Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:00:33.552Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Can Data on Educational Outcomes Reveal regarding Australian Children’s Right to Develop ‘to Their Fullest Potential’?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Gerry Redmond
Gerry Redmond*
Affiliation:
Social Policy Research Centre, The University of New South Wales
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Is Australia fulfilling its obligations towards its children, in particular fostering their development to their fullest potential, in accordance with its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child? This article addresses this complex question by elaborating three alternative conceptualisations of the right to development to one's fullest potential, based on the literature on human rights principles, and on the writings of the philosophers John Rawls, Michael Walzer, and Amartya Sen. The analysis suggests that while Australia performs well in comparison with other rich countries according to indicators of educational achievement, disparities in educational outcomes are large, implying that many children fail to realise their right to education to their fullest potential. This is not surprising. More surprising is the contrast between the diligence with which educational outcomes in Australia are measured, and the lack of accurate information on public resource inputs (except at the most highly aggregated levels) to achieve those outcomes. The paper concludes that while the measurement of student outcomes is an important step in the realisation of all Australian children's right to education to their fullest potential, the failure to accurately monitor resource inputs represents an equal failure by Australian governments to protect and promote children's rights.

Type
Symposium
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , December 2009 , pp. 35 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2009

References

Angus, M. (2007) ‘Commonwealth-state relations and the funding of Australia's Schools', in Connors, L. (ed.), Making Federalism work for Schools: Due Process, Transparency, Informed Consent, NSW Public Education Alliance, Sydney, pp. 112–116.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008) Government Finance Statistics, Education, Australia, 2006–07, Cat. No.5518.0.55.001, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2005) A Picture of Australia's Children, AIHW Cat. no. PHE 58, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Research Alliance on Children and Youth (2008) Report card on the wellbeing of young Australians, 21 October 2008, Australian Research Alliance on Children and Youth, Canberra, available: http://www.aracy.org.au/publicationDocuments/REP_report_card_the_wellbeing_of_young_Australians_A5.pdf[accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Bowers Andrews, A. (1999) ‘Securing adequate living conditions for each child's development’, in Bowers Andrews, A., Hevener Kaufman, N. (eds), Implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Standard of Living Adequate for Development (pp. 1–16), Praeger, Westport, Connecticut and London.Google Scholar
Chapman, A. R. (1996) ‘A “violations approach” for monitoring the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights', Human Rights Quarterly, 18(1), pp. 23–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobbold, T. (2003) Estimates of future funding of non-government and government schools, Paper prepared for the Australian Education Union, November, Australian Education Union, Southbank, Vic., available: http://www.aeufederal.org.au/Debates/estfundnonggov.pdf [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Committee on the Rights of the Child (2005) Consideration of reports submitted by states parties under Article 44 of the Convention: Concluding observations: Australia, United Nations, Geneva, available: http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CRC.C.15.Add.268.En?Opendocument [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Cranston, M. (1973), What are Human Rights?, the Bodley Head, London, Sydney and Toronto.Google Scholar
Darrow, M., Tomas, A. (2005) ‘Power, capture, and conflict: A call for human rights accountability in development cooperation’, Human Rights Quarterly, 27, pp. 471–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (Victoria) (2008) Interim corporate plan 2008–09 to 2010–11, in Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (ed.), available: http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/stratman/planning/corpplan/deecdcorporate-pln.pdf [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Detrick, S. (1999), A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague, Boston and London.Google Scholar
Dowling, A. (2007) Australia's school funding system, Policy Brief, Australian Council for Educational Research, Camberwell (Vic.), available: http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/PolicyBriefs_Dowling07.pdf [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Gardiner-Garden, J., Park, M. (2007) Background note: Commonwealth Indigenous-specific expenditure 1968–2006, Parliament of Australia: Parliamentary Library, available: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/BN/2007-08/Cwlth_Indigenous_Expenditure.htm [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Gonand, F., Joumard, I., Price, R. , (2007) Public spending efficiency: Institutional indicators in primary and econdary education OECD Economics Department, Working Papers, available: http://www.oecd.org/document/34/0,3343,en_33873108_33873516_43033570_1_1_1_1,0 [accessed 30 October 2009].Google Scholar
Green, M. (2001) ‘What we talk about when we talk about indicators: Current approaches to human rights measurement’, Human Rights Quarterly 23 (4), pp. 1062–1097.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodgkin, R., Newell, P. (2002), Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child — Fully Revised Edition, UNICEF, New York.Google Scholar
Koutsogeorgopoulou, V. (2009) Enhancing educational performance in Australia, Economics Department Working Paper No. 678, March 2009, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, available: http://www.oecd.org/Working_Papers [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Leigh, A., Ryan, C. (2007) How has school productivity changed in Australia?, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, available: http://econrsss.anu.edu.au/∼aleigh/pdf/SchoolProductivity.pdf [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Lokan, J., Greenwood, L., Cresswell, J. (2001), 15-up and Counting, Reading, Writing, Reasoning … How Literate Are Australia's Students?, Australian Council for Education Research, Camberwell (Vic.).Google Scholar
Masters, G. (2005) ‘International achievement studies: Lessons from PISA and TIMSS’, Research Developments, 13, pp. 6–10.Google Scholar
MCEETYA (2008a) (Ministerial Council for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs), Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, December 2008, Ministerial Council on Education Employment Training and Youth Affairs, Carlton, Vic., available: http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
MCEETYA (2008b) Principles and protocols for the collection and national reporting of MCEETYA key performance measures for schooling in Australia, Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, available: http://www.mceetya.edu.au/verve/_resources/Protocols_for_Collection_Reporting_of_KPMs.pdf [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
McMorrow, J. (2008a) Reviewing the evidence: Issues in Commonwealth funding of government and nongovernment schools in the Howard and Rudd years, August 2008, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
McMorrow, J. (2008b) Updating the evidence: The Rudd government's intentions for schools, December, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, available: http://www.aeufederal.org.au/Publications/2009/JMcMorrowpaper2009.pdf [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
OECD (2001) (Organisation for Ecoonomic Cooperation and Development) Knowledge and Skills For Life: First Results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000, OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
OECD (2004), Learning for Tomorrow's World: First Results From PISA 2003, OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
OECD (2007), PISA 2006: Science Competencies for Tomorrow's World, Volume 1: Analysis, OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (2004) Human Rights and Poverty Reduction: A Conceptual Framework, HR/PUB/04/1, United Nations, Geneva and New York.Google Scholar
Pemberton, S., Gordon, D., Nandy, S., Pantazis, C., Townsend, P. (2005) ‘The relationship between child poverty and child rights: The role of indicators' in Minujin, A., Delamonica, E., Komarecki, M. (eds) Human Rights and Social Policies for Children and Women: the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) in Practice, New School University, New York, pp. 47–61.Google Scholar
Pogge, T. (2008), World Poverty and Human Rights, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1971), A Theory of Justice, Belknap Press, Cambridge, Mass.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rorris, A. (2008) Rebuilding public schools: 2020 investment targets, Australian Education Union, Southbank, Vic., available: http://www.aeufederal.org.au/Publications/Rebpucschls.pdf [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Sen, A. (1992), Inequality Re-examined, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Sen, A. (1999), Development as Freedom, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Sen, A. (2004) ‘Elements of a theory of human rights', Philosophy and Public Affairs, 32(4), pp. 315–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. (2006) ‘Human rights and the limits of law’, Cardozo Law Review, 27, pp. 2913–2927.Google Scholar
Sen, A. (2008) ‘Why and how is health a human right?’, The Lancet, 372, 13 December, p. 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sutherland, D., Price, R. (2007) Linkages between performance and institutions in the primary and secondary education sector, Economics Department Working Papers No. 558, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, available: www.oecd.org/eco/Working_Papers [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Sutherland, D., Price, R., Joumard, I., Nicq, C. (2007) Performance indicators for public spending efficiency in primary and secondary education, Economics Department Working Paper No. 546, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, available: http://ssrn.com/paper=967656 [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Thomson, S. (2006) Australian students' achievement in the TIMSS 2002 mathematics cognitive domains, TIMSS Australia Monograph No. 9, Australian Council for Education Research, Camberwell (Vic.).Google Scholar
Thomson, S., Cresswell, J., De Bortoli, L. (2004), Facing the Future: A Focus on Mathematical Literacy Among Australian 15-year-old Students in PISA 2003, Australian Council for Education Research, Camberwell (Vic.).Google Scholar
Thomson, S., De Bortoli, L. (2008) Exploring scientific literacy: How Australia measures up, Australian Council for Education Research, Melbourne, available: http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/PISA2006_Report.pdf [accessed 20 September 2009].Google Scholar
Thomson, S., Fleming, N. (2004) Summing it up: Mathematics achievement in Australian schools in TIMSS 2002, TIMSS Australia Monograph No. 6, Australian Council for Education Research, Camberwell (Vic.), available: http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/TIMSS_02_Mathsreport.pdf [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
Thomson, S., McKelvie, P., Murnane, H. (2006) Achievement of Australia's early secondary Indigenous students: Findings from TIMSS 2003, TIMSS Australia Monograph No 10, Australian Council for Education Research, Camberwell (Vic.).Google Scholar
UNICEF (2002) A league table of educational disadvantage in rich nations, Innocenti Report Card No.4, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence.Google Scholar
UNICEF (2003), State of the World's Children 2004, United Nations Children's Fund, New York.Google Scholar
United Nations (1966) International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly Resolution 2200A (XXI), 16 December 1966, United Nations, available: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
United Nations (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25, 20 November 1989, available: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm [accessed 30 August 2009].Google Scholar
UNDP (2000) (United Nations Development Programme) Human Development Report 2000, UNDP and Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.Google Scholar
Walzer, M. (1983), Spheres of Justice: A Defence of Pluralism and Equality, Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Walzer, M. (1994), Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad, Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame (Indiana) and London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, S. (2002) ‘Being, becoming and relationship: Conceptual challenges of a child rights approach in development’, Journal of International Development, 14(8), pp. 1095–1104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar