The senior secondary years of education are broken.
They are a disservice to our young people, robbing many of a love of learning.
According to a new report out today, they are also failing to deliver significant future economic gains.
Having spent decades writing and working in education, I’m living this firsthand as a parent as my children navigate their final years of school.
Despite growing up surrounded by books, with chances to dabble in arts and music, sports and community, I’m crossing my fingers they make it through.
Because somewhere along the way, the love of learning has been squeezed out of them.
They’re not alone.
So many parents I talk to are seeing the same thing: kids who once loved going to school now trudging through it because it’s compulsory.
Kids who stop caring about certain subjects because they “don’t count” in Year 12.
Kids whose confidence takes a hit when their effort doesn’t translate into grades – when creative, insightful kids struggle to cram their brilliance into a one-size-fits-all test.
Outside of school, they’re still alive with curiosity.
In our home, 3D printing experiments take over the garage. Discord chats open them up to whole new music genres. Debating club hones arguments and quick thinking. YouTube tutorials fuel passions for bass guitar and card tricks. My children are learning and growing in ways that matter to them – without the looming dread of a grade or a deadline.
But inside school? They’re just ticking boxes, counting down the days.
And as a parent, I feel like I’m stuck in an endless loop of contradictory advice: “School is important, so do your best.” “Focus on what gets you marks.” “See your friends – it’s good for you, but… did you really have ten hours to spare?”
I know there are so many paths to success beyond Year 12. My kids know it too. But that doesn’t take away the pressure that still weighs on them – and on us.
It shouldn’t be this way. The final years of school shouldn’t feel like something to endure, something to survive, for a number you might not even use.
These years should be about deepening young people’s passions, expanding their minds, and letting them figure out who they are and what they care about – not squashing them into a rigid mould.
For so many kids, school has lost its meaning. And for so many parents, watching that happen is one of the hardest parts.
We can’t keep measuring our kids’ worth on a broken scale that doesn’t see their creativity, their adaptability, their human spark. We owe them an education system that nurtures those things – not one that boxes them in.
A new series of economic reports commissioned by Learning Creates Australia shows there is a better way.
Drawing on practices across hundreds of schools and economic modelling, they show that it is possible to support young people to figure out their strengths and pathways. This is made possible by broadening the measure of success at the end of Year 12 to count what is relevant to young people, and to employers.
The result of this is more young people completing school, going into further education and getting the right first job quicker.
The pay off is immense, up to $5.1 billion per annum which includes up to $260,000 in additional earnings per young person by the age of 30.
Imagine what a boost that would make to a young person’s house deposit!
With close to half of all teenagers missing school regularly, and the immense pay offs from a new approach, we can’t afford to wait.
And as a parent weary from multiple wake-up attempts each morning and nagging youths to go to school, change can’t come soon enough.
Megan O’Connell
Read more on The New Economics of Education – a series modelling the economic benefits of recognising more of young people’s learning and capabilities in senior secondary education.
For media enquiries please contact– Maggie Hill (0404 196 452, maggie@hillplus.com.au).
