I. The letter 'i' is for iXandro

I.

iXandro dot com is my website and there, I have the portfolio of my life. Well, my working life in particular. I have been working since the age of 14 which is almost 40 years. Maybe not exactly this long as I have been studying for the past years full-time and not a single cent to show for. I am so lucky I am married to a wonderful woman who is supporting me while I attend university. By this time next year - it will be my turn to work and bring in some money into this household. 

I pay my way through University via the HECS program where the Govt will tax me extra once I start work. I would not have been able to achieve this is it was not for the assistance from the Government. How do people get the money to do it otherwise? I know that in other countries, education is free but equally in other places, it is totally paid by people who have money - Universities for the rich and famous. In poor countries, going to Uni is impossible. Even in Australia, education is a hotly contested subject as people debate and argue who should be paying for it. 

The education problem is not just found at the tertiary level but starts at the very base of student learning from kindergarten through to high school. What is at the centre of the continuous debate is the NAPLAN tests that the Government uses to evaluate the level of student achievement in comparison to other countries and students in different settings, both financial settings as well as the environments they are in such as private education, public education, and in Australia - the Catholic Education System. Currently, my mode of study focuses on education in the public sector. 

A newspaper article by Jordan Baker in the Sydney Morning Herald from April 2019 confirms how NAPLAN is a testing dilemma and suggests that people are frightened by it. Here is the article - you read for yourself and make your own evaluation of what you think of it:

https://www.smh.com.au/education/people-are-frightened-of-naplan-australia-s-testing-dilemma-20190411-p51dcu.html

More to come when I have more time to populate this blog...

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