I went to school in the post war years in London’s east end. My final primary school class had 44 students. 40 of them passed the Eleven+ examination.
My secondary school was woefully equipped, staff student ratios were better than 1:44 but nothing like today’s ratios. Our gym was two classrooms with the dividing wall knocked out. Somehow a great majority of students went on to obtain degrees and somehow the school seemed able to generate basketball players that went on to represent England at junior and senior levels.
Those schools succeeded because of the quality of the teachers and the focus of the curriculum.
Here is an excerpt from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority website (ACARA) …
The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics values Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. It provides opportunities for students to appreciate that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies have sophisticated applications of mathematical concepts.Students will explore connections between representations of number and pattern and how they relate to aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. They will investigate time, place, relationships and measurement concepts in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contexts.
The maths class would be a good place to concentrate on maths, leave the social engineering to whichever syllabus has replaced religious instruction.
bobmcgee 