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Breaking
News: Week of 14 August 2006
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Saturday – Sunday, 19 – 20 August
- The West Australian
- Op Ed
Year 12 results need a common standard (page 16)
Academic assessment should not vary by region, Geoff Masters argues
This is a slightly edited version of the Op Ed entitled "Oh, for scores without borders" that appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday, 10 August
- Full-time kindy gets backing (page 9)
by Bethany Hiatt
"A proposal to push all four-year-olds into kindergarten five days a week has some merit, WA's peak parents association said yesterday.
"Last week, the WA Primary Principals' Association put forward a controversial plan to end the existing system of voluntary kindergarten and pre-primary attendance that would almost triple the amount of time children as young as three and a half would spend at school.
"WAPPA president Colin Pettit, who put forward the proposal as part of a submission to a State Government review of literacy and numeracy, said research showed that children had a greater chance of academic success if they took part in quality pre-school programs.
"The WA Council of State School Organisations, which represents parents and citizens groups at State schools, said the issue of a compulsory schooling age was likely to polarise opinion.
"There might be some parents who say the earlier the better and then they can get back to work," president Rob Fry said. "But then there are a lot of parents who do like to have their children at home in their early years as well."
"Mr Fry said the proposal had educational merit but Government authorities also had to consider how to fund an increase in kindergarten resources if children's contact hours were to jump from 11 hours a week to 30. "And as long as the pie is not going to be carved thinner to fund it," he said."
From The West Australian
- Podcast lectures a net gain for UWA, students (page 11)
by Bethany Hiatt
"A timetable clash has not stopped University of WA student Melanie Perkins from taking the subjects she wanted – she just alternates attendance at weekly lectures and listens to the one she missed on her iPod.
"UWA is leading the field in podcasting, in which lectures are recorded and distributed on the internet. Using UWA's Lectopia system, students can download lectures and listen to them at any time on computers, iPods or mobile phones.
"The institution's home-grown ingenuity has revolutionised the way time-poor students approach their studies, helping them juggle work, family commitments and lectures.
"Lectopia is now used in 13 Australian universities, including Murdoch and Curtin, netting about $600,000 in licensing income for UWA so far. It is poised to roll the system out to Britain and ivy-league US universities by the end of this year.
"Project director Mike Fardon, who has been working on the system since the university first started recording lectures for country students in 1999, said UWA recorded 400 lectures a week and had an average 11,000 internet hits a week.
"It updated its system earlier this year to access new podcasting technology, making iPods invaluable.
"Mr Fardon said fears that podcasting would replace lecturers had proved unfounded, with no drop in attendance since it was introduced.
"Most students worked part-time and podcasting allowed them the flexibility to catch up when they needed to.
"Ms Perkins, 19, said she listened to lectures while travelling on buses and trains between UWA and Duncraig.
"The second-year communications and commerce student said she mostly used Lectopia to revise her notes before exams.
"If I haven't understood a concept I can just go back and get it straight from the lecturer," she said."
From The West Australian at link
Story in today's Melbourne Herald Sun on using iPods in Victoria K-12 schools.
- The Australian
- Spark needed to keep kids keen on science
by Justine Ferrari
"School L science courses are designed for future scientists, alienating most students, who come to view the subject as irrelevant and unimportant."Jonathan Osborne, chairman of science education at King's College in London, will tell a conference today that the way the subject is taught in schools creates students who are poorly educated about science and ambivalent towards it.
"The conference, to be opened in Canberra today by federal Education and Science Minister Julie Bishop, is being held by the Australian Council for Educational Research to examine ways of improving science teaching and arresting the decline in science students.
"Professor Osborne says scientific knowledge is presented to students as "a body of authoritative knowledge which is to be accepted and believed".
"But this approach is flawed and harmful, limiting students' understanding of science. "It oversimplifies and misrepresents the practices and processes of science, providing an education that fails to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to understand or interpret contemporary accounts of science, scientists and their findings," he says.
"Its failure to develop any understanding of the nature of science beyond naive empiricist notions leaves the majority poorly education about science."
"Professor Osborne says science curriculums should not only teach scientific facts but also foster understanding of methods and process, awareness of the context and achievement of scientific culture, and the ability to analyse the risks and benefits of scientific developments.
"Science is one of the greatest cultural achievements of Western society, if not the greatest," hesays.
"Teaching science needs to accomplish much more than simply detailing what we know. As well as teaching what we believe to be true in science, there is a need to address why we believe it to be true."
"ACER chief executive Geoff Masters said the clear theme of the conference was the need for a radical overhaul of school science curriculum..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Teach Aboriginal history warts and all, urges Carr
by James Madden
"The true history of Aboriginal nomadic life before 1788 should be an essential part of the history syllabus in Australian schools, even if it includes "unattractive features" of indigenous existence before white settlement."Former NSW premier Bob Carr said yesterday that political correctness had resulted in much of Australian history being edited out from classroom teachings, to the detriment of students.
"We've got to be careful of any attempt to romanticise Aboriginal life before 1788," Mr Carr told ABC radio.
"History shouldn't be an uplifting civic narrative - it should have controversy, and confusion, and argument, and bloodshed."
"Mr Carr will take part this week in the Howard Government's summit on the teaching of the subject to school students..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Letters to the Editor
- For English, take Latin
"Winston Churchill would be hard pressed to learn anything about the structure of the ordinary English sentence in a secondary school English classroom today (Letters 12-13/8). Students tell me they learn much more about English in my Latin classes."
Don Barrett, Spring Hill, Qld
"As a supervisor of postgraduate university students, it is difficult to forgive those who believe that teaching English grammar and spelling is of low importance. The ability to express thoughts clearly and unambiguously in writing has largely vanished from the Australian academic landscape, despite the fact that precision in written communication is essential in many professions.
"The use of language by broadcasters and, dare I say, many journalists, encourages young people to use cliche phraseology that is frequently vague and ambiguous. Many do not even understand what "ambiguous" means.
"Education ministers in all states (no point talking to the federal one) should think carefully about how poorly their next crop of election statements and proposals will be understood. But, sadly, the consequences of poor education this year won't influence voters' comprehension for the next few elections. So I guess I'm wasting my time with this letter."
Keith Gregg, West Perth, WA
Complete Letters to the Editor of The Australian at link
- The Melbourne Age
- Families pay $143m for state school education
by Chee Chee Leung
"Victorian families will pay more than $143 million this year for their children's education at public schools, with some schools getting more than $1 million from parents."Figures obtained by The Age reveal the state's 1600-odd government schools have budgeted to collect more than $76 million in subject charges, which include voluntary contributions.
"Groups representing parents, teachers and social welfare advocates say the figures show the State Government is under-funding public education.
"They said schools in poor and rural areas had the greatest difficulty raising money from families, which compounded disadvantage across the system..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- Letter to the Editor
- Listen to those who are doing the teaching
"The people who have called the Australian history summit this week are correct about one thing: the amount of Australian history currently taught in schools is declining and this is a cause for some concern. Nevertheless, there is a major flaw in the composition of this forum: of the 23 experts invited to take part, only two or three are in a position to know for certain what is actually going on in history classes across the nation because they are practising history teachers."Many of the key players, including politicians, academics and education bureaucrats, seem to be working from a basis of preconception and myth. With little or no reference to specific courses, they have made a raft of negative generalisations about what they presume students are being taught in their history classes. The popular perception of the history classroom seems to be one full of vague, left-wing and ideologically driven courses that lack specific facts or a chronological framework, but still manage to brainwash students with an unrelenting litany of the horrors of our past — all designed to make students ashamed of who they are.
"The problem is that few of the people who are grandstanding with such confidence on this issue have actually spent time in a school history classroom. Any teacher who actually works with students, day after day, would be aware that this perception is very far from the truth. Australian history courses vary from state to state, and indeed from school to school, but an examination of the commonly taught courses would show that Australian history is still generally taught as a loosely chronological narrative with a framework of facts and dates upon which an examination of themes and issues is built. We would be doing students a great disservice if we simply filled them up with a list of uncontested dates and facts, without setting these in context and encouraging them to consider competing opinions and think about such questions as why change occurs and what consequences flow from events and actions.
"Moreover, although some facts and dates are sufficiently verifiable to be accepted as true, the reality is that much of history is contested and open to interpretation and reinterpretation in the light of new information and changing attitudes and values. Forty years ago, for example, most Australian history courses and texts began with the discovery of Australia by Captain Cook. Today's courses and texts invariably begin with an examination of the culture and lifestyle of indigenous Australians, prior to European arrival. Cook, Phillip, the squatters and explorers are still there, they have simply moved further into the book.
"If academic historians are constantly re-examining the past, then school students also deserve to be exposed to a range of explanations and evidence. This is not, as some critics have suggested, a recipe for sloppy and simplistic understandings in which any view is acceptable. Good history teachers — and there are plenty of them at work in our schools — know how to guide students in the evaluation of evidence and the development of theories. Even at junior secondary level, students are encouraged to examine primary documents and to ask such questions as who said/wrote it?, what was the intended audience? and how reliable is it?
"The inclusion in this week's summit of a significant number of practising history teachers from across all three systems and from every state would do much to ensure that the discussions that take place are grounded in reality. Only then would this meeting have a chance of being genuinely productive."
Geraldine Carrodus, Brighton
Complete Letters to the Editor of The Melbourne Age at http://www.theage.com.au/letters/
- The Northern Territory News
- Punishing parents 'will never work'
by Emma Gumbleton
"The Australian Education Union has slammed tough penalties for schools and parents to make kids stay in the classroom.
"NT Education Minister Syd Stirling has flagged steps to combat rock-bottom school attendance, such as funding cuts."His department is drafting possible punitive sanctions.
"But Mr Stirling conceded it would be a difficult task.
"Union secretary Alan Perrin said the Government should use the powers it already has to take action against parents of truant students -- before considering more unreasonable punishments.
"That's never going to work," he said.
"We're dealing with the lowest income group of people, so people who are dependent on the welfare system.
"If you fine someone for not sending their kid to school, they can't pay and people are going to be going to jail for that."
"Mr Perrin said the Government should consider an electronic database to ensure students did not fall through the net.
"He said in remote areas, families could pack up and move and their children did not get a chance to settle in at a new school.
"Every community school should have a list of schools where kids from that community will go -- and that school should then make sure it has a linkage with that school.
"We've got tremendous electronic capability to do this," Mr Perrin said."
From The Northern Territory News at link
- The Melbourne Herald Sun
- Students' details sent overseas
by Milanda Rout
"Details from thousands of literacy and numeracy tests sat by Victorian schoolchildren are being sent to China to be checked.
"Names, schools and gender on the state's AIM tests are reviewed electronically overseas before tests are marked in Victoria."More than 190,000 schoolchildren in year 3, 5 and 7 sat the compulsory tests this month.
"The exams test English and maths and compare progress against national benchmarks.
"Security was tightened around the tests after pupils were given access to questions before last year's exams.
"A Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority spokesman said the marking of AIM tests was contracted out to Pearson Assessments and Testing, a company based in Nunawading.
"He said Pearson had then subcontracted data checking to another company, which did the checking in China..."
Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
- Pupils hunt in pods
by Milanda Rout
"iPods are being handed out rather than confiscated in Victorian classrooms in a radical trial.
"Students as young as five are plugging in the trendy MP3 players to improve literacy and help study English, science and technology."The government scheme bucks the trend of schools banning the players after rising thefts and claims they were distractions in class.
"Prep to Year 12 pupils in 10 state schools are using iPods to download information podcasts from the internet, store work and keep journals..."
Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
- The Sydney Daily Telegraph
- Schools in crisis over mentally ill
Special investigation by Bruce McDougall
"Schools are reporting a flood of mentally ill children, with some as young as five displaying symptoms of extreme anxiety disorders, bizarre phobias, depression and drug-related defects."An increasing number of primary students are harming themselves or threatening to do so at school, prompting principals to say hundreds more psychologists are needed..."
Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link
- The Independent
- Universities may seek 18 'A grades' for popular courses
by Richard Garner, Education Editor
"Britain's brightest young people will need up to 18 A grades at A-level for the most popular university courses under a radical shake-up planned next year."Universities are to be allowed access to students' individual grade passes for all six of the modules that go towards a full A-level.
"The move is planned by exam boards after admissions tutors said they could not pick the best talent for popular courses such as law and medicine now so many A-level scripts were being awarded A grades..."
Full story in The Independent at link
- The Canberra Times
- Minister may face legal action by schools lobby group
by Tamara Glumac
"The Save Our Schools lobby group has accused ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr of failing to meet statutory obligations to provide parents with statements listing reasons for proposed school closures..."
Full story in The Canberra Times at link
- The Adelaide Advertiser
- Doctors urge bus belt safety
by Michael Owen
"Concerned doctors are urging parents to target school principals in the campaign for compulsory seatbelts on school buses.
"The Australian Medical Association has drafted a form letter, available on its website, that it is asking parents to send to their school to put pressure on education and transport authorities to fit bus seatbelts."It also wants schools to hire only seatbelt-equipped buses for excursions with students.
"Following a meeting of the group's Road Safety Committee late last week, the AMA, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Pedestrian Council of Australia joined forces in calling for parents, teachers and community members to "actively campaign to ensure buses used to transport children are fitted with appropriate seatbelts"...
There is even a form letter to send to your child's principal on their website.
Full story in The Adelaide Advertiser at link
- ABC News Online
- Committee reviews student visits to Canberra
"A parliamentary committee has begun a review of how to make Canberra more accessible to students."Committee chairman, federal Liberal MP Peter Lindsay, says one of the main concerns is access for primary and secondary students from rural and remote areas.
"He says at the moment most student visitors come from metropolitan or regional New South Wales..."
Full story in ABC News Online at link
- The West Australian
- Inside Cover (page 2)
Holiday pollie a lesson to all
"While his fellow pollies spent the winter escaping to warmer climes or on junkets, shadow education minister Peter Collier was traipsing through the blackboard jungle.
"The former chalkie spent a fair swag of the past six weeks checking out more than 40 schools across the State.
"Pete, who used to be head of history and politics at Scotch College, even managed a few days teaching at his old school. "It was a great opportunity to get back into the classroom before the OBE comes in and do some decent teaching," said Pete, who spent 15 of his 23-year career at Scotch.
"After some of the vitriol from the other side of the chamber it was actually quite refreshing to be called Sir again."
"The Year 12 students had plenty of questions, including the old curly one.
"They asked me how I got on with the Education Minister," Pete said.
"I said we used to get on OK, but I told them she would probably have a different view now."
"At one stage the Liberal MLC told his class that Greens MP Giz Watson was a top parliamentary performer, describing her as one of the most intelligent and articulate people he'd ever met.
"They couldn't believe that I was pouring accolades on someone from another party," Pete told IC.
"And, being Scotch kiddies, they were "astounded that the Liberals would negotiate with the Greens."
From The West Australian
- Full-time kindy bid sparks a warning (page 16)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Forcing children as young as 3 ½ into full-time kindergarten would deprive them of a real childhood and lead to developmental problems in later life, a leading child psychologist warned yesterday.
"Consulting psychologist John Cheetham was horrified at a proposal to make kindergarten and pre-primary programs compulsory and full-time, put forward by the WA Primary Principals' Association. He said that many parents would use kindergarten as de facto child-care centres because they cost less.
"He said too many children were growing up without enough time to bond with their parents, going from child care to kindy to school. "I think it's a very unfortunate trend in our society and I'm concerned about its long-term effects," he said.
"Under the WAPPA proposal, the number of hours children spend at kindergarten would nearly triple, from 11 hours a week to 30.
"A 3 ½-four-year-old has a concentration span of about 15 minutes, so a six-hour day is a long, long day," Dr Cheetham said. "They need to have rests, they need to have freedom and they don't need to be tied to a routine."
"Four-year-olds needed to develop a strong sense of security in their own family before they could be secure in the outside world. And children who did not built good family connections were more likely to develop depression in their teenage years.
"This is just cheaply funded day-care," he said. "I think a lot of people would grab at that opportunity. But whether that is in the best interest of their child is the debate."
Child-care centres charge an average of $50 a day, compared to just $60 a year – or about 30¢ a day – that public schools request in voluntary contributions for children attending kindergarten and pre-primary.
"Parents picking up children from kindergarten at Subiaco Primary School yesterday said they did not believe attendance should be compulsory or full-time.
"Allie Kakulas said people did not place enough value on the education children received from their parents. "They have that one-on-one time with you and just to send them away breaks my heart," she said. "They are so little for such a short period of time."
"Martin Liston said his son would love to attend kindergarten more than two days a week but five days would be too much."
From The West Australian
- The Australian
- School payout for boy's reading failure
by Ewin Hannan
"A mother has won a confidential payout from a top private school for failing to teach her son how to read properly."In a case that raises questions about the extent to which schools are liable for what they teach, the Melbourne mother reached a settlement with Brighton Grammar School yesterday after alleging the school breached the Trade Practices Act.
"Yvonne Meyer, who cannot discuss the confidential deal, took action against the school because she believed it had failed to deliver on its promise to address her son Jake's reading problems.
"Ms Meyer claimed Jake, now aged 13 and in a private secondary school, made it all the way to Year 5 without being able to read properly.
"Until then, he had been guessing and memorising words..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Op Ed [on the above news story]
Look-and-guess teaching not acceptable
by Kevin Donnelly
"To date, concerns about fads such as whole language and fuzzy maths have focused on government schools. But yesterday's case at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal between a parent, Yvonne Meyer, and Brighton Grammar School shows the debate about standards should also include private schools."Ms Meyer, a member of last year's federal inquiry into literacy teaching, took Brighton Grammar to the tribunal claiming the school had failed to properly identify and remedy her son's reading difficulties because of an over-emphasis on teaching the whole-language approach.
"As last year's federal evaluation of Australian primary school curriculums demonstrated, the Government-sponsored curriculum in Victoria, which schools are expected to follow, is weighted towards the whole language, or look-and-guess approach.
"Not enough attention is paid to teaching children the relationship between letters and sounds, and combinations of letters and sounds represented by phonemic awareness and phonics.
"The 2005 federal inquiry into the best way to teach children how to read concluded that the phonics approach was vitally important and that schools should evaluate their programs in the light of research proving that whole language, by itself, is insufficient in teaching children how to read.
"Meyer versus Brighton Grammar School is also significant as it raises the issue of to what extent parents and students should be able to hold schools accountable for their performance.
"With some private school fees ranging from $15,000 to $20,000 a year, it is only natural that parents expect standards to be met and for schools to structure their teaching and learning in the light of what works and what is considered the most effective practice.
"In the US, there have been a number of cases where parents have taken schools to court, arguing that they have failed in their duty as professionals.
"While such cases are extremely rare in Australia and should only be used as a last resort, yesterday's proceedings at VCAT prove that non-government schools will be under increasing public scrutiny and pressure to perform."
Kevin Donnelly is the director of Melbourne-based Education Strategies
From The Australian at link
Op Ed
Richard Allsop: The whole world must be the story
In history classes, Napoleon should rate more than Edmund Barton
"Even the most hardened summit-sceptic would have to acknowledge that the calling of this week's history summit has already produced a number of positive outcomes..."
"By its stated aim to return to the "essential facts, dates and events that every student should know", the summit has also brought in to the open those historians who actually wear their lack of knowledge of any historical facts as a badge of honour. Thus, La Trobe University history research fellow, Clare Wright, appeared in The Age patronising the "ordinary folks (who) take their knowledge claims extremely seriously". It may not have occurred to Wright, but the "ordinary folks" have actually worked out that acquiring "knowledge claims" (presumably this is academic jargon for facts) can actually be fun."Wright claims virtue for being the product of "a thoroughly post-modern education, schooled to seek and interpret a multiplicity of voices, competing narratives and diverse texts". Yet, in reality, a historian who interprets history without a grasp of the facts is akin to an architect trying to design a building without any understanding of what facts actually make the building stand up.
"Among all the positives the summit will produce, however, there is still some cause for concern. Speaking on ABC radio recently, Education Minister Julie Bishop said: "Australian history should be a critical part of the school curriculum, it should at least be a stand-alone subject, and compulsory to say Year 10. I think we should have a great deal of pride in our nation's history, and to ensure we have more informed citizens, they need to have a greater understanding of our nation's past."
"The Minister is correct that history should be a critical part of the school curriculum, but should this be solely Australian history? There is no doubt a need to address, as Gregory Melleuish has done in the paper he has prepared for the summit, the perennial complaint about Australian history that it is not interesting because it lacks the wars, violence and revolutions of other countries..."
Richard Allsop is a research fellow of the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne.
Full story in The Australian at link
- Letter to the Editor
- "On behalf of all teachers, I thank Judith Wheeldon for describing so succinctly the complex job of teaching ("It's a proposal without any merit", 12-13/8)."
Susan Cole, Ulverstone, Tas
Complete Letters to the Editor of The Australian at http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/index/0,,21223,00.html
- The Melbourne Age
- Critical mark for history summit
by David Rood
"A national summit on history teaching in schools has been criticised for not including enough history teachers and being "stacked" with academics and commentators."Melbourne University historian and meeting participant Kate Darian-Smith said the event should have a greater number of history teachers who understand the reality of the history classrooms.
"Three of the 23 participants invited to Thursday's meeting are now teaching.
"Professor Darian-Smith said that while professional historians could make a valuable contribution, "a lot of them will be talking about curriculum and teaching when they are teaching in a very different context or not teaching at all".
"The reality is the decisions of the summit need to be implemented through teachers," she said..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- The late-updating "Monday" Education Section of The Melbourne Age has 17 education-related stories – too many to abstract here. Well worth a browse.
- Op Ed
Heed history teachers, not the ideologues
This week's summit is a chance to form a new charter for history, writes Stuart McIntyre.
"Twenty-two historians, educators and friends of history will meet in Canberra on Thursday for a summit on Australian history. The declared purpose is to revive the subject in our schools, give it a secure place in the curriculum and ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn about their country's past. Few would question such objectives."But is that all? Some historians are troubled by an aphorism from ancient history. Roughly translated, it warns to beware of Canberrans bearing gifts. The summit has been convened by federal Education Minister Julie Bishop following a call by Prime Minister John Howard on Australia Day for a "root-and-branch renewal of the teaching in Australian history in our schools".
"The Prime Minister's call came in an address lauding "The Australian Achievement", and he could not resist the temptation to congratulate his Government for redefining it. Thus he rejoiced that "the divisive phoney debate about the national identity" had been "finally laid to rest", and then set out his own position in that very debate.
"His call for "a structured narrative" of Australian history to replace what he described as the present "fragmented stew of 'themes' and 'issues' " seemed to betray a belief that only one story can be told and that it should be drilled into all young Australians.
"It is therefore hardly surprising that the choice of the 22 participants has attracted considerable comment..."
Stuart Macintyre is Ernest Scott professor of history at Melbourne University.
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- Letter to the Editor
- That's accountancy, Mr Carr, not history
"Bob Carr's entry into the debate over the teaching of Australian history (The Age, 14/8) is unhelpful on two counts:
"First, it is an inaccurate characterisation of the way academics approach pre-colonial indigenous society. During my history degree studies I have not come across one historian who purports to say that Aboriginal life was peaceful and without fault. In any case, this argument comes dangerously close to Cook's Enlightenment ideas of the "happy, ignorant savage".
"Second, Carr's comments fall into the same line of argument as Professor Blainey's balance-sheet approach to writing Australian history. It is based on a simplistic presumption that we can neatly organise all our historical events into good and bad pigeonholes, and that the good pigeonhole is overflowing while the bad one gets all the attention from the postmodern elites.
"Rather, the essence of writing "good" history is to faithfully rearticulate the past, working within acknowledged limitations of today. In practice, this means engaging with the myriad of intertwining "rights" and "wrongs" with a commitment to representing the past as truthfully as we can.
"This kind of academic exercise is only hindered by confining approaches which suggest that a balance sheet can be drawn up at the end. That's accountancy, Mr Carr, not history."
Emily Millane, Box Hill North
Complete Letters to the Editor of The Melbourne Age at http://www.theage.com.au/letters/
- The New York Times
- Essay
How to Make Sure Children Are Scientifically Illiterate
by Lawrence M. Krauss
"Voters in Kansas ensured this month that noncreationist moderates will once again have a majority (6 to 4) on the state school board, keeping new standards inspired by intelligent design from taking effect.
"This is a victory for public education and sends a message nationwide about the public’s ability to see through efforts by groups like the Discovery Institute to misrepresent science in the schools. But for those of us who are interested in improving science education, any celebration should be muted..."
"The chairman of the [Kansas] school board, Dr. Steve Abrams, a veterinarian, is not merely a strict creationist. He has openly stated that he believes that God created the universe 6,500 years ago, although he was quoted in The New York Times this month as saying that his personal faith “doesn’t have anything to do with science.”“I can separate them,” he continued, adding, “My personal views of Scripture have no room in the science classroom.”
"A key concern should not be whether Dr. Abrams’s religious views have a place in the classroom, but rather how someone whose religious views require a denial of essentially all modern scientific knowledge can be chairman of a state school board.
"I have recently been criticized by some for strenuously objecting in print to what I believe are scientifically inappropriate attempts by some scientists to discredit the religious faith of others. However, the age of the earth, and the universe, is no more a matter of religious faith than is the question of whether or not the earth is flat.
"It is a matter of overwhelming scientific evidence. To maintain a belief in a 6,000-year-old earth requires a denial of essentially all the results of modern physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology and geology. It is to imply that airplanes and automobiles work by divine magic, rather than by empirically testable laws..."
Full story in The New York Times at link
- Other articles on the evolution debate in the US
The Evolution Debate: Complete Coverage (11 articles)
Did Humans Evolve? Not Us, Say Americans
- The Canberra Times
- Girls turned off by boys' own curriculum
by Elizabeth Bellamy"The content of school science curriculums was turning girls off the subject at a time when the number of students pursuing these disciplines was in freefall, education academics have warned.
"Addressing the Australian Council for Educational Research annual conference in Canberra yesterday, council research fellow Associate Professor Barry McCrae said recent international research had shown girls were more likely to hold negative attitudes about science taught in schools..."
Full story in The Canberra Times at link
- The Guardian
- Is the gold standard looking tarnished?
The usual outcry about A-levels is about to erupt. Could the critics be right? By John Crace and Rebecca Smithers
Full story in The Guardian [and several related stories] at link
- Read any great software lately?
Alan Johnson stresses the value of a good book, but schools prefer to buy computers. Chris Arnot reports
Full story in The Guardian at link
- Op Ed
Canon fodder
by Stephen Moss
It's madness to force-feed the classics to teenagers - it could put them off reading for life
Full story in The Guardian at link
- The Independent
- A-levels should be scrapped, says think-tank
by Richard Garner, Education Editor
"The Government is being urged today to execute a U-turn and scrap A-levels - by one of Tony Blair's favourite think-tanks."A paper published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) calls for the exam to be phased out and replaced by a British-style baccalaureate, to encourage more students to stay in full-time education after they reach the age of 16..."
Full story in The Independent at link
- Everything you need to know about science: A bluffer's guide
"According to the CBI, the British economy is suffering as pupils spurn science in favour of easier subjects. But it's not too late to catch up - try our refresher course..."
Full story in The Independent at link
- The Washington Post
- Wired, Aglow and Ready For Class
Backpacks Get a Makeover for the IPod Age
by Ylan Q. Mui
"The latest in wearable technology comes with built-in cellphone microphones and remote iPod controls. It is outfitted with electroluminescent piping, originally designed for military use. It might even have solar energy panels."And it is invading a school hallway near you.
"Backpacks, the quintessential back-to-school basic, are going high-tech. Retailers say the innovations are a reflection of students' increasingly digital lives: Textbooks are on CDs. Laptops are replacing dead-tree notebooks. Homework is stored in a flash drive. It was only a matter of time before the backpack got upgraded as well..." [Questions: Are lightning rods an optional extra? Do they short-out when it rains? Web]
Full story in The Washington Post at link
- Washington Post's Back to School Week
- The Melbourne Herald Sun
- Mother Goose worth a gander
by Cheryl Critchley
"Good communication is essential for children to develop strong language skills.
And what better than rhymes, songs and stories to get them started?"Taralye oral language centre for deaf children's new Parent-Child Mother Goose program uses all three.
"The free program for parents and children under two years develops communication and relationships.
"Teachers Margaret Charlton and Jenny Tuck teach parents rhymes and songs, which lead naturally to holding, touching and bouncing.
"All local children are welcome, but the program is particularly good for those with special needs.
"Mother Goose was developed in Canada to enhance parent-child relationships and the child's language skills..."
Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Squeeze on TAFE leaves skills in short supply
by Harriet Alexander, Higher Education Reporter
"TAFE students are graduating without the technological knowledge they need because the institutes are not equipped to keep up with changes in the workplace, an inquiry into the education system shows..."
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- The West Australian
- State acts on sex abuse crisis – by targeting whistleblower (page 9)
by Jessica Strutt
"A school teacher who blew the whistle on sexual abuse of children in a remote Aboriginal community has been threatened with disciplinary action over the disclosure and could be fined $5000."The Education Department has threatened high school teacher Peter Gadeke with disciplinary action because he emailed The West Australian on May 22 from a school computer about the rape of a young boy by an older boy.
"The department alleges Mr Gadeke breached Section 242 of the School Education Act by releasing information about the sexual assault, which is deemed to be confidential.
"Under the Act, Mr Gadeke, who was told of the sexual assault, faces a fine of $5000.
"The Opposition yesterday hit out at the Government over its persecution of Mr Gadeke, saying it wanted to keep the extent of sexual abuse in remote Aboriginal communities hidden from the public.
"Opposition Leader Paul Omodei said it was clear the Government was over-reacting because it had been embarrassed over its failure to tackle issues facing remote Aboriginal communities in WA. He said the public had a right to know what was going on in indigenous communities and the Government should not try and “sweep things under the carpet”."Police have charged a 12-year-old boy over a sexual assault on a nineyear-old boy in the community on April 29.
"Since The West Australian visited the community in early June and revealed the sexual abuse and cannabis problems plaguing the town, police also have charged a 13-yearold boy over a sexual assault on a seven-year-old boy on July 14.
"On June 3, The West Australian published two reports on incidents in the community, in one of which an Aboriginal spokesman said the community was being destroyed by sexual abuse and cannabis.
"Mr Gadeke was not quoted in the reports and he refused to comment yesterday.
"Public Sector Standards Commissioner Maxine Murray said public interest disclosure legislation existed to protect whistleblowers, but in order to be protected a person would have to lodge a disclosure with the appropriate authority.
"She said because Mr Gadeke had made the disclosure outside of the legislation, it would be harder for him to be protected.
"Education Department executive director human resources Alby Huts refused to comment on the matter, saying that all disciplinary matters were dealt with in confidence and it was not appropriate to discuss the circumstances of individual cases.
"In another move, Indigenous Affairs Minister Sheila McHale yesterday announced that the Department of Housing and Works was reviewing the housing needs at Jigalong after The West Australian revealed that up to 27 people were living in each house in the remote Aboriginal community." [And where is the union? Web]
From The West Australian at link
- … and then turns its guns on Opposition visits to State schools (page 9)
by Bethany Hiatt
"The State Government has demanded to know of shadow education minister Peter Collier's school visits, prompting accusations it is trying to intimidate staff from having contact with the Opposition.
"All education district directors were sent an email from the Education Department yesterday saying that staff from the office of Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich had requested the names of all schools that Mr Collier visited recently.
"Directors had to submit school names by lunchtime today but were not told why the names were required or what action would be taken if they did not comply."Unfortunately many of our public schools have not followed the correct protocol and have not notified their district director (of Mr Collier's visit)," the email said. [emphasis added]
"It referred to an article in The West Australian's Inside Cover section, which said Mr Collier had recently returned from visiting schools across the State.
"Mr Collier, who toured about 30 schools in the weeks that Parliament was not sitting, said he believed the Government was trying to intimidate State school principals."He said he was horrified to hear of the demand from Ms Ravlich's office because he had written and verbal permission from her former policy advisor Lance McMahon to approach principals directly.
"I am in no doubt that these actions will make principals extremely reluctant to welcome me into their school," he said.
"Ms Ravlich is on leave. A spokeswoman said the request to remind principals of correct protocol was made after a Labor backbencher asked whether the Minister's office was aware Mr Collier had been to schools in his electorate.
"The spokeswoman said the email was not meant to be intimidating and principals would definitely not face any disciplinary action. But she did not know why the department had requested the names of all schools that had breached protocol.
"A principal of a northern suburbs primary school said the move would intimidate school principals and was "utterly Stalinist in its execution".
"What next? An email asking principals to report if they have read Inside Cover?" he said. [emphasis added]
[So Lil "is on leave" and the only thing her department worries about is "protocol". How utterly pathetic! And we wonder what, if anything, Lilly was doing to benefit education in WA during her “6-week holiday”! Web]
- History row could cost WA millions (page 15)
by Bethany Hiatt“WA could miss out on millions of dollars in school funding if it does not agree to Federal Government plans to introduce Australian history as a separate, stand-alone subject in high school.
"Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop may consider withholding funding in the four-year funding cycle which starts in 2009 if States do not fall in line with her plan to make Australian history a critical part of the curriculum.
"WA receives $3.2 billion under the current agreement. Negotiations for the next agreement start year next year.
"The Federal Government tied the current agreement to conditions such as a requirement to include A – E gradings on school reports.
"During the recent furore over outcomes-based education, Ms Bishop said she would consider WA's refusal to slow OBE implementation when negotiating the next funding agreement. [emphasis added]
"Tomorrow, she is holding a meeting of historians and education leaders in Canberra which is expected to make recommendations on what and when students should learn Australian history.
"In WA, history is not compulsory in Years 11 and 12. Students from kindergarten to Year 10 now study history as part of society and environment."
From The West Australian
- Letters to the Editor
- "I am appalled that the WA Primary Principals' Association would even consider, never mind recommend, that pre-primary attendance should be compulsory and longer (Full-time kindy gets backing, 14/8). This is not a time when formal learning should be forced on young minds..."
"Instead of putting pre-primary children into more formal education I would insist on mothers of young children staying at home full-time until their children are at least five years old. People who say they need to work should learn to live within their means and stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. My husband and I lived very basically and went without things until our three children were in their teens and we could afford to move to our present address. It seems this generation is incapable of doing this."
Faye Blythe, Dalkeith
- "I am the mother of a three-month-old daughter and it was with horror that I read your report about the proposal for full-time kindy for four-year-olds. Was the WA Primary Principals' Association research conducted on children who were in full-time education and did it take into account the social effect of taking children away from their parents for such an extended period? I consider this proposal to be a vote of no confidence in parents."
Belinda Kennedy, Mandurah
- "I think someone is missing the point when it comes to the growing illiteracy among our young people. The answer is not to send them to school practically before they are out of nappies but to facilitate a parent being able to be at home for them until they are emotionally old enough to attend school and when they return from school at the end of the day. The important time of the day in any child's learning phase is reinforcing what they have learnt at school with a parent..."
"The formative years are so important. Why are we not learning the bitter lessons from the difficulties being experienced by this generation of young people? They are being left to fend for themselves at far too young an age. More schooling is not the answer – the answer is knowing you are loved and cared for and giving parents the time and financial freedom to express this."
Caroline Rushforth, Ellenbrook
Complete Letters to the Editor in The West Australian
- The Australian
- Private schools to curtail promises
by Ewin Hannan and Justine Ferrari
"Principals of independent schools have declared that no school can promise to teach every child to read, as lawyers warned that a landmark court case would send "alarm bells" through the private education system."Principals said the case - in which a mother won a payout from a private school for failing to teach her son to read properly - would force independent schools to wind back their marketing to avoid being sued by unhappy parents.
"The Australian revealed yesterday that Melbourne mother Yvonne Meyer received a confidential payout from Brighton Grammar School after alleging the school breached the Trade Practices Act.
"Ms Meyer, who claimed the school failed to deliver on its promise to address her son's reading problems, said yesterday that schools should be held accountable.
"I would like parents to know that if they think there is a problem they're probably right and they can do something about it," she told The Australian.
"But Leonie Trimper, president of the Australian Primary Principals Association, which represents the heads of government and non-government schools, said no school could promise to teach every student to read..."
"Lawyer Michael Magazanik from law firm Slater & Gordon said the legal settlement should concern private schools..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- The Australian's Higher Education Supplement online has 13 articles today, including these two:
- $237,000 uni course as degrees keep up with mortgages
by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
"Students will be charged the same as an average home mortgage - $220,000 - to secure full-fee degrees at several universities from next year."University of NSW vice-chancellor Fred Hilmer said yesterday the fees were fair, even though students will pay up to $237,000 for a combined bachelor of arts and medicine.
"Is it worth that much? It clearly is because some people are prepared to pay it," he told The Australian last night.
"The figures are revealed in the 2007 edition of the Good Universities Guide, which confirms that UNSW, the University of Melbourne and Bond University will charge more than $200,000 for medicine degrees.
"Despite John Howard's 1999 pledge that "there will be no $100,000 degrees under this Government", over 100 degrees now cost more than $100,000. .."
Full story in The Australian's Higher Education Supplement at link
Similar story in The Melbourne Age
Similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald
Also similar stories in other daily newspapers.
- Ethics draft provokes anger
by Bernard Lane
"Australia's most ambitious attempt to regulate research ethics has been sharply criticised by medical scientists as a flawed exercise in micromanagement and a potential health hazard."Researchers took particular offence at a reference in the draft national ethics code to Nazi scientific experiments in concentration camps.
"It would be equivalent to discussing the benefits of electricity and talking only about the electric chair," molecular geneticist Bob Williamson said, speaking on behalf of the Australian Academy of Science.
"Other scientists agreed, saying the draft National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research failed to strike the right balance between the tremendous social good of medical research and often overstated concerns about privacy, consent and risk..."
Full story in The Australian's Higher Education Supplement at link
- The Melbourne Age
- Litigation warning as private school settles complaint over child's literacy
by David Rood and Chee Chee Leung
"A settlement between a leading Melbourne private school and a parent who said her child had not been taught to read properly could result in increased litigation between parents and schools, a principals group has warned."Brighton Grammar School reportedly reached a confidential settlement this week with a parent who was unhappy with her child's literacy level.
"Yvonne Meyer won the settlement after taking the school, whose annual fees reach more than $17,000 in the secondary years, to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal..."
"The president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, Andrew Blair, said there was a strong possibility the case could lead to an increase in litigation between parents and schools, including those in the government system."The government sector is not immune. People can argue their taxpayer dollars are being used to provide education in this state and they want quality and guarantees from it," he said. "Just because you don't pay the level of fees (of private schools) does not mean you are not entitled to quality assurance."
"The Education Department said it could not comment.
"The Australian Education Union's Victorian president, Mary Bluett, said schools could become wary about claims in their promotional materials.
"The Association of Independent Schools Victoria said while parents had a reasonable right to expect schools to provide a good education, education was a partnership between the school, parent and child..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link – Also similar stories in other daily newspapers.
- ABC News Online
- Graduate salaries higher in Qld, WA
"The latest rankings of Australia's universities show the salaries of graduates in Queensland and Western Australia are overtaking those in New South Wales."The Good Universities Guide ranks higher education providers on a number of factors.
"When it comes to getting a job and getting paid well, New South Wales has been the leader for years.
"But the guide's Richard Evered says that is now shifting.
"The top 16 places in the country are no longer held by the New South Wales institutions," he said.
"Mr Evered thinks it is a sign the New South Wales economy is slowing.
"The increased salaries for graduates in Queensland and Western Australia are mainly because of the resources boom.
"The guide has also shown that, on average, entry marks for universities have dropped by an average three or four points across the country..."
Full story in ABC News Online at link
- USA Today
- 3 states prepare for rules requiring more classroom spending
"... Texas is one of three states that will soon require schools to spend at least 65% of their budgets on direct classroom costs such as teachers and textbooks. Several other states also are moving toward adopting the measure. The idea was to spend more money on children without raising taxes..."
"Internet retail millionaire Patrick Byrne, founder of the political group First Class Education, kickstarted the movement and wants the so-called "65 percent solution" to be implemented in all 50 states by the end of 2008.It's now required in Georgia, and Louisiana school officials are working on a similar requirement. Petition drives and television ad campaigns have led to ballot referendums this November in Colorado and Oklahoma. Efforts for 2008 ballot referenda are underway in Washington, Arizona, Missouri and Kansas.
"Instructional materials such as laptops and field trips are considered classroom costs under the most widely accepted definition. Transportation, counselors and nurses are not."It's simply criminal that superintendents are making well above $200,000-a-year, driving Lexuses and BMWs, when teachers are paying for pencils and paper out of their own pockets," said Tim Mooney, spokesman for First Class Education..."
Full story in USA Today at link
- The Adelaide Advertiser
- New buses yes - current buses no
by Michael Owen, Xanthe Kleing and Anna Vlach
"The State Government has refused to fit seatbelts to existing school buses, but will spend $220,000 a year to fit all new buses with seatbelts.
"At the current average of 11 new buses a year, it will take the Government about 30 years to replace its fleet of 300 buses not fitted with seatbelts."Seatbelt safety on a further 300 privately-owned buses will be addressed "as their contracts come up for renewal"...
Full story in The Adelaide Advertiser at link
Editorial
School bus rule just not enough
"At first glance, yesterday's announcement by the State Government that all new school buses will be fitted with seatbelts was reassuring.
"After days of procrastination, it seemed the Government was finally listening to sensible, conservative groups like the Australian Medical Association and school principals and acting to improve the safety of children on school buses."But the reality is the announcement by Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith was little more than a political pea-and-thimble trick..."
Full editorial in The Adelaide Advertiser at link
- New York Radio Station 1010 WINS [15 August their time]
- NJ Education Dept. Releasing Teacher Report
"TRENTON, N.J. -- Education Department officials in New Jersey Tuesday are slated to release results of a survey on the percentage of teachers who are considered highly qualified."Those teachers must have a bachelor's degree, a certificate and documentation of expertise in each subject taught.
"The report is required under the federal No Child Left Behind act.
"States were supposed to have 100 percent of core classes taught by highly qualified teachers by this fall. However, the federal government gave them an extension."
From New York Radio Station 1010 WINS at link
Two "Off-beat" stories from the U S of A
[look for this colour and font for future off-beat stories on quiet news days...]
- The Caledonian-Record, St. Johnsbury, Vermont USA [15 August their time]
- Cut Education Spending To Solve Property Tax Increases
by Jeanne Miles
"The spiraling property tax rates are caused by overspending on education..."
"Vermont has the third highest level of spending for education in the country, Pelham said, with an annual budget of $1.2 billion. That is 36 percent above the national average."The ratio of students per teacher is 10.9 to 1. The national average is 15.7 students per teacher, Pelham said. Between 1997 and 2006, the number of students has decreased by 9 percent, yet the number of teachers has increased by 8 percent..."
Full story in The Caledonian-Record at link
- WKYC-TV, Cleveland, Ohio USA
- School district changes sex education policy [15 August their time]
Associated Press
"CANTON, OHIO -- The Canton Board of Education says abstinence isn't working.
"So, the board has voted to expand sex education following the revelation that 13 percent of Timken High School's female students were pregnant last year."The new program promotes abstinence but also will teach students who decide to have sex how to do so responsibly."
Full story at WKYC-TV at link
- The West Australian
- Editorial
Premier should ban oppressive bully tactics (page 20)"The Carpenter Government is showing disturbing signs of increasing authoritarianism, if not oppressiveness. It seems to have developed a mind-set directed at penalising or suppressing people who draw attention to issues that might cause it political embarrassment or discomfort – rather than fixing the problems thus identified.
"For example, a teacher has been threatened with disciplinary action and could be fined $5000 for blowing the whistle on sexual abuse of children in an Aboriginal community. The threat came from the Education Department after the teacher sent an email to this newspaper from a school computer about the rape of a boy by an older boy. Police have laid charges over sexual assaults in the community.
"Clearly, the overriding issue for all right-thinking people was that children were in jeopardy in that community. Disclosure of conditions there was self-evidently in the public interest – if public attention is drawn to a problem of public policy, it is more likely to be fixed. This is a political reality.
"It is a reasonable community expectation that the department's first concern would be for the wellbeing of children in its schools. However, by pursuing the whistleblower, the bureaucrats in the department imply that his action was wrong – even though its effect was to draw attention to the need for improved protection of children – and that he deserves to be punished for it.
"The effect of this kind of bullying is to intimidate others who might speak out on behalf of children. Of course, the Government has been under pressure for its tardy and less than wholehearted response to disclosures of deplorable conditions in some Aboriginal communities where neglect and abuse of children are endemic. But what sort of haywire official thinking puts the comfort of politicians ahead of the welfare of children?
"Of course, this department showed itself for the bullying bureaucracy that it is when it threatened to penalise teachers who criticised outcomes-based education. Its actions denied the public interest in open and informed discussion of proposed changes in education.
"Intimidation was again evident in the efforts made to track shadow education minister Peter Collier's school visits. An email sent from the department on this is likely to make principals wary of agreeing to Mr Collier visiting their schools.
"The Opposition has been criticised for being lax. But when Mr Collier shows diligence in doing the job he should be doing for our democracy, the Government wants to put impediments in his way.
"Alan Carpenter should not countenance this kind of intimidatory and oppressive behaviour in the name of his Government. The Premier, of all people, should know better."
[And all 3 examples are from the Department of Education and Training. Web]
From The West Australian
- Op Ed
Integrity disappears fast under Carpenter (page 21)
by Robert Taylor, Inside State
"The Carpenter Government's dismissal this week of serious questions raised by public service watchdog Maxine Murray about top-level recruitment in the public sector displayed worrying signs that Labor was starting to suffer from integrity fatigue..."
Full story in The West Australian
- Catholic pupils to have faith exams (page 9)
by Bethany Hiatt
Knowledge of Bible to get same status as maths and reading as Catholic Schools overhaul religious education
"All children at Catholic schools will have to sit compulsory exams to test their religious knowledge in a bid to give religion the same status as mathematics and reading.
"The Catholic Education Office is overhauling its religious education curriculum to dovetail with the introduction of the new outcomes-based education course Religion and Life that Year 11 students start in 2008..." [emphasis added]
"All Year 7 children in the Perth Archdiocese – which stretches as far as Kalgoorlie – sat their first Bishop's Religious Literacy Assessment last week.
"Next year, Year 9 students will sit the test, which will be phased into Years 5 and 3 after that.
"Eventually, all the State's 66,000 Catholic school students will have to sit a religious literacy test four times during their education if they attend Catholic school from Years 1 to 12.
"Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard said the test was designed to mirror the WA Literacy and Numeracy Assessments (WALNA) that students sit in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
"The Year 7 test included multiple choice questions on topics such as the Bible, Jesus Christ, Church history, liturgy and sacrament, religious prayer and practice.
"Students in Catholic schools are expected to spend the same amount of time on religious education as they do on other subjects.
"We want to be quite clear that the religious education component is a knowledge component that we want all children to know, just like we would want them to know geography or their reading, writing and maths," Mr Dullard said. "We are trying to say this is a subject just like any other subject."
"Mr Dullard said the push for tests came from Archbishop Barry Hickey about a year ago.
"He was keen to have students knowing core facts about the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion," he said. "All of this is good preparation for what will be a course of study in 2008."
"The intention is that it will be compulsory for all Year 11 and 12 students. And some of them will do it at a level where the marks will count for tertiary entrance." [emphasis added]
Mr Dullard believe WA was the only State to link religion tests to the WALNA tests."
Examples of multiple choice questions from the "Bishop's Religious Literacy Assessment"
Full story in The West Australian
- Bishop palns history renaissance (page 11)
by Rhianna King, Canberra
"A crowded curriculum which "mushed up" history studies with other subjects was failing WA students, Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said yesterday as part of her campaign to make history compulsory in high school..."
"She wanted to encourage a national roll-out of NSW's curriculum, which teaches compulsory history in Years 9 and 10. [emphasis added]
"In WA, students in Year 8-10 learn history through the Time, Continuity and Change outcome, but Ms Bishop said that led to a crowded curriculum.
"We should seriously question the experiment of mushing up history in Studies of Society and the Environment. There is a growing body f evidence that this is failing our children," she said. "History is not social justice awareness week. Or conscious-raising about ecological sustainability. History is history and shouldn't be a political science course by another name..." [emphasis added]
"Labor Leader Kim Beazley said the Federal Government should be more concerned about promoting trades subjects in schools, to address the skills shortage."
Full story in The West Australian
Other similar stories on this issue, from The Australian, The Melbourne Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, provided below.
- Students offered sign-on bonuses (front page)
by Kim MacDonald
"The skills crisis driven by WA's boom is forcing desperate firms to scour high schools for talent and offer university students sign-on bonuses worth thousands of dollars if they promise to work for them when they graduate.
"Accounting firm Ernst & Young is about to give 30 second-year university students a cheque for $2000 each which they can cash if they promise to join the company’s graduate program in 2008."Spokesman Stuart McLean said the strategy to entice the State’s top students was gaining popularity. Accounting firm Deloittes said it gave the bonuses to graduates selectively. RSM Cameron spokesman Geoff Peate said the labour market was so tight that the accounting firm was forced to start recruitment drives at high schools, with pleas to country students to consider a career at one of their regional offices if they graduated as accountants.
“Generation Y graduates are very different. They graduate with up to five or six job offers and they end up interviewing the employers,” said Mr Peate, also a spokesman for the Australian Human Resources Institute. Incentives for graduate engineers were more generous and were usually paid when employment began, according to the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers.
"Mercer HR Consulting recently offered an engineering and science graduate a $7000 sign-on bonus. Orica Australia offered an engineering and mining graduate a $3000 commencement bonus.
"Clough Engineering gave $5000 scholarships to seven final-year students on the condition they took up full time jobs at the company when they finished their degrees.
"UWA Young Engineers chairman Linh Le said students were aware of how much times had changed. “I know people who are getting job offers left, right and centre. Perhaps five years ago that would not have been the case, because back then, if you got an offer, you’d hold on to it,” Mr Le said.
"Associate professor at the University of WA, Richard Durham, said the skills shortage was so dire that salary packages for some graduates were as high as $110,000. Most students had secure employment offers before they finished studying.
"Recruitment firm Talent2 said sign-on bonuses for established engineers were as much as $20,000. “Basically the demography is such that there are not enough graduates to go around, and this is what employers are doing to stand out in the crowd,” spokeswoman Sharon Parcell said.
"There is an estimated 18 per cent vacancy rate in the 20,000-strong engineering sector in WA and a 10 to 15 per cent vacancy rate in accounting.
"Curtin students Daniel Fingland, 19, and Tim Whyte, 20, said job offers gave them peace of mind. While both would have taken the jobs without the cash incentive, they felt the bonus could be the deciding factor for those with several offers."
From The West Australian at link
- Letter to the Editor (page 22)
- "The WA Primary Principals' Association push for full-time compulsory kindergarten and pre-primary school is an excellent proposal. Research shows that the earlier children get quality education the better they will perform academically and socially.
"Edith Cowan University academic Carmel Maloney's objections are ludicrous. Why would teachers shift to more didactic teaching and away from play-based exploratory programs merely because pre-Year 1 education becomes compulsory? This denigrates the professionalism of dedicated teachers.
"My job takes me into daily contact with early childhood teachers and their students. These teachers are putting into practice the spirit of the Curriculum Framework, which stresses the importance of play and exploration for this age group, and their students are happy, stimulated and eager to learn.
"Ms Maloney says that parents should be able to choose whether their children attend. Why? If we carried this to its logical conclusion, parents would be able to choose whether their children went to school at any age. Often the children who most need early intervention either do not attend regularly or are not enrolled at all.
"Kindergarten-age children are quite capable of managing a 30-hour week, so long as they have a rest in the middle of the day. Actual teaching time would be only about 20 hours under this proposal, quite modest when much younger children can spend up to 50 hours a week in child care."
Alec Duncan, Glendalough
Full Letters to the Editor in The West Australian
- School bus belt plan in tatters (page 4)
by Graham Mason
"The State Government’s plan to retrofit school buses with seat belts by 2010 is in tatters, with a senior public transport official telling an industry group last week that they wanted to push the program back five years. That delay will mean that some school children may not travel in a seatbelt-fitted orange school bus until 2015.
"The West Australian understands that a senior Public Transport Authority official told a bus safety management meeting in Margaret River last week that the retrofit program was unlikely to be completed before 2015.
"Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan said she was seeking information about what was said at that meeting.
"A State Government tender earlier this year calling for expressions of interest from companies interested in retrofitting buses drew five submissions — none of which were successful — and was officially declined on June 30.
"Ms MacTiernan said the previous tenders were insufficiently detailed for the PTA to be able to assess them.
“Within the next six weeks, we will be reletting tenders and will provide more precise detail about our requirements,” she said.
"But Ms MacTiernan could not say when any retrofit program would be completed.
“I want to have a retrofit program underway this year and completed within the next few years,” she said.
"Lloyd Shepherdson, chairman of the school bus division of the Transport Forum and owner-operator of 12 school buses, said the solution should be to bring forward the bus replacement program.
"Currently contractors have to replace their orange school buses every 15 years.
“The PTA are trying to push back the retrofit program from five years to 10 years,” Mr Shepherdson said. “It means some buses might be retrofitted with seatbelts near the end of their 15-year life and that doesn’t make much sense.”
"Opposition planning and infrastructure spokesman Simon O’Brien said the Government had not done its homework and was paying the price for a knee-jerk policy.
"Industry sources estimate that the cost to retrofit a 57-seat school bus with seat belts ranged from $40,000 to $80,000 depending on the type of bus and whether reinforcement of the chassis, floor or walls was needed.
"In October when former premier Geoff Gallop announced that seatbelts would be introduced on all school buses, in the wake of students from the Mandurah Baptist College being involved in a bus rollover, the cost was estimated at $50 million. But in the Government’s mid-year budget review last December, the price blew out to $87 million."
From The West Australian at link
Similar story at ABC News Online
- The Australian
- Restore subject or funding is history
by Imre Salusinszky
"State governments will be under pressure to reinstate history as a compulsory separate subject in schools or risk losing nearly $13 billion in federal funding as a summit of experts meet in Canberra today."But in launching the history summit last night, federal Education Minister Julie Bishop told the 23 participants she was not in favour of "creating some form of an official" history.
"We start, however, with a strong view that Australian history should be a compulsory stand-alone subject during some period of high school," she said.
"The history summit, which was flagged by The Australian last month, has been convened by Ms Bishop in response to John Howard's call in January for a "root and branch renewal" of the teaching of Australian history.
"Debate is healthy, but too often in the past decade the extremes in the history debate obscured the sensible centre and left others - not the least our children - to simply switch off," Ms Bishop said.
"But let me assure everyone that we are not in the business of producing some form of official history."
"The Government is worried that school students are losing any sense of Australian or world history as a result of the rise of cross-disciplinary subjects with titles such as Study of Society and its Environment.
"The Prime Minister and Ms Bishop want compulsory history subjects taught from kindergarten to Year 10, with Australian history the focus of Years 9 and 10..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Editorial
The past is prologue
Australian history should not be taught as tragedy or farce
"Addressing the dinner opening today's Australian History Summit last night, federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said: "History is not peace studies. History is not social justice awareness week. Or consciousness-raising about ecological sustainability. History is history." She is exactly right. Yet for too long Australian history, when it is taught at all, has been used as an excuse to indoctrinate students in politically correct fads rather than give them a solid grounding in the factual and narrative history of their nation. In many states, Australian history is taught as part of something called Studies of Society and the Environment. In the ACT, "gender equity" is a key "curriculum component" informing what the territory's educators call the study of "time, continuity and change". Most other jurisdictions are no better, replacing history with outcomes-based education gobbledegook. The end result is students turned off by history who graduate without any concrete sense of how Australia became the nation it is today. The only exception is NSW, where, thanks to former premier Bob Carr, history is taught as a discrete subject in secondary schools by teachers who have actually studied the stuff. In bringing together a raft of historians and thinkers in Sydney today to discuss the teaching of history, the Howard Government is sending a clear message: our history matters, has been ignored for too long and deserves to be taught as a stand-alone subject to every Australian child..."
Full editorial in The Australian at link [Scroll down a bit.]
Cut & paste
If we forget our nation's past, we will fail our future
Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop, at the history summit last night, on the importance of teaching the discipline.
"Last year Roy Eccleston, a journalist at The Australian, returned home after four years ... in the US. There his young son learned the basics about important Americans in first grade: from George Washington to Martin Luther King. His daughter's fourth-grade history book traced the national story from Native Americans through the Revolutionary War and onwards."Since returning to Australia, Eccleston's children have looked at how their suburb has changed over time. They've done some work on a family tree. But, as Roy lamented earlier this year on the opinion page, "a structured, consistent study of the nation's history" was nowhere to be found. When he expressed his concerns to the local school principal, he was told not to worry. His children wouldn't be alone in their ignorance..."
Text of Julie Bishop's speech in The Australian at link
- Call to attract more maths, science students
by Jeremy Roberts
"Unless South Australia's review of the secondary school curriculum produces more science and maths students, universities will be forced to lengthen courses or drop subjects."University of South Australia Pro-Vice Chancellor Peter Lee said yesterday the measures would be necessary if the review did not turn around the current shortage of students.
"Students are not studying maths and science at the same rate as they did 10 or 20 years ago," Professor Lee said. "We would have to ... lengthen the degrees by adding another year or take away extra options and fill it up with stuff they haven't done in high school."
"But he said the review was in its early stages and "we don't have concerns yet".
"The long-running review of the South Australian Certificate of Education will deliver the new leaving examination to all government, Catholic and independent schools over the next five years. A key aim of the review is to increase retention rates from 55per cent.
"The review's final report, released in March, was titled "Success For All" and included recommendations to enlarge the number of activities that would be assessed as subjects, including volunteer work, outside-school sports, social work and vocational work. There would be no time limit for students to complete the new certificate..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Doctors face loan shortfall
by Samantha Maiden
"University loans offering aspiring doctors up to $100,000 for full-fee degrees will not cover the cost of nine out of 10 courses."Despite a budget boost in the amount students can borrow to secure degrees, new figures reveal that about 350 courses will not be covered by the FEE-HELP loans scheme..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- The Melbourne Age
- History's future on the line
by Jewel Topsfield and David Rood
"Australia must guard against history taught in schools becoming shoe-horned into a political agenda, warns Education Minister Julie Bishop."History is not social justice awareness week," she said last night in a blunt speech on the eve of the national history summit in Canberra.
"Ms Bishop said the Government had a strong view that Australian history should be a compulsory, stand-alone subject at high school..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
Similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald
- Related stories in The Melbourne Age
- Baillieu urged to drug test school students
by Paul Austin
"Liberal leader Ted Baillieu is being urged to introduce drug testing in secondary schools if he wins November's state election."The Liberals' state council meeting this weekend will debate a resolution calling on a Baillieu government to order government schools to conduct "health tests" to detect whether students are using drugs..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- ABC News Online
- Butt out of history teaching, urges Lawrence
"A senior Labor figure says the Federal Government's real motive for calling a summit on Australian history is to win the culture wars, not improve teaching standards."In his Australia Day speech, the Prime Minister called for a return to traditional history teaching, prompting the Education Minister to host today's summit at Parliament House on the issue.
"John Howard says he is concerned school students are not learning enough about their country's past.
"But Labor backbencher Carmen Lawrence says the Government is more interested in influencing what is taught than improving the curriculum.
"A fixed identity - the Australian every man, if you like, with his cricket bat and Gallipoli nostalgia," she said.
"Dr Lawrence says the Federal Government should butt out, given it has no experience in running schools or developing curriculum.
"She says running schools should be left to state governments, but Education Minister Julie Bishop wants history restored as a stand-alone subject..."
Full story at ABC News Online at link
- The Canberra Times
- $200,000 degree a disgrace: AMA
by Elizabeth Bellamy
"Vice-chancellors have declared opposition to any cap on the amount universities may charge for full-fee paying places as news that some degrees now cost more than $200,000 was branded a national disgrace..."
"The Labor Party reiterated yesterday its promise to abolish full-fee paying places for Australian undergraduate students."It is a product of the under-funding of Australian universities," federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said.
"It is unacceptable that an Australian kid would pay as much for a university degree as he or she would pay for a mortgage," the latter an average $220,220 in May.
"Australian National University vice-chancellor Professor Ian Chubb agreed."
Full story in The Canberra Times at link
- The Melbourne Herald Sun
- Mobile phones get call to aid students
by Jane Metlikovec
"Students could soon be dialling their way through classes on school-issued mobile phones.
"Thornbury High School hopes to give a year 8 class free mobile phones in a proposed deal with Telstra..."
"[The principal] said students would use the phones to access the internet for research, take photographs and make videos..."
Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
- The Adelaide Advertiser
- MPs have seat belts on their bus but your children do not
by Michael Owen
"While students have been told they cannot have seatbelts fitted to all school buses, groups of touring MPs are protected by belts in the buses they hire..."
Full story in The Adelaide Advertiser at link
- The New York Times
- Back to School, With Cellphone and Laptop
by Jeffrey Selingo
"It used to be that getting ready for another school year meant buying a few new No. 2 pencils, spiral notebooks and a lunchbox. Not anymore. Young children and teenagers, as well as college students, are going to school with more electronic gadgets than ever..."
Full story in The New York Times at link
- The Washington Post
- Court Ruling Prompts Ban on Groups Sending Fliers Home With Students
by Lori Aratani
"Montgomery County school officials announced yesterday that they are temporarily banning outside groups such as parent-teacher associations and the Boy Scouts from distributing fliers about activities and events in student backpacks."The decision comes less than a week after a federal appeals court ruled that the school system's policy for flier distribution was unconstitutional because it gave educators unlimited power to approve or reject materials.
"The case is the outgrowth of a dispute between the school system and Child Evangelism Fellowship of Maryland. The group filed suit in 2001 after the school system denied its request to distribute fliers about its Good News Club programs, in which students learn about the Bible. System officials said they were concerned because the materials were religious..."
Full story in The Washington Post at link
- The West Australian
- Bishop draws up battle lines for history war with States (page 6)
by Rhianna King, Canberra
"Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop is strong-arming the WA Government into making Australian history compulsory for all Year 9 and 10 students in what is an unprecedented intervention in State affairs.
"Yesterday's warning that it would be "essential and required" for all States to introduce a new national history curriculum has set Ms Bishop on a collision course with WA education authorities, who have resisted the change.
"WA students from Years 1 to 10 are currently taught Australian history as part of the Time, Continuity and Change subject. It is not a stand-alone course..."
"Ms Bishop backed away from suggestions the plan would encroach on State responsibilities but would not rule out withholding $13 billion in Commonwealth funding if education ministers did not toe the line..." [emphasis added]
"The ultimatum received a cool response from WA. Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich, who is on holiday, has previously dismissed the plan as a power grab. Her ministerial stand-in, Norm Marlborough, said yesterday that Australian history was already a critical element in WA..."
Full story in The West Australian
See below for a range of articles, editorials and Letters on this topic, from The Australian, The Melbourne Age and other daily newspapers.
- MacTiernan hazy on seatbelt bus numbers (page 6)
by Graham Mason
"More holes have emerged in the Government's plan to retrofit seatbelts to school buses with Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan admitting she does not know how many buses will have belts by 2010.
"The West Australian revealed yesterday that a senior Public Transport Authority official told an industry group last week in Margaret River they wanted the retrofit program pushed back five years to 2015."Late last year when the Government announced the cost of the bus seatbelt program had blown out from $50 million to $87 million, a 2010 completion date was touted.
"But the Government scrapped a tender program for the retrofit in June, despite receiving five expressions of interest from firms wanting to fit out existing school buses.
"Ms MacTiernan said yesterday the Government was still committed to retrofitting school buses with seatbelts but admitted it was “going to be technically very, very difficult to do” by 2010.
"She said the retrofit program would start later this year even though the Government was yet to advertise for new expressions of interest from companies.
“We have made no secret of the fact that some buses are proving almost impossible to safely retrofit,” she said.
"Opposition planning and infrastructure spokesman Simon O’Brien said he had spoken to representatives in the bus and coach industry and they were confused about the Government’s policy and timetable.
“It appears that many of the schoolchildren of today will be at university before schools have seatbelts fitted,” he said.
“The Government is yet again showing that it can’t keep to its own self-imposed deadlines.”
"Bus contractor Max O’Dea, who operates between Gidgegannup and Eastern Hills, said speeding up the school bus replacement program was the solution.
From The West Australian at link
- The Australian
- States told to rewrite history
by Imre Salusinszky and Justine Ferrari
"Three state governments risk losing billions in schools funding after dismissing the finding of a summit of historians that recommended postmodern subjects be replaced with a traditional history course."The history summit communique foreshadowed a massive shift in the teaching of history, as well as a new level of commonwealth interference in state and territory education systems.
"But the Queensland, South Australian and West Australian education ministers yesterday dismissed the need for a stand-alone subject.
"Apart from NSW and Victoria, the states and territories have replaced stand-alone history offerings with cross-disciplinary, outcomes-based subjects with titles such as Studies of Society and its Environment.
"Queensland Education Minister Rod Welford said it would be "educational vandalism" for the federal Government to force on the states the separate study of history.
"To talk about history as a stand-alone subject, as a list of events, is an educational absurdity," Mr Welford said.
"It will do absolutely nothing to students' understanding or interpretation of their place in the world."
"Speaking on behalf of the 23 participants in the event, held in Canberra yesterday, former NSW premier Bob Carr said: "History should be taught in our schools, in Year 9 and 10 especially, as a stand-alone discipline.
"It shouldn't be absorbed in other subjects. It should be taught as history."
"Urging state and territory governments to join in "a nationwide revival in the teaching of Australian history", the summit communique said that "the study of Australian history should be sequentially planned through primary and secondary schooling and should be a distinct subject in years 9 and 10. This would be an essential and required core part of all students' learning experience to prepare them for the 21st century".
"The summit, also attended by historian Geoffrey Blainey and the co-chair of Reconciliation Australia, Jackie Huggins, formed a five-member working group to develop a standard Australian history curriculum, including a chronology and set of "open-ended questions", which federal Education Minister Julie Bishop will urge the states and territories to adopt.
"If they do not co-operate, Ms Bishop has refused to rule out using the upcoming quadrennial funding agreement, worth about $13 billion in commonwealth money for state schools, to force their hands. [emphasis added]
"The Australian understands the meeting was anything but a rubber stamp, with vigorous debate over a range of issues, including whether the word "mandatory" should be used to describe the place of history in curriculums.
"While the communique does not go that far, Mr Carr said if he was still a state leader he would understand the summit statement as stipulating compulsory, stand-alone Australian history subjects in years 9 and 10.
"The motion passed at the summit stressing the centrality of history was drafted by Professor Blainey..."
Full story in The Australian at link
Teaching to get major facelift
by Imre Salusinszky
"History teaching is about to get its biggest makeover in decades, after yesterday's completion of the summit on how to reintroduce the subject back into Australian schools."One of the papers that structured the summit, by University of Wollongong academic Greg Melleuish, sketched a range of possible history programs from kindergarten to Year 10 and gives us a firm idea of what the new courses will look like.
"In primary school, Melleuish's courses will focus on individual, local and regional histories. Among the figures he thinks primary school children should learn about are Captain James Cook, Bennelong, Peter Lalor, John Monash, Don Bradman, Joan Sutherland and Charles Perkins.
"In his suggestions for high school courses, at every stage Melleuish is careful to place Australian developments in a global context. Students learning about Cook's maiden voyage, for example, would receive a "snapshot" of what the world looked like in 1778.
"Following the strands of early European presence, the convict period and Australia as a free society, Melleuish's suggested classes on federated Australia provide a good example of the kind of historical training he is proposing for schools.
"The "snapshot of the world" that begins the strand is of 1901, "the high point for the European empires and European domination of the world".
"Meanwhile, the local context for federation is the growth of nationalist sentiment. Here, the contributions of creative spirits such as Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson are placed next to Alfred Deakin's political creation of the so-called "Australian Settlement" - arbitration, tariffs and White Australia.
"Discussing the Australian Settlement, Melleuish contentiously says students will need to be taught to challenge the received, Labor history view of the "fair go", and consider how "Australian fairness could equal someone else's pain".
"He points out that a competing tradition, of free trade liberalism, needs to be considered.
"Students would also explore the way the Australian Constitution involved "the fusion of the Westminster system with the American practice of federalism".
"An "everyday life" section on the world of work at the beginning of the 20th century, and a study of the female franchise, complete the presentation of the Federation period.
"Later stages on Australian democracy in an age of international insecurity and Australia since World War II are equally meaty - and equally distant from the current situation, where students wallow in broad themes such as "time, continuity and change".
From The Australian at link
Teaching history no easy task, says PM
[late editions, from AAP]
"Improving the way history is taught will be like turning around an ocean cruise liner, Prime Minister John Howard said today."A summit of history experts and academics in Canberra yesterday agreed to urge the states to make Australian history a key part of learning and to make it a compulsory, stand-alone subject in Years 9 and 10.
"The decision coincided with Mr Howard's announcement of a new $100,000 Prime Minister's Prize for Australian history.
"Mr Howard today said parents regarded history as “part of the bread and butter” of their children's education.
"But introducing an appropriate history curriculum would not be easy.
“We have taught history as some sort of fragmented stew of news and events,” he told an Adelaide luncheon.
“I don't believe history is simply taught by the rote learning of dates.
“We have failed our young, and our not so young, because the muddled thinking about our history in our education system has been around for a very long time.
“(Correcting this) will be like trying to turn around an ocean liner.
“But it's an enterprise we ought to undertake.”
From The Australian at link
- Cut & Paste
Let's understand our Western heritage
Prime Minister John Howard, at the history summit yesterday, calls for proper teaching of our nation's past
Transcript of John Howard's remarks in The Australian at link
- Letters to the Editor
- Uni debts: parents will pay
"Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop trumpets that only 3 per cent of Australian university students are paying for full-fee degrees ($237,000 uni course as degrees keep up with mortgages”, 16/8)."It is therefore an unavoidable fact that 3 per cent of university places have been taken away from students who would have earned their place through academic success and, instead, been handed to students who didn’t achieve good enough grades but who have rich parents.
"It doesn’t bother me that full-fee students will be left deep in debt, because most of them will get the money from their family’s trust account. What bothers me is that this policy reduces the chances of less privileged Australians being able to climb out of the underclass through education."
John Clover, North Adelaide, SA
- "If you think there’s a crisis in our public hospitals at the moment, just wait. How many doctors do you think will opt for the public health care system over the lucrative private system when they’re struggling to pay off their $200,000 university debts? Do you think anyone will be bulk billing?"
Dr Kate Wick, Abbotsford, Vic
- First Byte
"I wonder at the lesson Yvonne Meyer has offered her son in suing his school for failing to deliver on its promise to address his reading problems ("Private schools to curtail promises”, 16/8). Let’s hope that, later in life, he places more emphasis on personal responsibility than she does."
Matthew Brown, Theodore, ACT
Complete Letters to the Editor of The Australian at link
- Uni gets third degree over postgrad plan
by Lisa Macnamara
"A radical shift to a US-style graduate school system at Melbourne University has been a disaster for the legal profession, according to leading lawyers who fear the changes will produce a new breed of rich, privileged practitioners."The Law Institute of Victoria will write to the dean of the university's law school to raise concerns about the plan to abolish its four-year undergraduate degree and replace it with a graduate law program..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- The Melbourne Age
- History in the making as pupils face national test
by Jewel Topsfield and David Rood
"All students would have to study Australian history in years 9 and 10 under a radical Federal Government push to ensure they are taught pivotal facts and dates from the nation's past. A standard curriculum for all states and territories will also be developed."Following a national history summit in Canberra yesterday, Education Minister Julie Bishop said she would discuss introducing a national year 10 exam with the states and territories.
"Asked if this was a federal takeover of a state responsibility, Ms Bishop said: "What the Australian Government has done is taken a lead in restoring Australian history to a key place in Australian schools."
"She refused to be drawn on whether the states would lose federal funding if they did not introduce compulsory history..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- Related stories in The Melbourne Age:
- Pick any daily newspaper (or ABC News):There are articles, editorials and/or letters about teaching history...
- The London Times
- Record A-level grades fuel debate on reform
by Alexandra Frean, Education Editor
"One in ten A-level students achieved at least three grade As this summer, increasing pressure for reform of the examination."The record haul of almost 200,000 A grades prompted complaints from leading universities that they were increasingly unable to distinguish the brightest candidates..."
Full story in The London Times at link
- So, are all A grades really equal, or are some less equal than others?
Comment by Tony Halpin, Education Editor
"It becomes clearer with each passing year that the A level is broken.
"A qualification that awards its highest grade to one in four papers cannot distinguish the most able candidates from the mass of students who achieve that standard..."
"In some subjects, between a third and a half of students are awarded an A..."
Full story in The London Times at link
Similar stories in The Guardian
© The Times
- ABC News Online
- Foster kids more likely to drop out, study says
"A new report has found half of children in foster or residential care drop out of school early."The annual study has been done by the Create Foundation, which represents children in out-of-home care.
"It has found by the age of 17, 44 per cent had dropped out of school.
"And it says about a third of students in care miss school once a fortnight.
"The foundation's Jadynne Harvey thinks it is because many of them do not feel settled.
"Amongst the group we interviewed it wasn't unusual for people to attend five or six schools, if not more, in the time they've been in care," she said.
"The foundation wants state and territory governments to do more to address the issue, and set up a system to monitor the education of individual children."
From ABC News Online at link
Saturday – Sunday, 19 – 20 August
- The West Australian
- Big OBE mail-out (page 8)
Big OBE mail-out
The Education Department is spending nearly $150,000 to print and post brochures to parents of Year 10 and 11 students extolling the benefits of outcomes-based education.
- WA signals softer line in history row (page 17)
by Rhianna King, Canberra
"The State Government has signalled an about-face in its battle over whether Australian history should be compulsory in Years 9 and 10, but warns it won't be bullied by the Commonwealth.
"As the WA History Teachers Association warned the plan could result in a complete Federal takeover of education, the State Government said it was prepared to work co-operatively to come up with a national model for Australian history.
"Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop wants to work with the States to introduce a compulsory history curriculum in Years 9 and 10 and could withdraw billions in Federal funding if the States don't comply.
"Minister Assisting the Education Minister Norm Marlborough [the Education Minister still being on holiday Web] said the State would not be forced into the scheme, but was prepared to investigate the proposal.
"Unfortunately, the present state of mind of the Federal Minister for Education seems to be based on threatening and bullying the States by withholding money," he said.
"What we need to do is create an atmosphere of co-operation whereby the States and Federal Government can sit down and intelligently produce a model for Australian history that should be measured by improved participation and educational outcomes."
"In years 1-10 in WA, history is not a stand-alone subject, but studied under the banner of the Time, Continuity and Change outcome. This system was criticised at a history summit in Canberra this week as lacking coherency and continuity.
"WA History Teachers Association president Tom Loreck said the Federal proposal was the first step towards a fully nationalised school curriculum.
"If we start doing this, what's going to stop it from happening to politics, economics, geography?" he said.
"It could set a precedent for a truly national curriculum, which is probably a good idea but a lot of water has to go under the bridge first. The fact that the Government holds the purse strings means it ends up getting what it wants."
Murdoch University Chancellor and history summit participant Geoffrey Bolton said it was made clear that there would not be a "one size fits all" approach to the new curriculum. "There needs to be room for regional variation, and this point of view was accepted at the summit," he said."
- Audit MPs to justify wage rises: Liberal (page 8)
by Robert Taylor and Graham Mason
"Politicians should be subject to performance assessments before getting pay rises, Canning MHR Don Randall said yesterday..."
"... Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier said the public would be absolutely bewildered to learn that Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich's pay packet had swelled by more than $10,000 overnight.
"Not only does she not deserve an extra $10,000, she doesn't deserve to be a minister," he said..."
["WA Government ministers now earn a base salary of $213,000, $5000 more than a Federal minister..."]
- High school at Year 7 "robs" country parents (page 42)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Changing the first year of high school to Year 7 would force country parents to miss out on an extra year of their children's lives and decimate rural schools, WA's peak parents' group will be told today.
"The WA Council of State School Organisations will consider a proposal to urge the State Government to retain Year 7 as primary school at its annual conference this weekend.
"Dumbleyung Primary School parents and citizens association wants Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich to say if she plans to shift all Year 7s to secondary school by 2010.
"The Department of Education and Training is examining the change in relation to improved national consistency and will report to Ms Ravlich on the impact on students' learning and wellbeing, plus budget, infrastructure and staffing implications.
"Independent and Catholic schools also want a policy decision – most favour a middle school structure that groups Year 7s with Years 8 and 9.
"Dumbleyung P&C president Michael Smith said small country schools would feel the impact most, suffer staff cuts and children would have to be sent to boarding school a year earlier.
"Ms Ravlich told a parliamentary budget estimates hearing in June that the educational benefits of moving students from Year 7 into Year 8 were inconclusive.
"Education director-general Paul Albert said early data showed it did not matter if a child attended Year 7 in a primary school or a high school."
- Letter to the Editor
- I disagree
Faye Blythe (Letters, 16/8) may have been content with her role as housewife, but many of today's mothers have well-educated brains and would like to use them for something other than matching the lounge cushions to the curtains.
"Any government foolish enough to "insist on mothers of young children staying at home full-time until their children are at least five years old" would certainly put a stop to most women choosing motherhood. This is the problem with educating girls – they realise they have options than than domestic servitude. All children have two parents. As Caroline Rushforth notes (Letters, 16/8), the solution is to enable either parent to be at home (or share the care), and the other to pay the bills, thereby sacrificing their parental role..."
"The suggestion that four-year-olds would be forced into compulsory schooling is sheer scaremongering. No child in this country can be forced into physically attending a school. Every parent has the right to home-school their children. All those horrified that their four-year-old would not benefit from increased hours in kindergarten can simply opt out of the school-based system."
Mandy Taylor, Floreat
Full details in The West Australian
- The Weekend Australian
- PM issues states a declaration on history
by Imre Salusinszky and Justine Ferrari
"John Howard has issued a personal declaration to the states that he wants reform of the teaching of Australian history in all schools and feels "very strongly" about it."Speaking a day after the national history summit in Canberra, the Prime Minister played his trump card to increase the pressure on the states - the supportive stance of former NSW premier Bob Carr.
"But the states have signalled they will fight the pressure from Canberra and leading historians. South Australian Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith said yesterday she had absolute confidence in the way history was taught in the state.
"Queensland, criticised at the summit for having "no prescribed curriculum" for history in its Studies of Society and its Environment course, also remained defiant.
"Dr Lomax-Smith said she was impressed by the knowledge students demonstrated in the area.
"We teach history. It may not be called history, it may be called Studies of Society and the Environment, but I can tell you it's certainly history," she said.
"It's irrelevant what you call it, whether you call it society and environment or history and geography or history."
"But a paper presented to the summit by Monash University associate professor Tony Taylor reveals the "learning outcome" specified for South Australian SOSE in the senior years of high school is: "Students critically analyse continuities and discontinuities over time, and reflect upon the power relationship which shape and are shaped by these."
"Mr Howard criticised the fact that there was "no structured narrative" to the teaching of schools in most Australian schools.
"I think we have taught history as some kind of fragmented stew of moods and events, rather than some kind of proper narrative," he said.
"Historians who attended Thursday's meeting said yesterday the summit, combined with pressure from parents, would leave the states with little room to manoeuvre if they tried to resist a return to traditional Australian history subjects in years 9 and 10.
"I think the teaching of Study of Society and its Environment is on death row," Mr Carr told The Weekend Australian.
"University of Wollongong academic Greg Melleuish also criticised the summit last night, saying a day was not enough, there were too many delegates and the results delivered "the lowest common denominator of Australian history".
"In a way they (the delegates) threw up their hands in horror because it was becoming too hard," he told ABC's Lateline.
"The summit set up a five-person working party, chaired by LaTrobe University professor John Hirst, that will develop a set of "open-ended questions", along with a chronology, that federal Education Minister Julie Bishop will present to the states as a model curriculum.
"I think a lot of fears will be allayed when they see ... the approach we're suggesting, which won't take quite the form that they fear," he said.
From The Australian at link
- Editorial
The new reactionaries
Education ministries are the last bastion of the history haters
"The tide of postmodern education is receding in Australia. At this past week's history summit, a diverse group of thinkers and historians including Geoffrey Blainey, Bob Carr and Reconciliation Australia's Jackie Huggins issued a communique agreeing that history teaching needs to be reformed, that the subject should be taught as a separate and stand-alone course and that students learn best from a narrative, chronological approach to the past. If this sounds like common sense, it is. Yet it continues to elude most of the country's state education departments, which have spent years dismantling old history curriculums (which were far from perfect) to construct in their place a new postmodern establishment where history is sublimated within broad fields such as "Studies of Societies and the Environment", or SOSE. Just as in English courses where Shakespeare is forced through Marxist paradigms of race, sex and class, in such watered-down history courses students quickly learn to parrot approved ideas. Thus in opposing the narrative teaching of history as a stand-alone subject, education ministry bureaucrats have become an elite gang of establishment reactionaries, barricading the door against parents and historians revolted at what children are taught today."While the state education ministers of Queensland, South Australia and West Australia all vociferously opposed what they believe is commonwealth interference in their respective patches, it was Queensland's Rod Welford who best summed up the arrogance of this group. Complaining of the summit's "educational vandalism", the Sunshine State's education minister said: "To talk about history as a stand-alone subject, as a list of events, is an educational absurdity." But if anyone is guilty of educational vandalism, it is Queensland's curriculum developers. Students in Years 4-10 spend just 60 hours a year on SOSE. There, history must compete with a laundry list of other "studies" that fall under the SOSE umbrella ranging from politics, sociology and anthropology to environmental sustainability, gender and peace. Similar outrages are committed in virtually every other state and territory by bureaucrats keen to protect their fiefdoms. [emphasis added]
"Speaking at the summit, John Howard was quick to point out that the reform is not about creating an "official" history. Nor should it be. But what could be wrong with teaching, as Gregory Melleuish lays out in today's Inquirer section of The Weekend Australian, a narrative of the country tracing our development from penal colony to free society to a federation and democracy? This is not about denying negative aspects of our past, as suggested by the witless wags of yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald. As this newspaper has repeatedly argued, knowledge of history is important for individual students and for the nation as a whole. Insisting that it be taught as a stand-alone subject is not an imposition, it is common sense. Those in the education industry who disagree should consider just whom they are in business to serve."
From The Australian at link [Scroll down a bit]
- Op Ed
Our history in disrepair
by Paul Kelly, Editor-at-large
"The Howard Government's decision to re-establish history as a core academic discipline in all schools opens a new contest about education and rights in the battle of ideas in Australian politics."This decision is a direct response to the postmodernist and progressivist grip on the humanities in schools and universities. One consequence has been the degrading of history and the study of Australian history. The aim of federal Education Minister Julie Bishop, as she told this week's history summit in Canberra, is to "see a renaissance of Australian history in our schools".
"Why is this aspiration so contentious? Why does it provoke outcry from several states and attacks from the academic community? The answer is because it seeks to overturn the prevailing educational ideology heavily identified with the Labor Party.
"The tactical dilemma facing Labor, state and federal, is whether to fight this reform, which is likely to have intellectual merit and public support on its side. Labor's dilemma is acute because the history debate highlights in miniature Labor's educational dilemma: that it is locked into backing producer interests (the education professionals) too often at the cost of the consumers (children and parents).
"It is significant, therefore, that Opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin described this week's history summit as "an important opportunity to do something lasting and positive for the teaching of Australian history". The summit had nothing to do with the laughable notion of imposing a John Howard British Empire view of Australia on our children.
"Nobody at the summit would tolerate such an idea, certainly none of the professional historians. It was never entertained and it was never discussed. Any claim about a return to a content-only single historical narrative is nonsense.
"The communique produced by the summit enshrined the proposal that Australian history "should be sequentially planned through primary and secondary schooling and should be a distinct subject in years 9 and 10" as an "essential and required core part of all students' learning experience..."
"If they reject reform, state ministers will have to defend their systems. The more parents are told the truth about what is happening in schools, the more certain the reformers will win. History is victim to outcomes-based educational philosophy that involves a shift away from content taught to what students can achieve. It is fine in theory, disastrous in practice.
"Read what Taylor says about the West Australian curriculum. "There is no detailed curriculum requirement and no particular timetable allocation for Australian history and there is very little direct reference to Australian history in the learning-area statement apart from passing mention of 'cultural, political and economic perspectives on Australia's past'."History is studied mainly through the time, continuity and change SOSE learning area section of the Curriculum Framework document, along with investigation, communication and participation, resources, place and space, culture, natural and social systems and active citizenship. SOSE is one of eight learning areas."
"Taylor notes that the WA Curriculum Council has a "very strong commitment to outcomes-based education". It is at odds with several teacher groups, parent groups and media outlets. He quotes a practitioner's view from WA, saying: "There are overlaps, gaps and repetitions galore in the teaching of Australian history in Western Australia.
"Let's take Queensland. Taylor says its curriculum "uses an outcomes-based approach and history is located in the SOSE key learning area. There are also a number of emphases and priorities that permeate the Queensland curriculum. Key values (democratic process, social justice, ecological and economic sustainability and peace) as well as learning processes (investigating, creating, participating, communicating and reflecting). There have been no public examinations at any level in the Queensland education system for over 30 years..."
"... The only mandatory subject in ACT schools is physical education." [emphasis added]"If you want to get depressed, then read the entire document. This isn't an easy task because, as Taylor points out, "it is frequently very difficult to discern in several of the curriculum documents where exactly the teaching of Australian history may be found".
"There is across the nation "absolutely no consistency of curriculum approach". He says, however, that NSW "operates a discipline-based approach at the secondary school level, has mandatory timetable requirements, a clear syllabus outline and, uniquely, an examination in modern Australian history..."
[Long but worth reading in its entirity. Web]
Paul Kelly was a summit participant.
Full story in The Australian at link
- Op Ed
Story of a true blue country
What should Australian children be taught about the nation's past? Gregory Melleuish offers his ideas
"There should be three elements in any attempt to convey what may be termed the essentials of Australian history. First, there should be a knowledge of the significant public events and developments that have taken place in Australia or that concern Australians. These events should be organised within the framework of a narrative or story because that is the easiest way of making sense of events."Second, there should be a basic knowledge of the global environment in which the development of Australia has taken place. Australian history did not take place in a vacuum and students need to be aware of the wider world.
"Third, there should be some appreciation of what may be termed the texture of the life, the everyday experience, of people living in Australia 50 or 100 or 200 years ago. The extent to which this can be pursued is limited but important because it helps students to appreciate the humanity of people who were quite different from themselves..."
[An excellent and detailed view on what should be taught, how it should be taught and why it should be taught. It's long but worth reading in its entirety. Web]
This is an edited paper presented at the history summit in Canberra on Thursday by Gregory Melleuish, associate professor of history and politics at the University of Wollongong. Click here for Gregory Melleuish's interview on ABC Lateline.
Full story in The Australian at link
- Op Ed
In the quest for critical minds, it's two cheers for education
Good citizens know their science, but first we must find teachers to inspire our children, writes Judith Wheeldon
"Some works of literature have titles so powerful that it seems unnecessary to read the work itself. E.M. Forster's Two Cheers for Democracy is like that for me. Democracy may be a poor system of government, but it is the best we've got. It is always struggling and its results are not always inspiring. One of the deeper purposes of education in a democratic country must be to help merit the third cheer."A democracy has millions of decision-makers, some wise and well informed, many who think they are, and some who don't even try, but all vote. One of the outcomes of education is that children are indoctrinated in their social and political heritage.
"Anyone who knows schools knows this indoctrination will happen by default; it is better if it is controlled. It should be intentional, purposeful, and should develop Forster's two cheers: critical minds and a variety of thinking. Sound education can also earn democracy my third cheer: for good decision-making, the sine qua non of a strong and ethical government.
"This was a big week in Canberra for education and good decision-making. First, speaking as the Minister for Science, Julie Bishop, who is also Minister for Education, made the important statement that intelligent design should not be taught in science classes. Pointing out that ID does not belong in the science curriculum at all, she has taken a firm stand and given leadership that will strengthen our science teaching.
"On Monday and Tuesday, the Australian Council for Educational Research held its 11th national research conference, this year focusing on science teaching and learning. On Thursday was the history summit, attended by the Education Minister, former "history premier" Bob Carr and an impressive list of historians and history teachers.
"The two conferences were tied together by themes: Science for Citizenship in one and History for Citizenship in the other. I see the two coming together in a wonderfully productive symbiotic relationship.
"Science for Citizenship is a research focus of Jonathan Osborne, a professor at King's College, London, who gave the first keynote address. He sees the early specialisation of science teaching to cater for potential career scientists as deadening to the majority, who have needs as future citizens but will not study science after secondary school.
"What plagues democracy is that pesky tradition of involving everyone in decision-making. As Osborne told the science conference: "Society is confronted with a dilemma that the majority of people lack the knowledge to make an informed choice."
"Having strongly suggested that science is the greatest cultural achievement of Western society, he argues that science must attempt to communicate "not only what is worth knowing, but also how such knowledge relates to other events, why it is important, and how this particular view of the world came to be".
"It does not take much science to understand the water cycle and that H2O is H2O, yet the good people of Toowoomba recently decided they could not drink purified used water. It is worth knowing what water is and the role it played for millennia before it came into our brief lives. This is just one example of how good science teaching can make people better voters and citizens.
"It is important to understand science that explains the case as it is, not as we might prefer it to be. Gravity is inconvenient to a child falling out of a tree, just as global warming is to all of us today. Scientific research and political decision-making share the need for rational, evidence-based argument.
"The science classroom is one place where these higher-order thinking skills can - indeed, must - be effectively taught to young citizens of our democracy.
"To be effective, we must start with the young. Our primary schools, almost without exception, miss the boat completely.
"Science might be in the primary curriculum, but what is taught is usually warm, fuzzy and concentrates more on what is cute than on developing disciplined thought. This is not surprising as almost no Australian primary teachers have studied science as part of their university degree and not many have been interested enough to have studied it in the last two years of secondary school. They are monumentally unprepared to teach facts (or understand what a fact is in science - think of phlogiston (more later) - and even less prepared to help young minds develop sound scientific thinking. A survey of how many primary teachers go to a homoeopath or care what their star sign is gives a quick indication of the parlous state of science teaching in our primary schools. [emphasis added]
"Yet young children observe the world very closely and ask questions. They poke and probe and experiment: scientific behaviour that is often mistaken for naughtiness. They love to count and take surveys. They are young scientists. As they see patterns emerging in the world around them, they discover where they fit. Science makes sense.
"We urgently need full-time specialist science teachers who are given time, rooms and resources to teach our children from kindergarten to Year 6..."
[Another long but worthwhile piece. Web]
Judith Wheeldon is a former head of two private girls schools in Sydney, Abbotsleigh and Queenwood.
Full story in The Australian at link
- Op Ed
Glenda Korporaal: Purse strings among the ties that bind
by Glenda Korporaal
"An ABC radio program this week had a call-in on the issue of older children staying at home with their parents. The announcer said we were about to hear from a woman with a dilemma..."
"Her 19-year-old son was at university and had a part-time job. He lived at home and paid some board. But when she took him to the doctor the other day, he had paid for the prescriptions for his illness. Her problem: should she have paid for it or should she have let her son pay for the medicine?"Don't laugh; her comments reflect much broader socioeconomic forces at work. A generation ago, most Australian parents felt they had done the right thing if they had managed to feed and clothe their children through their high school years. For their part, many children couldn't wait to leave home to start enjoying the freedom to do things their parents wouldn't allow.
"These days, many in the baby boomer and the post-boomer generations are sharing the burden of financing their children's lifestyle well past school, through tertiary education and often into their early years in the work force..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Letters to the Editor
Most Talked About: Teaching History
- It's the opinions of people that drive the 'dates and facts'
"It's good to see the federal Government emphasising the importance of history in the school curriculum ("States told to rewrite history”, 18/8), but the call for more emphasis on “dates and facts” can only go so far. What are facts in the context of a history lesson?"Certainly, it’s a fact that Federation occurred in 1901, but are the reasons behind this historic event “facts” or opinions? That event was the product of a whole host of different opinions that motivated people to behave and interact in various ways, with Federation as the end result.
"To understand any event, we have to go beyond dates and delve into the varying opinions of the people who made that history. In human endeavour, opinions become facts because they impact on what happens. They have to be conveyed in the classroom in an objective and open-minded way, which will inevitably lead to students forming their own interpretations of history. This may sound “postmodern” to those who prefer their history cut-and-dried, but it’s unavoidable."
Daniel Berk, Oakleigh, Vic
"How can we, as a nation, possibly expect to compete on the world stage if Australian history – warts and all – is not taught as a compulsory subject in our schools? If not, we face the tragic reality that our future leaders will have no idea how our nation developed.
"I can’t believe I’m about to send two children into the education system knowing they will essentially remain ignorant of our past. Top marks to The Australian and Julie Bishop for keeping this issue in the spotlight."
Miranda Kelly, Townsville, Qld
"As a teacher, I’ve been involved in the constant changes, reworking and rediscovering of what constitutes our essential school curricula, particularly in our high schools.
"I’m a firm believer that knowledge of Australian history is essential for all students. A past, politically driven inclusion in our curricula was Australian Studies, a compulsory, one-semester subject in Year 11 in all schools. The failure of this subject to reach its desired outcomes was caused by the creation of an optional choice of topics which resulted in a patchwork of knowledge and no factual body of broad empirical facts understood and remembered by all.
"The solution is simple. Create a course with a base textbook containing the essential knowledge or facts to be understood by all. Two-thirds of the course should cover the history of our nation and one-third the history of our state in more depth, because, speaking as a South Australian, I have always lamented the lack of understanding of our local histories. This means two books, one for all Australia and one for each state.
"A textbook drives and controls the curricula, a fact which many people, particularly in teaching, would find constraining or even distasteful, but there are positives. The success of the learning would be common across schools and states and also be assessable. Teachers could also be confident they were dealing with the right information and achieving the intended outcomes. Of course, the questions of who will write the books, what histories they will emphasise and whose political vision they will display will require the wisdom of Solomon, and more."
Mike Badenoch, Glenelg South, SA
"That the lack of knowledge of history was a major issue in Australia was brought home to me last year when I was talking to a young, apparently well-educated woman about the history of the Westminster system of government. As her knowledge of the subject was obviously low, I asked her how old she thought democracy was in Australia – expecting an answer in the centuries at least. I was astounded when she said 15 years. Bear this in mind: if we do not know what we have, it is easily lost."
Keith Potts, Cumberland Park, SA
- "Australian history is an uninteresting and ignored subject because Australia itself has struggled to find its own identity, and a country with no clear identity is a country with no clear history. The identity of Australia remains dominated by British symbols and culture – from the Union Jack on the flag to the Anglophile Howard Government.
"As a fifth-generation Australian of Irish, German and English heritage who will speak for my ancestors and the role they played in Australian history, it took the Bicentennial for a serious book to be written recognising the contribution of the Irish to Australia.
"I have a genuine concern that a revisionist history will emerge that once again is used to further entrench the Britishness of Australia and deny or downplay the contribution of other cultures and people."
Shane O’Donohue, Mt Lawley, WA
"The PM wants to know how best to interest children in history. The answer: make every lesson a kind of, like, sort of rock concert. Cool! Over the past 30 years, Australian education has become a prostitute in the pay of popular culture. God help the nation."
Barrie Smillie, Duffy, ACT
- "I’m one of those ‘orrible people Imre Salusinszky would call a postmodernist. Yet Imre seems to think that James Cook’s maiden Pacific voyage took place in 1778 ("Teaching to get major facelift”, 18/8), whilst I know that it was 1768-1771. Go figure."
Dr Andrea Gaynor, Crawley, WA
Complete Letters to the Editor of The Weekend Australian at link
- ABC News Lateline [broadcast evening of 18 August]
- Historians wary of history summit outcomes
Reporter: Maxine McKew
A history summit in Canberra this week brought together some extremely eminent scholars - Geoffrey Blainey, Inga Clendinnen, John Hirst and many others. They agreed that high school students should be taught Australian history as a distinct discipline and set down some broad principles.
Interview with University of Wollongong academic Greg Melleuish, and professor of politics at La Trobe University Robert Mann.
Click here for a complete transcript of the program
- The Sunday Melbourne Age
- Schools war as pupils pinched
by Michael Bachelard
"An aggressive campaign by a prestigious college to poach hundreds of top students from neighbouring schools behind their principals' backs has been branded offensive and immoral."Haileybury College in Keysborough has recruited about 200 girls, many on full scholarships, from scores of surrounding schools to fill places in years 10 to 12 at its new Girls College.
"Full scholarships save parents more than $18,000 per year, but their educational value and morality have been questioned by other principals.
"The Haileybury case is the most spectacular example of escalating competitiveness between private schools for bright students and top sportspeople..."
Full story in The Sunday Melbourne Age at link
Related stories in The Sunday Melbourne Age- Op Ed
History needs a vital attraction
by Kate Darian-Smith
"Teachable. Do-able. Sustainable. These three factors are the key if the teaching of Australian history is to flourish."At last Thursday's federal history summit, we were asked to consider the state of teaching Australian history in our schools. A report by Tony Taylor and Anna Clark from the National Centre for History Education at Monash University revealed little consistency across states and territories in the place of history in school curriculums. Currently, few students will have done any systematic study of Australian history by the time they reach year 10.
"Is this a problem? Well, for the Federal Government it clearly is. The announcement by Education Minister Julie Bishop that the Government seeks to impose an Australian history curriculum on the states highlights not only the confidence of the Howard Government, but also the centrality of history to our current cultural wars.
"Like a number of my fellow summiteers, I have strong reservations about a compulsory Australian history curriculum. Conscripts make unwilling students, and teachers who are coerced into delivering a course are less likely to do so with real enthusiasm, and inspire students. When Australian studies was deemed compulsory in Victorian secondary schools in the early 1990s, its popularity plummeted and eventually the entire subject area was abandoned.
"But I also believe that the teaching of Australian history — indeed of history more generally — needs to be revitalised..."
"If the Government is serious about a renewal of Australian history, we need a multi-pronged approach. We need to see high-quality Australian history programs produced by ABC television, more publication of history books, and greater funding for historical exhibitions. We need greater support for original research into Australian history at our universities, because it's through discoveries that school-level history is enriched. Australian history in classrooms should be only the beginning."Kate Darian-Smith is professor of Australian studies and history at the University of Melbourne.
Full story in The Sunday Melbourne Age at link
- Liberals to expand selective schools
by Jason Dowling
"The number of selective-entry government schools would be tripled in Victoria under a Liberal government and more money would be spent on fixing run-down school buildings."Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu told the party's state council in Pakenham yesterday that there was great demand in Victoria for more selective-entry schools..."
Full story in The Sunday Melbourne Age at link
- The Sunday Times [and other News Corp Sunday newspapers]
- Op Ed
Left out on history
by Glenn Milne
"Some famous philosopher once said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it..."
"Organised by Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop, the summit represents a revolution in the way our children will be taught Australian history."Most parents will be throwing their hats in the air when they read the first paragraph of the official communique issued by the group of experts at the summit.
"It says: "The Australian History Summit participants consider the study of Australian history should be sequentially planned through primary and secondary schooling and should be a distinct subject in Years 9 and 10. This would be an essential and required core part of all students' learning experience to prepare them for the 21st century...''
".. let's take a look at what these three states ]Queensland, South Australian and West Australian] are defending..."
"To enable "students (to) develop the ability to critically analyse social structures that unjustly disadvantages some individuals or groups'' and "investigate events concerning societies and environments by applying socio-cultural and socio-critical inquiries'' emphasising "social justice, ecological and economic sustainability and peace''."This is the values-laden sludge that apparently now passes as history in our schools. Under this sort of tutelage Captain Cook will inevitably turn out to be a white racist colonial oppressor. That's if he gets a mention at all.
"The truth is the Queensland, SA and WA governments are simply too scared to antagonise the left-wing teachers' unions they rely on for support.
"This made Labor's federal education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin's actions all the more laudable when she put out a statement welcoming the results of the history summit. In doing so, she may just have made a small piece of history herself." [emphasis added]
Full story in The Sunday Times at link
- School buses are old and unsafe
"Hundreds of old buses that fail Australian safety standards are being brought into the country to be used on school runs..."
Full story in The Sunday Times at link
- The Sunday Guradian / Observer
- Classroom revolution in bid to boost 3Rs
by Ned Temko and Denis Campbell
- English, maths GCSEs toughened
- Employers warn over falling literacy
"GCSE exams in English and maths are to be made harder as part of a major government crackdown on schools that are failing to teach basic educational skills."Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, has introduced the tough new measures in one of the biggest shake-ups of the exam system in a decade.
'Every single young person must have a good grasp of the basics,' Knight told The Observer. 'We are changing the way we measure performance and toughening up the English and maths GCSEs to ensure that young people master the three Rs.'
"In addition, coursework, which counts towards GCSE grades, will be overhauled in a bid to eradicate pupils cheating by using the internet, helping each other or receiving parental help. More work will be done under exam conditions at school..."
Full story in The Sunday Guardian / Observer at link
- Comment
How delusions about equality killed a passion for learning
by Mary Warnock
Undergraduates and school-leavers are being short-changed by a system that fails to nurture intellectual excellence
"We will soon have no world-class universities left in this country. Oxford and Cambridge struggle to retain a position among the top 10; I expect that they will soon drop out through the bottom. It is easy to assume that better government resourcing would make all the difference, but the problem is not wholly, or even perhaps mainly, financial..."
"But there are more serious reasons to fear for the future quality of our universities. The concept of learning, the acquisition of knowledge and the exercise of creative imagination within the constraints of evidence and reason, has been almost fatally devalued. To see how this happened, one has to look to the schools from which university students come.
"There is a mismatch within educational policy between the desire to make education the means by which pupils may be enabled to earn their living in a way that uses their abilities and contributes to the country's economy and the desire to turn more of them than ever before into graduates. The silliest thing Tony Blair ever said was that 50 per cent of the school population should go on to university. The worst mistake that he, or his educational advisers, ever made was to reject the Tomlinson recommendations for the education of 14- to 19-year-olds.
"The scandal is that not only are universities overwhelmed by the number of A grades, but that the possession of an A grade is no guarantee that its possessor can write intelligibly, read critically or think analytically. More than 15 years ago, Cambridge was finding that an A grade in pure mathematics did not mean that a student could understand the concepts involved in even first-term undergraduate work unless he or she had a fortnight of intensive pre-term preparation..." [emphasis added]
Full story [plus reader comments] in The Sunday Guardian / Observer at link
- Comment
I'm proof that academic failure can be good for you
by Henry Porter
"... This column is dedicated to all the students who have done poorly and who now skulk in their bedrooms feeling the weight of failure and humiliation. Without wanting to wipe the bloom off the results of the star pupils, it is also a warning that a string of grade As carries you just so far in life; nobody will care about your triumph in a few years' time. What will count from the moment your education ends are energy, charm, curiosity, persistence, finishing strongly and your willingness to defy orthodoxy..."
Full story in The Sunday Guardian / Observer at link
- The Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun
- Crucifix banned by school
by Kelvin Healey
"A teenage Christian has been banned from wearing a treasured crucifix by her high school..."
Full story in The Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun at link
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Teachers set to ditch new A to E cards [Sunday online edition]
by Hannah Edwards
"Many schools are expected to opt out of issuing the new A to E report cards as the NSW Teachers Federation steps up its campaign against the controversial reports."About 2200 schools will be sent a federation resolution this week asking teachers to choose whether their school will introduce the new report cards or remain with their current reporting methods.
"After a groundswell of opposition, the vote is expected to show that many schools do not want the new cards, federation president Maree O'Halloran said..."
"The new reports, a Federal Government initiative, have been criticised for labelling schoolchildren as young as six with a rank from A to E."Many Catholic schools have introduced the new reports, but a half-yearly trial at some public schools was hampered by late delivery of essential software and poor training..."
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- Op Ed Satire
Nothing left but to burst their bubble
by Michael Duffy
"This week's Canberra history summit produced a nice piece of satire, to a point. It was the "John Howard authorised Australian History course" prepared by historian Charlie Fox, associate professor at the University of Western Australia. Here are some excerpts from his document titled The Structured Narrative of Australian Achievement."Students will be required to stand, salute the flag and sing the national anthem at the beginning and end of each lesson and at least once in the middle.
"Week 1. Captain Cook, and how he discovered Australia and made everything possible and was a hero and was the founder of the nation.
"Week 2. Captain Phillip, and how he was the founder of the nation too and how he and his brave band settled Australia and weren't they great as well?…
"Week 7. The 1890s, and how the unions got overly militant and demanded such high wages and such ridiculously generous conditions that they threw us into a terrible economic recession and how everybody now appreciated that Australia rode on the back of private enterprise (especially private enterprise sheep).
"Week 8. Federation, and how the Australian nation was born and everybody became very Australian and pleased….
"Week 12. Sir Robert Menzies, Order of the Thistle, and how he saved Australia from the wicked communists, gave the nation lots of prosperity, made everybody feel good and invited the Queen for a sleepover …
"Exam questions: How many sheep? Name one explorer. Did World War I come before World War II or was it the other way around?"...
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- The Hobart Mercury
- Jones adds his slant on the 'history war'
by Derek Rogers
"Labor Party heavyweight, quiz show champion and one-time history teacher Barry Jones weighed into the history wars in Launceston yesterday."Dr Jones told the inaugural meeting in Tasmania of the Press Club that he objected to "a single kind of received narrative, a bit like the Gospel .. according to John..."
Full story in The Hobart Mercury at link
- The Sydney Daily Telegraph
- Op Ed
G-R-A-D-E our kids
by Tory Maguire
"Anyone out there who went to school during the days when report cards carried grades on them and feels they have been permanently psychologically scarred please drop me an email, because unless you do I will continue to believe you don't exist...."
"My point is, bring me the children who aren't taught to cope with healthy criticism when they are 10 and I will bring you the adults who spend the rest of their lives wondering why they aren't the spectacular success their parents promised them they would be..."
"And if this must-not-unbalance-Johnny's-self-esteem style of teaching is allowed to go on, we are going to end up with a whole generation of kids, who, even if they are talented, are going to be impossible to manage in the workplace."Imagine having to explain to some employees that while of course they are very special and of much value to the world, perhaps, just maybe, they might try getting the chief executive's name right when they send out a memo, not that we are trying to trample on your creativity, darling.
"So, inspite of being marked pretty well on my comprehension skills when I was in Year 3, I am finding the Teachers Federation's rabid position against reintroducing the A to E grading difficult to understand.
"Most of us still have the occasional nightmare about our school days - but I doubt many of them involve getting a C+ for geography instead of a B. The biggest favour teachers can do is let us know when we need to improve."
Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link
All Alston cartoons are © The West Australian Newspaper
All media quotations and photographs © their respective publishers
This page last updated 29 May, 2008 9:31 PM
