Olympic medals and the school system

Posted by Garry Collins, ETAQ Immediate Past President on 30 August 2016

A version of the letter below was published in The Australian on Wednesday 24 August 2016. They saw fit to omit the underlined word therefore. I submitted the heading "Olympic medals, funding and schools" but as the letter appeared in the paper's Last Post sidebar there was no heading to the published version.

Some correspondents have noted that Australia's Olympic medal tally is not commensurate with the level of public investment. That sounds rather like the recent lament that NAPLAN results have plateaued in spite of increased spending on education. Could it therefore be said that the nation's schools are performing to Olympic standards?

Author:Garry Collins, ETAQ Immediate Past President

About: Garry Collins was ETAQ President from mid July 2005 to 15 March 2014. He taught English in state high schools for around 35 years and now tutors in English curriculum courses in the School of Education at the University of Queensland.

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