 |
| Conclusion |
| Luminaries from the corporate sector have been critical of university graduates' literacy skills in recent times. Furthermore, the literacy skills that students are expected to bring to university from high school are not up to standard and academics have expressed disappointment (lecture notes, week 1). Are our instructional techniques in high school the right ones? Are our teachers qualified and effective in communicating these skills to the nation's young people? Professional organisations and major industries have also echoed similar criticisms about graduate writing and communication skills. Are our universities responsible for fostering these skills in students? If the answer is yes, how is this to be achieved? How and who will take responsibility for these shortcomings? Using common government parlance, a question must be asked "Ladies and Gentlemen: To what extent are the critics prepared to fund the education system?" All indications suggest, not by very much. Slashing budgets and staff across the board can only result in a diminution of standards, staff morale, and loyalty amongst educators. It should therefore come as no surprise to even the most casual observer that one of the inevitable consequences of irresponsible policy is a shortfall in student literacy standards. Realistically, professional organisations, business corporations, and liberal governments work together to undermine the educational institutions. They hypocritically articulate their disenchantment to schools and universities about poor literacy standards but are directly responsible for them. Meanwhile our badly resourced and underutilised institutions lower standards, cater mainly for overseas students, and beg like urchins in Calcutta for clients. Until the impact of rationalisation and the Bell curve have come full circle, thousands of our skilled workers and other well trained and educated personnel will leave this country. Moreover, the education of 90% of the future adult citizens of Australia will deteriorate even more than before. Sometimes things have to get bad before they begin to get better again. In the interim we educators have at our disposal the World Wide Web. Fortunately the WWW has united educators throughout the world and the benefits have already begun to flow through to anyone interested in literacy. There is still hope. I trust my recommendations and reviews of some hand picked books on academic writing will prove useful to students at all levels. In the interim students have at their calling a much greater bank of knowledge from which to draw information. Educators are more aware today than ever before of how literacy and language develops in human kind. Books and magazines are plentiful for reading and additionally, impartial book reviews appear periodically in cyberspace to assist the students with their writing. Students must also be prepared to play their part in the learning process by being hungry for knowledge for its own sake. |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|