Rudd has made it perfectly clear on a number of occaissions in his final speech to the national press club before the election that his 'education revolution' is an idea of his that will take us down and Asian path.
He mentioned the huge numbers of graduates being churned out by Asian nations and compared them favourably to Western economies.
Dude, it's about quality not quantity. Any one of those Asian graduates would have preferred to go to Oxford, Harvard or MIT. The education is better there.
But they would not have expressed this preferrence in China because they would have been locked up for going against the official line.
Rudd's Asian approach to education which, in his words sees education as an engine of productivity is just plain scary.
An army of drones at Rudd's disposal. That's the 'education revolution'.
Is it any wonder that after the speech's channel 9 coverage Ray Martin used the words 'economic revolution' by mistake. If you are adopting a Maoist style and borrowing his langauge in part, then dont be suprised if some people think your a commie, Rudd.
Training is about productivity. Education is something else entirely. It's about independent thinking. Australian universities have been heading in this direction since the late 80's by restucuring their undergrad courses in a broader and less vocational way. They had to to differentiate themselves from the Keating class-war policy of naming all the techincal colleges 'universities'. QUT, UTS etc.
Rudd is all about getting kids early and indoctrinating them from pre-school to high- school. That is where his spending has gone. That's where his computers will be. He has not pledged anything for Higher Education athough he riles at the Howard govt for reducing education spending. Howard had a positive agenda of reducing university dependence on the state. He gave them the freedom to charge full fees. The only thing Rudd is sure to do for Higher Ed is to take away that freedom. This will take away a huge chunk of money for universities and reverse a good trend. It will also ensure that the uni's curricula remains tailored to fee-paying Asian students.
Aussies need to understand that Higher Education costs alot of money. Those who benefit should pay. Those that go to universities should pay for universities, either now or when they get their jobs. A student loan scheme and full fees would sort that out. Plus a few scholarships, quite a few really, for underprivaleged smart kids. If he restrict the amount that unis can charge our uni's will just have to dumbed down their courses to get more subsidised places.
Quality or quantity? Make your choice. We all know lefties want 50% of people in higher ed. It's not 'higher' anymore when that happens. That's the way they like it.
The Asian model where quantity of trained people, not quality or uniqueness of thought is sought will reduce educational ourcomes, and more importantly to me reduce individuality.
We all know that the liberal Western democratic tradtion of the English-speaking nations is the defender of individual freedoms, from John Stuart Mill to the present day.
We all know the Asian nations have not benefitted from this tradition to the same degree. Asian cultures place more emphasis on the group and less on the individual. They would benefit from us leading them, not us following down the path to conformity and uniformity.
Rudd's Asian education path is not fitting for this proud democratic Western country. We should follow a freer model like Oxford and Harvard. If we dont our brightest students will end up going there anyway.
Individual responsibility is the only way to preserve individuality. If we hand our duties over to the benevolent Rudd we will give sp our freedom to be different. We will have a duty to toe Rudd's lefty line.
His national curriculum will be carefully tailored to maintain loyalty to his 'revolution'. All revolutions have an enemy. I ask who is Rudd's scapegoat?
The individual, that's who.
Me.
You.
