From Monday 18 December 2006 through Sunday 21 January 2007, PLATO's Breaking News coverage is on "Summer Holidays", and will be limited to Western Australian OBE - Courses of Study articles, plus other local "high-profile" education stories, with the occasional education article from The Australian. The home page will be updated only once a day, normally in the evening.

Full coverage will resume on Monday 22 January 2007.

Monday 18 December

Tuesday 19 December

Wednesday 20 December

Thursday 21 December

Friday 22 December

Saturday – Sunday, 23 – 24 December

 

Monday 18 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Uniform schooling help to those on move: Rudd (page 4)
    by Amanda Banks
    
    "Australia's mobile workforce needs a uniform school system ti help students make the transition interstate, Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said in Perth yesterday..."
    
    "Mr Rudd described a vision of making Australia a world leader in education through increased funding and higher standards..."
    
    "Mr Smith yesterday reiterated his support for a national curriculum, but said he would seek the States' support on a uniform approach that made allowances for regional variation.
    
    "I certainly don't support imposing anything on the States in the education area," he said. "If we were starting again in an ideal world we would have a seamless curriculum throughout the Commonwealth, we would have a common school year, we would have common holidays." Mr Smith also repeated criticism of the State Government's response to concerns of parents and teachers over the roll-out of outcomes-based education to Years 11 and 12, saying he would discuss the issue with new State Education Minister Mark McGowan.
    
    "There was clearly widespread parent consternation and concern about OBE, I think the State Government reacted far too slowly to that concern," he said.
    
    "(But) I think in more recent times Premier Alan Carpenter has got on top of the issue and concerns." ... [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Big business damns State tax, red tape [Front Page]
    by Amanda Banks and Graham Mason
    
    "A survey by the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry and BankWest has found taxation, red tape and education were areas of increasing concern where big business believes the Government is failing..."
    
    "The survey over two weeks last month found 74 per cent of respondents rated the Government's performance on taxation as poor, compared with 54 per cent in 2002.
    
    "The Government was given a poor rating for its work on reducing red tape by 72 per cent of respondents, while dissatisfaction with its performance in education and training jumped from 23 per cent in 2002 to 60 per cent this year..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    Similar story at ABC News Online
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Teachers defend their 'impressive record'
    by Dorothy Illing
    
    "Two hundred leading educators have entered the highly charged debate about teaching standards in schools, urging education ministers not to take their policies back to the last century.

    "In a letter to all state, territory and federal education ministers, academics and teachers from across Australia have defended the "impressive record" of Australia's school teachers.

    "This record has been achieved and maintained in a climate that is often less than supportive of their professional status and development," the letter says. "It has also been achieved despite repeated claims that teachers continue to neglect the basics."

    "Teachers have been in the firing line in the back-to-basics debate over whether "new-age curriculums" are overtaking the fundamentals such as spelling and punctuation.

    "At a conference in Brisbane last month, senior academics, teachers and bureaucrats expressed concern that education policy was becoming backward-looking. The letter, a flow-on from that conference, reaffirms the basic tenets of education such as active, not passive, learning.

    "It argues that while "the basics" should continually be reviewed, skills should not be defined solely by the experiences of previous generations..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • ALP slap on education
    by Jo Prichard
    
    "Federal Labor gently chided the West Australian Labor Government yesterday for not picking up earlier on community outrage over the state's proposed New Age school curriculum.

    "Labor's new education spokesman, Stephen Smith, conceded concerns about the now-shelved outcomes-based education framework had been a problem for the Carpenter Government.

    "However, he refused to say whether former education minister Ljiljana Ravlich, shifted from the portfolio on Wednesday, was responsible for the bungle.

    "It's not for me to make judgments or assess comments like that, either in private or in public," he said.

    "There was clearly widespread consternation about OBE; I think the state Government reacted far too slowly to that concern. I think in more recent times the Premier, Alan Carpenter, has got on top of the issue."

    "Ms Ravlich is also under pressure for using disgraced former Labor premier Brian Burke to broker a meeting with a newspaper editor."
    
    From The Australian at link

 

Tuesday 19 December

• The Australian
  
  
  • Students reject science by rote
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Science lessons without hands-on experiments are seen by students as too difficult, boring or irrelevant.
    
    "A study of Year 10 students by lecturer in science education at the University of New England Terry Lyons found that science classes left them with the impression the subject was a body of knowledge to be memorised rather than an inquiry-based discipline with which to make sense of the world.

    "Students said that experiments were a highlight of their science class, particularly in junior science," Dr Lyons said.

    "So any reduction in the number of experiments they can do and the overall amount of practical work is only going to further estrange them from the subject."

    "Science teachers nationwide have reported that experiments are being dropped from classrooms as a result of tight budgets and occupational health and safety laws requiring risk assessments of experiments.

    "Science educators also say that many schools no longer have specialised laboratories and teachers are forced to plough through such large amounts of content that experiments are seen as an inefficient teaching method.

    "Yet research into teaching science shows that students learn best through hands-on investigations and that they are crucial to maintaining students' interest in the subject.

    "In one of the few studies to ask students why they did or did not choose to study science, Dr Lyons surveyed almost 200 Year 10 students from six NSW high schools who scored in the top 30per cent of the state.

    "The most cogent single force acting against the choice of physical science courses was the culture of school science itself," the study says.

    "While researchers expect that a student's decision on studying science would be based on having positive or negative experiences, the survey showed that students had very similar experiences that did not affect their decision to continue with the subject.

    "It was demonstrably not the case that the students choosing physics and chemistry courses, or indeed other science courses, described a more attractive picture of their school science experiences than did those deciding to opt out of science courses," the study, published in the journal Research in Science Education, says.

    "Science was seen as a teacher-centred and content-focused subject, in which facts were transmitted from expert sources to relatively passive recipients.

    "They saw the pedagogical style as a fundamental characteristic of science, with which teachers and students had to cope as best they could." ...
    
    Full story in The Australian at link [plus Editorial on this topic, below]
    
    

  • Editorial
    Failed experiment
    Science should remain a hands-on classroom discipline
    
    "It's a safe bet the folks from Occupational Health and Safety weren't around when Australian scientist Barry Marshall launched the experiment that would win him the Nobel Prize. But when, in 1982, Dr Marshall infected himself with the H. pylori bacterium to prove what really causes stomach ulcers, he was engaging in the best traditions of scholarship and learning by doing. Unfortunately, this culture of experimentation is increasingly being denied to Australian schoolkids, thanks to tightening budgets, an overemphasis on theory, and OH&S concerns that, in some states, require risk assessments for all laboratory work.

    "This is a shame. Certainly no parent wants their kids playing fast and loose with the bunsen burners and sulphuric acid. But science exists all around us, not just in books. And the best way to inspire young people to study science is by letting them get their hands dirty in controlled conditions at the moment their intellectual curiosity is greatest. Merely teaching theory is not as effective or inspiring (or as much fun) as actual hands-on work. Sacrificing lab time now may cost us countless Dr Marshalls in the future."

    From The Australian at link [scroll down to third editorial]
    
    
    
    
  • All kids to learn while in childcare: Labor
    by Patricia Karvelas
    
    "All childcare providers - including family daycare mums at home - would provide an early childhood learning program under a Labor plan to switch childcare from babysitting to education.
    
    "Opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said the party wanted to ensure children began an education in all the places they received care, including family daycare schemes in the homes of women who look after small groups of children.

    "There's a massive variation in the provision of preschool education provided by the states and I certainly do want to make sure that every child, no matter the setting, is going to get the highest quality early childhood start," Ms Macklin told The Australian yesterday..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    

Wednesday 20 December

• The Australian
  
  
  • Students face fee hike in review
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Students could be forced to pay more for degrees in physiotherapy, teaching and nursing following a new commonwealth review of university funding.
    
    "As vice-chancellors warned that the federal Government must consider removing the cap on students' university HECS fees if it failed to boost taxpayer funding in the May budget, Education Minister Julie Bishop yesterday unveiled a review of the sector.

    "It will examine changes introduced by Ms Bishop's predecessor, Brendan Nelson, in 2003 which fund university degrees by subject groupings.

    "There have been complaints that the system leaves degrees such as physiotherapy, nursing and education underfunded..."
    
    "The Australian Council of Deans of Education warned the decision to ban universities from raising HECS fees by 25 per cent for nursing and teaching degrees should also be lifted.

    "When teaching, like nursing, was declared a national priority, the net result was a loss of income," ACDE president Sue Willis said. "It made it cheaper for students, but the subject is chronically underfunded." ...
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Rivals query childcare plan
    by Stephen Lunn
    
    "In a rare display of unity, unions and the Howard Government have questioned how Labor's new plan for all childcare providers to offer education programs could be implemented without hiking already steep costs.
    
    "With daily childcare fees in some urban areas already topping the $100-a-day mark, the union representing childcare workers said the Government must cover the costs, or more parents would be forced out of the market, leaving it as a luxury for the rich.

    "Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union industrial officer Sue Bellino said: "We think it's a very good idea but it needs to be accompanied by a significant investment from government. Inevitably, (childcare centres) will have to raise fees to cover the cost of these things if it's not funded in full.

    "If you want qualified teachers ... in the centres, the only option for the Government is to either (a) pay for it all or (b) the centres have to recoup the money and that's by increasing fees."

    "Community Services Minister John Cobb said the proposal to incorporate an education component in all childcare, including home-based family daycare, mooted by Opposition families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin in The Australian yesterday, would "massively" increase costs for parents. "Even with subsidies, parents would have to incur higher, ongoing fees which would push formal childcare out of the reach of lower and middle-income earners," Mr Cobb said..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link [see following editorial on this topic]
    
    

  • Editorial
    Sandpit seminars
    
    Choice, not chalk, is what is needed in childcare

    "Parents already worried about the amount of time their small children spend out of the home in preschool or other daycare arrangements have now been given something new to worry about. On Monday, Opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin, speaking to The Australian, outlined a plan to introduce formal early childhood schooling in preschools and family daycare schemes in an attempt to make sure "every child . . . (gets) the highest-quality early childhood start". This proposal is fraught with difficulties and may cause more problems than it solves. There is already a tremendous gap between the number of childcare places available and the number demanded by the community, and what places there are often come at a steep price. Forcing childcare centres to employ more highly qualified staff will hike costs and further exacerbate this shortfall. Community Services Minister John Cobb rightly said that, even with increased subsidies, the requirement that carers hold four-year degrees would still force extra costs on to parents. And in other countries, studies suggest that introducing formal education at the preschool level often provides little or no long-term advantage. The whole plan smacks of a creeping credentialism that seeks to professionalise and regulate all spheres of human and family activity, with the consequence that many talented, competent and caring women who have set up private in-home childcare businesses will wind up closing up shop. Here especially can the philosophical gaps between Labor and the Howard Government best be seen..."
    
    Full editorial in The Australian at link [scroll down to second editorial]

    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Child of Hayek
    by Kevin Rudd, Federal Opposition Leader
    
    The PM's devotion to free markets hurts middle Australia, warns the federal Labor leader
    
    "... The Prime Minister asks for evidence of his market fundamentalism. We don't need to look very far. There are at least three clear examples.

    "First, there is his Government's underlying belief that education is primarily a private market rather than a public good. This represents a substantial philosophical divide between the Liberals and Labor.

    "In the latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development data, Australia is the only one of 30 developed economies in the world that has gone backwards in its public investment in higher education during the past 10 years. Public investment in higher education per student is only 93per cent of what it was in 1995. But this is entirely consistent with the Prime Minister's market fundamentalist view that higher education opportunities should be made more and more captive to market forces rather than made available to all young people based on their ability, not their socioeconomic background..."
    
    "Our vision should be to turn Australia into the best educated work force, the best educated economy, the best educated country in the developed world. Social democrats believe this must be driven by government..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Higher Education Supplement has 19 articles today, including:
    
    
    • Funding shakeout now inevitable
      by Dorothy Illing
      
      "A shakeout of the system for allocating more than $3 billion a year to universities is inevitable after Education Minister Julie Bishop announced a review of the Howard Government's 2003 higher education reforms..."
      
      "After continued problems with the new cluster funding system used to issue funding per student, Ms Bishop has signalled this is her top priority in the overhaul. Universities have argued that the funding in some discipline clusters does not reflect the true cost of providing the courses.

      "Changes to pipeline funding - the continued funding that flows from new student places - are also likely..."
      
      Full story in The Higher Education Supplement at link
      
      
      

    • Op Ed
      Labor's chance to fix flaws
      by Gavin Moodie
      
      "New federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith, the Opposition spokesman on education and training, are keen to make their mark in higher education. They are fortunate in being able to build on Labor's substantial white paper on higher education, research and innovation, which was generally well received when it was issued by former education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin last July.
      As well, Rudd's interest in new federalism opens up an opportunity to address some longstanding problems in education and training, a portfolio that is probably second only to health in terms of the quantity, size and complexity of tangled federal-state relations. Broadly, the federal government subsidises private schools while the states are left with most of the responsibility for funding public schools, where the commonwealth is seeking increasing involvement.

      "The states provide almost three-quarters of government funding for vocational education and training but the commonwealth allocates them 100 per cent of the blame for claimed deficiencies while seeking to lever its minority funding into majority control over the sector.

      "The commonwealth is fully responsible for financing higher education, while again using its minority funding to impose extensive regulation on universities and require states to change universities' governance..."
      
      "There is also an opportunity for federal Labor to fix funding for technical and further education. As well as being far too low, TAFE funding is fragmented between the commonwealth and the states..."
      
      "Rudd and Smith have said that they will examine income support for students from poor backgrounds, which is another longstanding problem. The youth allowance for students is far too low and it is subject to a means test that is far too strict. This is potentially an expensive problem to fix, as the commonwealth's income support for students is tied to its income support for people seeking work..."
      
      Gavin Moodie is a higher education policy analyst at Griffith University who writes regularly for the HES.
      
      Full story in The Higher Education Supplement at link

      
      
  • Feature
    A model of hope
    
    The successes of a remote Northern Territory school are inspiring other communities to replicate it, writes Dorothy Illing
    
    "Eddie Parry stands about 1.8m tall in his work gear on a searing Northern Territory summer's day. He doesn't seem to notice the heat as he talks proudly about the house he is helping to build, how he came to be at a remote school in the Northern Territory and what he'll do next year.
    
    "Parry, 18, is a symbol of the future, the upside of an education system fractured by social disadvantage and the Third World status of indigenous people.

    "He's in his last year at a school that's fast gaining a reputation as part of the solution to an intractable problem that governments at all levels continue to struggle with: access to education for remote indigenous youth.

    "Woolaning Homeland Christian College, now a small settlement, is a secondary boarding school on the edge of beautiful Litchfield National Park, a lazy two-hour drive southwest of Darwin. It's not flush with visitors, although tourists winding their way to Litchfield sometimes drop in..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    

 

Thursday 21 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • OBE facing more delays after maths courses are rejected (page 9)
    by Jessica Strutt
    
    "The State Government schedule for outcomes-based education was dealt another blow yesterday when two maths courses due to begin in 2008 failed again to get accreditation from the Curriculum Council.
    
    "A Curriculum Council spokesman said it had endorsed the overall unit structure and content of the courses but decided that more work was needed on the course standards and trial exams needed to be set.
    
    "He said the starting date would be decided after the extra work was done and teachers had assessed the courses in term one next year.
    
    "The courses will be presented to teachers at awareness days to be held when school starts next year," he said. "This will give all mathematics teachers a chance to have a say on when the new courses should be implemented."
    
    "The maths courses are the last two of the Curriculum Council's 50 new OBE courses awaiting accreditation.
    
    "Maths teachers recently demanded that their introduction be delayed a year to 2009. The Mathematical Association of WA also called for it.
    
    "The courses were due to get Curriculum Council accreditation earlier this month but its secondary education committee refused to pass them because they were not finished.
    
    "Maths teacher Greg Williams, who also is president of teachers' group People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes, said he was glad council chief executive David Wood seemed to be listening to maths teachers. The amount of work still needed on both courses meant that a start in 2008 would be impossible.
    
    "The Curriculum Council accredited the English literature, history, French, Indonesian and career and enterprise courses at a special meeting on Tuesday night at which the maths courses were rejected.
    
    "Many teachers had criticised the new literature course for pushing cultural studies at the expense of literary texts.
    
    "The Curriculum Council spokesman said the central features of literature, including the study of novels, prose, drama and poetry, would continue under changes to the course. A second trial literature exam giving students more guidance would be written early next year after some teachers said they thought the proposed exam was too general.
    
    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said the maths courses should be delayed to 2009 because there was no definite date for their completion."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • New Teacher Jolts KIPP
    by Jay Mathews
    
    "When Lisa Suben took a job last year as the fifth-grade math teacher at the AIM Academy in Southeast D.C., she was told her lessons had already been prepared for her. AIM was the second charter school founded for low-income D.C. students by KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program. KIPP had gained a national reputation for math instruction. The KIPP leaders in D.C. had good reason to think, as they told Suben, that "we have math pretty much figured out."

    "Suben, 23 at the time, still thought she could do better. She told her supervisors she was going to produce her own fifth-grade math curriculum. A year later, her students achieved the largest one-year math score jump ever seen at a KIPP school (or any other school that I know of), from the 16th to the 77th percentile..." [A lesson here for our Curriculum Council???   Web]
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Mike Steketee: The Rudd critique of Howard's economics is half right
    
    As industrial relations shows, the PM is a fiscal fundamentalist only when he can get away with it
    
    "Wrestling with John Howard for the centre ground of Australian politics, Kevin Rudd accuses his opponent of being an extremist and free-market fundamentalist. The trouble is, if most voters agreed, he would have been kicked out of office by now.
    
    "Aha, says Rudd, that proves Howard is camouflaging his radicalism through pre-election spending, a rhetorical commitment to the so-called Howard battlers and cultivating an everyman image of himself.

    "But the Prime Minister's approach is more than a tricky disguise. He is a politician before he is an ideologue and that means he never will be a slave to free-market principles..."
    
    "Education is far from a free market but government policy and funding has favoured private schools and moved increasingly towards user-pays for higher education. [emphasis added] In taxation, the Government has retained the principles of a progressive system but that has not stopped it flattening the scales with large cuts at the top end and introducing GST..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link

    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Most Talked About: Howard v. Rudd
      Good intentions aren't enough, Kevin, you need policies: Six Letters, including
      
      "Kevin Rudd’s polemic against John Howard is as worryingly content-free as the Prime Minister’s ramblings ("Kevin Rudd is wrong. I’m no market zealot”, Opinion, 18/12). When he gets beyond the groundless assertions of Howard’s espousal of Hayek, what are we left with? More straw men, I fear.

      "The Labor Party, at state and union level, has debauched the primary and secondary education systems to such an extent that the social mobility that Rudd enjoyed is no longer available to the kids of his “working families”.

      "His charge that public investment in tertiary education has dropped under Howard is a cynical manipulation of statistics for a period that has seen an explosion in the undergraduate population and massive growth in university funding. But until universities de-emphasise such pleasant pastimes as media studies, gender studies, etc, in favour of science and technology, we have no hope of achieving an educated economy. [emphasis added]

      "On climate change, I would trust Howard’s practical approach more than Rudd’s thinly disguised Kyoto mantra.

      "But it is Rudd’s third issue, industrial relations, that makes me wonder if we live in the same country. The working families I know have never been so content."
      
      Barry Wells, Clifton Beach, Qld

 

Friday 22 December

• The Australian
  
  
  • New minister to enter the history wars
    by Paige Taylor
    
    "Western Australia's new Education Minister wants to change the teaching of high school history to give students a deeper understanding of international conflicts and Australia's role in them.
    
    "Mark McGowan, who has inherited the state's troubled gradeless curriculum, said an assessment and possible overhaul of the state's history curriculum was a priority.

    "The former naval legal officer landed the state education portfolio last week from Ljiljanna Ravlich, who stumbled in attempting to introduce a system of "outcomes-based" courses into Years 11 and 12.

    "A proposed high school history course is among 13 new Year 11 and 12 courses that have been rewritten and their introduction delayed to 2008 as a result of mounting criticism that the courses lacked rigour and traditional instruction.

    "Pressure group People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes gained crucial union support with its campaign last year against the new method of assessing students based on eight "levels of achievement" instead of giving them a grade or a percentage, which it claims is confusing for parents, labour-intensive for teachers and does not encourage students to compete with each other.

    "Mr McGowan yesterday would not rule out further reform to the proposed new subjects, saying he had begun talks with the Education Department and the state school teachers' union, and would not be drawn until those meetings were over. [emphasis added]

    "In talking over his plans to discuss the teaching of history with the state curriculum council, Mr McGowan lamented that many Australians, including teenagers, knew few facts, figures and dates about Australia's past.

    "A lot of our understanding of history is based on emotion and a general feeling about things," he said.

    "Mr McGowan has a keen personal interest in history but said he did not wish to criticise the current high school history course, which he had not yet properly considered.

    "But he said many Australians lacked a detailed knowledge of the nation's role in international conflicts, even Gallipoli.

    "I don't think many people could tell you much about it, other than we landed there on April 25, 1915, and a lot of people died," he said.

    "What I would like to see people develop, through our education system, is a deeper knowledge of history – Australian and world history."

    "In January, John Howard said there needed to be a "root and branch" renewal of the teaching of history.

    "And federal Education Minister Julie Bishop told a history summit in August that history should not be taught as political science.

    "History is not peace studies. History is not social justice awareness week or consciousness raising about ecological sustainability," she said.

    "Mr McGowan, a father of two whose wife is a teacher, said it was impossible to teach history without an analysis of the politics involved, but added that education "should be fairly objective rather than coming at things from a particular left-wing or right-wing bias". [emphasis added]

    "Mr McGowan said he could see both sides of the argument for a national curriculum but was yet to make up his mind."
    
    From The Australian at link

    
    
    
  • Science should put children over the moon
    by Jeremy Roberts
    
    "Astronaut Andy Thomas has warned that primary schools are failing to inspire young students to study science and follow in his footsteps.
    
    "Students getting hands-on experience doing science experiments is not happening because of liability and safety issues," Dr Thomas said in his home town of Adelaide yesterday.

    "You have to plant the seeds in their minds, usually before they're aged 10 – before the seventh grade."

    "His comments follow a scathing review of the teaching of science in the nation's schools, with The Australian reporting that laboratory experiments are being squeezed out of classrooms by tight budgets and health and safety laws that require risk-assessments in some states.

    "While Dr Thomas did not excel at school in Adelaide, he sees science and maths teaching in primary school, and experiments in particular, as crucial to inspiring future scientists.

    "If you haven't sparked some interest before the seventh grade you have lost them, you ain't gonna get them," he said..."

    Full story in The Australian at link

Saturday – Sunday, 23 – 24 December

• A Ghost of Christmas Past
  
  Christmas with Lil: From the Alston Cartoon, The West Australian, 23/12

  © The West Australian

  plus
  
  Winners of the 2006 State pollie awards... [Robert Taylor, 'Inside State': The West Australian, 21/12]
  
  "The 2006 Inside State political awards have been dubbed the D'Orazios in honour of the man who started the year as Alan Carpenter's rising star only to disappear into a black hole before reincarnating as the Sun King..."
  
  The Marie Antionette long goodbye award
  
  "Ljiljanna Ravlich dominated the headlines as she battled teachers, parents, academics and The West Australian over outcomes-based education.
  
  "Her "let-them-eat-cake" attitude right up to the moment the Premier was forced to take control before the whole thing headed over a cliff endeared her to an enthralled public.
  
  "A wonderful cameo at year's end as the only person in the education department unaware that the CCC was crawling all over the place sealed the gong for the new minister for stuff that you'll never hear about."
  

        From The West Australian
  
  
  

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Minister wants classics for TEE
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "High school students won't be able to pass TEE English and literature unless they read several books - including classics.
    
    "New WA Education Minister Mark McGowan dismissed recent concerns that students could pass exams after reading just one book and debate during the year about the quality of texts used in schools.

    "Dring my time as minister, I will ensure that students will not be able to get through Years 11 and 12 English and literature without having read several books, including some classics," Mr McGowan said.

    "And I will work with the Curriculum Council to make sure that happens."

    "But he said "classics" did not have to be limited to books by authors such as Charles Dickens or Jane Austen.

    "They can be books such as Catch 22, The Catcher in the Rye or To Kill A Mockingbird," Mr McGowan said.

    "I just want to make sure that our kids are exposed to a variety of literature.

    "I want to ensure that there's full confidence in our courses."

    "He said that for children to become well-rounded adults, they needed to read a range of texts.

    "These included books - both classic and modern - newspapers, magazines, plays, scripts and poems.

    "As recently as 12 days ago, when discussing a delay in accreditation of the new outcomes-based Literature course, Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood was quoted as saying there needed to be more clarity "about certain things, like you have to read more than one book".

    "At a special meeting on Tuesday, the council accredited the English literature, history: ancient and modern, career and enterprise, French and Indonesian courses, but rejected two new maths courses.

    "In a media release on Thursday, Mr Wood said that the Literature course "now provided for more traditional approaches if students and teachers prefer.

    "It allows teachers to adopt more contemporary approaches, including the study of cultures, which provides the best of both worlds.

    "The central features of literature, including the study of novels, prose, drama and poetry, will continue."

    "Mr Wood said some teachers had told the council they thought a proposed literature exam was too general.

    "A second trial exam providing more guidance to students would be written very early in 2007 and teachers would be asked which form of exam they preferred," the release said.

    "Mr McGowan wanted to see education "embedded" in every household.

    "At home, I would want children not only read to at a young age by their parents, but also the importance of education steeped in every household,'' he said.

    "(That) would be my most important achievement as education minister.''

    "This week, Mr McGowan also said that he wanted to change the teaching of high school history to give students a deeper understanding of international conflicts and Australia's role in them."

    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
    
  • Tumultuous year in WA politics
    by Adam Gartrell
    
    "The West Australian government will limp battered and bloodied into 2007, after a tumultuous year beset with scandal and crisis.
    
    "It began with a bang: Just 16 days in, the affable 'good news premier', Geoff Gallop, announced he was stepping down because he was suffering from depression.

    "The shock resignation left the government scrambling to find a replacement but the state development minister Alan Carpenter soon emerged as the front-runner.

    "After he was anointed, the 49-year-old father of four declared he was looking forward to leading the government into a new "golden era", as WA continued to ride high on the wave of the resources boom.

    "Instead, his first year in the top job has been horrific.

    "Less than a week after he was sworn in, Carpenter made what would later prove to be a huge mistake: elevating veteran MP Norm Marlborough to the frontbench.

    "In doing so, Carpenter symbolically overturned Gallop's ban on ministerial contact with disgraced former premier Brian Burke, despite warnings he would live to regret it.

    "Placing his arm around Marlborough's shoulder, Carpenter said he was absolutely confident Marlborough's close friendship with Burke would not interfere with his job as small business minister.

    "Marlborough knew there would be scrutiny of his relationship with Burke but could never have predicted the state's corruption watchdog would be listening to their phone conversations.

    "Premier for five years in the 1980s, Burke was jailed for seven months in 1994 for rorting travel expenses.

    "His reign is now most commonly associated with the WA Inc era, when his government had disastrous dealings with big business which cost WA taxpayers big dollars.

    "The Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) began tapping his phones this year while investigating his role as a political lobbyist for Canal Rocks, a company which wants to develop a controversial tourism project in the state's south-west.

    "The CCC wanted to find out whether Burke, or other Canal Rocks proponents, were exerting ``undisclosed or improper influence'' on public officers in their efforts to get the development approved.

    "Soon after they began listening in, CCC investigators heard a number of incredible - and now infamous - conversations between Burke and Marlborough.

    "During public hearings in November, the extraordinary story emerged: The day after joining the Carpenter ministry Marlborough went out and bought a second mobile phone, in his wife's name, which he used as an exclusive ``hotline'' to and from Burke.

    "The pair spoke up to 10 times a day on the phone, with Burke urging Marlborough to appoint a particular woman to a government board and instructing him how to answer questions in parliament.

    "It had been an open secret that Burke had wielded some behind-the-scenes influence within the government since Labor was returned to power in 2001, but few realised the extent of that influence.

    "The calls made Marlborough seem like Burke's lap dog: loyal, well-trained and compliant. Burke, meanwhile, emerged as a Machiavellian puppet-master.

    "The revelations forced Marlborough off the frontbench and out of parliament. They also forced Burke out of the ALP after more than 40 years as a member.

    "But the CCC stepped up its inquiries: Who else was on the phone to Burke? Just who really is running this state?

    "Then-resources minister John Bowler was forced to detail a string of dealings he had with Burke. While he insisted the dealings were legitimate, his otherwise good name was tarred by the Burke brush.

    "Later, Labor backbencher Adele Farina told the CCC how Burke approached her to help him push Canal Rocks' interests.

    "But instead of becoming another Burke lackey, the head-strong Farina refused his requests and subsequently fell victim to his wrath.

    "When she was preparing to seek re-endorsement for her seat for the 2004 election, Farina says Mr Burke told her her pre-selection was at risk because he and his powerful right faction no longer supported her.

    "To win back that support, he apparently told her, she would have to be "more helpful".

    "Farina believes that a one-off deal between Gallop and the ALP National Executive was the only thing that kept her from being ousted by Burke's machinations.

    "While it was heartening to learn there were some people prepared to stand up to Burke, Farina's evidence was also a disturbing insight into Burke's mind-set, showing he was prepared to punish and blackmail those he could not persuade.

    "The Burke scandal hit a Carpenter already wearied by controversy.

    "In May, Carpenter was forced to strip his former "rising star", John D'Orazio, of the police portfolio after it was revealed he had been driving without a licence for two months.

    "But instead of dumping D'Orazio from the frontbench, Carpenter gave him new portfolios.
    
    "Criticism of this half-measure forced D'Orazio to retreat to the backbench.

    "The plot thickened several months later when D'Orazio was called to give evidence at a CCC probe into Perth panel beater Pasquale Minniti, accused of using police contacts to help his friends avoid traffic infringements.

    "The CCC revealed that D'Orazio met with Minniti in the days after he lost his portfolio.

    "Though no evidence was presented that D'Orazio actually did anything wrong, it was another embarrassment for Carpenter.

    "He asked D'Orazio to resign from the Labor party, which D'Orazio reluctantly did.

    "Two other ministers were in the firing line in 2006.

    "Ljiljanna Ravlich spent much of the year on the back foot as education minister.

    "First, she became the target of widespread discontent over the implementation in WA of outcomes-based education (OBE).

    "In October, a damning CCC report into her department's handling of sexual misconduct allegations weakened her tenuous position further.

    "Teachers, the state opposition and the general public, whipped up by a relentless media campaign, called constantly for her sacking. [emphasis added]

    "There were also persistent calls for Sheila McHale's sacking over her years as community development minister.

    "In August, the state coroner slammed the Department of Community Development (DCD) for failing - under McHale's watch - to protect 11-month-old Wade Scale, who drowned while in the care of his drug-addicted parents.

    "The opposition called for a royal commission into the DCD, saying scores of young children known to the department had died of ``unknown or unnatural causes'' in recent times.

    "After a month of sustained attack over the issue, Carpenter announced an urgent funding boost for the DCD. The furore subsided, but McHale was significantly damaged.

    "Despite all its woes, a recent newspaper poll showed voters still prefer the government over the opposition under Paul Omodei, who, since becoming leader in March, has struggled for traction.

    "But Carpenter realises the government has to lift its game if it is to stay in an election-winning position. So, in a major cabinet reshuffle on December 13, he demoted Ravlich, Bowler and McHale to junior portfolios.

    "Carpenter is hoping a fresh frontbench will signal a fresh start. But instead of looking forward to a shining new ``golden age'', Carpenter will probably be content with just a bit of peace of quiet.

    "Of course, if Ravlich or McHale do manage to make a mess of their new portfolios, it will be another mark against Carpenter's leadership. [emphasis added]

    "And another storm looms on the horizon: In February, the CCC will hold new, and much more wide-ranging, public hearings into Burke's lobbying activities.

    "Just who else will be ensnared is anyone's guess."
    
    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    

• Curriculum Council Media Release [21/12/2006]

Curriculum Council Media Release More courses accredited A special meeting of the Curriculum Council this week considered seven more courses of study as part of the WA Certificate of Education in Years 11 and 12. English Literature; History: Ancient and Modern; Career and Enterprise; French; and Indonesian were accredited or re-accredited. Chief Executive Officer, David Wood, said the English Literature course now provided for more traditional approaches if students and teachers prefer. “It allows teachers to adopt more contemporary approaches, including the study of cultures which provides the best of both worlds,” he said. “The central features of literature including the study of novels, prose, drama and poetry will continue.” Mr Wood said some teachers had told the Council they thought the proposed exam was too general. A second trial exam providing more guidance to students would be written very early in 2007 and teachers would be asked which form of exam they preferred. He said the two new mathematics courses, Mathematics and Mathematics: Specialist, were considered and Council endorsed the overall unit structure, scope, sequence and content. “However, Council decided that more work was needed on the course standards and trial exams needed to be set,” he said. “The implementation year will be determined after this work is completed and teachers have had a good look at the two courses in term 1 next year. “The courses will be presented to teachers at awareness days to be held when school starts next year. This will give all mathematics teachers a chance to have a say on when the new courses should be implemented.” Mr Wood said 48 of the new courses were now accredited after significant improvements including updated content statements or syllabus for each unit. English, Aviation, Media: Production and Analysis and Engineering Studies would be taught in Year 11 and 12 next year and Physical Education Studies, Earth and Environmental Studies, Applied Information Technology and English as a Language/Dialect will be taught in Year 11 for the first time in 2007. The remaining 40 courses would be introduced in 2008 with the first examinations in November 2009. Teachers will have a full year to plan and get ready to teach the new courses. He said that, in addition to the new courses, Council had established procedures that allowed schools to submit their own courses or programs for endorsement by the Council and inclusion on a student’s statement of results. This allowed studies in areas such as workplace learning; university studies; personal development programs; community organisation programs; and VET stand-alone programs. Council had also established procedures that will see students complete 20 hours of community service and have this included on their statement of results. “The Council has now established procedures to acknowledge student achievement across a broad range of areas while ensuring that more traditional school studies continue to be central to our senior schooling in Western Australia,” he said. Media Contact: John Altham or Tracy Taggart 9273 6329 or 0403 310 583 From this Curriculum Council link

• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Rudd racks up promises of $3.5bn
    by David Uren and Samantha Maiden
    
    "The easy promises granted by Labor leader Kevin Rudd and his deputy Julia Gillard during their national tour could carry a cost in government of more than $3.5 billion.
    
    "Many of the pledges were vague on detail. However, the Labor leaders raised expectations of extravagant election commitments in infrastructure, health and education...
    
    "With Labor's dental promise in the last election reaching $300 million, expectations are that it could go closer to $500million.

    "Higher education and skills training would get significant additional funding. Mr Rudd declared that the high cost of HECS debt was a "national disgrace", deterring working families from pursuing further education.

    "The HECS scheme contributes about $2billion a year to university funding, so any substantial reduction could cost $500million.

    "At the last election, Labor promised to lower the cost of HECS borrowing for science and mathematics students at a cost of $260 million.

    "Mr Rudd restated an existing Labor commitment to fund additional TAFE places and more technical colleges. This has not yet been costed, beyond a $15 million promise to remove TAFE fees for childcare courses.

    "Labor has also promised that childcare centres would be required to follow a structured educational syllabus, with funding for additional training, while it would devise ways of getting the 30 per cent childcare tax rebate out to parents more quickly..."

    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Science empowers us all
      
      "Astronaut Andy Thomas now adds his voice ("Science should put children over the moon” 22/12) to the recent clamour of calls for better science and maths teaching. The cause is noble but the rationale is flawed.

      "Learning science is indeed important for children but not primarily as an entree to a career in science or engineering. Scientific knowledge and logic are vital because they empower us all. They liberate us from ignorance and superstition. They allow us to understand the physical and biological world around us, especially our own bodies. They prompt a sceptical outlook and analytical approach to help us through the bombardment of dubious claims, offers and promises we suffer daily.

      "Careers in science are only for a tiny minority whose career decisions are influenced by a combination of market forces, aptitudes and exposure to good teaching. To design school courses just for that minority is a nonsense when there is so much good to be achieved from a proper community-wide understanding of scientific principles."
      
      Tom Biegler, Brighton, Vic
      
      
      

• The Times [Sunday]
  
  
  • Galbraith: scrap faith schools
    by Jason Allardyce
    
    "Sam Galbraith, the former education minister, has ignited a row over denominational education by claiming Catholic schools are the “root cause” of sectarian bigotry in Scotland and should be scrapped.

    "Galbraith, a former cabinet colleague of Jack McConnell and one of Scottish Labour’s most influential figures, said he believed having separate schools for Catholics and Protestants fostered intolerance..."
    
    Full story in The Times at link

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This page last updated 14 August, 2008 1:43 AM