Minnis Journals

ET News Digest

Your Weekly Education Newsletter

Moving Beyond the 3 Rs and into the future of education
Despite almost all facets of our lives being redefined by the advances of the 21st Century, our education system is still firmly anchored to an era of steam engines and morse code. Instead of being equipped to function in an unpredictable job market that experts concur will be shaped by automation, students are still largely being taught the 'three Rs' – reading, writing, and arithmetic. They are taught this by teachers trapped on their own treadmill. Read more

71,533 contacts go unanswered on Kids Helpline
There are a lot of children in distress and Kids Helpline has been overwhelmed by the demand for its services, leaving it with no option but to leave thousands of calls unanswered. It needs more funding.
Kids Helpline, Australia’s only free confidential 24/7 national children’s counselling and support service, says 51% of requests for help to the service went unanswered over the first six months of 2019, due to funding shortfall. The number of attempts to contact Kids Helpline increased from 146,292 to 148,776 over the past six months. Read more

Mission Australia urges young people to speak up in Youth Survey 2019
They often say that the young don’t have a voice and Mission Australia is urging 15-19-year-olds across Australia to speak up on personal concerns and broader issues that are important to them by participating in Youth Survey 2019 before it closes on 9th August 2019. Read more

Presentations made wirelessly and easily
Having a projector to accompany a talk is great, getting it running is often not so great and with that in mind BenQ has released a new USB-C button kit connectivity option to expand the compatibility of its InstaShow™ wireless presentation equipment.
All you do is plug the device into the laptop’s USB port, press the button and you’re up and projecting regardless of what kind of laptop you’re using, that’s a lot of time and frustration saved while adding Full HD 1080p video and 16-bit stereo audio wireless streaming capability. The equipment requires no software installation, execution, or setup. Read more

Early education boosts later life
Children who attend one year of early childhood education are more likely to achieve higher NAPLAN scores says a new study into the economic impact of early childhood education.
The study, commissioned by The Front Project, and conducted by PwC, finds improved cognitive abilities that result from participating in early learning can be measured in later school achievement, educational attainment and employment. Read more

Learning money skills virtually can be profitable
Before you get out in the real world some simulation is a good thing, and money skills definitely benefit from some painless, consequence-less practice.
For the past 17 years, the non-profit Financial Basics Foundation has been providing free financial literacy programs to students in Australian secondary schools and has now put the call out to teachers to register their classes to enter the 2019 Suncorp ESSI Money Challenge. The annual money management competition teaches them many valuable lessons on how to manage their dosh. Read more