Educational Perspectives

Inhale…Exhale

Irish playwright Samuel Beckett is most famous for his play Waiting for Godot where the eponymous character never arrives on stage. Amongst his less famous works is a play entitled Breath that lasts for 35 seconds and includes the sounds of an invisible character breathing in, and then breathing out. In 2026, those who comment on the state of education in Australia could do worse than to borrow directly from Beckett’s play and take a deep breath. 

Cries of the failing education system, falling PISA scores, a skills-shortage, digital obsolescence, and a generation ill-prepared for the complexities of the 21st century spin like plates on a vaudeville stage throughout the media cycle. 

In one sense, a focus on schools in the media is welcomed as it, at the very least, demonstrates an interest in matters educational; fearmongering is dangerous though and the hype regarding Australia’s relative standing in international testing comparisons is symptomatic of this. Australia’s ‘ranking’ has changed throughout the past decade with regards to standardised testing results in mathematics and science, this is unequivocal. Why this has occurred is far more complex than simplistic, erroneous and inflammatory conclusion-drawing might have one believe. 

The egalitarian principles that many view as central to Australian culture are applicable to the nation’s participation in standardised testing programs where little to no selection of students occurs. This is in stark contrast to nations such as Singapore where a rigorous selection process ensures that specific students are made available to participate in testing programs such as PISA. Similarly, the province of Shanghai is allowed to collate its results discrete from the remainder of China; the equivalent of Victoria, for instance, segregating its results and joining the list as a separate entry to Australia. Added to this is the maturation of nations such as South Korea whose increased affluence drawn from their burgeoning technology sector has led to the sort of middle class growth with its associated focus on broad-based education standards that Australia enjoyed during the mid-twentieth century. As a confluence of events, quirks and activity, the reality is far from as simple as contending that Australian education is ‘on the slide’: the reality might in fact be that other nations are simply getting better. 

If there is a fair and reasonable criticism, or indeed observation, to be made of the Australian education system, it might well be said that the sector is in a period of conscious stagnation as educators, parents and students struggle with the education system’s third and most challenging phase. 

Forster’s Education Act of 1870 in the United Kingdom established not only the model for education today but also the principle of state-based education as a right of every child. The model of education that it instituted was, amongst other things, grounded in the notion that a child should be kept in the childhood mind until they leave school; that is, they are subservient to an adult figure and motivation for conforming to the system comes predominantly from the extrinsic threat of punishment. 

Throughout the twentieth century this initial phase of organised education underwent an evolution from high level control and authoritarianism through to a post-war model where students were encouraged to foster an adult mind throughout the childhood with a combination of reward and punishment driving conformity. This is the model that we are familiar with; an education that is both about fostering motivation through a mixture of reward and consequences: consider the demise of corporal punishment, its replacement with detentions and in more recent years the shift towards restorative justice practices as an example of this shift in approach. 

The third phase for education, and the phase which Australia is at present endeavouring to navigate, is one that fosters adult traits of curiosity, resilience, courage – the basis for intrinsic motivation – as the foundations for learning. Extrinsic reward and extrinsic punishment are increasingly being eschewed in place of programs and approaches that engage with students from an adult perspective and invite them to approach the situation with a mature mindset. 

The shift to this third phase, one that seeks to raise to precedence intrinsic motivation in students by fostering their adult mind has the single greatest potential to improve learning and achievement levels on standardised tests throughout Australia; it will quite simply be the dawn of a new era. It is a transition though that is difficult, almost painfully so and one that other nations, nations that have supposedly accelerated past Australia in recent years, are not near; and it is the reason why education is Australia’s 4th largest export industry and why families are drawn to schools such as Huntingtower School that nurture values and human flourishing together with academic study. 

So, to borrow from Beckett’s stage directions: inhale…exhale. Education in Australia is not failing; it’s simply embarked upon its greatest challenge.

Mr Cameron Bacholer

Vice Principal - Teaching & Learning