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Education

social-policy-education

A quality school education is vital for individual well-being and for a healthy society. All children should have access to an education that is responsive to their needs as well as upholding high standards of academic rigour. CIS's focus is on policies that restore the role of parents in education and devolve greater authority and responsibility to schools to meet these goals.

The CIS is also involved in examining higher education and offers alternatives to the current Australian model.

Publications

  1. Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

    Helen Hughes AO, Sara Hudson | 18 Nov 2011 | Submissions

    Australia has a serious problem in low participation in higher education by students from low socio-economic backgrounds.... Read More...

  2. School Funding, Choice and Equity

    Jennifer Buckingham | 26 Oct 2011 | Issue Analysis

    CIS Research Fellow Jennifer Buckingham says the three main goals of school funding – equity, efficiency and excellence... Read More...

  3. The Rise of Religious Schools in Australia

    Jennifer Buckingham | 16 Sep 2010 | Policy Monographs

    Growth in the non-government school sector in Australia has been driven by religious schools, with the largest increases... Read More...

  4. BOOK REVIEW: The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University

    Andrew Norton | 17 Jun 2010 | POLICY Magazine

    The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University by Louis Menand

  5. Indigenous Education 2010

    Helen Hughes AO | 20 Apr 2010 | Policy Monographs

    The 2009 NAPLAN literacy and numeracy tests confirm the continued failure of Indigenous education. The government's 'closing... Read More...

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Opinion & Commentary

  1. Who needs four uni degrees or even one for that matter?

    Adam Creighton | 29 Nov 2011 | Crikey

    Most jobs don't require university degrees. A key purpose of education is to give students a chance to signal their aptitude ... Read More

  2. Degrees of difference

    Sara Hudson | 22 Aug 2011 | Online Opinion

    Many people have taken umbrage at this arguing that having a separate form for some remote communities is an example of 'positive ... Read More

  3. Census apartheid: separate form separates a community

    Sara Hudson | 10 Aug 2011 | The Drum

    The use of a separate Census form for some discrete Indigenous communities is not only state-sanctioned apartheid but statistically ... Read More

  4. A confident secularist society would tolerate school religion

    Brendan O'Neill | 28 Jul 2011 | The Sydney Morning Herald

    A confident secular society, one that trusted in its rationalist public institutions, should have no problem with occasional ... Read More

  5. Artful dodges

    Andrew Norton | 26 Jul 2011 | The Age

    Pragmatic politics alone suggest that Australian governments will rarely lift spending per higher education student, in the ... Read More

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Ideas@TheCentre

  1. Nudge, nudge, here come the Germans

    Peter Saunders | 20 Jan 2012

    Germans can teach us a lot when it comes to family and social policy....

  2. Individualism does not mean being self-centred

    Sara Hudson | 04 Nov 2011

    Individualism is not about being self-centred but about recognising that you are responsible for your own actions and how ...

  3. Focus on the children

    Jennifer Buckingham | 28 Oct 2011

    School funding should centre on the child, not on the school and should come from both government and non-government sources....

  4. Ditch the national curriculum

    Barry Maley | 21 Oct 2011

    A national curriculum is not the answer to improved education results....

  5. Thirst for knowledge

    Rev Peter Kurti | 21 Oct 2011

    The choice of subjects of the record number of students sitting this year’s HSC reflects increasing interest in ancient ...

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