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AFR MAGAZINE Sep 28 2017 at 11:00 AM Updated Sep 28 2017 at 11:00 AM

Simon Birmingham tops Australia's 5 most powerful educationinfluencers in 2017

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Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham pulled one from the hat and passed the Gonski school fundingplan through Parliament. Louie Douvis

The AFR Magazine's hotly anticipated annual Power issue

includes lists of the key players across five different industry

sectors. Here, the top five education influencers.

The landscape in school education was turned upside down in

the past year. Federal Minister Simon Birmingham stole Labor's

clothes and pushed Gonski school funding – once Labor's signature policy – through

Parliament. It was a brazen attempt to neutralise the political advantage Labor has

long enjoyed on the school funding issue. But it was also a move that made sense;

cutting through the complex and ad hoc legacy of decades of deal-making to

introduce a consistent way to distribute education money based on children's and

schools' needs.

At all levels of education the pace of technological change is picking up. The

traditional way of transmitting knowledge – a teacher talking in front of a class – is

giving way to learning from electronic devices, with class time focused on discussion

and interaction. New technologies – such as augmented and virtual reality, machine

learning and artificial intelligence – are gaining a foothold forcing universities,

colleges and school systems into a root-and-branch examination of what they do and

why.

To cap this off, questions are being asked about the ability of today's education system

to meet the needs of young people at a time of rapid technological change, in which

hard-won skills and knowledge can quickly go out of date.

by Tim Dodd

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10/4/2017 Simon Birmingham tops Australia's 5 most powerful education influencers in 2017 | afr.com

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44 likes 2 commentsThe hotly-anticipated annual Power issue of @afrmag is out on FridayOctober 6.⠀ ⠀ It includes lists of the key players across five different industrysectors. ⠀ ⠀ To kick it off scroll through our gallery to see the top fiveeducation ��influencers.⠀ ⠀ The landscape in school education was turnedupside down in the past year. ⠀ ⠀ Federal Education Minister SimonBirmingham stole Labor's clothes and pushed Gonski school funding – onceLabor's signature policy – through Parliament. So it's little wonder he came inat number � .⠀ ⠀ � : School funding architect David Gonski.⠀ � :@misterwootube star and maths teacher Eddie Woo.⠀ � : UniversitiesAustralia chair Margaret Gardner.⠀ � : NSW Education Department headMark Scott.⠀ ⠀ Read more on afr.com tomorrow and keep checking ourInstagram each day as we reveal Australia's most influential people.⠀ ⠀ �:@hewart ⠀ ⠀ #power #education #influencer #afrpower

1. Simon Birmingham

The federal Education Minister pulled one from the hat and passed the Gonski school

funding plan through Parliament. It was a tour de force, trapeze-without-a-net

political performance, in which the Coalition breathed life into a scheme originally

formulated by Labor. Birmingham's achievement is to create, for the first time, a

consistent school funding system across Australia which is based on a realistic

assessment of the need of each child. Money starts flowing next year and the test will

be in how it is spent.

2. David Gonski

Where would Birmingham be without Gonski, the sidekick who flanked him and

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as they stunned Canberra in May with the "Nixon to

China' news that the Coalition would reverse course and back the Gonski school

funding plan. Gonski's appearance at the press conference gave the move credibility

as well as the announcement that he would lead a review which will report on how

the extra $24 billion in school funding over the next 10 years should be spent.

10/4/2017 Simon Birmingham tops Australia's 5 most powerful education influencers in 2017 | afr.com

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3. Eddie Woo

Five years ago Woo, a young maths teacher with a gift for explanation, started

videoing his classes for a student who was ill with cancer. Other students watched,

word spread, and that was the genesis of Wootube, his maths YouTube channel with

nearly 60,000 subscribers and millions of views. Woo, who is head of maths at the

1900-student Cherrybrook Technology High School in Sydney, has won numerous

teaching prizes, is a powerful advocate for teachers and good teaching, and is

increasingly a voice in the media.

4. Margaret Gardner

One of Australia's longest serving vice-chancellors, Gardner became head of

Australia's largest university, Monash, in 2014 after nine years in charge of RMIT

University. Now, as chair of Universities Australia, she is representing all universities

in their opposition to the federal government's proposed 4.9 per cent cut to university

teaching subsidies, and leading them as they adjust to a world in which graduates

need broader skills and expect many career changes through their lives She is leading

a huge effort to consolidate Monash as a major knowledge and research hub.

5. Mark Scott

The former ABC chief, now head of the NSW Education Department, is applying his

famously data-driven mindset to Australia's largest school system. Scott does not

shrink from having a public profile and he's using it to push education forward. His

mantra is individualised learning so that each kid gets what they need. Teachers

should be more like doctors, he says, first diagnosing a learning problem and then

addressing it with a specific prescription.

The AFR Magazine Power issue is out on Friday October 6 inside The Australian

Financial Review.

Follow AFR Mag on Twitter and Instagram

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