Schools

7news national news:

"In 2005 there were 3.35 million full-time school students and the proportion of these students attending government schools was 67.1 per cent, down from 71 per cent in 1995.

The ABS Schools Census showed that over the decade to 2005, the proportion of 17-year-olds enrolled as full-time students increased from 58.6 per cent to 63.5 per cent."

Young people need to stay at school. It makes better thinkers of them and gives them a chance to get some skills to use to build their lives and that's all parents and schools can do, give kids as many skills and useful values as they can so they can forge a successful life...whatever that might mean.There was an article a couple of weeks back about how schools really helped with the the socialisation of disabled people but these skills were being lost as they left school for the wider community because nothing was there to extend what had happened at school. The shift from the state to the private system in the last decade should not be a surprise because most things in the last decade have drifted to the user does and the user pays. Print your own photos, send your own letters, fill out your own tax. We sat down one day and listed off a whole list of things we all do which we used to pay to have done. Our lives are increasingly cluttered with busy work. Download your own films. Make your own film theatre. Life has quite changed. When enrolments increase in private school then the state schools are being closed down and the land sold. It is happening to smaller private schools too and I hear we are getting a big new Catholic private school in Adelaide but people seem unclear as to the location. I think the trend will be to bigger , "more cost effective" schools full stop. Nothing escapes financial scrutiny in an economy. The conglomerate model seems to be a real feature of modern living. Lump it all together and save overall costs. No wonder boutique hotels and business can attract such a range of loyal customers. We thrive on unique and are starting to be deprived of it.