John Button Prize
John Button School Prize | 2020 Entrants
The John Button School Prize awards the best essay on a subject concerning Australia’s future by a Victorian student who is in Years 10 to 12.
About The Prize
The competition requires entrants to prepare a minimum 1800 word thoroughly researched and academically referenced essay that discusses Australian politics and policy on topics such as: Australia’s population, climate change, reconciliation with Indigenous Australians, water, asylum seekers, education and health.
2020 Wheelers Hill Nominees
Laura S and Erin S-J of Year 10 were nominated to participate in this academic opportunity after outstanding achievement in the Semester 1 Year 10 Elective – Global Conflicts and Crises. Both Laura and Erin have demonstrated outstanding commitment to this opportunity and their completed entries are of the highest standard.
Laura and Erin have represented our school in this endeavour of academic excellence – please take some time to read through each entry. The time and effort it takes to prepare an extra-curricular academic piece of this kind on top of your ordinary study schedule is significant and these student should be enormously proud of their achievements. We wish Laura and Erin all the very best in the judging process.
Mr. Ben Shepherd
For further info about the Prize, click here.
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Nominee #1: Erin S-J
Education – Is our government doing enough to improve our declining education system?
The education system in Australia cannot be considered the best in the world. Studies have made this quite obvious. So now people wonder, why isn’t the government putting in extra effort to improve it? Pride is a major trait within Australians and our facilities, so why is the government not taking the next step to improve education throughout the country when it’s conspicuously needed? The aim across this essay is to discuss the Australian education system, how the government is improving it, what they could do to improve the system further and how our systems compete with the rest of the world. On that note, improving our education system leads to a wealthier economy, better image from other countries point of view and overall a more united society.
The policies regarding funding show that schools get funded by the national Australian government, and their respective state government, with roughly 95% of the funding coming from the Australian government. However in terms of this, research has found that more money isn’t the easy solution everyone thinks it is— and that the government investing more money into schools isn’t the defining factor. Rather it matters where the money goes and what benefits it’s providing; because no matter how much money goes in, the end result heavily depends on how effective that money becomes for students. Our results and performance rely on the quality of the resources around us, more than the consignment of material. Research also indicates that amongst Australians, the overall performance of 15 year old students in their reading and mathematics study scores has taken a decline from 2000 onwards. With this information, it’s safe to say that against other countries, Australia’s ranking has also declined. To combat this, the quality of teaching was attempted to be improved with various different methods. A quick summary of those methods included raising the standards on many things such as education courses for teachers and their entry applications, whilst implementing mentoring for beginner teachers. These methods cannot be discredited as they were the start of Australia’s education growing higher standards.
However, despite these changes, reflection on the education system in Australia is still laboriously crucial from time to time, especially when our ministers and government are constantly trying to have systems that outplace the rest of the world. Across Australia, the systems are relatively the same, but differences are present that can be significant to the performance in pupils. Australia’s overall education system is actually ranked rather high, falling in 4th place as the best education system in the world. This fact isn’t guaranteed in every category however, as other research cuts systems down by subjects and subject scores. Within this research, Australia only falls 11th with a score of 1556, while China holds top place with a score of 1731. The scoring system in this data is split by Math, Reading and Science scores; Australia’s scores, in that respective order, is 515, 514 and 527— adding up to our final score of 1556. The source behind this data also surveys countries systems based upon the success of their public education systems, how popular their universities are in terms of enrolment consideration, and how good the teaching quality of their systems are. That same source, better known as the U.S. News, has a ranking for 2020’s best country by education. Australia falls 7th on that ranking, with a record of the country being 6th last year, showing that we’ve experienced a dip in terms of how the quality of our system compared to other countries. Switzerland ranked 7th last year, but ranked 6th this year, proving that they’ve been able to better their system in comparison to Australia’s, and simultaneously give a negative reflection on the standards of Australian pupils.
But back to funding, and the effects of it; the Australian Government has made a statement that they’re putting substantial changes in place in terms of how much money is going into government and non-government schools across the nation. The governments stated that funding is going to increase by roughly 46 percent over the next ten years. This increase is tremendous, while still considering the money’s quality as a majorly important factor, and in terms of what they’re currently planning to do, it’s significantly adequate to the needs of pupils across Australia. They have the right ideas and the right intentions for schools development in terms of results earned from students, and now, the money must be used for the correct commodities.
In numbers, the government plans to have $15.0 billion going to non-government schools and $10.4 billion going to government schools, equating to a total of $25.3 billion. These plans are intended to be implemented by 2022-23, but with considerations of current events, these plans are likely to change as the government may not have that specific amount of money to put forward due to the pandemic. The overall impact of this is still massive, and goes to show that the government is putting in what they can for Australia’s education, with the amount of money coming forward constantly increasing year by year. Without this increase as the demand for supplies goes up, schools wouldn’t have the sufficient amount to put into the necessary supplies and areas of education. This increase is important to continue, while the implementation of this money is equally important because students cannot benefit from the money going in the wrong places.
For schools to improve, the money obviously needs to go towards the right supplies, and the students need to be using these materials correctly. It’s a simple process in theory, but can be harder in practice. Improving the status of schools’ and the results as a whole across Australia is extremely difficult, but it’s applaudable that Australia stills ranks rather high in comparison to many other countries across the globe. In consideration of the numerous students who wish to follow pathways that aren’t based around the typical school subjects, like Maths and English, our results are considerably high and will continue to improve over the years to come.
Considering NAPLAN scores, Australia keeps students up to scratch with our reading and numeracy skills; with the overall percentages for all Year 9s in Term 3 last year ranking above 88% in all categories. However, it’s hard to compare NAPLAN scores to other countries, as it doesn’t exist in other countries but the results across every state is always considerably high and can be something that each state government should be proud of. For Victoria specifically, our Year 9s from last year collectively got 90.5% in Writing, Spelling and Grammar & Punctuation, 90.3% in Reading and 89.7% in Numeracy— these are exceptional results compared to a few past results.
Now looking at the difference in treatment of government or private schools from the federal government in terms of how much funding they receive, there are a few concerns constantly raised within the media. Research shows that private, non-government, Catholic, etc schools receive more funding than public schools, and in fact, some research indicates that the gap involves private schools receiving 70% more funding than public schools from our federal government. This gap is one of the biggest in the country, and can be simply deemed questionable. There’s explicit reasons to back up this gap, whether those reasons be ridiculous to some or not to others, and one of those reasons includes how schools’ funding is allocated by the number of students attending. If a big school receives more than a small school, it’s merely because of the difference in numbers and the demand bigger numbers of pupils provides. One major observation noticed from in 2017 that indicated the presence of a funding gap was when the government allocated $14,198 per student to public schools, $14,764 to Catholic schools and a towering difference of $19,966 towards private schools. This gap is tremendously big, but there are reasons to defend the decisions made by our federal government. During the 2010 election between the Labour, Liberal and the Greens party, a statement made by the Greens included how they wanted to put a stop to the gap in funding of government and non-government schools. They stated, “Ending public subsidies to the very wealthiest private schools.” as quoted. This sentence in itself discusses the difference in funding and eliminates the idea that private schools gaining more is a positive attribution to society.
Another potential reason other than the number of students is the performance acquired from each school. Funding can be based on the performance of the school; which in most cases goes hand in hand with the schools’ attendance numbers. Thus far, there isn’t much information about this idea, but slowly and surely the government is introducing this funding strategy. Alternatively the idea of funding based on performance can have its’ positive but it mostly seems to have negatives. For example, if a school is small and doesn’t gather the best performance from its’ pupils, their funding will be reduced to the point that they won’t be receiving a sufficient amount that enables them to improve the quality of teaching or education that pupils receive; this downfall could decline to the point of the school needing to shut down, which overall will plummet the statistics of Australian schools. Schools shutting down because of insufficient funds is already a problem amongst us, so this new strategy may force the percentage of closed schools to increase immensely.
To bring everything together, the government certainly has ups and downs with their management of education but schools also have their ups and downs with performance, attendance and quality of teaching. There are almost too many ways to fix the problems at hand, so it’s commendable that the government at least has many paths and ideas in place to better the quality of education in the course of the future. It’s safe to say that our ranking in the world is stable, and could even jump higher if the plans the government has in place contrive to the expected standards. In relation to that, it’s also important to consider that other countries will have their own plans in place to better their education and the only way to compete with that is to keep on top of our systems at all times. Australia is a strong willed nation and can easily keep our status high, so as time progresses, it’d be wonderful to see these monumental enterprises fall into place and better support the education of students as we advance through the cardinal adventure that is school. This step forward with the intense rise in funding is bound to improve the quality of education, and students should recognise the privilege they’re receiving with this advancement as it will benefit them in the long run— so long as it works. Reiterating, as much as the government can fund, the improvements are reliant on how the money is used and to benefit the scores of students, it is hoped that the money will be put to good use with the improvement of the students’ abilities remaining a top priority.
In hopes for Australia’s future, these statistics and plans are sensational and it’s in everyone’s best mind that these methods continue to reflect positively on the education systems of Australia.
By Erin S-J | John Button Prize Essay Entry (Final Draft)
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Nominee #2: Laura S
Why has the average quality of life dropped in the past decades when technology has advanced significantly?
Change and evolution or misdeed and immorality? Adaptive and progressive or lazy and entitled? Innovation and revolution or just out of our minds? New age technology has advanced our current society far beyond what anyone could have ever imagined. Technology has become the driving force of new-age fortune, innovation, growth and development, yet as I say this, there is a record-breaking number of unemployment, debts and social pressures, not to mention the rapid rise in mental health issues. While technology is at its peak, our overall happiness and quality of life are on the downfall, as it has been for decades.
With the fast-tracked online world that provides answers for any questions we have at the click of a button, that ensures instant communication between anyone on the globe and keeps us updated about our favourite celebrities, why have our lives been impacted negatively? Statistics from Children’s mental health show this generation of kids are lonelier than ever, feeling isolated despite the world at the tips of our fingers. This is because along with the internet, our society saw a drastic increase in consumerism and materialism which became clear in modern social media.
Everywhere you go, you’ll hear “Did you get the new iPhone?” or “Did you hear what happened to X?” This is because our generation has grown up with the new era of online media. This generation does not know what it’s like to meet new people at the park, or what it’s like to be out in the city alone with no fear of the outside world. This new form of communication has created a society full of new fears, such as not meeting ever-changing social pressures, not dressing up in “trendy” clothes or being pushed to the side for being different from the “norm”.
These fears are met with the harsh realities of life in a brand-new world: the internet. Technology is always a double edge sword, and with technological advancements comes the advances in ways to wreak havoc. According to a research conducted by Broadband, there is a 71% increase in acts of cyberbullying. Certain people on social platforms are using the longing for recognition or affection of teenagers as a tool to put them down and more than often this is neglected by authorities.
Social media can be detrimental to the self-confidence of teenagers, especially on sites like Instagram. On every platform of social media, there are always posts of the “perfect body” and the luxurious lifestyles of the rich and the famous, so when children grow up seeing this content, this becomes normalised. The lowering of self-confidence, the always wanting to look a certain way and the depression that comes with never being satisfied within themselves has all become just a stage in growing up. Normalising the “perfect body” and millionaires boating their money only adds to the toxic society that we have adapted. Instead of helping those in need, and bringing light to serious topics, these celebrities are endorsing this same toxic culture that lessens our quality of life.
This new generation takes pride in unity and equality, however, we see the substantial rises of depression and anxiety in children. Statistics from children’s mental health.gov (depression) show that there has been a 7.1% increase in depression from children of the ages of 13 – 17 and a further 3.2% increase in anxiety in children of the ages from 13 – 17.
The lessening of the average quality of life does not end with social media. The increase in student loans, pollution and inequality all play a major factor as well. You see, technology has given much to look forward to in the ways of flying cars and even day trips to Mars very shortly, yet the physical change for the better that the world desperately needs is nowhere to be seen.
The side effects of our development have become prominent problems, most notably pollution and deforestation. Some are choosing to live in denial or simply don’t care to think of the problems at hand. Others are choosing to stay seated, pull out their phones so readily at hand to retweet a random poster about loving the planet. However, these same people have the air conditioning on 24 / 7 and are driving in high petrol-consumption cars. It is easy to put up some posters about protecting the planet, but difficult to change the lifestyle that we have become accustomed to.
Stress levels are at an all-time high. According to a national survey conducted by the Australian Government in 2018, an estimated 13% or 2.4 million Australians reported having high or very high levels of distress, a major increase from 2014 in which stress levels were peaking at 10%. A huge contributor to these increasing levels of stress in adolescents is the rise in student loans and educational fees.
While schooling has always been a tough topic for many families, this is more relevant than ever before. As time passes, expenditure on education, along with the burden it brings, is ever-growing. For example, in California, universities fees have flipped six times after being adjusted to inflation. Students from ordinary families are forced to be either gate kept from better education and lifestyle or apply for student loans for crucial education which add more financial pressure than necessary. This bottle of stress is bound to explode sooner or later, so why is no one making any changes before any real damage is done? With so much expanding knowledge being openly shared online, with new investigations being done every day and with so much information right at the tips of our fingers why are schooling fees still so expensive? And so expensive that our offspring are going to have to pay the price?
Houses and apartments are in high demand as well, but how do you expect a student moving into their first home to have enough money for the minimum, even for the loan? Should the parent/guardian play a part in helping? If so, where then do you expect the families of these students, and the students themselves to come up with an extra 10 – 20% of the mortgage loan? As if there wasn’t already enough stress on the families of students when it comes to education fees and for the expense of living in general, this is an added pressure. While making this point many will argue against it because it is “a part of life, part of growing up” and “everyone has had to deal with this”, and while that is true, the expenses do not need to be as high as they have been, and continue to grow.
This circles back to greed, as times goes on greed has become more prominent than ever, this shows in the way necessities for simple lifestyles are ever-increasing. Surely by now with so many advancements in society, one would think more reasonable prices would be made open, but again, greed in its worst form makes this aspect of life more so than others almost unbearable.
Greed also plays a leading role in inequality, more specifically inequality surrounding major co-operations. Most of the profitable businesses of past times are being bought by new-age entrepreneurs, then furthermore being consumed by mega-corporations to make millions, if not billions of dollars. For example, people like Mark Zuckerberg became billionaires through the significant advancements of social media and technology, but the wealth of ordinary citizen’s barely increased. The development of technology is creating a small percentage of millionaires and billionaires but does not benefit the general public. It is even so in the face of adversaries, for example, companies such as Netflix during covid 19. Even before the pandemic hit, Netflix was making approx. 20.15 Billion U.S dollars (2019) from subscriptions, this number jumped with an added 16 million new sign-ups post-Covid 19. How is it that the already rich are getting richer while already struggling families continue to struggle against job losses and inflation of prices for the bare minimum in life?
Covid 19 was in no way a planned event, but one with enough compassion would only hope that, instead of the millionaires of the world becoming billionaires, there would be some sort of relief that is more accustomed to our living. Granted the Australian government has done all it could to supply relief with the job seeker payments, but post-Covid 19, what help will be granted in the form of regaining lost jobs and getting unemployment to a minimum. Some level of humanity and compassion should have been shown from these major corporations, but instead, only profits were made and more money landed right into the pockets of people who could go without.
However, some counties were not so fortunate such as the US. During this Covid pandemic, the citizens of the US have been led by a denial struck leader who shows no such compassion nor thought to how this pandemic will play out in the near future. Inequality is at a dangerous peak, right now the US is run by people of power and Donald Trump is the main one. He refuses to lock down his country at the fear of losing his greatest assets in hotels and business, which bring in the most money. Greed runs through the veins of people in power, Trump, especially now, because he would rather lose lives than lose money.
Several factors have contributed to the abnormal drop in the quality of life and people’s overall happiness over the years. This does not mean our society did not improve nor change our ways in the new age compared to the past. The society that we have made today is more progressive than ever before with the rate of innovative minds that continue to show. However, an alarming sign that we might be going in the wrong direction still is the fact that no matter how many positive outcomes there seems to be, none of them is a necessity for this world and changes need to be made for ourselves and our future generations. The development of technology should be benefiting humanity as a whole, instead, it is being used by a small group of people for worthless profits. On top of this, the cost of living has flipped many times making just staying alive more stressful than ever. There is no doubt that technology has made unmatched advancements and life without technology simply would not be the same, but the side effects that these advancements in technology bring sets our standard of life to a saddening low. Generations before us lived the same life as us, but without all of the technological advancements we have access to and they are some of the wisest people known. So how does this relate? Well, I say, we should take the time to slow down and relearn the basic skills in life that seem to have been lost along the way and use technology to its full potential with no greed. If we, as a society make small changes, we could be on the right direction again, with technology adding to the higher quality of life, instead of dulling it.
By Laura S | John Button Prize Essay Entry (Final Draft)