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 15 January

Tuesday 16 January

Wednesday 17 January

Thursday 18 January

Friday 19 January

Saturday – Sunday, 20 – 21 January

 

Monday 15 January

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Editorial
    Postscript: Private schools [14 Jan]
    
    "Are private school teachers the best teachers in the known universe? Are they better than their state school counterparts? Are our state school teachers second-rate?

    "These are all questions arising out of Melbourne Grammar principal Paul Sheahan's allegation in The Sunday Age last week that public schools are, indeed, second-rate.

    "And the answer is, according to many correspondents, that Mr Sheahan's comments are a smokescreen. He was drawing attention away from the fact that Melbourne Grammar charges $15,000 a year for prep students by running down the competition, which provides much the same service for, get this, free.

    "But what if both sides of the argument were right? What if private school teachers were better at teaching in private schools and public school teachers were better at teaching in public schools? ..."

    Full editorial in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • One in three to miss uni place
    by Adam Morton, Higher Education Reporter
    
    "Nearly 20,000 people — one-third of applicants in Victoria — will miss out on a government-funded university place tonight, despite more spots being offered than a year ago..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Cash paves way into uni for lower scorers
    by Harriet Alexander, Higher Education Reporter
    
    "A Sydney university is offering guaranteed places to students if they are prepared to pay fees up front - so long as they meet minimum standards.

    "The University of Technology, Sydney, has set guaranteed-entry university admission index figures for fee-paying students. These are about five points less than the scores required by Higher Education Contribution Scheme students last year.

    "The move will raise concerns that university entrance standards are dropping under the pressure to take in full-fee-paying students..."

    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    "As an English teacher who values richness, complexity and imagination in written and spoken language, I was alarmed but not surprised to read that the Curriculum Council of Western Australia is not alone in its valiant and so far successful attempts to remove anything of lasting worth from English teaching. It is also happening in South Australia, where Year 12 English students are encouraged to bask in the fetid froth of throwaway ideas and lazy expressions that resemble the grunts of cavemen as they study SMS, “non-text-based” objects and show-and-tell activities.

    "All this is being done, I suspect, in the name of political correctness, the focus of which is to include and not offend those that don’t believe learning and teaching should be directed by following examples of the best that a particular discipline has to offer, derived from a rich and vast range of Western thought that spans millenniums, not weeks.

    "Anything that smacks of elitism is likely to offend the proponents of mediocrity, whose ideas are expressed predominantly in popular culture.

    "If we continue to put the worst examples of contemporary thought and expression on the same level as Shakespeare and other writers that form part of the canon of English literature, we will produce a generation that can neither engage in high level critical and imaginative thinking nor express themselves in ways other than with such dreary Americanisms as “awesome” and “get a life”."
    
    Ingrid Klein, Esperance, WA
    

    • Follow-up Letter: 16 January
      
      "Well said, Ingrid Klein (Letters, 15/1). If I had kids entering high school, I would move to Esperance just to have you teach them English. It would be worth the expense."
      
      C. A. Bond, Cleveland, Qld

Tuesday 16 January

• The Australian
  
  
  • Our maths teaching below India's
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "The quality of maths and science education in Australia has been ranked below countries such as India, where 40 per cent of the population cannot read or write.
    
    "In its annual report on global competitiveness, the World Economic Forum ranks Australia 29th for the quality of its maths and science teaching and 12th for the quality of its educational system.

    "Singapore, Finland and Belgium lead the 125 countries assessed on the quality of their maths and science education, with India ranked in seventh place, the Czech Republic in eighth and Tunisia ninth.

    "Other countries ranked higher than Australia include Romania, Estonia, Barbados, the Slovak Republic, Serbia and Montenegro, Lithuania and Indonesia, as well as OECD countries including New Zealand..." [emphasis added]
    
    "The world's longest-running study of maths and science - Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study - also assessed the mathematical and scientific knowledge of Year 4 and Year 8 students in 2003 and ranked Australia in the top 15.

    "But the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia said yesterday the WEF rankings were based on an assessment by industry and major business of Australia's maths-science capabilities.

    "APESMA chief executive John Vines said the lack of confidence expressed by business in the standard of Australian education reflected workforce issues.

    "It's consistent with the concerns we've been expressing for some years about the shortage of qualified maths and "science teachers in the classroom," Mr Vines said.

    He said the federal Government's failure to address the problem by providing incentives for scientists to retrain as teachers indicated it was not "fair dinkum" about solving the problem.

    "It's a clear strategic issue for Australia whether it wants to be a country that has the capacity to design and develop its own infrastructure and resources defence capabilities," he said. "They're all underpinned by strong skills in science and there doesn't seem to be the evidence that the Government is taking that issue seriously enough."

    "The Australian reported earlier this month that a big package of initiatives in school education and science taken to cabinet by Education and Science Minister Julie Bishop was rejected. [emphasis added]

    "The newspaper has also reported on the low prestige attached to studying science, reflected in university entrance scores that require a higher mark to study fashion design, sports management or traditional Chinese medicine than a science degree..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link

    
    

  • Cut & paste: Ideology dictates the poetry prescribed for our students
    
    Education consultant Mark Lopez, in the Institute for Public Affairs Review, on the left-wing bias in Year 12 English
    
    "What?" My student exclaimed in a manner that demanded immediate clarification. While tutoring him in the Year 12 English course, I had made a comment that inferred the existence of poets who were not of the Left, that is poets who expressed, for example, liberal, conservative, or patriotic views. My student, stunned with surprise, did not believe that such creatures existed. He neither believed that there could be such a thing as a non-Left poet nor that poetry could be used to express non-Left ideas. This was not the student's fault. My student was very clever, hardworking, and he had writing ability, which I was very keen to develop.
    
    "However, like most students, he did not read poetry of his own volition, so all of his encounters with it had been imposed by school. Consequently, he had only ever been presented with left-wing poets, such as the Australian Bruce Dawe, and he therefore reached the (understandable but mistaken) conclusion that all poets were left-wing, for example, pacifists rather than patriots. This misunderstanding is just one of the consequences of the overwhelming ideological bias favouring the politically correct Left in the English curriculum in Victorian high schools.

    "This bias is not confined to poetry. It permeates the entire English course, and it has done so for decades. The subtle unstated implication of an English curriculum that consists almost exclusively of the study of books, films, plays and poems that espouse left-wing sentiments is that the only ideas worthy of display in serious art are left-wing ideas. This ideological bias also carries the subtle unstated implication that to be intelligent and creative, in a manner that may one day produce works worthy of scholastic study, is to be left-wing...

    "There is a need for far greater pluralism. Perhaps the list of 30 texts could be reduced to 20, with 10 selected by the Left and 10 selected by the non-Left, with the stipulation that school English departments must choose from both sides of the list.

    "The ideal situation would be an English curriculum that is philosophically broad and richly educational, where students are presented with a range of interesting ideas from which they can freely select or reject according to their capacities for reason and the dictates of their consciences."
    
    From The Australian at link

    
    
    
  • Education undermined: Rudd
    by Dorothy Illing and Elizabeth Gosch
    
    "Labor leader Kevin Rudd has accused Prime Minister John Howard of being blinded by the resources boom, which has created a two-speed economy and a lopsided education system in Australia.
    
    "As the Victorian Government claimed almost 20,000 eligible students missed out on a university place this year, Mr Rudd warned that an educated workforce was critical to a strong economy and signalled that Labor wanted to expand the tertiary education sector.

    "Victoria has bucked the trend in the resource-rich states of Queensland and Western Australia, where demand for university continues to slide as people pursue well-paid jobs instead of further study..."
    
    "Mr Rudd said yesterday that anyone who qualified for university should have a "good chance" of being accepted. "Mr Howard's script for the economy seems to be he hopes that the resources boom will last forever," he said.

    "Well, we don't believe you can just pin your hopes on the resources boom hanging around forever.

    "We've got to produce the best-trained workforce, the most educated economy in the world."

    "But Mr Rudd refused to say how the growth in student places would be funded at the same time Labor is looking to lower HECS fees, the revenue from which flows to universities..." [emphasis added]
    
    "But federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said an extra 39,000 commonwealth-supported places would flow to universities in the five years to 2009.

    "Unmet demand has dropped by more than 61 per cent nationally since 2004 as a result of this massive injection of new places," she said..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link [see related editorial and Op Ed piece below]

     

  • Editorial
    Keep spending specific
    Not all universities and their students merit more money
    
    "It's university entry time, with students all over Australia anxiously waiting to learn whether they have made it into the course of choice. And as they wait, the rest of us endure that other annual academic event, the higher education community's warning that our universities are in crisis and that only a great deal more public money can save the sector from ruin. Standards will collapse, vice-chancellors warn. Students will starve after they graduate because of the cost of paying off their courses, say academic unionists. There is nothing new in any of this. Ever since the last Labor government introduced the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, under which students repay a proportion of their tuition costs, as an income tax surcharge, there have been annual warnings that fees are onerous and unfair. And vice-chancellors rival Nationals politicians in their demands for ever more money.

    "But what is different this year is the way policy-focused Labor leader Kevin Rudd and his education spokesman, the poll-fixated Stephen Smith, are taking a keen interest in higher education, especially course costs borne by students. In particular, they are looking at whether fee relief might increase enrolments in maths, science and engineering. This is a discussion worth having. Australia is enduring a productivity-sapping shortfall of workers with scientific skills, as well as the teachers to train the next generation of engineers and economists, physicists and programmers. The mining industry is paying top dollar but still cannot find enough skilled staff and, as The Australian reveals today, the armed forces need 2000 extra engineers to manage their capital equipment program. But Mr Rudd must not allow our present and projected shortage of skilled labour to expand into an argument for more money for universities as a whole, or for lower fees for all students.

    "After embracing the right to raise more of their own income by charging supplementary fees, it is a bit rich for universities whose courses are not in demand to be compensated for their failure to meet the needs of the market. And advocates of lower student fees never mention that payments made by students under the Higher Education Contribution Scheme are income contingent, paid off through the PAYE tax system. Nor has anybody ever had their degree taken back because low incomes, or long periods out of the workforce, mean they do not pay off their fees. HECS is an outstanding Australian idea, adopted by the Blair Government in Britain. It allows people to pay for a proportion of their education when they can, instead of receiving their degrees as gifts from all taxpayers. Universities, especially those that struggle to attract students, have no irrefutable right to ever more public money. And while lower fees for all students would be electorally popular, that would be a very expensive way of incidentally addressing our need for more skilled workers."
    
    From The Australian at link [scroll down to second editorial]
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    University focus builds stage for economic innovation
    by Glyn Davis and Joshua Frydenberg
    
    Under Arnold Schwarzenegger's leadership, California is providing lessons for Australia's future on technology, education and stem cell research
    
    "... Underpinning the state's strategy is an extraordinary asset: the best university system in the world, producing both the fundamental research and skilled graduates essential to a high-technology California. The state is home to a broad network of community colleges, 23 state universities, the elite University of California system with 12 world-class research institutions, and leading private schools such as Stanford. The state they serve is the seventh largest economy in the world and the base for many famous technology brands.

    "This month a group of senior Australian politicians, editors, business and university leaders spent time at two of the great Californian research institutions: the University of California at San Diego in the south of the state and Stanford in the north.

    "The team from the Australian American Leadership Dialogue led by Phil Scanlan, saw first hand the effects of investment in university-based research..."
    
    "The Californian strategy is clear and it is working: produce the engineers, scientists, researchers and MBA graduates who will invent new industries. The approach created Silicon Valley is flourishing in bio-medicine and looks set to boom in bio-fuels, energy alternatives and new fields such as robotics. Each begins in university research facilities but moves quickly to start-up companies and markets.

    "The process once took years. Now the cycle is getting shorter, with knowledge transfer a core business for American universities.

    "Like California, Australia must consider its future. We share much in common: a welcoming climate, natural resources, an immigrant culture and an economy in which services rather than manufacturing provide most employment. Like California, Australia too is seeing and seizing the economic opportunities in Asia, particularly in China.

    "But if Australia is going to take the next step and become a hub for innovation and new markets, it is our universities that must become the fulcrum for this change. Building closer relationships between educators and business, encouraging a greater culture of philanthropy, increasing our appetite for venture-capital-type risks, and a more active program for recruiting and nurturing the best talent are just some of the techniques Australia needs to more effectively employ.

    "Australia has the people, the resources and the capacity to replicate California's success. Let us start now."
    
    Glyn Davis is vice-chancellor of Melbourne University. Joshua Frydenberg, a former senior adviser to Prime Minister John Howard, is a director of a leading international investment bank. Both were participants in the Australia-US Leadership Dialogue held in California.
    
    Full story in The Australian at link

 

Wednesday 17 January

• The West Australian
  
  
  • TEE pupils want jobs not degrees (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "WA students are continuing to shun university in favour of getting a job with the latest figures revealing more people are taking advantage of WA's economic boom rather than commit to study.
    
    "Figures from the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre show that 18,212 people applied to study at WA universities this year, a drop of 3 per cent.
    
    "WA's continued downward trend – in 2006 there were 8 per cent fewer applicants than in 2005 – defies a national surge in demand for university places.
    
    "The drop in WA has been attributed to fewer older people applying to study with the number of mature-age students plummeting 27 per cent in the past two years.
    
    "The trend has hit demand for teaching courses because many students who apply to study teaching do so as a career change and are not school leavers..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    • Sidebar: Lower TER cut-off scores in 2007
      
      
      
      
      
  • WA's history teachers wary of Federal plan (page 52)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "WA history teachers have accused the Federal Government of failing to consult local classroom experts during its push to make Australian history a stand-alone subject in high schools.
    
    "Tom Loreck, former president of the WA History Teachers' Association, said that teachers were yet to see any details of the new course, even though they would be expected to teach it.
    
    "Mr Loreck said lack of consultation proved to be the undoing of WA's Curriculum Council, resulting in an outcry from teachers that led to a delay of new outcomes-based education courses in Years 11 and 12..."
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop convened a national summit of influential historians and educators last year which recommended that the study of Australian history should be sequentially planned through primary and high school and that it be a stand-alone subject in Years 9 and 10.
    
    "However, it is understood that the working group responsible for creating a national blueprint has recommended allowing schools to run the course over three years, from Years 8 to 10, instead of making it compulsory in Years 9 and 10. The final draft of the group's report is likely to go to Ms Bishop this month..."
    
    "Commenting on the history debate for the first time, new WA Education Minister Mark McGowan said that although he backed the push to teach more Australian history, he did not want to see an Eastern States version taught in WA schools.
    
    "Australian history is more than Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson, the First Fleet and the Eureka Stockade," he said. "West Australian history is a very important part of our national story and should feature in all Australian schools."
    
    "Mr McGowan said he did not want an Americanised style of subject taught.
    
    "It is important that students are taught about the highs and lows of our past and the context in which events occurred," he said." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Australian
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Govt blamed for shortfall in uni places
    
    "Labor education spokesman Stephen Smith says 40,000 people have missed out on first-round university places because the Federal Government has not invested enough in higher education..."
    
    Full story at ABC News Online at link
    
    
    
  • Govt denies uni funding shortfall
    
    "The Federal Government has rejected claims that people have missed out on university places because of a lack of funding..."
    
    Full story at ABC News Online at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Higher Education Supplement has a bumper 24 articles today, including:
    
    
    • 20 years to fix science
      by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
      
      "Australia has already lost its scientific knowledge base, creating a problem that will take two decades for the education system to redress.
      
      "CSIRO chief of mathematical and information sciences Murray Cameron said yesterday the decline in maths and science skills would take 20 years to solve.

      "We haven't generated enough of the next generation (of scientists and mathematicians) and our capacity to do so will decline markedly over the next 10 years," he said.

      "President of the Australian Council of Deans of Science John Rice said the knowledge base of science and maths teachers in schools was 20 years out of date and said governments were doing little to upgrade their skills. "We have lost our level of scientific and mathematical knowledge. It's already gone," he said.

      "A study by the World Economic Forum, reported yesterday in The Australian, ranked Australia 29th out of 125 countries for the quality of its maths and science education as assessed by business and industry. The rankings by the WEF, an independent organisation of global political and business leaders, placed Australia behind India, the Czech Republic and Tunisia..."
      
      "[Professor Rice] called for an overhaul of maths and science teaching, which he described as too removed from real world..."
      
      Full story in The Australian at link
      
      
      

    • Running out of teachers
      by Alex Reisner
      
      "The 700-page draft report on innovation released by the Productivity Commission last November cites "barriers to future growth of human capital", and comments that "there is a recognised shortage of engineers and secondary school teachers in science and mathematics".
      
      "Time and again Education Minister Julie Bishop and her predecessor Brendan Nelson have referred to this shortage.

      "Last July at the Sydney Institute, Bishop referred to a likely shortfall of as much as 35per cent in Australia's estimated requirement of 55,000 additional scientific professionals within six years.

      "On a number of occasions, the report refers to the shortage of competent and inspirational teaching in science and maths in the secondary school system and suggests what amounts to an offer of better pay and conditions.

      "While necessary, this is far from sufficient.

      "There is no discussion of the deficiencies in numbers of academics and the quality of teaching provided to the prospective teachers at the tertiary level, and just how this should be remedied.

      "One is left with the impression that once the prospective increases in pay for maths and science teachers are instituted, competent and enthusiastic secondary and primary school teachers will follow automatically. The matter of who might educate them and inculcate enthusiasm is left unaddressed..."
      
      Full story in The Australian at link
      
      
      

    • Enough student places, say VCs
      by Dorothy Illing
      
      "After a decade of fighting for more university places, the peak higher education lobby says Australian universities have enough domestic student places.
      
      "As the Labor Party called for more university places, Australian Vice-chancellors Committee president Gerard Sutton said that unmet student demand - eligible students who miss out on a place - had been met.

      "The national unmet demand in 2006 was 14,200; that compared with a peak of 36,000 in 2004," Professor Sutton said. "Nationally, effectively, the unmet demand has been met."

      "This week Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd signalled he wanted further expansion of universities as the Victorian Government accused the federal Government of not providing enough places to that state.

      "When a person is eligible for university they should have a good chance of being able to be given access to a university place," Mr Rudd said.

      "When you've got 20,000 people in Victoria who are denied a university place and 5000 here in Queensland this year alone, I say we've got to do a lot better than Mr Howard has been doing."

      "University of Western Australia vice-chancellor Alan Robson said it was time for the country to debate just how many people should be expected to go to university.

      "My view is that there should be about 30 per cent of the school-leavers and there should be good mechanisms for late bloomers and second chancers to go at a later stage," he said.

      "Professor Sutton said the AVCC's position was that any Australian student who would benefit from a university education should be able to gain a place at university.

      "And Australia had pretty much reached that level.

      "The AVCC defined eligible as anyone with an entrance score of 53 or higher. But eligibility did not guarantee a place in a university course that might have a higher cut-off.

      "An entrance score of 53 would mean that that person would be unlikely to succeed in a science program," Professor Sutton said..." [emphasis added]
      
      Full story in The Australian at link
      
      
      

    • Resources boom siphons mature-age students
      by Brendan O'Keefe
      
      "Mature-age students in Western Australia are quitting university to take promotions - without qualifications - in their industry as the resources boom continues.
      
      "I've been offered $60,000 a year to drive a truck. Why come to university and get a HECS debt?" This is what students are saying, according to David Macey, director of the centre for prospective students and admissions at Murdoch University.

      "In many cases mature-age students were already in managerial jobs or TAFE qualified.

      "They're saying, 'I don't need the degree to get on because I don't need it to get my head above the pack ... because there ain't any pack," Mr Macey said.

      "Throughout the sector strong growth in postgraduate programs and mature-age enrolments has been a revenue source of increasing importance for universities.

      "Mr Macey said mature-age students were taking the money but were more likely to come back to campus, whereas school leavers who deferred higher education and went to high-paid work never returned..."
      
      Full story in The Australian at link
      
      

    • We can't dismiss skills shortage
      
      
      
      
• The Times
  
  
  • Teachers taking early retirement up nearly 50% [16 Jan]
    

Thursday 18 January

• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Class of '07 Faces a Range of Tests
    by Ian Shapira
    
    Seniors [Year 12 students] Now Must Pass Exams in Math, Science, History and English to Graduate
    
    "As the school year approaches its midpoint, Virginia education officials are reminding students in the Class of 2007 that they are the first required to pass a broad range of the state's Standards of Learning exams if they want to graduate with a standard diploma.

    "Previous classes could graduate from Virginia high schools by passing six SOL exams mostly of their choosing, even if those tests were in the same discipline. Now, starting with this year's seniors [Year 12 students], students must pass at least one SOL in history, science and math, as well as two in English. Students also must pass a sixth SOL that they can choose from any discipline..."

    "What we've seen over the last three years is when you raise standards, students will rise to the occasion," [Virginia Department of Education spokesman Charles] Pyle said..." [emphasis added]
    
    "School officials who oversee high school counselors said they have not heard of any students complaining about the regulations, in part because students had been warned about the change..."
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Paying students into uni without making grade
    by Harriet Alexander, Higher Education Reporter
    
    "Students prepared to pay full fees for their university education will be admitted into some courses with scores substantially lower than their Commonwealth-supported peers this year.

    "Students at the University of Technology, Sydney will be separated by as much as 13.85 points in a combined Bachelor of Science in Maths/Bachelor of International Studies degree.

    "Universities previously kept to a convention of a maximum five-point difference between full-fee cut-off scores and those for government-funded places..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Modern history helps us find a place for Australia today
      
      "Having just completed the Higher School Certificate, with modern history and Aboriginal studies as my favourite subjects, I would have to disagree with Carol Baxter ("Teach them something to remember", January 17).

      "Ms Baxter states that social history "helps us to understand who we are" and gives us "a better understanding of ourselves, our nation and our place in the world".

      "I would argue that without studying the politics and wars of modern history, I would be unable to evaluate Australia's place in the world.

      "While Australia's history is undoubtedly important, Australia does not exist alone and without influence from other countries.

      "Yes, Australia has been influenced by its colonial past, but without the teaching of modern history how are students to understand, for example, why we have a stronger alliance with America now than we did in the early part of last century? Or why we have the United Nations, which passes judgement on many issues in Australian society, such as the treatment and plight of our indigenous people?

      "On the topic of indigenous people, I question why Ms Baxter asks: "So why is it that the only social history course on offer for HSC students concentrates on ancient cultures?" Perhaps it is a reflection of her colonial persuasion, but is the indigenous culture of our country not one worthy of a mention?

      "The Aboriginal studies course in years 11 and 12 is very much a study of social history. While year 11 looks at elements of Aboriginal culture from ancient times and the effect of invasion and colonisation on their societies, the year 12 course is inherently focused on more recent social history. Socioeconomic status, reconciliation and social justice feature prominently in the course, providing students with a far greater understanding of the social history and plight that has faced, and is facing, indigenous Australians.

      "I believe the study of our indigenous social history is more important than studying the colonial history suggested by Ms Baxter, if we are aiming to gain "a better understanding of ourselves, our nation" and "to make wiser judgements about our future", as she attests.

      "Until now many Australians have done a poor job of recognising and valuing a unique, fascinating and highly significant culture. It is neglected in its own country."

      Jordanna Bowman, East Lindfield
      
      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • Resource firms invest in WA technical college
    
    "Four of the biggest players in the Pilbara oil, gas and mining industries, in north-west Western Australia, have joined forces to groom more teenagers for a career in the resources sector.

    "Resource companies across the country are struggling to attract skilled workers.

    "Woodside Energy, Rio Tinto, Chevron Texaco and BHP Billiton will address the skills shortage with a jointly run technical college in the Pilbara.

    "The senior high school will have campuses in Port Hedland and Karratha by the second semester of this year.

    "It will be open to all students, with a focus on attracting Aboriginal teenagers.

    "Students will be able to complete their certificate of secondary schooling while getting technical training.

    "Chairman Meath Hammond says the industry involvement in the project is a big bonus.

    "Ours is unique in that the owners of the ATC [Australian Technical College] are those four companies," he said.

    "A funding agreement with the Federal Government will be signed later today."
    
    From ABC News Online at link
    
    
    
    

Friday 19 January

• The Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Kevin Donnelly: Schools must teach and test the basics
    
    More tax dollars alone won't improve maths and English standards
    
    "If you needed any more evidence of the parlous state of our education system, look no further than a recent World Economic Forum report that highlights Australia's poor international ranking in maths and science education. We're ranked 29th out of 125 countries. Not exactly down there with Colombia, but our ranking is in decline nonetheless.
    
    "What to do? In his keynote speech at the Australian Education Union national conference this week, Fred van Leeuwen, the head of the global teachers' union Education International, put forward one simple solution: more money. The best way to raise standards, the argument goes, is to employ more teachers, have smaller classes and stop the federal Government financially supporting non-government schools.

    "But throwing more money at the problem is not enough on its own. As measured by the Trends in International Maths and Science Study tests, the most successful education systems, such as those of South Korea, Japan, The Netherlands and the Czech Republic, spend less than Australia on education as measured by public expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product..."
    
    "The teacher unions are opposed to educational reforms represented by holding schools accountable for performance, giving schools greater autonomy, allowing competition between government and non-government schools and having a more traditional syllabus approach to curriculum. Never mind that these are the very innovations needed to raise standards..."
    
    "At a time when the AEU is battling to remain relevant to the national debate - even Labor's education spokesman Stephen Smith now argues the federal Government's case for increased accountability and parental choice - Woessmann [Ludger Woessmann of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy] also suggests: "A large influence of teacher unions on curriculum scope has negative effects on student performance."

    "Unlike Australia's adoption of outcomes-based education, with its dumbed down and PC approach, stronger performing overseas systems give teachers clear, succinct and unambiguous road maps of what to teach: there is a strong focus on the basics and academic subjects, and students are regularly tested and given feedback on strengths and weaknesses. [emphasis added]
    
    "David Green, director of the British-based think tank Civitas, says improved standards as a result of parental choice and freeing schools from provider capture, represented by intrusive bureaucracies and industrial-age teacher unions, explains the popularity of innovations such as charter schools and school vouchers.

    "To argue that spending more money is an ineffective way to raise standards does not mean that governments - especially the state governments, which are primarily responsible for education - should not increase expenditure.

    "The danger, though, as happened when millions of dollars were given to schools as a result of some Whitlam-inspired initiatives in the 1970s, is that without widespread associated innovation and change, students will still be educationally at risk."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Labor, unions in school brawl
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Labor is preparing to pick a fight with teachers' unions by signalling a major policy shift to mark classroom performance.
    
    "Education spokesman Stephen Smith has flagged an overhaul of the ALP's education policy to consider assessment by more experienced teachers and rigorous programs of professional development. [emphasis added]

    "But the plan could spark a brawl at the ALP's national conference in April if he also attempts to overhaul the party's policy platform.

    "While he said the profession had historically been under-valued in Australia, this could be addressed by focussing on quality in the classroom.

    "This raises the question of actual teacher performance in the classroom and the need for a rigorous assessment of that performance," he said.

    "And while this may cause some sensitivities, I strongly believe that as a nation we cannot afford to turn a public policy blind eye to this issue.

    "Teacher quality and effectiveness is one of the most important factors, if not the most important factor, in determining long-term educational outcomes."

    "Mr Smith said one study undertaken in Tennessee showed that the effects of teachers, positive or negative, were still measurable two years later, irrespective of the work by teachers in later grades.

    "Given this, it necessarily follows that we need to apply some form of quality assessment of teacher performance in the classroom," he said.

    "This must be measured to the extent necessary to ensure young Australians get the best possible education.

    "Other approaches used in other countries and worth exploring include classroom mentoring and assessment by more experienced teachers, rigorous programs of professional development as a path to higher quality teaching certification and better induction programs in the early years of teaching and when teaching new and different subjects.

    "This is not a process that I consider would in any way diminish teachers in the eyes of the community. Rather, it would enhance them. " [emphasis added]

    "Last month, The Australian reported Mr Smith's push to mark teachers on performance.

    "In the final statement of the Australian Education Union conference held in Canberra this week, teachers criticised Mr Smith's recent comments on assessment.

    "Smith's reported statements continue to perpetuate the Howard Government's myth that teachers in public schools are not accountable for their professional practice and ongoing professional growth," the document says. "Nothing could be further from the reality in our schools: teaching is already one of the most regulated and accountable professions."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • 20 years to revive science courses
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Redesigning school science courses to focus on everyday science rather than textbook theory is a national priority to turn around the 20-year deficit in Australia's scientific knowledge.
    
    "One of the federal Government's leading education consultants, Geoff Masters, said the declining appeal of traditional physics and chemistry courses required a bold new approach to teaching science.

    "What we need are science curriculums that are more multi-disciplinary in nature and more grounded in applications of science to everyday issues," Professor Masters said.

    "We require courses that develop understandings of scientific concepts and principles, and of the relevance of those concepts and principles in everyday life. Courses of this kind might complement rather than replace traditional discipline-based courses."

    "Professor Masters, chief executive officer of the Australian Council for Educational Research, outlined an idea for multidisciplinary science courses more connected to the everyday world.

    "So we're not just teaching physics in isolation but physics and chemistry and earth sciences are dealt with as appropriate," he said. [emphasis added]
    

    [More air bags and history of the cosmetics industry, Geoff?? Perhaps the 'physics' of turntables vs. violins??    Web]

    "The Australian this week reported warnings from the CSIRO and the Australian Council of Deans of Science that Australia had already lost its scientific knowledge base as a result of the decline in students studying maths and science, the lack of qualified science teachers, and the outdated knowledge of existing science teachers.

    "CSIRO chief of mathematical and information sciences Murray Cameron and ACDS president John Rice said the loss of knowledge and skills would take 20 years for the education system to redress..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • 'Hands off' approach to state grants
    by Patricia Karvelas
    
    "Labor will end the "intrusive" way the commonwealth hands money to the states - including cases where it forces schools to build flag poles - to stop Canberra "micro-managing" schools and hospitals.
    
    "After talks with West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter this week, federal Labor frontbencher Bob McMullan yesterday said that the states deserved more autonomy over the way they spent money, as long as they met core objectives.

    "Mr McMullan, Labor leader Kevin Rudd's chief adviser on federalism, said the Howard Government had not allowed the states to be innovative about the way they achieved goals.

    "One of the things we want to do is move from the very intrusive way the commonwealth currently gives money to the states with all sorts of conditions about what processes they have to undertake, like building a flag pole," he said..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Sunday Times Online / PerthNow
  
  
  • Reader comments on "Yes, Minister now for OBE" article, by Graham Armstrong, including:
    
    
    • People I know are getting tired of the Minister's "Nero Act". No more fiddling while Education in WA burns...we want the minister to face up to the realities of the problem, look at the outcomes problems, and soon.
      Posted by: unhappy parent of duncraig
      
      
      Well said, Grahame! The thing to remember is that while OBE has no history of success anywhere in the world, an awful lot of dishonest opportunists in the Education Department have gained their ascension in the ranks, over those who openly debunked this appalling rubbish from the outset, by kneeling at the altar of this twisted new-age religion of corporate managerialism and hypnotically repeating the 'outcomes' mantra to ingratiate themselves with superiors and fellow devotees. They have buillt their careers on it and will resist to the end any attempts to show them up for the parasites and liars they are. This goes right into the Curriculum Council - just look at who the designers of this ludicrous garbage are. Some has slipped away already, as is usual for such experienced greasy pole climbers, and gained themselves a safe and comfortable sinecure elsewhere, safely one step removed from the catastrophe that they have created, but the others are stiull there and they're making money out of it too - by accrediting only those courses for which they have written the books and course matreials! Like termites - they will be very, very hard to eradicate before the whole buiding collapses.
      Posted by: Peter of Perth
      
      
      Brilliantly put! I have been thinking along those lines myself, and you summed it up beautifully! Now perhaps he will turn to sorting out education, starting with OBE.
      Posted by: jane of perth
      
      
      'Jane of Perth' You're certainly not alone in thinking along the same lines. Just go back over the comments posted on the PerthNow article 'Bad students could be segregated'. It is a classic case of THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES! We can all see it and have been screaming it out even when the OBE Emperor was the village idiot, Ravlich. McGowan has been knackered by Carpenter, who knows that when the whole scandal of OBE comes crashing down, it will take him and a swag of his co-conspirators with it. McGowan's actions so far differ from Ravlich only in that he can speak English and he provides us with less howling stupidity to laugh at as he goes about the same dance, trying to pretend despite his nakedness, that we can't see that he has no [clothes].
      Posted by: Peter of Perth
      
      
      
      
• The West Australian
  
  
  • 8-page 'Career Pathways 2007' Liftout
    
    
    

Saturday – Sunday, 20 – 21 January

• The Sunday Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Criticism endangers teaching
    by Kate Hagan
    
    "Criticism of teachers and the state school system threatens to turn away the "best and brightest" applicants to the profession.

    "Professor Sue Willis, who is also president of the Australian Council of Deans of Education, said she was concerned the current trend of bagging teachers would see fewer young people making it their career of choice. [See Prof Willis' Op Ed below]

    "The capacity to attract our brightest and best young people into teaching, and to keep them in teaching, is directly related to the way (the profession) is constructed both in the media and by politicians," Professor Willis said.

    "It's absolutely clear that we have downturns in application rates (for university courses), and an increased loss of teachers from the profession, when they are constantly being slammed.

    "Why would people want to go into a profession where they're treated like shit? Where they're treated as though no matter what they do, everything's their fault. If there's high unemployment, if kids are rioting at the beaches, schools are the problem.

    "If we really want to attract the brightest and best into state schools, we've got to start talking them up — and the constant talking them down is actually causing the problem it's supposed to be pointing to."

    "As part of a Federal Government broadside against state education, Education Minister Julie Bishop has called for a national curriculum, saying left-wing ideologues in state governments had hijacked what was being taught with some themes "straight from Chairman Mao". She has also argued for manners to be taught in schools to stem "a decline in civility in Australia", and introduced "plain English" reports in which teachers must grade students from A to E.

    "I can't remember a time there's been such a prolonged attack on the profession," Australian Education Union state president Mary Bluett said. "No other profession puts up with that level of political attack.

    "It does turn people away from the profession and it saps the energy of those in the profession, and increases the exodus," Ms Bluett said."
    
    From The Sunday Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Crisis in teaching is not with its people
    
    The standard of trainees is high, writes Sue Willis
    
    "I am increasingly asked what I think would solve the problem of the quality of applicants to teacher education. And I find myself at a loss to answer, because I am not convinced of the problem.

    "In the past decade I have analysed the ENTER [TER] levels of students starting teacher education after year 12 in Victoria and the news is good. In 1998, almost half (48 per cent) of year 12 students admitted to teacher education in Victoria had an ENTER below 70. Five years later it had dropped to 17 per cent and remains about there now. In 1998, only 20 per cent had an ENTER over 80; by 2002 this was 40 per cent and almost 10 per cent had ENTERs of more than 90 — a remarkable improvement which has continued. It is difficult to see where the crisis is.

    "Of course, academic achievement is not the only basis for selecting a teacher, and sometimes there will be tension between academic and other attributes. The profession is not fully representative of the communities we serve: we do not attract enough indigenous teachers or teachers from a number of ethnic minorities or from poorer backgrounds or rural and isolated communities.

    "There is a range of social and interpersonal attributes that are critical in teaching and not reflected in academic results. It is often suggested that we need to interview all applicants. But the logistics and cost are mind-boggling and while interviews may help avoid admitting some who are obviously unlikely to succeed, such short meetings are unlikely to be useful.

    "Certain subjects continue to attract too few trainee teachers: maths, physical science, IT, applied technology. It is sometimes suggested that teachers of such subjects should be paid more. While I am not averse to any teacher being paid more, I am not convinced that salaries are the problem. It is not simply a matter of getting somebody to teach mathematics, for example, but of getting the right person to teach.

    "There is a certain perversity, however, in the fact that science teachers will pay more in HECS than English or history teachers. This is because the HECS fees for science units are higher than for arts units, based on the premise that the eventual earning power of the science graduate will be more — demonstrably not so for a teacher! The Federal Government is reviewing funding arrangements and hopefully such anomalies can be removed..."
    
    Professor Sue Willis is the dean of education at Monash University and president of the Australian Council of Deans of Education.
    
    Full story in The Sunday Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Universities start chasing Victorians (page 68)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "WA universities may be forced to poach students who were denied university places in Victoria in an attempt to cancel out a big drop in the number of students enrolling in education courses this year.
    
    "New figures show that Curtin, Edith Cowan and Murdoch universities' student numbers are down by as much as 30 per cent in primary school teacher programs – prompting education deans to consider recruiting students from interstate.
    
    "Nearly half of Victoria's 4967 teaching hopefuls missed out on a first round university offer..."
    
    Curtin: down 32 per cent, required TER now 70 [compared to 85 three years ago]
    ECU: down 18 per cent
    Murdoch: down 16 per cent
    UWA: down 30 students
    Notre Dame: no need to recruit from interstate
    
    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said that picking up students from interstate was one way to recruit future teachers but the Federal Government should do more to attract students into education to ensure a supply of high quality gradates. [You've completely missed the point, Minister, on why WA students don't want to become teachers.   Web]
    
    "If the country is suffering from a lack of maths and science teachers, then the Commonwealth should look towards implementing HECS exemptions rather than saddling the nation's teachers with billions of dollars of HECS debt," he said. [emphasis added]
    
    "The Department of Education employs about 1000 teaching graduates each year."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Advisers fail to sell sciences: medallist
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Maths and the other sciences suffer from poor marketing, with school students simply unaware of the variety of careers available to graduates with a science degree.
    
    "One of Australia's most successful mathematical exports, Terence Tao, now based at the University of California in Los Angeles, said yesterday students were mostly unaware of "how useful and powerful mathematics is in the modern world".

    "Professor Tao became the youngest and first Australian winner last August of the Fields Medal, the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in mathematics. He said part of the problem with the study of maths in Australia was the "lukewarm and fluctuating level of support ... both financial and rhetorical, from the community and particularly the state and federal governments".

    "Professor Tao cited the example of web search engine Google, which was founded by two mathematicians, as an example of the diversity in which mathematics was used.

    "Mathematics underlies everything from banking and internet security to finance, to tracking and controlling disease, to efficient communications, to web search," he said. "It might help to popularise these modern applications more, so that students see that mathematics is more than just drills and computation and manipulation of formulae."

    "The Australian this week reported warnings from the CSIRO and the Australian Council of Deans of Science that nation had lost its scientific knowledge base as a result of the decline in students studying maths and science, the lack of qualified teachers in the subjest and the outdated knowledge of existing teachers.

    "Scientists believe it will take 20 years to regain the lost knowledge and skills..."
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Problems, yes; parlous, no
      
      "Kevin Donnelly’s argument ("Schools must teach and test the basics”, Opinion, 19/1) that Australia’s education system is in a state of disrepair and that the solution lies in policies that promote parental choice has been a mantra for the neo-liberals for almost a decade. The problem with it is that it is not supported by the evidence.

      "In the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a survey of 15-year-old students conducted by the OECD every three years in over 40 countries, Australia performs very well – less (sic) than five countries out-performed Australia in problem-solving, reading and scientific and mathematical literacy in the most recent survey. There are problems but the education system is hardly in as parlous a state as Donnelly suggests.

      "One of the most significant problems is the large difference between the academic performance of our highest- and lowest-performing students. The evidence shows that parental choice schemes such as vouchers and charter schools won’t solve this problem, and they could even make things worse. They may also require billions of dollars of additional public resources.

      "Donnelly is right that just spending more money is not the answer, but throwing resources at ideologically driven agendas such as vouchers is equally foolish. The solutions lie in evidence-based policies that focus resources in the areas of greatest need."
      
      Andrew Macintosh, Deputy director, The Australia Institute
      
      
      

  • Feature
    Keeping the faith in Bishop
    
    With education an election-year battleground, John Howard's minister is relishing the cut and thrust already, writes Dorothy Illing
    
    "Julie Bishop carries the weight of expectation like the head prefect she once was. Described as John Howard's "rising star" more times than most of her contemporaries - even touted as a potential prime minister by Labor luminaries - the Education Minister is unfazed by such effusive comments, which don't come as often now the honeymoon is over.
    
    "A year after she was elevated from minister for the ageing to education amid high expectations, Bishop's detractors say she has lost some of the policy impetus she displayed when she assumed the mantle, a claim she hotly denies.

    "Squabbles with the states over school curriculums and teaching standards seem to be getting more airplay than the weightier issue of how to achieve the national consistency she clearly wants.

    "Labor is snatching the agenda on university fees while education looms as the big battleground in this election year. So is her message cutting through? ..."

    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Noel Pearson: Behind the eight ball

    Treating the literacy crisis in remote Aboriginal communities
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Students stay longer (page 20)
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "Laws to keep students in school longer are working, new figures show.
    
    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said there has been a 5.4 per cent jump in the number of students staying on at school in Year 11 compared with previous years.
    
    "And retention of indigenous students in Year 11 had jumped to 75.8 per cent, compared with 54 per cent in previous years..."
    
    "Mr McGowan said the WA Government had provided extra resources to schools to help tailor-make education and training programs for the estimated 1800 students who otherwise would not have been in some form of education or training.
    
    "The Government had also provided funds to employ staff to work with young people at risk of not continuing in education or training.
    
    "(Such staff) have supported over 3000 young people to stay on in education, training or employment," he said." [Like the infamous Balga Works program?   Web]
    
    Full story in The Sunday Times
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Headmasters' Salaries on the Rise
    by Valerie Strauss
    
    "The heads of some Washington area private schools receive annual compensation packages of more than $300,000, including the use of houses and cars and other perks -- and the trend is for salaries to rise, according to school data and interviews with compensation experts..."
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Call for end to selective education as 'grammar school areas' fail
    by Richard Garner, Education Editor
    
    "Parents' leaders are to call for an end to selective education in the wake of exam results showing most of the worst performing schools are in shire counties that have kept grammar schools. They will meet the Schools minister, Jim Knight, next month to demand that the country's 164 grammar schools are abolished..."
    
    Full story in The Independent at link
    
    
    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • Overhaul of Schools Would Let Teachers Rate Principals (19 Jan)
    by David M Herszenhorn
    
    "Pressing the case for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s latest round of changes to the city school system, Chancellor Joel I. Klein yesterday detailed how the new powers being granted to principals would be accompanied by new evaluations of them: teachers for the first time would be able to rate their supervisors..."
    
    "Allowing teachers to help evaluate principals has been a longstanding request of the teachers’ union, and Mr. Klein seemed to be going out of his way to praise teachers a day after the mayor announced that tenure after a three-year probationary period would no longer be nearly automatic. Instead teachers will be rigorously evaluated.

    “Because of our deep respect for our teachers, we’re looking for other ways to make sure that their wisdom becomes yet a more important part of each school’s culture,” Mr. Klein said. “Their views on how a school is being run are critically important, and we need to formalize the process by which those views are expressed and properly considered.” ...
    
    Full story in The New York Times at link
    
    
    

• The Times
  
  
  • Chief executives with no teaching experience could take over schools (19 Jan)
    by Alexandra Frean, Education Editor
    
    The days of the “hero head”, who manages everything in a school from hiring staff to ordering books, could be numbered, according to a report which suggests that business leaders with no classroom experience could run schools.

    "Leaders with a classroom background would still be required for teaching and learning, but there was no reason why they should not report to a principal or chief executive, responsible for overall strategy and non-academic operations.

    "The report, prepared for the Government by the consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers, follows fears of an impending shortage of head teachers and concerns that workloads, bureaucracy and over-regulation were deterring deputies from applying for headships..."
    
    Full story in The Times at link
    
    Similar stories [but different slants] in The Guardian and The Independent

    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Don't feel silly, it is confusing
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "An architect of the university entrance scheme has called for a public debate about the inconsistency of the system, saying the rising number of full-fee paying students has made it complicated for parents and students.

    "George Cooney, who chairs the committee responsible for universities admissions index calculations in NSW, said he could understand frustrations with the system at a time when universities were granting entry to students with a UAI of up to 15 points below the official cut-off marks.

    "Professor Cooney said it was time for a public discussion about the different paths students were now taking to enter university.

    "The Herald yesterday revealed that universities were hand-picking students on the basis of their performance in individual HSC subjects and questionnaires, allowing them entry into courses with the lower scores..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    Similar story in The Melbourne Age

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This page last updated 13 August, 2008 0:34 AM