Julia's journeys

The Deputy P.M. is in India at the moment trying to shore up the rising tide of panic about violence against Indian students, particularly in Sydney. You would wonder why it requires such high level governmental representation until you hear that the foreign student revenue is something like 15 billion dollars a year.

And the whole service delivery appears to be a bit suspect (Four Corners exposed this a few weeks ago)...chefs who use an electric frypan, accountants who never count a bean...aand so on.

Amidst all this is the fear that we all have, that the genuine education system (perhaps the schools, TAFE and the Universities) has actually been sold out to economics of the paying students. And they are now so dependent upon the revenue that their actual service delivery may be compromised if they can't maintain student numbers.

The economic rationalists call this the dictates of the market and that this is the reality of the world.

Meanwhile the educationalists bemoan that there is no longer any learning for its own sake. Where is pure science and unbridled research? Where is the opportunity for genuine philosophy and scholarly (rather than political) history? Where is the exploration of classic and modern literature, of ancient text.....and dare I say it....theology