The Age (Australian)

Megan Watkins and Greg Noble
CHILDREN of Asian parents, particularly Chinese, have long stood out in Australia with their high scores in the VCE and other final-year examinations. Now a new study has found the secret to their success: it begins in the home and the way their parents teach them good study habits from an early age.

Kevin Donnelly
The question arises after Geoff Masters, the head of the Australian Council for Education Research, received widespread coverage for his call for increased nationwide testing and Education Minister Julia Gillard created more headlines by arguing that school performance data should be made public

GIVING welfare payments to Aboriginal parents in a bid to boost their child's school attendance is a simplistic measure that will fail to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students, according to a new report.

THIS year marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Enid Blyton. For many school librarians, Blyton is a pariah. All those golliwogs and lashings of ginger beer were easybeats for the politically correct stewards of children's reading. In the 1970s and '80s, Blyton was banished from library shelves.

JULIA Gillard has called for a "raging debate" about how our education system compares to the best in the world, how to ensure that every school is a great school, and how to ensure every child gets an excellent education.

Australia may improve its student retention rate if it creates junior and senior high schools. AUSTRALIA must switch to a senior high school system to overcome its bad record on teen unemployment and early school leavers, says a leading educator.

Faced with spiralling costs, many university students are turning to drastic measures to make ends meet.

Some uni students say they have no choice but to defraud welfare.

Ignorance of sex is widespread among students. And while schools may be condemned if they teach responsible behaviour, they are also criticised if they don't offer sex lessons.

An advocate says schools need special strategies for the gifted. TOO many teachers fear having very bright students in class because they feel ill-equipped to deal with them, according to a visiting campaigner on gifted children.

Higher education must contend with an ageing workforce and aggressive overseas recruiting,

THE real story about the looming teacher shortage in the state system has nothing to do with the imminent departure of the baby boomers. It is a far less predictable tale. Teachers are simply quitting.

A recent report by the Federal Government's hearing support and research agency, Australian Hearing, says noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is the single most significant cause of hearing loss in Australia.

Pssst. Tell your teacher that being smart can be bad for your health. 'WHY are humans so smart?" is a question that fascinates scientists. Tadeusz Kawecki, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Fribourg, in Switzerland, likes to turn around the question.

Benefits of combining primary and secondary years are not exploited, says report. A review commissioned by the State Education Department into state, Catholic and independent P-12 schools found most have not developed or improved as they could have because they continue to operate as if they are separate primary and secondary schools.