A Proposal To Address Educational Inequality In Australia

Develop a change proposal to change a policy - either level of service, scope, funding etc.

1. The issue in need of change - this will require you to research the policy area 2. The way in which it should be changed - this is your change proposal.

2. Feasibility of your proposal- addressing both
Macro issues such as prevailing ideologies, economic and political factors

Micro issues - such as the particular characteristics of the policy area , implementation issues

Please note: You may choose any policy area but make sure your proposal is specific enough to be able to assess feasibility effectively. You may choose one of the policy areas we have studied or one that you already know something about.

The proposals for changes are provided in order to address a specific problem by proposing a possible solution so that the problem can be addressed and solved.  The proposals that are intended to change a policy in the public sector seeks to change or modify the guidelines related to the laws that are controlling the production or the distribution of the goods to the local state government or the central or national government (Chenoweth and McAuliffe 2015). The proposal that are intended to change the policy ion the public sector of any country, identifies a problem while initiating the changes in procedure and also endeavours to fix that problem . The report identifies that the Education policy in Australia requires some changes and provides a change proposal so that no inequality persists in the education system of Australia (ZAJDA  2013).The paper also discusses the feasibility of the change proposal addressing the macro issues such as prevailing ideologies, economic and political factors. The micro issues related to the change proposal has also been identified in the paper.

The educational policies of Australia are leading to educational inequality among the students in schools of Australia (Ferreira and Gignoux 2013). A large percentage of students leave their secondary schools without completing their basic education or the levels of skills imparted in schools. Because of this underachievement from the part of the students, it possesses a negative impact for the young people to the society. The outcome of the low education includes unemployment, social exclusion, crime and imprisonment. An inequality also exists between the students who belong to different social backgrounds. These inequalities not only persist but also increase as the student progress in the education systems of Australia. The socioeconomic inequalities that persists in the education system are magnified in the schools (Le Donné 2014) .The socially advantaged students are provided with more educational advantages than the students who are less privileged. There exists a resource gaps between the advantaged and the disadvantaged schools (Seo 2013). In Australia, the schools, which are disadvantaged, are provided with the few educational materials or facilities like the books, laboratories and other facilities. Due to these differences persisting with the policies in the educational sector of Australia, it needs a change or a reform. The proposed changes that are required for maintaining equality or curtailing the educational inequality in Australia are as follows:

• In order to strengthen the performance of the socially disadvantaged backgrounds, Australia should amend their educational policies and implement policies that support the students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and culture . The policy, which was intended for their benefits, should be amended and investments should be made in order to strengthen the early childhood education and care. The Australian government should also conceive or develop policies in order to strengthen the apprenticeships in order to develop the skills of the students, who belongs to the socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds (Chesters and Watson 2013).
• With the present existing educational policies of the Australian government, it has been reported that resource gaps exists between the advantaged schools and the disadvantaged schools. The existing policies should be amended and educational policies should be made such that the policies provides to all the Australian schools and it is also to be ensured that the funding are made appropriately in order to deliver quality education to all the students of Australia , irrespective of the background . It is to be ensured that the appropriate and adequate resources are provided to the disadvantaged schools and the gaps between the advantaged and disadvantaged schools is reduced. The disadvantaged schools should be provided with all the books, materials, laboratories and all the other resources.
• The present policy in Australia leads to inequality and disparities. In order to curtail these disparities, the policies related to education in Australia should be amended which would ensure that the student population is evenly distributed across all schools in the country. It is to be ensured that the underperforming students or the students from the disadvantages or poorer socioeconomic backgrounds are not concentrated in particular schools of Australia.

PEST Analysis is the tool that is used for conducting strategic planning. It is very useful to analyze the external macro-environmental environment. The PEST analysis is use for the identification of the political, economic, social and the technological factors that plays a key role on a project or any planning process. The PEST analysis has been provided related to the feasibility of the change proposal related to the changes in the educational policies of the Australia.

• Political Factors– The political factors includes the policies that are present in the state government and the central government schools in Australia related to the education. The political factor also includes the policies of the government that is related to the privatization of schools and the changes in curriculum of schools in Australia. It includes the policies of the state government schools relating to the funding and allocation of resources to the schools present in Australia.
• Economical factors – The economic factors related to the changes in the educational policies of the Australia includes the cost of the resources such as the books ,papers , teaching , support staff and other infrastructure resources like the laboratory facility and others . It is evident that in Australia the socially advantaged students are provided with more educational advantages than the students who are less privileged.
• Social factors – It has been reported that the Australian students are subjected to social inequalities , the socio –economic status (SES) outperform the students who have the lower socio economic status in Australia (Bornstein and Bradley 2014) . The socio-economic inequalities that persists in the Australian education magnifies in the schools of Australia. These differences in the social factors in the educational system of Australia are leads to differences or inequality in the educational sector of Australia. The socially advantaged students in Australia are receiving more advantages than the lesser privileged peers or students in the schools of Australia.
• Technological factors – The technological factors pertaining to the changes in the educational policies of Australia includes the shifting from the use of paper to the e-book readers. The technological advancements should be made to use in the educational sector so that all the students irrespective of their social and economic backgrounds gets access to the latest advancement of technology related to the education (Januszewski. and Molenda 2013). The policies should be made by the government in such a way so that the classes of the students are made more interactive and appealing by making use of the of the projectors or computers so that virtual learning atmosphere is created in the classroom. The use of technology would also ensure that all the students irrespective of their economical and social background are given access to quality education.

The SWOT analysis is the technique of strategic planning. The SWOT analysis is used in order to identify the strength , weakness , opportunities , threats of a particular organization , of an individual or nay policies (Gupta 2013) . The SWOT analysis is done here in order to detail the particular characteristics of the policies which are to be changed or amended and also discusses about its implementation .

Issue in need of Change

Strengths – The strength of the changed policies is that the policies would ensure that the inequality is curtailed and the state of inequality is maintained in the educational sector so that the gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged schools are reduced. The changed educational policies would also ensure that the socially and economically disadvantaged students are getting equal access to the educational facilities like the socially and economically privileged sections of the students .

Weakness  -The weakness of the changed policies is that the these policies would require lot of funding and investments for providing the resources that includes the books ,materials and other infrastructure facilities like the laboratories and others (Khanna,  Jacob and Yadav 2014).

Opportunities – The inequalities and the gaps in the educational policies have already drawn the attention of the local and the central government of Australia.  They are willing as well as eager to curtail the inequality gap present in the educational sector of Australia (Ford  2013) .

Threats - The implementation of the proposed changes would require approval of the local, state and the central government so it is a time consuming process, which can be deemed as a threat. The implementation of the policies regarding the educational inequality requires a huge investments and funds, which are to be provided by the government, or any other sources, this is deemed as the threat to the educational policies (Buckingham  2017).

Conclusion 

From the above report it can be conclude that,  considering the present scenario of the educational inequality in Australia it is necessary to implement the changes for curtailing the persisting inequality in the education sector of Australia . The changes are needed in order to bridge the gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged schools. It is also important to ensure that the socially and economically advantaged students should not get additional benefits or privileges instead all the benefits or privileges needs to be equally distributed .However, the implementation the proposed changes in Educational policies would require lot of investments and funding .

References 

Bornstein, M.H. and Bradley, R.H., 2014. Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development. Routledge.

Buckingham, C., 2017. Education. In HLM50+ Towards a Social Architecture (pp. 226-253). Routledge.

Chenoweth, L. and McAuliffe, D., 2015. The road to social work & human service practice. South Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning Australia.

Chesters, J. and Watson, L., 2013. Understanding the persistence of inequality in higher education: Evidence from Australia. Journal of Education Policy, 28(2), pp.198-215.

Ferreira, F.H. and Gignoux, J., 2013. The measurement of educational inequality: Achievement and opportunity. The World Bank Economic Review, 28(2), pp.210-246.

Ford, M., 2013. Achievement gaps in Australia: What NAPLAN reveals about education inequality in Australia. Race Ethnicity and Education, 16(1), pp.80-102.

Gupta, A., 2013. Environment & PEST analysis: an approach to external business environment. International Journal of Modern Social Sciences, 2(1), pp.34-43.

Januszewski, A. and Molenda, M. eds., 2013. Educational technology: A definition with commentary. Routledge.

Khanna, M., Jacob, I. and Yadav, N., 2014. Identifying and analyzing touchpoints for building a higher education brand. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 24(1), pp.122-143.

Le Donné, N., 2014. European variations in socioeconomic inequalities in students’ cognitive achievement: The role of educational policies. European Sociological Review, 30(3), pp.329-343.

Seo, G., 2013. Challenges in implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in large organizations: similarities and differences between corporate and university environment (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

ZAJDA, A.J., 2013. Globalization and neo-liberalism as educational policy in Australia. In Neo-liberal Educational Reforms (pp. 182-201). Routledge.