Australia -- Chronic Teacher Shortages

The Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, who also happens to double as Education Minister feels inspired by a British teacher recruitment drive. She is so inspired by the recruitment drive that she is hoping to introduce it to Australia.

Australia suffers a chronic teacher shortage for a number of reasons. Primarily among these is that teachers were underpaid for the value that they provide to the community through education and many simply became more valuable in the private sector and in other fields.

The recruitment drive was somewhat provocatively themed, "Those who can, teach". There were other catchy little slogans used such as, "Use your head, teach". It seems that this has resulted in a significant increase in the numbers of undergraduates entering into teaching based degrees.

However, the government's only real commitment to date on this front is to offer to halve the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) fees for those graduates that take a teaching qualification. I think that a commitment to raising salaries might go a fair way to "inspiring" people to get into teaching.

I guess we wait and see!

University Education in Indonesia

University education in Indonesia is like most other places not free, it is a privilege and not a right! This means that a university education might be your ticket to a better job and perhaps a larger salary but it is going to cost you. Simply, if you or your parents can afford it then a university education is a reality. If you or your parents are not quite so well to do then a university education might only become a reality if you are able to secure a scholarship that takes care of your admission and tuition fees.

This is no different to Australia. University education used to be a lot cheaper and this was because the government was throwing money into the higher education sector. However, economic rationalization meant that the government decided the best means of recouping some of this money was to institute a system where the user pays. In this case the user pays through the tax system. Simply, the government covers the cost of the education and the recipient of that education then pays back the money to the government through the tax system. The amount owed is indexed to inflation. I am still paying my university education debts off!

The Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) makes university education possible for many but it ensures that many people remain in debt for long periods of time after they graduate.

Perhaps in the aftermath of the Constitutional Court decision that held that the government must contribute 20% of the State Budget to the education sector that some additional money can be thrown at the higher education sector. However, there are simply more pressing concerns at primary and high school level in terms of funding education.

If the government does not put any money into higher education then State-funded universities will have to rely on increasing commercialization to make ends meet. This will be at the expense of students and their education. In contrast, the commercial interests of private universities is far less complicated as from inception these institutions have been all about making money off their students and research activities. The Campus Asia review of higher education in Indonesia makes this point clear when it ranks Universitas Pelita Harapan as the number two university in Indonesia.

Personally, education to the undergraduate level must be free.