2020 Summit focuses on education

The Age, 17 April 2008, The Australian, 17 April 2008; The Hobart Mercury 19 April 2008; The Age 21
April 2008; The Australian, 21 April 2008; The Courier-Mail, 21 April 2008; The Sydney Morning Herald,
21 April2008; The Age, 22 April 2008

After the conclusion of the 2020 Summit, the Productivity, Education and Innovation stream identified education as the key to improving productivity and presented a range of ideas to the Australian Government on how to maximise social capital.

The stream’s participants approved Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s proposal to implement one-stop early childhood education and health centres. Under the proposal, Parent and Child Centres would deliver maternal and child health services as well as long day care, play group and pre-school learning facilities for all Australian children by 2020. National standards would also be developed to ensure the quality of the Parent and Child Centres, including the requirement for all early learning teachers to have formal teaching qualifications.

‘The aim would be to provide most of these services at low cost to parents. However, some services on offer, such as long day care services, would be fee-based with the cost still subsidised by the Government’, Prime Minister Rudd said. He also indicated that while universal access to the centres would be provided, the Australian Government would not make attendance compulsory.

The Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Ms Julia Gillard, also had her 2020 Summit idea approved. The Productivity, Education and Innovation stream agreed that companies should ‘adopt’ secondary schools.

Under Ms Gillard’s proposal, Australia’s top 100 companies would be encouraged to provide advice, mentoring and work experience for up to 24 secondary schools each, and that each company would establish links with school from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Ms Gillard stated that ‘our top 100 companies are full of people with skills, energy and enthusiasm. Let's match them with schools so every secondary school benefits.’

However, Prime Minister Rudd singled out the idea of a HECS discount plan as an ‘idea we want to consider.’ The proposed scheme would offer university students the opportunity to reduce their HECS debt by providing voluntary services in the community, especially in rural or remote areas.

In addition, the Indigenous Futures stream recommended the introduction of schemes to allow indigenous students to attend boarding schools and to receive non-government school scholarships. The Creative Australia stream recommended that the creative, visual and performing arts be mandated elements of the national curriculum, with schools being required to meet appropriate reporting requirements. The Future Security and Prosperity stream called for the improvement of the teaching of Asian languages in schools and universities by 2020.

 

 

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