Education Reform: An Urgent Priority

From a background in Education and Psychology and having taught in 3 Asian countries as well as seen my own 2 children through their education in this country, I have major concerns about the lack of progress in this area in the past 20 to 30 years.
Education, particularly in the sciences and arts, has not been afforded the priority of funding and policy that a modern nation hoping to attain a place on the world stage as well as play a major role in the world of the future needs to provide.
Our governments have been backward looking and complaints about the' brain drain' have failed to address the reasons behind this.
As a so-called Baby Boomer I was educated in the last golden age of publicly- funded education in this country. I was fortunate to graduate from a fully funded place with no debt, delayed or otherwise, hanging over me: there is no such security for the young people of today and many are choosing not to proceed to tertiary studies. Those who do press on struggle w all kinds of costs and debts as well as the tertiary loan system which sees them graduating w huge debts to repay.
There seems to be a severe shortage of places in fields such as education and medicine and many bright young people are turned away from these fields not only because of the costs involved but in view of the sorry situation that even when graduated after many long years of costly study the salaries have not kept abreast of salaries in other areas such as private enterprise engineering, commerce, law or finance and it just does not seem worth it!
The system that dictates a young school leaver is not considered independent of his family for the purposes of being eligible for a study allowance, until they have earnt a large sum( thus necessitating deferrment of places for 1 to 2 years in order to be eligible) is totally unfair as well as counter productive: if we are serious about educating the next generation then every possible support and inducement to stay in study should be offered - not the reverse!!Many of these young people are from rural families and it is just too difficult to struggle on trying to support themselves away from home while they earn the amount required to be eligible for the allowance! It must also be defeating to be forced to defer a place you have worked so hard at school to achieve if you do not want to! Once gained the allowance scarcely covers books and extras and is nowhere near enough to provide for rent and costs of living away from home anyway!
There needs to be much more encouragement to young school-leavers into tertiary education generally, and into education and health in particular. Students from rural backgrounds need to be specially supported and systems of scholarships, bursaries and studentships should be considered. Tertiary places in these areas need to be significantly increased as well as the salaries and status of Teachers especially.
Many young graduates would consider education as a career if it were properly funded and supported as it was in my era. When I was a young graduate with a basic degree and a Dip. Ed. I was paid $30 per hour for tertiary tutoring - my rent was $20 per week and my brand new Subaru cost the princely sum of $4,500!! Now these items are 10x the cost of those days but are teachers being paid $300 per hour?
My 25 year old son - an honours graduate in Zoology - is paid $20 per hour to conduct educational sessions for school groups on camp, where he has a huge amount of responsibility and various certificates required to be eligible( which he paid for himself) These groups range from primary classes through all levels of secondary to university students on field trips and teach a combination of physical skills with an appreciation of the environment and the principles of ecology and conservation. A most important contribution in view of the environmental and climate change crises that will be facing future generations on this planet!
Unless we address these inequities in opportunities and career paths open to young people I can only see the education crisis becoming deeper and more difficult to counter in future generations.
It is not a matter of a national curriculum or increased testing across the nation or more and more bodies of enquiry - it is simply a matter of increased support and funding for education at all levels! Increased places for teacher training, better salaries to attract top professionals back to tertiary teaching, and much better support and professional development for teachers in schools both primary and secondary ; smaller class sizes and appropriate infastructure to curb the unnecessary paper work that teachers should not need to be engaged with; and an appropriate sense of status and career excellence in the whole field of Education brought about by salary parity with other professions!
In order for our Universities to take their place in the modern world of today these issues need to be adressed urgently or Australia will fall so far behind the rest of the developed world that we will no longer be able to hold our place as a developed country. This I believe is a most serious crisis in our domestic policy and deserves the urgent attention of those in power to make policy. It is far reaching into the future of our nation and will affect every aspect of our economy - without properly educated future generations there will be no prosperity and and the profound wealth of talent and intelligence we take for granted in this country will subside into mediocrity.