EDUCATIONAL POINTS TO PONDER

ANOTHER plan is being launched by the Education Department (NT News 26/5) to encourage students to attend school. This must be at least the 30th such plan we have had since the NT took charge of its own education in 1978. (Some had beaut bumper stuckers.) Many millions have been spent on plans that have gone before and disappeared down the gurgle of failure. It might be time for departmental leaders to draw breath and discover the reasons for these past failures.

Sadly, history and past experiences are never examined by these leaders. They will soldier on adding to past failures.

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Handwriting has all but vanished as a subject and skill taught as part of the school curriculum. To watch young people and others struggling to manipulate a pencil or pen is agony. The illegibility of handwritten text increasingly challenges readers. This does not augur well for our communications futures.

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One of the reasons NAPLAN has gone online may have to do with the inability of students to manage pencils and pens when doing tests. They don’t know how to hold writing tools. They have no fluent and their legibility is shocking. No wonder tests are now happening online.