachers have to work for ten years or more in the bush before they can choose where they want to live.

Though historically Australian culture was based on bush life, today the young are urbanites. They love big cities and living near the ocean. The trend is for elderly grandparents to spend their last days in rural areas, while their offspring live it up on the coast. Maths and science, however, may not be the road to financial success.

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Conservation