WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION

May 13, 2023 Educator's Corner

Sarah Jean P. Abando

Countries that are included in the first world countries like Australia can support the education system equally. However, for third world countries like the Philippines, poverty is the top reason why a child is not privileged to attend school. The Philippine educational system is composed of four stages called “K to 12 Program”, it covers 13 years of basic education with Kindergarten to Grade 3, Grades 4 to 6, Grades 7 to 10 (Junior High School) Grades 11 and 12 (Senior High School) (Sevil, 2020) which is aimed to provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts, skills, develop life-long learners and to prepare graduates for tertiary education.

The education systems are both formal and informal in nature and Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education used as a medium of instruction. The government thereby took a step forward by regulating the Republic Act 8980 which promulgated a comprehensive policy and a national system for ECCD Act or the Early Childhood Care and Development which includes health, nutrition and early education and asocial service program that should provide for the basic needs of young children from 0 to 6 years old.

The major concern regarding education in the country is the equality of opportunity. At age 5 years old, children start schooling and are given the means, in a slow pace to adjust to formal education.
Concurrently, Australian educational system is structured as primary school also called kindergarten/ preparatory/pre-school, secondary school, senior secondary school and tertiary education. The Australian education system is distinctive and is highly privatized in both the school and higher education sectors compared with the system in other countries.

Under the Commonwealth Constitution, education in Australia is primarily the responsibility of the State and Territory Governments. The government is accountable for the funding of government schools, assist in specialized pre-school for Indigenous Australians and administering fee subsidies for child care and government approved services. Early childhood education in Australia is the preparation for school, ensuring that children are able to participate fruitfully in learning opportunities. It is compulsory for children to attend school by the time they have turned six years of age.

As early as four-and-a half and five-and-a-half years, children starts to commence primary school which offers programs from Foundation to Years 6 or 7 (The Australian Education System, Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade). Around the globe, there are children that are still deprived of education for a lot of reasons if not, learning schools and other learning resources are very limited. The supportive government of Australia is one big factor for the country’s quality education. With this, we can infer that government support plays an important role in educational systems to be successful.