BAD EDUCATION
Australia’s education system was built to prepare people for the future. So why does it feel like we’re asking more of it and getting less in return?
Schools are struggling to attract and retain teachers. Students are disengaged. Universities are becoming businesses first and places of learning second. And young people are under pressure to accumulate credentials, while employers complain that they lack the skills, resilience and curiosity to thrive.
For decades, the solution to almost every social and economic challenge has been more education. Stay in school longer. Study harder. Get a degree. Yet, as costs rise and outcomes stagnate, it is worth asking a more fundamental question: what is education actually for?
Is education preparing students for work, citizenship or a good life? Have universities become sorting machines for the labour market rather than institutions dedicated to curiosity, knowledge and discovery? And in our rush to modernise, have we abandoned older educational ideals that might be more relevant now than ever?
From foundations and final assessment to the purpose of higher learning itself, what would a system designed for human flourishing actually look like? And can Australia build it?
Kylie Moore-Gilbert
Kylie Moore-Gilbert is an Australian political scientist specialising in the Middle East. Kylie is the author of the 2022 memoir The Uncaged Sky: My 804 Days in an Iranian Prison and the director of advocacy group The Australian Wrongful and Arbitrary Detention Alliance. She is currently a research fellow in Macquarie University’s Department of International Studies and writes a regular column for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.
Pasi Sahlberg
Pasi Sahlberg is one of the world’s most influential voices in education. A Finnish-born teacher turned policymaker and scholar, he has worked in classrooms, ministries, and global organisations from Helsinki to Washington. Author of the award-winning Finnish Lessons, Pasi is known for blending sharp research with inspiring stories about children, teachers, and schools. His international honours include the Grawemeyer Award, Lego Prize, and Australia’s Hedley Beare Award. Pasi is Professor in Educational Leadership at the University of Melbourne.
George Williams
George Williams is the Vice-Chancellor and President at Western Sydney University. He is proud to lead an institution renowned for providing broad access to higher education and for achieving real-world impact through positive social, environmental and economic change in Western Sydney and globally. Professor Williams commenced as Western Sydney University’s fifth Vice-Chancellor in July 2024, bringing decades of experience as a constitutional law scholar and teacher, senior leader in higher education, barrister and as a national thought leader.
Ann Mossop
Ann Mossop is an ideas curator and festival programmer. From 2022–2026 she was the Artistic Director of the Sydney Writer’s Festival, consistently recognised as one of the world’s leading literary events. She was the Director of the Centre for Ideas at UNSW Sydney from 2017-2022, a new program she established designed to contribute to public conversations about important ideas and issues. As Head of Talks and Ideas at the Sydney Opera House from 2010-2017, she established the Opera House’s extensive talks and ideas program and led key projects like the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. She was also the founder of the All About Women festival, which has taken place at Sydney Opera House since 2013. Throughout her career she has been involved with important initiatives to bring the work of writers and thinkers to broader audiences, from the pioneering series of readings at the Harold Park Hotel, Writers in the Park and the highly successful Writers’ Choice program at the University of Sydney to the re-establishment of the Sydney Writers’ Festival as an independent Festival in 1998.
We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation - the custodians of the country on which we meet - and acknowledge their Elders, past and present.
The views and opinions expressed by the Festival participants are not necessarily the views of The Ethics Centre and our partners.