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Breaking
News: Week of 19 March 2007
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Saturday – Sunday, 24 – 25 March
- The Australian
- Labor scuttles schools 'hit list'
by Steve Lewis, Chief political correspondent
"Kevin Rudd has laid to rest the ghost of Mark Latham, ditching Labor's contentious private schools "hit list" as he continues to adopt centrist policies.
"And senior Labor figures have intervened to prevent debate at next month's ALP national conference on a plan to examine the effect of negative gearing on the housing market."This could have exposed Labor to Coalition criticism that it was considering putting an end to lucrative investment property tax breaks - an approach Mr Latham suggested was worthy of consideration when he was Treasury spokesman.
"The move to dump embarrassing policies from the ALP's draft national platform is being driven by fears the Government will mount a pre-election attack on Labor's economic credentials.
"One of the policies is the education "hit list", embraced by Labor during the 2004 election campaign. It became a template for Mr Latham's "us and them" approach to politics, and would have stripped millions of dollars from wealthy private schools to fund public schools.
"Last night, Mr Rudd declared the policy dead.
"Labor's schools policy at the last election was too evocative of an out-dated concept of class warfare that's just not applicable to the education needs of the 21st century," the Opposition Leader told The Australian.
"Instead, he said a Labor government would fund all schools - irrespective of whether they are private or public - based on need and fairness.
"Adopting a position that will antagonise the teaching unions, Mr Rudd said: "I don't give a damn whether kids are educated in government, Catholic, Christian or independent schools." [emphasis added]
"Mr Rudd said his primary concern was educational quality - rather than engaging in a government versus non-government schools debate..."
Full story in The Australian at link
Similar stories in The Melbourne Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and most daily newspapers
- Primary children to get specialist teachers
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"Specialist teachers in areas such as science and literacy will be introduced into primary schools under a scheme planned by the federal Government.
"Education Minister Julie Bishop has commissioned a report examining a series of models for a scheme of adjunct teachers, similar to the idea of adjunct professors in universities, to act as primary school specialists in more difficult areas such as literacy, numeracy and science."The models are being developed by Teaching Australia, the independent body established by the federal Government to improve standards and develop a national approach to the task. It is to report by the end of July.
"The aim of the adjunct teacher scheme is to attract people from other professions, particularly scientists, who can be fast-tracked into teaching by having existing qualifications and experience recognised.
"Ms Bishop said it was imperative to engage students' interest in maths and science at primary school to address workforce shortages.
"If they're not engaged in primary school, they're unlikely to be studying it at senior school; and if they're not studying in Year 9, they're not going to study it at university," she said.
"As a longer-term solution, Ms Bishop supported an overhaul of teaching courses to train primary school teachers in two broad specialities, one covering science, maths and technology and the other the humanities.
"The proposal has received support from science teachers, principals, parent groups and university science deans, who agree that the primary school curriculum was overcrowded and the teaching of science patchy.
"A survey of primary schools conducted in 2003 found that students in the first three years of study spent 41 minutes a week on science compared with 51 minutes on religious education. By years 5 to 7, it had risen to 51 minutes a week of science."
From The Australian at link
- Vocation training aid call
Prospective chefs and hospitality and IT workers who want vocational training should receive the same income support as fee-paying university students to help solve Australia's skill shortages.
- Call for uni funding reform to fill health vacancies
The university funding system should be reformed to ensure physiotherapy and pharmacy students no longer receive less than those learning about floristry, photography and fashion design.
Sounds like everyone wants his / her slice of the pie... Web
- The Washington Post
- Asian Educators Looking To Loudoun for an Edge
by Michael Alison Chandler
Scientists visiting from Singapore are studying the classroom environment of local schools in order to improve their own teaching.
"Students in a Loudoun County laboratory studied tiny, genetically altered plants one recent afternoon, drawing leaves and jotting data in logbooks. Meanwhile, visiting scientists studied the students."In spiral notebooks, the visitors recorded how long the teacher waited for students to answer questions, how often the teenagers spoke up and how strongly they held to their views.
"The scientists had come thousands of miles from the island nation of Singapore to the Academy of Science in Sterling in search of ways to improve their teaching. This could be considered surprising, given that Singapore's eighth-graders rank No. 1 in science and math globally and those in the United States rank ninth in science and 15th in math, according to the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study."But rankings aren't everything -- how America teaches is admired.
"In a 21st-century economy that rewards quick thinking and problem solving, many educators in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia worry they are creating a generation of scientists who can memorize facts but can't keep up. These educators want to go beyond teaching facts and concepts that appear on tests and start teaching skills that are harder to gauge.
"How do you measure excitement? How do you measure creativity?" asked George Wolfe, director of the two-year-old public magnet school in Loudoun. "There's so much publicity about Americans not scoring well on tests, but few people ask the question: Then why are we producing so much innovation from our scientists?" [emphasis added]
"Hungry for new scientific and technological breakthroughs, Singapore's government has been asking this question. And it is rethinking lesson plans in a public school system for a country of about 4.3 million. In an initiative known as "Teach Less, Learn More," Singapore has trimmed its curriculum in recent years to focus on quality of instruction rather than quantity and to give students more time to think. And its educators are circling the globe to hunt for new methods..."
Full story in The Washington Post at link
- The Hobart Meercury
- Op Ed
Homework on the outer
by Greg Barns
"Jenny Branch has done Tasmania a favour by questioning whether or not homework is such a good idea. Branch, president of the Tasmanian Schools Parents and Friends, has engendered a vigorous debate across the state in the past week after calling for a ban on homework in the Mercury last Monday."In fact, one could go so far as to hail her as a very courageous person for asking us to question why schoolchildren are forced to do homework each evening, and sometimes on weekends, in 2007. Just because homework has been fashionable for generations doesn't mean we shouldn't question whether or not it actually benefits the modern student.
"Although some letters to the editor of this newspaper, comments on the Mercury website and education officials have condemned Branch's call for the abolition of homework, she's in good company. There is a trend across Britain, Canada and the US to re-examine the concept of it.
"In Canada, for example, a British Columbia parent, Chris Corrigan, issued a call last September for a Great Canadian Homework Ban campaign. Corrigan, according to media reports, has been swamped by parents and educators who support his campaign.
"One of those parents is Amanda Cockshutt, an academic who lives in the eastern province of New Brunswick. She told the National Post last September 2 the problem with homework is that "the whole evening centres around this mad dash to get (it) done and everyone's mad at each other. It cuts into family time and it really sours the night". No doubt there are many Tasmanian parents who can empathise with her.
"No doubt, too, this observation by Cockshutt is one to which working mothers here will nod in agreement. She said: "You work 'til 5 and you try to make the dinner. Then (the children are tired) and they don't want to do it and you think `Boy, is it worth this?' "
"In the US two bestsellers call for the abolition, or severe curtailment, of homework. The Homework Myth: Why our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing is one and then there's How Homework is hurting our Children and What We Can Do About It.
"One of the aspects of homework that ought to trouble Education Minister David Bartlett is that research shows students from low-income homes may not benefit as much from homework as those from high-income homes, according to the Center for Public Education in the US.
"The centre, a joint initiative of the National School Boards Association and National School Boards Foundation, says: "Some researchers believe that students from higher-income homes have more resources (such as computers) and receive more assistance with homework, while low-income students may have fewer resources and are therefore less likely to complete the homework and reap any related benefits."
"No doubt that observation is particularly apt in the case of Tasmania, which has more low-income children in its schooling system than any other state.
"Given that using the internet is such a vital component of modern education, it's surely unfair that students who have a computer at home, or ready access to one after school hours, should be able to complete their homework assignments, whereas those who do not struggle to find answers to questions. Perhaps if we are to continue to set homework, we need to make certain as a society that every child -- and that really does mean every child -- must have access to a computer outside of their school. [emphasis added]
"The Center for Public Education also concurs with the view expressed last week by prominent child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg, who said there was no evidence to suggest homework benefits children academically -- although it's a little more measured than Carr-Gregg, in that it says there is "no conclusive evidence" to link homework and academic achievement.
"There is, of course, some benefit in providing children with a small task each evening, say, reading or spelling. Homework can have some non-academic benefits, such as helping to develop time management or reinforcing what has been learned in class.
"Nick Eves, who teaches my son in Grade 4 at The Hutchins School, seems to have worked out an excellent model, which could be said to be a halfway house between too much homework and none at all.
"From Monday through to Thursday the boys in his class have to spell 10 or 11 words and are encouraged to read for 20 minutes, even if it's the sports pages of the newspaper. My son, for one, enjoys this evening ritual. It's not time-consuming and can be done at any time."
From The Hobart Mercury at link
- The West Australian
- Wealthy private schools won't lose funding as Labor ditches hit list (page 4)
See more detailed stories in The Australian, The Melbourne Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, plus the ALP Policy Statement, at this link
- Editorial
Segregated schooling for Aboriginals not the way to go
"... WA already has 44 Aboriginal schools ranging from pre-primary to Years 10 and 12 where the students can study Aboriginal languages and culture as well as the usual subjects. But it is up to the parents to decide whether they want their children to attend these schools and some parents prefer to send them to mainstream schools.
"Rather than setting up more Aboriginal schools, the aim should be to introduce programs which give Aboriginal children the support they need to succeed, whatever school they attend.
"Though the WA Department of Education and Training has belatedly started moving in that direction, it is clear that much ore needs to be done. Five years ago only one-third of Aboriginal students left primary school with acceptable literacy and numeracy skills, compared with 50 per cent last year. The department's goal for 2008 is get the numbers up to two-thirds for reading and writing and 60 per cent for numeracy.
"To get there it needs to support teachers with extra training, to increase the number of indigenous teachers and do everything possible to involve Aboriginal parents in encouraging their children to make the most of their opportunities. It also needs to fast-track plans for equipping four and five-year olds with the educational and social skills they need to get a good start in primary school..."
Full Editorial in The West Australian
- Letters to the Editor (pages 18-19)
- Five opposing the "no choc frog" policy [one copied below], plus one each on starving uni students and a long list of Carpenter's failures [including OBE and the teacher shortage].
School ban on sweets strikes sour note
"I am writing in response to your report (Teachers banned from giving kids sweet treats, 15/3).
"I confess, as a high school educator, I'm the candyman. I believe that an occasional treat holds value. Mt teaching world is defined by what I can't do. I can't pat a student on the back to congratulate their effort, I can't keep them back after class to say, "I liked your attitude today", I can't refer to them in any kind of "semi-affectionate" manner, I can't drive them, in my car to an excursion, I can't screen PG movies, I can't have class "end-of-term parties" and now I can't reward them with a lolly.
"It seems some sectors are hell-bent on radical change for change's sake and they won't let up until we ban deserts at the Year 12 ball and biscuits from the school camp shopping list.
"With teachers facing pressures from an ever-shirting curriculum and scrutiny from the media over some educators' inability to spell "recommend", it would be nice to think our profession might be thrown a "Jaffa" from a grateful Government. I discussed this issue with my Year 8 English class and they had some interesting comments."
Paul Whitehead, high school English teacher, Ballajura
- ABC Radio National "Big Idea" program
- Two Views on Teaching: Dumbing Down or Just Relevant
Educationalist Dr. Kevin Donnelly has been leading a spirited charge against what he sees as political correctness in the classroom. His new book Dumbing Down takes on progressive theories and educational fads. In this talk, recorded at the Sydney Institute, Dr. Donnelly puts forward his key thesis. In reply, we hear from Carol Baxter, one of Australia's leading genealogical researchers, with the case for relevance.
Audio recording available at this link
- The Melbourne Age
As usual, the "Monday Education Section" hasn't updated yet... look for it Tuesday or Wednesday.
- Mentor scheme makes principal into student
About 100 principals a year take part in coaching or mentoring programs, in which they are paired with retired or high-performing principals. Some of the schools are struggling; others simply want to improve links with parents or boost morale.
- The Australian
- Labor's plan for schools to share
by Pia Akerman and Justine Ferrari
"Public and private schools will be encouraged to share facilities such as sport grounds, science laboratories and halls under a $62.5 million program announced yesterday by the federal Opposition.
"The voluntary program would provide infrastructure grants to groups of government, private and Catholic schools that agree to build facilities together and share use and costs."This follows confirmation over the weekend that the Opposition will abandon its policy of cutting funding to a "hit list" of rich private schools.
"Kevin Rudd said he respected the right of parents to choose between public and private schools and pledged that Labor would raise standards across all schools.
"In line with this thinking, the ALP policy Local Schools Working Together says it is time for the education system to move beyond systemic competition to focus on ensuring the best education for all students.
"The scheme will be voluntary and will target newly built schools in areas where infrastructure is poor. It will encourage partnerships between government and non-government schools to provide necessary facilities such as science and language laboratories, and new or upgraded facilities in existing schools that could be shared with schools nearby.
"This is a new model of schooling to provide high-quality classrooms, sporting fields, science labs, libraries, trade workshops and assembly halls in new growth areas," the Opposition Leader and his education spokesman Stephen Smith said in a statement yesterday.
"The initial plan is to fund 25 projects and evaluate the scheme after three years.
"Instead of seeking only to balance the demands of non-government and government schools, Labor believes there are benefits to be gained by seeking new forms of collaboration between them," the policy says. "Whether public, private, independent, religious or secular, all schools need a library, all schools benefit from having playing fields and ovals."
"Mr Rudd is yet to release details of Labor's schools funding arrangements but he has made it clear no school will have its funding cut.
"I think it is important we put a new step forward when it comes to supporting schools on the basis of their needs," he said yesterday during a visit to the Golden Grove Adelaide campus where Gleeson College, Golden Grove High, and Pedare Christian College share facilities.
"Independent schools welcomed Labor's position, but the teaching unions said public schools were underfunded compared with private schools, and needed an increase in money.
"The Independent Schools Council of Australia executive director Bill Daniels said parents of the 500,000 students at about 1100 independent schools contributed about $3.5 billion every year to schools' costs. "This is a considerable investment in education and it is pleasing to see that federal Labor recognises and is prepared to support this investment," he said.
"But Australian Education Union federal president Pat Byrne said there was an imbalance in the present funding arrangements, under which public schools receive about 35 per cent of the federal funds while educating about 70 per cent of the students.
"Any needs-based federal education funding system must ensure public schools are the top priority, because that is where the majority of Australian children are educated," she said." [emphasis added]
[You're a broken record, Pat... and vinyl records are obsolete, too. Web]
From The Australian at link
Similar story in The Melbourne Age
- Bad parenting can harm kids for life
Bad parenting permanently damages the brains of infants, leaving primary schools unable to help them to develop, an early childhood expert has claimed.
- The Melbourne Age
- The "Monday Education Section" has been updated and has 10 articles, including:
- New call to 'teach basics'
by Caroline Milburn
"Inferior teaching methods are being used in schools because direct instruction by a teacher has become unfashionable, the chairman of a national inquiry into reading has warned."Dr Ken Rowe said the practice of teachers explaining basic skills to a class was not common in early and middle-school years because the approach was viewed as boring by educators who ran teacher training courses and state curriculums. "There's been a wholesale rejection of what is euphemistically called 'drill and kill', but we've thrown the baby out with the bathwater."
"Instead, the teaching method known as self-directed learning, where teachers provide a rich range of activities for children to construct skills and knowledge, had become popular in schools over the past 20 years.
"Dr Rowe said too many schools relied exclusively on this approach, despite emerging evidence that raised doubts about doing so. He said he and his committee colleagues on the national inquiry were alarmed to see how many schools had ditched direct teacher instruction in favour of children learning basic skills via projects, worksheets, computers and other self-directed activities. The trend towards self-directed learning or constructivism in the early and middle years of schooling had also occurred in the US and Britain.
"When we visited schools we were appalled at how far down the path of constructivism many of them had gone," Dr Rowe said. "It's all very well having these lovely, very rich constructivist activities in a classroom, but without first teaching kids basic skills in reading or maths many won't be able to engage properly in these useful activities. It's like being expected to go round an 18-hole golf course with a putter in your hand." [emphasis added]
"Dr Rowe is a co-author of a soon to be released study on teaching methods and their impact on results. Fifty-six government, Catholic and independent schools were involved in the study commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training.
"It analysed the achievements of students in years 4, 5 and 6, whose literacy and numeracy test scores were below national benchmark standards. At 35 of the schools teachers received a professional development training program that involved the methods of direct, explicit instruction and strategy instruction, in which teachers explained the key skills a student needs to complete a specific task. The training program, Working Out What Works, was developed by Dr Rowe and his colleagues at the Australian Council for Educational Research.
"Teachers at the other schools continued with their usual classroom practices and were not given the extra training. Six months after teachers at the 35 schools received the training, their students' test scores in maths and literacy rose dramatically, compared with results at the other schools. The study also found student behaviour in the classroom improved markedly at the 35 schools, especially attentive behaviour. [emphasis added]
"Dr Rowe, a research director at ACER, said he was surprised by the level of improvement. "I have never seen results as powerful as this in 35 years of doing educational research, particularly with indigenous kids. It shows that if you give kids basic skills via explicit instruction they take off like rockets.
"Unless basic skills, such as letter sound relationships, are taught specifically, kids have trouble learning them. Direct instruction is the reason why 110,000 kids in year 6 in Singapore are significantly better spellers than a comparative group of kids in NSW."
"Dr Rowe said results from the study did not mean that constructivist teaching methods were wrong. The approach had merit, but problems with student learning arose when constructivist activities preceded explicit teaching or replaced it."
From The Melbourne Age at link
- New card gets an A-plus
Parents and teachers have welcomed a decision to allow Catholic schools to choose to rank prep students from A to E under Victoria's contentious new report card system. The Melbourne archdiocese last week said it had tuned the system that brings the sector into line with government schools.
- Meet the Mozart of maths
Another article on Terence Tao
- New school of thought on ill kids
A study looks at the effects of chronic illness on school days, reports Margaret Cook.
- Schools registry to track students until 24
Victorian students will be monitored by the State Government until the age of 24 under a contentious new tracking system to be introduced into schools as early as next year.
- The New Zealand Herald
- NCEA [NZ National Certificate of Education Achievemen] heading for 'massive shambles', claims principal [18 March]
"Another influential voice has been added to those criticising the NCEA assessment system this week."A top secondary school principal is forecasting more universities will introduce their own entrance exams as discontent grows over the National Certificate of Education Achievement (NCEA) system.
"Auckland Grammar headmaster John Morris said NCEA was heading for a "massive shambles" with an increasing number of schools considering switching to alternative overseas exams such as the Cambridge International.
"Mr Morris wrote to the New Zealand Qualification Authority (NZQA), of which is a former board member, last week questioning recent recommendations which appeared to be a move towards more internal assessment.
"He feared the initiatives could lead to more schools looking at adopting international qualifications.
"Mr Morris said if the directives were introduced an increase in internal assessment would lack comparability and lead to universities introducing their own entrance exams.
"Mr Morris also accused NCEA officials of leading schools to accumulate credits rather than challenge pupils.
"He also hit out at schools being admonished for entering students into courses which might fail, asking what kind of system would discourage schools from challenging students academically.
"NZQA deputy chief executive Bali Haque said Mr Morris was wrong and there would not be an increase in internal assessment."
From The New Zealand Herald at link
- The Guardian
- An idea worth imitating
A British university has become the first to copy America's idea of an honour code for students in an attempt to tackle plagiarism. Could it catch on, asks Jessica Shepherd
- The Australian
- Students fall back on 'readings'
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"The board responsible for school curriculums in NSW has warned English teachers and students against relying on post-modern critical literacy theory after a worrying proportion of HSC students last year regurgitated theories they barely understood.
"The marking notes for last year's Advanced English HSC exam say too many students "continued to use critical readings about the text as a substitute for the study of their text"."In many scripts, the 'readings' remain a barrier placed between the candidate and the text," the notes say.
"The markers warn that many of the weaker students showed "little evidence of a considered personal response to or knowledge of the prescribed text" as required in the syllabus.
"Rather than engaging with the text itself, these responses relied on, or provided a regurgitation of, various critical theories or 'readings' with little sense of an evaluation of or personal engagement with these 'readings'," the notes say.
"The comments were made in relation to one module of Advanced English taken by about 30,000 students last year on the critical study of prescribed texts, of which the most popular was Shakespeare's King Lear.
"Under a critical literacy approach to teaching English, students are asked to interpret a text from different points of views or "readings", such as Marxist or feminist readings.
"The marking notes say that although the better answers used sophisticated language, "there is a point where too much jargon impedes meaning".
"Jargon-laden scripts often lacked fluency and clarity," the notes say. [emphasis added]
"Many responses suggested that candidates had not engaged with the syllabus requirements for (the module). Central to the module is the expectation of a close personal engagement with and knowledge of the text itself.
"Responses needed to more clearly demonstrate a personal and critical engagement with the text rather than with supplementary support material."
"English inspector at the NSW Board of Studies, Don Carter, said yesterday the comments reinforced the intent of the syllabus: for students to develop a close, personal understanding of the text. "We don't want students just to talk about what other people think of the text," he said. "It's a perennial issue in English where you want students to engage with the text and not just regurgitate the views of others."
"Mr Carter said the board was preparing a package of support materials for teachers to be released in a few months to reinforce the syllabus requirements that students develop a close personal understanding of the texts they study."
From The Australian at link
- Costello junks Bishop pay plan
by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
"Peter Costello has ruled out a large-scale federally funded program to deliver performance pay for the nation's teachers, despite Education Minister Julie Bishop's championing the issue.
"The Treasurer told The Australian that state governments should meet the substantial cost of a performance pay scheme, which Ms Bishop has pressed for months. She has also signalled the commonwealth could make reform a condition of schools funding to the states."Labor seized on Mr Costello's comments to assert he did not support Ms Bishop's efforts.
"It's quite clear Costello has no idea of what Bishop has been doing and saying over the last few months," education spokesman Stephen Smith said.
"A draft agenda shows the April meeting of the nation's education ministers will discuss Ms Bishop's options for performance pay, as well as greater autonomy for school principals, national consistency in curriculums and a national school starting age.
"But Mr Costello, despite saying performance pay was a good idea, insisted it must remain the responsibility of the states.
"We don't pay any teachers," he said. "We can't change the terms and conditions of teachers' pay because we don't pay any of them. These are all good things. But if the federal Government doesn't pay teachers, the only people who can put in place performance pay for teachers are state Labor governments."
"Asked whether he would support making schools funding to the states dependent on reform, Mr Costello said: "Why do you have to drag a state government kicking and screaming to do the right thing? I think employers should pay performance pay and the employers of state government school teachers are state government education departments."
"Ms Bishop has proposed a plan which would deliver students and parents a role in the allocation of pay rises.
"She has suggested the federal Government could "strike out on its own" if the states refuse to co-operate.
"She refused last night to comment on Mr Costello's statements.
"Ms Bishop is expected to present three performance pay models to state education ministers: rewarding teachers on exam results, ranking of teachers by their peers and developing a smaller bonus scheme paid out of a federal fund.
"But Mr Smith said it seemed clear the Government was not prepared to fund the plan it had championed. "Whatever she (Ms Bishop) tries to impose on the states she's got no funding for," he said.
"We've asked how much money the commonwealth is prepared to allocate for performance pay, and she hasn't got an answer." Mr Smith said common sense suggested a program could be delivered only with the co-operation of state, Catholic and independent schools.
"We have made it clear we think quality teaching should be rewarded, and we have proposals to reward quality teaching which involve the expenditure of commonwealth funds," he said.
"Peter Costello is offering performance pay without the pay part."
"Former Labor leader Kim Beazley pledged to embrace merit-based pay with a policy to offer top teachers up to $100,000 to work in Australia's toughest schools.
"The policy would offer teachers across the nation a pay rise of up to $10,000 a year if they meet rigorous standards.
"But performance pay advocates said the plan would not link teachers' pay to student success in exam results or to the views of parents and principals, but to accreditation by a bureaucratic body."
From The Australian at link
- Op Ed
Kevin Donnelly: Labor's standard threat to schoolsThe ALP's curriculum plan is deeply flawed
"Education is one area where the Opposition has got the jump on the Government. At a political level, the ALP has stolen the initiative from federal Education Minister Julie Bishop, and there is much to recommend in the polices put forward by Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd and his education spokesman, Stephen Smith.
"After all, at the level of rhetoric, arguing for a national curriculum that is clear, concise, teacher-friendly, academically rigorous and year-level specific, all Rudd and Smith have done is to copy the recommendations outlined in my book, Dumbing Down."The decision to scrap the Mark Latham-inspired hit list of non-government schools also makes a good deal of sense. Many so-called aspirational voters in marginal seats are deserting government schools in favour of non-government schools and parental choice should be supported.
"Notwithstanding the pluses, there are a number of significant flaws and tensions in Labor's plans for Australian schools.
"Much of education in Australia suffers from provider capture: official bodies such as the Curriculum Corporation, the Australian Council for Educational Research and equivalent bodies at the state and territory level have monopolised curriculum development since the early 1990s.
"Not only are such bodies responsible for the politically correct, dumbed-down state of Australian education, represented by failed experiments such as Tasmania's Essential Learnings and Western Australia's outcomes-based new senior school certificate, but educrats such as ACER chief executive Geoff Masters are staunch advocates of the much maligned outcomes-based model of education.
"That Rudd, as signalled in the ALP national curriculum paper, has agreed to put bodies such as the ACER and the Curriculum Corporation in charge of developing such a curriculum is like agreeing to put Dracula in charge of the blood bank.
"As demonstrated by the development of the failed Keating government's national statements and profiles during the early '90s, the devil is in the detail and once curriculum design is given over to the educational bureaucrats, problems arise. One needs only to note the damaging influence of fads such as whole language and fuzzy maths to realise how destructive a national curriculum would be if it were forced on all schools. [emphasis added]
"That those responsible for Australian education, ranging from subject associations, professional groups such as the Australian Curriculum Studies Association and educrats such as former director-general of NSW education Ken Boston, support Rudd's plans for a national curriculum should set alarm bells ringing.
"Recent figures demonstrate that parents demand choice and diversity in education and that increasing numbers are choosing non-government schools for their children. Research suggests that parents make the choice not because non-government schools are better resourced but because they believe independent schools adopt a more traditional academic approach to the curriculum, with a greater emphasis on competitive examinations and teacher-directed lessons.
"The question has to be asked: how effective is parental choice if, as the ALP intends, all schools, government and non-government, are roped into the state system with a centrally mandated curriculum that all schools must implement?
"While some non-government schools are as politically correct as government schools, the benefit of the non-government system is that there is greater curriculum autonomy at the local level and, when compared with the state system, there is a better chance of escaping educational fads.
"By imposing a national curriculum on all schools and holding teachers accountable for teaching and measuring learning outcomes, parental choice will be largely irrelevant. Regardless of whether a student attends a government or a non-government school, they will be taught the state-mandated curriculum, one that, for all intents and purposes, will be developed by those responsible for the past 20 years or so of curriculum failure.
"It should be noted that if the Coalition Government, as has been signalled, decides to force a national curriculum on Australian schools by tying its adoption to federal funding, then the same dangers will arise. [emphasis added]
"One safeguard, within general guidelines, would be to allow autonomy at the local level and to give schools the freedom to choose a curriculum that best suits their needs. Many schools across Australia offer the International Baccalaureate as an alternative to state-sponsored senior school certificates and many New Zealand schools, such as Auckland Grammar, offer the international Cambridge certificate.
"In the US, schools are teaching mathematics syllabuses from Japan and Singapore in competition with local approaches; the internet makes it possible to access curriculums from across the globe.
"Instead of privileging state-sponsored, centrally mandated curriculums, why not open our education system to international competition and ensure that what is taught in schools is truly world's best?"
Kevin Donnelly is director of Education Strategies in Melbourne and author of Dumbing Down (Hardie Grant Books).
From The Australian at link
- High schools out of reach
by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
"As many as 5000 Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory do not have access to secondary schools or a mainstream education, Labor MP Warren Snowdon has claimed.
"Amid warnings that Kevin Rudd's "education revolution" should not forget the plight of Aboriginal children in remote and regional Australia, Labor's caucus meeting yesterday heard claims that thousands of students had to abandon education after primary school."They don't go to school because they don't have a school to go to," said Mr Snowdon, thefederal member for Lingiari, which includes all the Territory's towns and communities outside Darwin.
"There is somewhere in the vicinity of 3000-5000 children who have no access to any kind of mainstream education. It becomes a problem as soon as they leave primary school."
"Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Northern Territory school principal told The Australian that for years teachers have been forced to offer older students a "dressed-up" primary school curriculum.
"Many of these kids live in communities where there is no electricity, and no English spoken," he said.
"We're offering them a dressed-up primary school curriculum for kids of secondary school age. They're all in the same room - it's a multi-age, multi-level classroom with younger kids right up to 20-year-olds."
"Mr Snowdon said an answer would be to establish secondary schools with boarding facilities because students often had long distances to travel and nowhere to sleep.
"I was at a school recently that is doing a very good job for older students, but there are no boarding facilities and the children travel to the school and sleep on the veranda," he said."
From The Australian at link
- The Higher Education Supplement has 17 articles today [but none especially relevant to K-12 teachers]
- Letter to the Editor
- Equality of opportunity
"Most Australians will welcome your reports ("Labor’s plan for schools to share”, 20/3 and “Labor scuttles schools hit list”, 29/3 [sic should read 19/3]) which suggest a national consensus is emerging that more effort needs to be put into improving our schools, the training of our teachers, and the definition of what they teach."Amongst the OECD countries, Australia is exceptional in the extent of the subsidies it pays to private schools, and this arrangement has bipartisan support. To achieve something closer to equality of opportunity, a key focus has to be on the aggregate expenditure per child, including fees and parental contributions, and not the ongoing debate over respective federal/state contributions or the populist attack on a hit list of schools.
"In an enlightened funding process based on needs, some government schools and some private schools are unlikely to see their grants going up at the same rate as to the most disadvantaged schools."
John Piper, Waverton, NSW
WA – Canberra Stink
- Sorry Santoro falls on sword
Queensland Liberal Santo Santoro last night quit politics, acknowledging the scandal over his undeclared share dealings was distracting the Howard Government from fighting an ascendant Kevin Rudd. [Similar stories in all daily papers and broadcast media.]
- Burke contact ban extends to ex-Lib senator
The West Australian Government's ban on contact with Brian Burke and Julian Grill was yesterday extended to include disgraced former Liberal senator Noel Crichton-Browne. [Similar stories in all daily papers and broadcast media.]
- Letter to the Editor
"Each side of politics claims the other is not fit to govern – they could be right."
M. F. Horton, Alice Springs, NT
- The Independent
- Paedophile hysteria is putting men off teaching, says Johnson
Paedophile hysteria is prompting the brightest male graduates to shun teaching, Boris Johnson, the Conservatives' higher education spokesman, has warned. He told a conference of independent school headteachers in London that they were frightened off by the thought of "what happens if I bump into someone?"
- The Melbourne Age
- Labor MPs tackle Rudd on schools
by Jewel Topsfield
"Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has been forced to reassure his party that public education would not be diminished under a Labor government, after some MPs privately raised concerns."The Age believes Mr Rudd was asked to clarify his schools policy at a caucus meeting yesterday after his announcement this week that the notorious schools "hit list" policy was dead and a Labor government would fund all schools, public or private, according to need and fairness.
"People just wanted to remind Kevin of the emphasis we have always had on maintaining strong public education," one source said. The MP said some of the media grabs of Mr Rudd selling the schools policy this week "perhaps suggested otherwise".
"Another MP said the media tended to focus on how Labor's policy affected private schools.
"People just wanted to make sure we are about lifting the standard of public schools and there is an agenda for them to be supported."
"The sources told The Age that Mr Rudd reassured the caucus all education would be a priority.
"The Australian Education Union has argued that public education, which accounts for nearly 70 per cent of students, should receive priority funding.
"The issue for the Labor Party is how to maintain the integrity of a needs-based model when giving money to schools that are not needy by any stretch of the imagination," federal president Pat Byrne said.
"When asked yesterday if he thought government school parents would feel Labor should naturally support them over private schools, Mr Rudd told reporters that working families across Australia sent their children to both schools.
"Our responsibility as the alternative government of Australia is to make sure that we lift the standards of all schools, government and non-government, and we're committed to doing that," he said..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- Letters to the Editor
- Battle lines drawn in the education war
"Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has rushed to the microphones to attack Labor's education policy, borrowing freely from George Orwell for her onslaught. She railed against the notion that increased education funding should be based on need not privilege. Clearly shocked by this revolutionary idea Ms Bishop held fast to the maxim, "all kids are equal, but some are more equal than others", as she attempted to deceive and frighten parents at non-government schools."Clearly the election year battle on education will see equity pitched against the preservation of inequity. No surprise there. We've seen Ms Bishop's determined effort to institutionalise inequity in the tertiary sector with full-fee-paying students securing spots while their more academically gifted peers miss out."
Isabelle Wharley, Willoughby, NSW
- According to need
"What a relief that both major parties will fund all schools according to need. All schools have broken windows and floors needing cleaning: for some schools that is the boating shed where the sculls are stored; for some schools, it's the year 8 classroom. Some belong to the rich, some to the rest of us."
Bob Carter, Sarsfield
- The West Australian
- Op Ed
Whatever Rudd's strategies, money can't fix education (page 21)
by Tony Rutherford
Labor Party seeks to defuse election time-bombs, but faces uphill battle in push for quality and greater productivity
"... Simple measures of educational "success" – such as Year 12 retention rates, very commonly used – may not be very much use after all..."
"It would seem more important than ever that the school system think again about quality. Not least because for many students the decision to stay at school or to leave is based on their fairly sound judgment of the usefulness of what is being offered to them.
"It is perhaps here that the whole OBE approach, for both academic and vocational subjects, is most culpable in its failure. Students who are both bright and motivated can take most things that the system throws at them.
"Those who are not, who are marginal in both commitment and ability, will tend to be discouraged, and may make decisions which will affect their whole working (or non-working) lives..."
Full story in The West Australian
- TV 'impairs kids' speech development' (page 54)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Too much time spent watching television and playing computer games and not enough time around the dinner table is delaying speech development in many children, the head of Australia's peak primary principals' group said yesterday.
"Australian Primary Principals Association president Leonie Trimper said principals from every State and Territory were reporting a rise in the number of children starting school with language problems..."
Full story in The West Australian
- The Guardian
- Watchdog proposes end to national primary school tests
The exam watchdog has placed a question mark over the future of national pupil tests in primary schools in England, potentially heralding the end of school league tables.
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Schools left to deteriorate for 10 years
Principals have resorted to conducting a survey of up to 300 public schools to uncover a 10-year backlog of maintenance problems that the NSW Education Department has been fighting to hide.
- Regional university accused of immigration racket
A publicly funded university in regional Queensland - with 5000 mainly international students at its two Sydney campuses - has been accused of being a front for an elaborate immigration racket.
- Media Releases, Federal shadow minister for education Stephen Smith
- Bishop hung out to dry on so-called performance pay
Minister for Education, Julie Bishop has been completely hung out to dry over her so-called performance pay for teachers.
Treasurer Peter Costello has exposed Julie Bishop’s approach as empty rhetoric aimed at simply scoring cheap political points against teachers and State Labor Governments.
Julie Bishop wafted out her thought bubble on performance pay at the National Press Club in February. On the same day I asked her in the House what additional funds the Commonwealth would make available to support such a proposal.
The Minister had no answer to that question on that occasion.
Since then, Minister Bishop has listed performance pay as an agenda item for the April Education Ministerial Council meeting and alluded to three performance pay models, including:
1. Assessing teachers by the performance of students in standardised exams;
2. Ranking teachers by the assessment of peers, principals, parents and students; and
3. Rewarding teachers with bonuses paid out of a ‘Federal Merit Pay Bonus Fund’.Today in Question Time, I again gave the Minister the very same opportunity I did in February, asking what additional Commonwealth funds the Howard Government would provide to support the Minister’s performance pay proposal.
Julie Bishop, not surprisingly, did not have an answer.
That’s because Peter Costello in The Australian did have: not one cent!
“…the only people who can put in place performance pay for teachers are state Labor governments.”
For Peter Costello, it’s performance pay…just without the pay part!
Labor believes quality teaching should be rewarded. To do so requires a comprehensive strategy – which involves investment by the Commonwealth – in areas such as ongoing professional teacher development, accreditation for teacher specialisation and mentoring for teachers in their early years.
Minister Bishop should spend less time posturing and trying to score cheap political points against teachers and State Labor Governments, and more time actually addressing the key education policy issues that are so important for Australia’s economic future.
Transcript of Doorstop – Parliament House, Canberra
Subject: Costello hangs Bishop out to dry; polls; Question Time; Queensland Liberal Party; Santo Santoro
Smith: Overnight we see Treasurer Peter Costello hanging Julie Bishop, the Education Minister, out to dry.
You’ll all recall Julie Bishop went to the Press Club earlier this year and made a great play about her approach to so-called performance pay, where teachers would be rewarded on the basis of the standardised tests that students perform in. On the day that she went to the Press Club, I asked her in the House how much additional Commonwealth funds would be provided for this program. She couldn’t give an answer.Well overnight in The Australian, Treasurer Costello has given the answer: not one cent! This hangs Julie Bishop out to dry. It completely exposes her for what she’s been up to. Trying to score cheap political points against State Labor Governments and not being serious either about rewarding teachers for quality performance or getting better educational outcomes.
Labor has a proposal to reward teachers for quality teaching. It requires comprehensive strategies across the board, including ongoing professional development, accreditation for specialisation and mentoring for teachers in their early years. These are the sorts of things that lift teacher quality generally. So Peter Costello has completely hung Julie Bishop out to dry in his interview in The Australian overnight.
Journalist: Are you surprised that John Howard is seen as arrogant by seven out of ten?
Smith: Well I think it’s becoming clear in the community that they regard John Howard as having changed. That he’s lost touch, that it’s not the John Howard of old. It’s quite clear to me that on a whole range of issues, John Howard, Peter Costello and the Government are out of touch, arrogant and complacent. That’s what I’m picking up in the community.
Journalist: Is there any concern about Labor perhaps thinking that the election is already won, with what’s going on at the moment?
Smith: As I said to you yesterday, there is a very long way to go. We have to win 16 seats. We have to do things that no political party from Opposition has done before and we know John Howard is a formidable politician. He will do anything, say anything and spend money on anything to get himself elected. So you don’t need to be concerned about complacency on Labor’s part. I’ve also made this point previously, we have been in this position before and not won an election.
Journalist: Why doesn’t Kevin Rudd ask the questions of Mr Howard in Question Time? Why does he leave them to his Deputy?
Smith: Well, I think if you count up the questions, Kevin Rudd has probably asked most questions on.
Journalist: On Senator Santoro he didn’t ask one?
Smith: Well different people ask different questions, I don’t think there’s a great point in there.
Journalist: Is he dogging it? Why not do it?
Smith: Mate, Kevin Rudd doesn’t dog anything.
Journalist: What’s your view, expressed by Peter Dutton and others that people should think about their mortgages and forget about all that’s going on in Queensland because you guys are going to screw the economy?
Smith: Well I think the good folk of Queensland will no doubt think about the Queensland Liberal Party and what it represents. And I think Australians, when it comes to the next election, will think about their long-term economic prosperity and that goes to the heart of what a great issue at the next election will be. Labor, who has a policy approach to secure our long-term economic prosperity, or John Howard, under political pressure, having neglected things for a decade, coming up with last minute political tricks, spending big to try and fool the public.
This election is about our long-term prosperity and that’s why all the things that Kevin Rudd and I have been doing and saying on education go to a secure long-term economic future. And that’s why I made the point when I started: Peter Costello completely exposing Julie Bishop for what they’ve been on about in education, which is simply playing political tricks, trying to blame the States, not actually interested in raising educational standards and educational outcomes.
Journalist: Mr Smith do you welcome Senator Santoro’s decision to quit politics and do you think it’s because he realised his position was untenable?
Smith: Well, I haven’t had the conversation with him obviously. He clearly had to resign as a Minister. It was a surprise, even to his Queensland colleagues as I understand it, that he resigned as a Senator, although I suspect that more than one or two have welcomed that for long-standing internal Queensland Liberal reasons. In some respects, this is probably the tip of the iceberg so far as internal relations in the Queensland Liberal Party go.
I suspect that Senator Santoro thought that it was easier for him to resign and avoid further scrutiny than it was to continue to be the subject of scrutiny. Having said that, as we saw in the House yesterday, there are clearly one or two more questions that John Howard needs to answer about his Office’s involvement in Senator Santoro’s affairs.
Journalist: And so will Labor today be continuing…
Smith: Well, as I say on a regular basis, our job is to hold the Government to account and to put out positive policy proposals. That’s what we do on a daily basis and for us to win the election, that’s what we need to do every day here on in.
"Shadow Education Minister Peter Collier said he had received advice from parliamentary counsel that rules already in place to hold an election could be converted to regulations within one week. [emphasis added]
"Therefore, it is arrant nonsense for the Minister to provide no time frame for an election when teachers, who are entitled to 10 members on the Board, have not had representation at WACOT since it was created in 2004," Mr Collier said.
"The WACOT website says 'it is hoped that a fresh election can held by the end of the year' and this is not good enough when a simple bit of administrative work by this government could bring that forward to at least June."
"Last November, WACOT's inaugural election of teacher representatives was postponed at the last minute when a minor technical problem was discovered with the rules.
"The government has stated that it prefers regulations over rules to conduct the election." Mr Collier said, "Contrary to the government's claim that this will take some time, Parliamentary counsel has advised me that it would take one week."
"Mr Collier said teachers, despite still being unrepresented on WACOT's Board, were invoiced $44,760.17 by the WA Electoral Commission because of the aborted 2006 election.
"WA teachers pay $70 annually to be represented at WACOT, have no board members - although the Act specifies they should have 10 - and are footing a $45,000 bill for incompetence that was not of their making," he said. [emphasis added]
"The Carpenter Labor Government is responsible for this unacceptable situation, yet teachers are paying the bill.
"Minister McGowan should fix this situation immediately because teachers have been unrepresented on the WACOT Board during one of the most turbulent periods in the education sector in WA.
"I
believe the Minister is stalling on this to prevent teachers, particularly
lobby group PLATO, who actively criticised the government during the
OBE debate, to be denied representation on the WACOT board."
[emphasis
added]
Media Contact: Peter Collier - 0414 595 572
© The West Australian
"There is a general perception that Australian school education is approaching a state of crisis and that urgent reform is needed. It has come to my notice that there are sites of excellence currently delivering effective education to Australian students. In order to preserve equity and inclusiveness for all students, it is critically important that the Australian Government implement policies to discourage teachers, principals, parents and partners involved in these programmes. We need to recognise the importance of establishing and maintaining mediocrity in all systems and sectors. [emphasis added]
"The widespread community acceptance of a value-free market economy and the economic burden associated with supporting Australia’s ageing population has made the case for the importance of implementing strategies to create mediocrity in Australian schools. In addition, the rapid pace of technological development and the establishment of a knowledge-based society has changed the emphasis in modern education.
"The mindless rote-learning associated with traditional subjects (especially mathematics, the sciences and classical music) is failing to meet the future needs of Australian children in the 21st century. There is an urgent need for reform enabling a more mediocre, equitable, inclusive and reflective National Curriculum.
"It
is with these thoughts, and with much pleasure and pride that I submit
to you my latest grand curriculum strategy..."
"As reported in The Australian yesterday, the Treasurer has warned that the multi-million-dollar cost of a performance scheme must remain the responsibility of the states. "We can't change the terms and conditions of teachers' pay because we don't pay any of them," he said.
"His comments appeared to put Mr Costello at odds with Ms Bishop, who for months has championed the issue. But yesterday she denied this was the case.
"The Treasurer and I are in complete and total agreement on this," Ms Bishop told The Australian.
"The majority of teachers in this country are employed by state and territory governments. They set their pay and their conditions. I have said I will continue to put pressure on them to change those conditions ... to incorporate an element of performance pay. How they do that is up to discussion.
"(But) the commonwealth has the ability ... to make it a condition of funding.
"We've currently got $33 billion in the funding agreement. That is going to increase to some $42 billion.
"We can make changes to the pay and salary of teachers one of the conditions of funding."
"Ms Bishop has previously called for a limited performance-pay funding pool to be considered as an option if the federal Government is forced to "strike out on its own".
"What the commonwealth does in relation to specific funding initiatives is obviously something that is going through the budget process," she said.
"Labor education spokesman Stephen Smith said Mr Costello had hung Ms Bishop "out to dry".
"It completely exposes her for what she's been up to - trying to score cheap political points," Mr Smith said."
From The Australian at link"The Sydney forum posed the question: "Australian literature: does it have a future?"
"Professor Webby said this question "would have horrified the many Australian writers and readers, such as Miles Franklin and Vance and Nettie Palmer, who campaigned tirelessly in the first half of the 20th century to establish a national literature and ensure that it was studied in schools and universities".
"Professor Webby is the outgoing professor of Australian literature at Sydney University and, after 16 years in the job, will retire disappointed the nation's literature is still not regarded as a core discipline at universities.
"She has collated statistics from Sydney University showing an alarming decline in the study and teaching of Australian literature at this prestigious institution. Professor Webby found that in 1980, Ozlit subjects at Sydney attracted 500 enrolments (some students did more than one subject). Today, that number was closer to 100.
"She also revealed that for the first time since Sydney University set up its Australian literature honours program in the mid-1980s, no students have taken it up this year..."
Full story in The Australian at link
WA Stink
"Ms Bishop has repeatedly argued that teachers should be paid on the basis of merit rather than years of service.
"When asked in Parliament what Commonwealth money the Government would provide to support performance-based pay, Ms Bishop said an additional $9 billion would be provided in the next four-year round of federal funding to schools across Australia.
"Under the four-year funding deal from 2005, $33 billion in federal funding was conditional on the implementation of plain English report cards, every state school flying the Australian flag and national literacy and numeracy tests.
"$9 billion is a lot of money to encourage state governments to introduce performance pay for teachers so that we can attract and retain the best and brightest in the teaching profession," Ms Bishop said.
"At an education ministers' meeting next month, Ms Bishop will ask the states to consider three performance-based pay models. The first would assess teachers by how much their students improve academically; the second would rank teachers according to the views of their peers, principals, parents and teachers; and the third would allow bonuses through a merit pool.
"We believe state governments should follow the lead of independent schools and introduce an element of performance-based pay in the terms and conditions of teachers' salaries," she said yesterday.
"This flexibility and the recognition of performance would ensure the ability to attract bright young people into teaching and indeed retain older teachers, who I am afraid are leaving the profession because of a lack of incentive in the system."
"But Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith said Ms Bishop did not have an answer to what additional money the Howard Government would provide to support the performance-based pay proposal.
"Labor believes quality teaching should be rewarded. To do so requires a comprehensive strategy which involves investment by the Commonwealth in areas such as ongoing professional teacher development, accreditation for teacher specialisation and mentoring for teachers in their early years," Mr Smith said.
"Ms Bishop should spend less time posturing and trying to score cheap political points against teachers and state Labor governments, and more time actually addressing the key education policy issues that are so important for Australia's economic future."
"Performance-based pay has traditionally met fierce opposition from teachers' unions.
"Victorian Education Minister John Lenders said Ms Bishop had been unable to convince federal Treasurer Peter Costello of the merits of her proposal, so now it appeared she wanted to stand over the states.
"Is Julie
Bishop really willing to hold the education of Victorian students
to ransom all to compensate for a bruised ego and to prove a political
point?" Mr Lenders said."
From The Melbourne Age at link
"Labor leader Kevin Rudd and his shadow education minister can't have it both ways. They can either fund schools on the basis of need or they can maintain the unfair indexation arrangements of current spending set in place by the Howard Government.
"Presumably they think that the parents of the two-thirds of children who go to government schools don't care, don't notice or believe that the Rudd Opposition is the lesser of the two evils.
"What is clear is that the private-schools lobby is the very large tail that wags the education dog.
"When the Liberals are in office, the charge for more and more resources at the expense of the Government system is led by the independent school lobby.
"When Labor is in office, the charge on behalf of private education is led by the Catholic bishops.
"Thus we have a largely puerile debate about values and national curriculum that fills the vacuum left by the lack of statistics on where the educational dollar goes.
"Equity in the funding of government schools should have priority in any society with more than phoney pretensions to espousing egalitarian or secular values.
But it seems anybody who sticks their head up to fight for proper funding of government schools is branded a class "warrior or a bigot who wants to open up the sectarian debate between Protestants and Catholics. This debate blighted Australian society up until the Whitlam government's creation of the schools commission to bring the Catholic schools up to the standards of government schools..."
Full story in
The Melbourne Age at link
"To make sense of what the Government - and the Opposition - has pledged for buildings and equipment, the community needs an overall sense of what needs to be done. How much must be spent to bring all schools up to standard? This is information the Government refuses to provide, though it may well be contained in the Education Department's Asset Maintenance Plan. Produced in 1998, the plan estimates the cost of repairs at schools around the state, and ranks them in order of priority. The Herald has sought the plan under Freedom of Information laws but has been rebuffed because the plan is a cabinet document. Thus, a convenient technicality saves the Government acute embarrassment. Such secrecy shows contempt not only for pupils and parents but for those who have to teach in dilapidated, poorly equipped buildings. The teachers are fighting back. Public school principals are doing their own survey and - as the Herald has reported - it is a shocking litany of neglect over the full 12 years of Labor in NSW..."
"Labor's
"more to do" slogan is a plea to take it on trust. Why should
voters trust Labor when it is not prepared to trust them with the
truth?"
Full Editorial in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
Editorial
A lesson in larceny
"Education is a mainstay service industry, underpinning employment and prosperity. Developing countries take our low-paid factory jobs while we create new, highly skilled ones to educate their aspiring young. After being launched, willing or not, into the world of education exports in the 1980s, our universities now rely on fees from overseas students for more than 15 per cent of revenue. Together with hundreds of private vocational colleges, they rake in about $10 billion a year from 380,000 foreign students. Despite some problems - notably with universities under pressure to relax standards for students paying very large fees - the exercise is generally beneficial, exposing our students to foreign classmates and building up a body of appreciative alumni in our important trading partners. However, some universities and schools are killing the golden goose.
"The Herald has related the sorry story of Central Queensland University with its campuses around Australia and the Pacific, which has gone from being respected academically to being a degree factory via a public-private partnership that seems aimed more at providing residency status than imparting education or even useful qualifications. The ABC's 7.30 Report, meanwhile, has exposed sham vocational colleges in Victoria, allegedly involved in faking student attendance and examination records to satisfy residency visas. Foreign students paying upwards of $15,000 a year for substandard courses are in a weak position to complain. Colleges can simply report them for non-attendance or other failings, and they are deported. But it appears the relevant authorities - the federal immigration and education departments, and state education and crime bodies - do not want to hear, even when damning evidence comes from reputable educators within the system. The Department of Immigration is sitting on such complaints, perhaps because its counters at Australian diplomatic posts are the front office for the education business - and are barred, at the same time, from mentioning that some institutions have better reputations than others.
"The actions
of a few risk the reputation of the entire sector. With other countries
increasingly involved in overseas education, and prestigious schools
and universities opening campuses in markets such as India and China,
Australia must review its game. Are standards being maintained, and
are students getting value for their hard-earned (or borrowed) money?"
From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
[scroll down to second Editorial]
Where is funding most needed?
School maintenance - 31%
Teacher numbers and standards - 60%
Computers and other equipment - 5%
Security - 2%
Sporting equipment - 2%
Total Votes: 2043
"Parents will log into a website and program the card to prohibit certain foods and restrict the amount of money their children can spend.
"Students then swipe the card at the canteen and any restrictions will be revealed."Canteen
staff can then refuse to serve children whatever their parents don't
want them to eat..."
Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
[See following Editorial on this article]
Editorial
A trump card for obese kids
"Obesity is the biggest single health problem afflicting our
children..."
"Schools in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia are testing
a smart card enabling parents to control what foods their children
are allowed to buy from tuckshops.
"Parents will be able to log on to a website and program the card, as well as limiting the amount a child can spend.
"Civil libertarians may see this as the shadow of Big Brother, but it is merely empowering parents to protect children.
"There is one problem: Deakin University researchers found recently that a very large proportion of the parents of young obese children believed they would grow out of it.
"It is clear
that smart parents as well as smart cards are needed: this will take
a well-directed education campaign."
Full Editorial in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
- The West Australian
- Education chief condemns OBE (page 5)
by Bethany Hiatt
"The State Government was under new pressure last night to abandon outcomes-based education after a report compiled by education experts revealed it caused teacher workloads to soar but delivered next to no benefits to students."The report, from respected academic and now Curriculum Council chairman Bill Louden, found two-thirds of teachers believed OBE had failed to improve students' results.
"It also found that 88 per cent of State school teachers believed their workloads had increased as a direct result of OBE.
"The report, the most damning indictment yet of WA's OBE experiment, examines a decade of curriculum changes in State schools from kindergarten to Year 10.
"It puts more pressure on Education Minister Mark McGowan to dismantle OBE.
"Since being appointed in December, Mr McGowan has made significant changes to the OBE for Years 11 and 12, including abandoning so-called "levels" marking, which teachers and parents opposed.
"He promised further changes to OBE for Years 11 and 12, though the details are yet to be unveiled.
"But OBE is still in force up to Year 10 and critics demand Mr McGowan make big changes.
"Professor Louden's report, Evaluation of the Curriculum Improvement Program Phase 2, which the Education Department commissioned, found nearly 60 per cent of teachers did not believe teaching, assessment or reporting had improved in recent years.
"Just 52 per cent rated curriculum framework documents as useful.
"Mr McGowan said a letter to State schools today would outline his latest changes to OBE from kindergarten up to Year 10.
"We're going to roll back some of the mistakes that have been made," he said. "The crux of it is teachers will no longer have to level every single piece of work. They will be able to use mechanisms they are confident in using to assess student work."
"He said teachers would get practical resources to help plan and assess lessons and parents would get clear reports based on grades linked to common standards.
"Marko Vojkovic, president of teachers' lobby group People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes, said Mr McGowan had "taken another step in the right direction" towards scrapping levels altogether.
"State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said the report showed teachers' complaints about methods of marking, excessive assessments and the need for more practical resources were justified."
From The West Australian
Most teachers believe OBE implementation has been flawed.
Source: Report funded by Department of Education and Training
- School sign language option urged (page 43)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Schoolchildren should have the option of learning sign language alongside spoken languages such as Italian or Chinese if the Education Department was serious about making schooling fully inclusive, the WA Deaf Society said yesterday..."
Full story in The West Australian
- The Australian
- Rudd reads Left riot act on schools policy [Lead story]
by Sid Marris
"Kevin Rudd has broadened his campaign to move Labor to the political centre with an aggressive defence of his policy not to cut government funding to private schools, which he says is a fact of life.
"The Labor leader has used his own story - starting in public education and later moving to a private school and back again - to argue Labor must recognise that parents will move students between different types of schools according to needs and interests."Mr Rudd and his education spokesman, Stephen Smith, promised this week that private schools would not lose money - a policy designed to bury Mark Latham's "hit list" of private schools in 2004 and Kim Beazley's freeze on funding of rich schools in 2001.
"The blunt message is one of a series of steps being taken by the Labor leader during the first half of the year to drag the party away from some of its historic left-wing pillars and create a less intimidating face for mainstream voters..."
"Mr Rudd is believed to have lectured the caucus, reminding MPs that Labor's endorsement of Robert Menzies's 1963 decision to give public funds to private and religious schools was made more than 30 years ago by Gough Whitlam."Labor should forget about distinctions between the public and private sectors and instead talk in terms of equal opportunity. The party did not want two tiers of schools to develop, the leader argued.
"He was almost spelling it out to them slowly and deliberately, 'Get used to it'," a Labor insider said.
"The present ALP platform says Labor governments must give priority to the public sector, and that priority is seen as an important means to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
"Others at the meeting said they were worried that the coverage of education policy always ended up focused on private schools, presenting a false emphasis in voters' minds..."
"Labor's policy, which is to create a needs-based formula but also to continue indexation of grants for wealthy schools, has been welcomed by the Independent Schools Association and the Independent Education Union."The Australian Education Union, which represents government schools, believes there is still an imbalance in the present funding arrangements, under which public schools receive about 35 per cent of the federal funds while educating about 70 per cent of the students. Private schools receive little taxpayer support from state governments."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Editorial
Speeding things up [scroll down to second Editorial]
A high-speed broadband network is a smart investment
That Australia needs a high-speed broadband network to properly participate in the global information technology revolution is beyond question. The possibilities are more than playing games and online entertainment. They encompass such things as delivering the best in medical technology regardless of location.
- Northern Territory News
- School access comes under fire
by Nick Calacouras
Is this where Western Australian education is heading? Web
"Up to 5000 indigenous Territory children do not have access to secondary school, a Federal MP said.
"Member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon said only 30 students graduated from high school in Aboriginal communities last year."When you think of how many kids there are between 16 and 19, that's infinitesimally small," he said.
"The Territory Government last night denied the claim.
"Education Minister Paul Henderson said students who did not have access to a secondary school could study by distance through the NT Open Education Centre..." [emphasis added]
From The Northern Territory News at link
- The Brisbane Courier Mail
- Game plan on literacy
by Tess Livingstone
"Reading and writing coaching will be offered to Years 6 and 7 after students fell below accepted standards."Education Minister Rod Welford said yesterday that Education Queensland would pay teachers $54 an hour, the supply teaching rate, to conduct the intensive coaching after school.
"We will be alerting parents that their students have fallen below Year 5 benchmarks and that we can give them this assistance," Mr Welford said.
"It is absolutely essential that they improve their skills before they reach secondary school or they will be unable to handle secondary subjects." ...
Full story in The Brisbane Courier Mail at link
- The Melbourne Age
- Letter to the Editor
- Private schools save taxpayers millions
"It is quite wrong for Kenneth Davidson (Opinion, 22/3) to say that "it is next to impossible to get meaningful statistics on school resourcing". We can provide Mr Davidson with the sources of statistics showing that non-government schools save taxpayers $5 billion annually and that $2 billion of that figure comes from the independent sector.
"Parents who are choosing to invest in their children's education by sending them to independent and other non-government schools are making a contribution to the education of all Australian students by freeing up government funds for the education sector.
"This is shown in material contained in the National Report on Schooling published by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs and in the Report on Government Services put out by the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Services chaired by the Productivity Commission.
"Careful analysis of soundly based official figures is much better than making unsubstantiated claims to support spurious arguments put forward by the public school lobby."
Michelle Green, chief executive, Association of Independent Schools of Victoria
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Income, debts worry students
University graduates will be able to earn more than previously before they have to start paying their education debt, but students say they are more concerned about having enough to live on while they are studying.
- Two Views of How We Treat Overseas Students
- Letter to the Editor
"The unsubstantiated and unattributed accusation against Central Queensland University ("Regional university accused of immigration racket", March 21) is outrageous, false and shows a misunderstanding of how the higher education sector interacts and responds to government immigration policy and procedures.
"Every university in Australia offers degrees in accounting and information technology, and each operates under tight regulations for reporting underperforming students to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
"All universities operate under government requirements to ensure that international students comply with certain visa regulations. Students, for example, may not transfer to another university within their first year unless there are extraordinary circumstances.
"CQU has received two national export awards and other industry acknowledgements, quality commendations and student-support accolades. CQU identifies students who cheat and plagiarise - it's known as upholding academic standards and should not be condemned.
"The Australian Universities Quality Agency has singled out CQU as best-practice among all Australian universities for the way we attend to the academic progress of our students. The percentage of international students who pass is similar to that of all CQU students - this is within a range of 71 to 85 per cent."
Professor Angela Delves, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Central Queensland University
- Half-Truths: Hire education's youse buy date
Scene: The quadrangle of the University of Gibber Desert's eastern campus, which is located in a renovated lift housing atop a high-rise in Zetland. Students mill about, chatting in a multitude of tongues, none of them English. The university's vice-chancellor, Professor Ashby de la Zouch, enters with a mop and bucket and starts mopping the floor. Chang, a student, approaches him.Chang: Excuse me? Is right place for graduate diploma business studies?
Prof Z: Yeah. That's on a Tuesday but. Today is graduate diploma in indoor windsurfing studies.
Chang: Sorry. Sorry. English no good. (Offers professor a piece of paper.) You read.
Prof Z: (Reading.): Struth. Have you signed up for the platinum package, mate?
Chang: Yes. Platinum. Yes.
Prof Z: Mate, you should of told me. I took youse for cattle-class.
Chang: Is class on cattle? Business studies? (Alarmed.) I am not wanting. Not in brochure. I study share trade. Company account. Commodity future. Leverage buyout. Unsecure debt. Take over BHP Billiton. Yes, yes, yes.
Prof Z: Oh, I get your drift. I was just using the vernacular, mate. Don't you worry. We do that business guff, no sweat. It'll be coming out your ears, son. Just have a seat but … (Chang sits.)
Prof Z: (Dials number on mobile phone. Low voice.): Jules, check the account will you? Did a cheque just go in, name of Chang? … Yeah, platinum, yeah … Woo-hoo! I know. We're gonna be paid, babe. You too, professor. Love youse. Bye.
(He puts on mortarboard and an academic gown rich with gold brocade. Goes to desk in corner, gets a certificate from drawer, and writes on it briefly, rolls it up and ties it up with ribbon. Goes over to Chang.) Mister - or should I say Doctor Chang?
Chang: Yes?
Prof Z: Congratulations on your outstanding achievement. (Hands over certificate, shakes hands.)
Chang: (Mystified): What is, please?
Prof Z: Your degree, mate. Er - doctor. You're a graduate of Gibber Desert, son. An alumnus. And - your passport is in the mail. Now, I must rush.
Chang slowly unrolls his degree, as the professor whips off his academic garb and packs his briefcase with bundles of $100 bills from a wall safe. He snaps it shut and makes for the stairs.Chang: Wait! (Points to degree, as Prof Z stops.) Says I am brain-surgery doctor.
Prof Z (Waves him away.) Just get another one from the desk. See youse later, alligator. (Exit.)
- The Melbourne Herald Sun
- Tips on raising boys
Mothers should chill out and stop making their teenage boys' lunches, according to a new best-selling book about raising boys.
Saturday – Sunday, 24 – 25 March
- The West Australian
- Editorial
Stop education patch-ups and kill off OBE (page 22)
"Chaos attended the opening of the school year, with the Education Department frantically trying to find 264 teachers to fill vacancies across WA. Then this week it revealed forecasts that the State could be up to 3000 teachers short by 2012."Meanwhile, the on-the-run patch-up jobs that are being done on the discredited outcomes-based education system continue to cause confusion about what is going on in schools and where they are heading. OBE is crumbling under the weight of its own politically correct pretensions and unpopularity across the education community - yet there is a defiant reluctance to kill it off once and for all. Instead, strange hybrids are being created to meet the demands of the moment, with little evident thought for what sort of school system we're going to end up with. These don't make much sense, except perhaps to the bureaucrats who cobble them together.
"In the circumstances, it is reasonable to ask: apart from visiting unnecessary problems on schools, just what does the massive State education bureaucracy do? Surely, it is a fundamental responsibility of the department to provide the teachers schools need. It can't manage even that - and forecasts continuing failure.
"Equally, it is a fundamental responsibility of the education bureaucracy to run an education system that is stable, effective and understandable by the community. It has failed there, too, and delivered upheaval and confusion to school communities, mainly because of the misbegotten OBE experiment in social engineering.
"That the OBE is useless, at best, has been confirmed by a new report by education experts headed by former leading academic and now Curriculum Council chairman Bill Louden. It found two-thirds of teachers believed OBE had failed to improve students' results. It also found that 88 per cent of State schoolteachers believed their workloads had increased as a direct result of OBE. In other words, teachers have been forced to work more - to no real purpose.
"And the department wonders why classroom teachers, whose views were officially ignored as beneath notice in much of the OBE saga, want to leave and why it finds it hard to attract new teachers to State schools.
"The report helps to show what a mess Mark McGowan inherited when he took over the education portfolio in December. He has enjoyed considerable sympathy and good will, but these are fast running out. He should assert his authority over the bureaucracy, stop the patch-up process, insist that the department stop mucking about and fulfil its fundamental responsibilities and purge schools of all vestiges of OBE."
From The West Australian
- Letter to the Editor
- Teacher shortage
"So WA faces a huge teacher shortage? The College of Teaching, which is really just WA's teacher registration board, continues to function as if we have teachers galore."As a school administrator, I have spoken to two teachers in the last 48 hours, one from WA and one from Britain, who endured an absolute bureaucratic nightmare to gain teacher registration last year.
"In one case, the teacher almost just gave up in disgust, but since we have just employed her, we are thankful that she continued to battle the faceless bureaucracy that is WACOT. This inefficient and ineffective organisation is once again currently billing all of WA's teachers for this annual membership fee, for which we receive newsletters full of hot air and little else.
"Alan Carpenter killed off the effective Centre for Excellence in Teaching within weeks of becoming education minister and promised that it would be replaced by this College of Teaching.
"I can tell you that the Centre for Excellence did more in a month to promote teaching and provide good professional development than WACOT has done in the whole of its sad existence.
"Their front office could not even give me a straight answer recently to the question: how long does it take to register a teacher? WACOT is a sad joke and teachers are asked to pay for it."
Name and address supplied
- The Weekend Australian
- Outcomes education shown the door
by Justine Ferrari
"The widely criticised model of outcomes-based education introduced in West Australian schools was effectively dismantled yesterday when the Government announced the return of syllabuses specifying what students should be taught and a return to traditional marking methods.
"Education Minister Mark McGowan has commissioned a detailed action plan addressing problems with the curriculum for kindergarten to Year 10 after an independent evaluation concluded the changes introduced over the past decade "cannot be regarded as a success"."Mr McGowan described the evaluation report as a "cold shower" and announced that syllabuses detailing the content of courses would be reintroduced next year. The changes also include providing clear reports to parents based on grades linked to common standards, providing resources for teachers for planning and assessing students, and reintroducing traditional methods of marking, such as percentages.
"Under the curriculum framework introduced in 1998, marks were replaced by "levels" at which students were working, based on the idea that students travel along at their own pace.
"The curriculum adopted an outcomes approach to learning that focused on what students should achieve and assessed what they learn rather than traditional syllabuses that focus on content and how and when it is taught. The state Government has faced widespread criticism over its changes to school education, particularly over the introduction of levels, and the new courses of study for Years 11 and 12, which are claimed to be of poor academic standard.
"A group of teachers formed to fight the changes, People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes, welcomed the announcement as a step in the right direction.
"PLATO president Marko Vojkovic said the syllabuses and levels were two key pieces of the outcomes-based education jigsaw but there was still a way to go.
"Teachers will be able to choose the type of assessment they use, marks or levels, which Mr Vojkovic said was unacceptable.
"Levels should be abandoned altogether," he said. "There shouldn't be a choice between a valid and invalid method; if it's invalid it should be thrown out."
"He said the draft syllabuses did not contain enough specific content but their reintroduction was a philosophical move away from outcomes-based education. [emphasis added]
"In a letter sent to teachers yesterday, the department said syllabuses would contain explicit descriptions of core elements to be taught. In kindergarten to Year 3, the emphasis would be on literacy, numeracy, social, emotional and physical development.
"In Years 4-7, syllabuses will expand to include science, civics and citizenship, and information and communication technologies. Syllabuses for Years 8-10 will cover all learning areas.
"The evaluation of the curriculum changes found almost 60 percent of teachers did not agree the changes had improved teaching and learning or student assessment in recent years."
From The Weekend Australian at link
- The Sunday Times
- Fast forward on literacy
by Louise Pemble
"A Perth trial of a program aimed at helping children with learning delays has achieved dramatic gains in literacy in just 10 weeks.
"But the principal of Fremantle-based Samson Primary School, Barry Hancock, said he was struggling to get other schools and the Education Department to look at the results."Four Perth schools took part in the trial last year of the computer-based program Fast ForWord to test claims it could boost learning in children struggling with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia and other learning delays.
"A total of 144 students aged 5-14 took part in the trial, and were found to have made significantly better gains in language and literacy tests than a comparison group who received the standard WA curriculum alone.
"On average, students who completed the 10-week program improved from being in the bottom 12 per cent of age literacy to the bottom 25 per cent. Their receptive language skills jumped from the bottom 12 per cent to bottom 21 per cent, while their expressive language improved from the lower 10 per cent to lower 18 per cent.
"Mr Hancock said the program should be made part of the WA school curriculum because it was the only one that worked on the pathways in the brain to allow children to become better learners.
"It's the greatest thing I've found in 40 years of teaching,'' he said. "It teaches kids how to concentrate and to learn.
"It doesn't matter how good teachers are, some kids are going to slip through the net because what you're telling them goes in one ear and out the other.''
"Mr Hancock trialled the program on 36 of his students with special needs and found that all improved. Some made gains equivalent to two years of learning after just 10 weeks.
"Quinns Rocks mother Amanda Cope said the program had improved her daughter Leticia, 13, who had repeated a year at school, but whose reading and writing skills were now above average.
"The Education Department said use of the program in schools was at the discretion of individual principals."
From The Sunday Times at link
- The Adelaide Advertiser
- Bonus plans to halt teacher exodus
by Xanthe Kleinig, education reporter
"Bonus superannuation payments and improved long service leave entitlements are being considered by the Education Department to keep "baby boomer" teachers in classrooms for longer.
"It is working on a phased retirement plan that will provide incentives for ageing teachers to work part-time or job-share rather than leave."It is hoped to stem the flow of thousands of teachers out of schools, with figures from the Teachers Registration Board revealing more than 1000 will turn 65 this year, and up to 1500 will reach retirement age annually for the next 15 years.
"South Australian Primary Principals Association president Glyn O'Brien said the only option for many teachers looking for a change of pace was to retire.
"People coming close to retirement do not necessarily want to continue working as hard as they have, particularly as a principal, but to ease off a bit and stay in the workforce longer," she said.
"Despite part-time opportunities, the loss of superannuation and long-service leave entitlements were a disincentive, she said.
"Nobody wants to work a day less and have significantly less to retire on," she said. The Education Department was considering maintaining superannuation payments at full-time levels for part-time staff, she said.
"Secondary Principals Association (SA) vice president Wendy Teasdale-Smith said two or three teachers retired from an average high school each year.
"The structure of a generous superannuation scheme, no longer available to new teachers, acted as an incentive for older teachers to leave, Ms Teasdale-Smith said. "That was the super scheme on offer to teachers 30 odd years ago," she said. "If you joined at that time it was a great scheme, but the peak financial benefit is at 57 or 58, if you work much longer you're really working for not much financial gain."
"Australian Education Union president Andrew Gohl said the union would have to be consulted about any changes to conditions.
"An Education Department spokeswoman confirmed phased retirement was being considered as an addition to its attraction and retention programs."
From The Adelaide Advertiser at link
- The Melbourne Age
- Op Ed
We all need Mr Chips [Sunday]
The character of the heroic teacher reaches deep into the uncertainty in all of us.
- Letters to the Editor
- Discriminate for good [Sunday]
"Geoffrey Ryan's article about the lack of male teachers in primary schools (Opinion, 18/3) raises an important issue. Do we continue to pursue the current ideological trend that all things must be equal, or do we move forward on the basis of the needs of the students?
"Let me explain. To not address the fact that the increasing number of boys being raised in single female-parent homes are missing out if they do not have a significant male to guide them through life is putting ideology before reality.
"These boys, as research shows, do not perform as well as boys from an intact two-parent family (a few exceptions accepted). Therefore, to persist in an ideology that insists in a gender balance in matters of employment of teachers is saying ideology must come before the needs of boys.
"The education system can and should accept the fact that this dilemma needs creative thinking to get male teachers in the classroom as Mr Ryan has done.
"That is one school. What is needed is for the education minister and his department to work out various ways they can increase male participation.
"At the same time, the Equal Opportunity Commission must allow any scheme that achieves this end. This is not discrimination against women; this is discrimination in favour of the boys who need consideration."
R. A. Marks, Drouin
- Brevity the soul of wit for nxt txt generation? [Sunday]
"The special report and editorial in The Sunday Age ("TV blamed for rise in child-speech problems," 18/3) about the underdevelopment of language skills among children in our time-poor and increasingly fractured society reminds me of a related topic some teachers at my school had to contend with."In TAFE institutes, teaching staff are predominantly from the baby-boomer generation, often trying to deal with class groups that encompass a range of ages and backgrounds, including a great number of young people who have grown up with computer and mobile phone technology. In the age of internet blogs and SMS texting, language - in both oral and written forms - has, no doubt, undergone a profound change.
"Last year, teachers in my department received, for the first time, essays liberally sprinkled with SMS abbreviations. The challenge of reading and then assessing the intellectual content of these essays, for someone outside the SMS "language group", was immense. How should we respond to such challenges? Should we lament the loss of "our" traditions, or embrace the evolution of living language?
"In staff room discussion, some teachers wondered if we were witnessing the future of written language, when the youngest we presently teach ultimately inherit the world. Will there one day be a Shakespeare of SMS among us?"
Peter Kartsounis, Footscray
- Don't blame the telly [Sunday]
"I refer to your article regarding the rise in speech problems in young children (18/3).
"I have a son diagnosed last year with "language disorder". I find it insulting and infuriating that language disorders can be so simplistically blamed on too much TV and no family conversation.
"My son's TV viewing has always been very restricted. He has had books read to him on a nightly basis from the age of six months and we, as a family of four, sit down for dinner every night and discuss our day. We also made the decision not to send our children to creche and they were cared for at home by us and their grandparents where lots of one-on-one conversations occurred.
"Language disorder, as Professor Sheena Reilly correctly states, is biological, genetic and to do with how the children's brains develop. Your article therefore was an extreme generalisation."
Denise Strahan, Nunawading
- State schools pick up pieces [Saturday]
"Kenneth Davidson (Opinion, 22/3) is right. Furthermore, ironically, although most private schools have a Christian church base, where are the children born to 16-year-old single mothers and from dysfunctional families affected by drug and/or alcohol abuse, long-term unemployment and so on? I note little evidence in these schools of Christ's dictum to care for the poor and disaffected. Children whose parents cannot pay fees and those with behaviour problems are likely to be expelled. They are sent to government schools, where teachers struggle with decreasing spending power (there might be more money, but it buys less), and an increasingly troubled clientele. Finally, when a private school can afford expensive TV advertising, does it really need government funding?"
Anne Jolly, Sunnyside, Tasmania
The private case [Saturday]
"Kenneth Davidson suggests private schools should be coerced into behaving like government schools purely so the latter can be saved. Evidently, the idea of government schools as the be-all and end-all suits his ideological bent, but this is not the case for a significant number of parents. Non-government schools are attractive because they offer something different to the ordinary, and they allow parents to make choices.
"Contrary to Davidson's assertions, subsidies for non-government schools are not brought about by sinister lobbyists, but by the realisation that non-government schools have unique qualities, and that money follows the kids. That said, both parties should be congratulated for their support of a mixed-education system."
Nicholas Bird, Balwyn
- The Sydney Daily Telegraph
- Editorial
Outpaced by digital age
For their tardy approach to the question of a high-speed broadband network, Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello are beginning to look a lot like that bloke in the TV ad, the hapless dad who tells his son the Great Wall of China was built to "keep the rabbits out".
All Alston cartoons are © The West Australian Newspaper
All media quotations, photographs and cartoons © their respective publishers
This page last updated 17 April, 2009 10:58 PM
