Australia 5

 

Edtech, Pensions and Covid

Can pensions help edtech? The sad answer is no in the UK but yes in the rest of the world.  And yes, Covid will have an impact. The Teachers’ Pension Scheme (England and Wales) (TPS) is a scheme (not a fund, as it has no assets) with a £432 billion liability to its 1.3 million members. […]

2 years ago Education More
 

What a difference 12,000 miles makes

A few weeks ago I was able to attend (virtually) the Sydney Morning Herald Schools Summit. Now in its third year, the summit has become one of the most influential education events in Australia, one that more UK educationalists and edtech companies should pay attention to. As is the norm, the opening keynote was given […]

2 years ago Education More
 

A political pork-barrelled porky?

Labour’s election manifesto promise of free broadband to anyone as an essential ‘to compete in the global economy’, looks like a dated and unfunded copy of an election policy from Australia way back in 2006. The Labor Opposition Leader, Kim Beasley, made a very similar promise, however, it fell to his successor Kevin Rudd, who […]

4 years ago Uncategorized More
 

The remarkable story of Chickens Not So Little

The organising intellectual model of The Guardian’s education coverage seems to take any press release claiming there’s a problem in education and interpret it through the lens of the ancient fairy tale Chicken Little. The one where the acorn falls on the back of Henny Penny and she creates panic crying, ‘The sky is falling’. […]

4 years ago Education More
 

Australia Trumps Brexit

Educational exports are the third largest sector in the Australian economy as the following figures show:   Value $21.8bn [1] in 2016/17 700,000 international students, 300,000 in the higher education sector Strong sector growth at 14% (2014), 15% (2015) and 17% (2016).   Australia’s educational success hasn’t happened overnight and there have been plenty of […]

6 years ago Education More