I couldn't find the online version of the Herald Sun article.
The original research article is here:
I bet the reporters who wrote the articles didn't read all 47 pages of the report and just rehashed the summary. Overall, I am not convinced that the report proves anything. Students today certainly don't have the basic arithmetic skills that their grand parents had. The use of calculators have killed that - who does long division any more? I am dubious that the tests are testing the same thing and even the authors admit that there is a lot more that students today learn compared to their grand parents. The ability to adapt to new technology is one such area.
Education is different. Compare any subject now with what was done in the '60s. A student from today would struggle back then and vice versa.
As for class sizes, I find the ideal size is about 20. Too much smaller and you don't get the interaction that teachers like today and too much bigger you don't get to see the kids individually as much as you like. There is no way we could go back to the class size in the 30s we had when I first started. Besides the school rooms are not big enough.
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