By Darin Ritchie
In response to concerns about the standards of literacy and numeracy in our schools, the Australian Government recently released its draft national curriculum for kindergarten through to Year 10 in the subjects of English, Mathematics, Science and History.
How do you rate the skills of school leavers? Take our poll to have your say!
Included in the English curriculum is a return of grammar and phonic teaching. History has been given a prominent position as a stand-alone subject after being relegated to a subset of social science in many state curricula.
There is a clear attempt to ensure literacy and numeracy skills are reinforced across all subject areas, and this has been a core element of the Government’s message in launching the draft.
This release follows the recent launch of the My School website which compares student literacy and numeracy performance across schools with similar socio-economic backgrounds.
For employers, reforms that improve the literacy and numeracy skills of all school leavers is vital to having access to a labour force with the capabilities to perform critical workplace tasks and to undertake further education and training.
What has been your experience with school leavers and how would you rate their skill levels? Do you think the national curriculum will improve standards or should other reforms be considered?
Leave a comment and vote on our poll about the level of literacy and numeracy levels of school leavers.
[...] latest VECCI poll shows that, overwhelmingly, employers believe that school leavers have poor literacy skills, while a [...]
My concern is that some (not all) of the teachers currently in the system are victims of poor education standards themselves. How can they accurately correct work of a primary or secondary school child if they are unsure of the right spellings or grammar themselves?
Maybe there needs to be greater testing at university level for trainee teachers to ensure they can identify common language and numerical mistakes so they can then identify them in their student’s work, and explain to their students how to get it right next time.
Or maybe, the education department could undertake some standards testing among teachers every couple of years just to make sure they are all up-to-date with numeracy and literacy standards.
If a teacher is not picking up problems in a child’s work, what hope does the child then have? They will keep on making the same errors as they will not know they are making an error.
I am in a situation where I employ and attend university with Gen Y’s and I have to agree their literacy and numerical work require a great deal of work. This also applies to handwriting. Certainly these issues take place at the primary school level where emphasis should be less on how to summon the spell check on the computer to actually learning to spell and less on how to use a scientific calculator to actually learning how to pratically work out mathematic exercises…
Good morning all,
I’ll share a recent experience.
In response to a position advertised recently, I received a perplexing amount of cover letters that demonstrated poor literacy.
The cover letters alone were of concern, the actual CVs left me bewildered!
Apparently, one person confused applying for a job with sending a text mssage, referring to me as “u”. I also found lots of people using an apostrophe for a plural, and vice versa.
I find that the most common mistakes on reports I receive from employees are to do with grammar and literacy. Numeracy is not such a problem with my workforce.
I believe it is a cultural issue, and sometimes I feel like I am being too particular. However, small things today can perhaps turn into big things tomorrow!
Cheers!
Standards have dropped for the past 30 years. Political interference, social engineering and low expectations have lead to the present position.
Children need to be able to:-
1.Write legibly and form numbers clearly.
2.Read accurately and rapidly.
3.Have automatic response with number facts.
4.Listen attentively.
5.Spell accurately.
6.Master these skills at an early age.
7.Demonstrate concern for others
- Remediation in the secondary school or later is a disaster and economically unsound.
- Attention to detail and self discipline is critical to a cohesive society.
- The essential ground work for all this takes place in the home.
- Training for parenthood must be an essential part of the curriculum for all secondary school students.
- Perhaps no car licence until a satisfactory standard in parenting courses are complete would add incentive to those doing the courses.
I could be completely mistaken, but hasn’t Gen Y been out of the school system for some time now?
Shouldn’t it be the next generation? Gen Z perhaps?! Gen Y would have been (theoretically) in the workforce and/or at University for some years now I would have expected.
I personally have found little difference between the literacy / numeracy of Gen Y, Gen X or Baby-Boomers.
Methinks there is a rather odd focus on Gen Y in the media at the moment (often portrayed as lazy, self-centred, bumming off parents, roustabouts).
Therfore, I’m generally curious why there is a particular focus on Gen Y in this survey.
What are you trying to acheive from this?
R U tryin 2 proov dat genY carnt spl?
Joe, HR Manager, Melbourne
Hi Joe,
Thanks for your thoughts on this issue.
Gen Y’s generally considered to range from mid-1970s to early-2000s, meaning a large proportion of this generation would have passed through the current school system and now be in the workforce (some longer than others). As such, most employers’ experiences may be related to Gen Y rather than X or Z, when thinking about “young workers”.
If anything, the survey aims to see if there is any correlation between this “media perception” and the reality within the workforce.
We’re looking forward to seeing the final tally on this short poll!