Monday 4 June

Tuesday 5 June

Wednesday 6 June

Thursday 7 June

Friday 8 June

Saturday – Sunday, 9 – 10 June

 

Monday 4 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Learn languages or lose trade: unis (page 11)
    by Kate Campbell
    
    "A leading WA academic has backed urgent calls to make it compulsory for students up to Year 10 to learn a second language in a bid to reverse a trend which she says has surpassed crisis point.

    "University of WA dean of arts, humanities and social sciences Anne Pauwels said just over 11 per cent of Year 12 students in WA graduated with a second language.

    "That figure was as high as 40 per cent in the 1970s and was now as low as 6 per cent in some States, with the national figure at 13 per cent.

    "Professor Pauwels, who also heads a national committee promoting languages at Australian universities, said neglecting this learning area had the potential to harm the State’s relationships with key trading partners, including China and Indonesia.

    "Australia’s Group of Eight universities, which includes UWA, has demanded mandatory learning of foreign languages from primary school to Year 10, more incentives to study languages at universities and a community campaign promoting the benefits of speaking a foreign tongue.

    "It is believed the extent of Languages other than English (LOTE) classes varies from school to school in WA.

    "Professor Pauwels said the situation was labelled a crisis in 1996 when 66 languages were taught in Australian universities. A decade later only 29 languages were available to study.

    "Nine of those languages are offered at universities in WA, with only four, French, Japanese, Chinese and Indonesian, at more than one university.

    "According to Professor Pauwels, Edith Cowan University dropped Indonesian in 2004 and Chinese is struggling at Murdoch University.

    "She said that no university in WA offered Vietnamese, Spanish or Arabic courses, despite these cultures having strong or emerging populations here.

    "English was not enough in today’s climate of increased international relations and Australia lagged behind many multilingual countries.

    "She said only a small demand existed to learn Chinese in WA despite the language being the fastest growing in Australia. A strong interest in Chinese was critical given WA’s burgeoning trade links with the Asian giant.

    “In the contexts of trade, business and international relations . . . being an English-only speaker is now a disadvantage,” she said. “As well as teachers, principals and parents, the business community would very much wish to see a strong emphasis on languages.”

    "A planning paper released last week called for more targeted government funding to recruit more language teachers and suggested bonuses for Year 12 students who studied a second language.

    "The Group of Eight found less than 3 per cent of university students learnt an Asian language despite Asia representing much of the nation’s export markets.

    "Professor Pauwels said many students were keen to take beginner language classes at university, but stood little chance of becoming fluent."
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    See related story in The Melbourne Age on 29 May at this link
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Mining industry backs TAFE changes

    "The mining industry has backed a proposed overhaul of vocational training by the Federal Government, saying the state's TAFE sector is failing to meet the needs of employers.

    "The Minerals Council of Australia says employers in WA and the rest of the country are moving away from publicly-funded vocational training.

    "Spokesman Chris Fraser says the mining industry does 90 per cent of its training through the private sector because TAFEs don't operate effectively.

    "There's certainly a need to rethink and restructure TAFEs so that they are much more in tune to what employers want," he said.

    "The Federal Government wants to change the funding arrangement for vocational education to ensure TAFEs are more flexible and have more autonomy to deliver relevant training.

    "The Vocational and Further Education Minister Andrew Robb will meet state and territory ministers on Friday to discuss the proposed changes."
    

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Pell plans fidelity oath for principals
    by Linda Morris, Religious Affairs Reporter
    
    "The Catholic archdiocese of Sydney wants its 167 school principals, its deputy principals and religious education co-ordinators to publicly commit to a "vow of fidelity" by adhering to church teaching on homosexuality, birth control and women's ordination.

    "In a first for the Australian church, the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, is set to extend the oath of fidelity and profession of faith, a requirement of church law for bishops, priests and heads of seminaries, to all senior educational leaders.

    "The oath demands "religious submission of intellect and will" on questions of faith and morals - even if these are inferred but not defined by the pope and his bishops - and an acceptance that everything solemnly taught by church tradition is divinely inspired.

    "It suggests they would be bound not only to impart these teachings but to live by them.

    "The controversial requirement is contained in a draft pastoral plan circulated to all parishes of the Sydney archdiocese for comment. The plan, at least two years in the drafting, gives a series of priorities, goals and strategies for the archdiocese from 2008 to 2011.

    "Among its other new measures are marriage preparation classes for senior secondary school students, twice-yearly reviews of its educational bodies, and forums so Catholic politicians can be updated on church teachings.

    "There will also be renewed efforts to teach youth about "sexuality and life issues" through formal courses and seminars, and measures to bring in to the fold young people inspired by next year's World Youth Day.

    "Cardinal Pell has taken an intense interest in Catholic education, ordering the rewriting of the religious education curriculum, and aiming to turn around Catholic thinking that faith is caught, not taught..." [Sounds like a great way to drive good teachers out of the Catholic Ed system.   Web]
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    

  
  © The Sydney Morning Herald
  

   

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • On a growth mission
    
    A government school in Melbourne's south-eastern growth belt is attracting the right kind of attention.
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Private schoolboys in 'fight clubs'
    
    Students from some of Australia's most exclusive private schools are organising "fight clubs" in which teenagers ruthlessly beat one another while others capture the violence on video before posting it on the internet.
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Universities cold shoulder our literature
    by Rosemary Neill
    
    Australian writing is doing a disappearing act on our campuses
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • Coached exam cheats let in
    
    Students busted cheating in selective high entry exams with memorised answers prepared by coaching colleges were still granted places in top academic schools.
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Teachers ban disabled girl
    
    A disabled girl was banned from a Catholic school after her parents were accused of posing a threat to the mental health of her teachers.

Tuesday 5 June

• The Australian
  
  
  • Teacher merit pay needs to be targeted
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Performance pay programs that "dole out" merit pay to most teachers will not lift student results, according to a major US study.

    "The findings - which claim to be the first to systematically document the relationship between individual teacher performance incentives and student achievement - raise new questions over both the major parties' policy approach in Australia.

    "Individual Teacher Incentives and Student Performance, a paper prepared by University of Florida economists David Figlio and Lawrence Kenny, warns performance pay must be paid directly to teachers and not awarded indiscriminately.

    "Doling out merit pay to most teachers provides them with little incentive to do a better job," it says.

    "Our evidence, which is unique to the incentives literature, suggests there is a relation between test scores and merit pay targeted to a few, but no association between student performance and indiscriminate merit pay."

    "In Australia, Education Minister Julie Bishop has urged the states to embrace performance pay for teachers and unveiled programs to award bonuses of $50,000 to individual schools, not teachers, who secure big improvements in basic skills tests.

    "Labor leader Kevin Rudd has embraced the same policy announced by his predecessor Kim Beazley, to give teachers $10,000 extra if they achieved certain professional standards.

    "Despite the rush to introduce merit pay, the study also finds "this increased use of teacher merit pay in American education is occurring with virtually no evidence of its potential effectiveness".

    "While there was considerable research on the factors underlying schools' decisions to implement merit pay, "the closest the empirical literature has come to evaluating the effectiveness of teacher performance pay incentives in the US involves school-based incentive systems".

    "The authors of a 2003 study (Glewwe, Ilias and Kremer) found a specific teacher incentive program led to the "manipulation of short-run test scores but no long-term gains among students, suggesting that participating teachers may have attempted to 'game the system'."

    "But using data from the US National Education Longitudinal Survey on schools, students and their families, the new study does find a positive association between the use of individual teacher incentive and achievement.

    "The data also suggests that "while selectively administered merit pay programs are associated with increased test scores, those that award bonuses to very large fractions of teachers are not associated with student outcomes".

    "The study also finds that merit pay can produce even greater dividends in poorer schools where parental involvement in schools is weaker.

    "Since there appears to be less parental monitoring in schools serving poorer families, these schools may have greater potential improvement when merit pay plans are instituted," it says."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The school that was too cool for rules
  
  A no-rules culture - where teachers gave alcohol to teenagers and students turned up to class drunk and had sex on school camps - has been exposed at a private school in Melbourne's wealthy eastern suburbs. A Victorian tribunal has declared Alia College, in the leafy Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn, was a school with an "anarchistic nature" where "anything is allowed and no one is prepared to take responsibility".
  
  
  
  • Freedom good for kids, says principal
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Schools urged to embrace business ties (page 14)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "High school students should be able to attend specialist business schools and teachers should be given time off from the classroom to work in industry, the head of Australia's leading principals' group will tell business leaders at a national forum tomorrow.

    "Australian Secondary Principals Association president Andrew Blair said public schools had to diversity to attract more students.

    "We've got specialist sports schools, we've got specialist arts schools, why wouldn't we have specialist business schools," he said.

    "Mr Blair will also argue that businesses should consider offering a sabbatical scheme in which teachers spent six months working in industry to broaden their experience and skills.

    "And he said trainee teachers should spend about 20 days out of a four-year degree in industry placement instead of doing teaching practice in schools. "The great danger is that businesses will make offers that teachers can't refuse," he said..."

    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop, who engineered the "school business dialogue" forum, said schools had to develop stronger links to business to ensure that what students were learning was meeting employers' expectations..."

    "But the proposal raised alarm bells for State School Teachers Union acting president Anne Gisborne, who said selective or specialist schools ran the risk of reducing opportunities for students, because schools should be able to cater for all.

    "We believe there are questions to be asked about access and equity for all students," she said..."

    Full story in The West Australian
    

    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Boost needed for language study (page 18)
    
    "Australia's Group of Eight universities has issued a timely warning about the decline of foreign language studies.

    "Education systems at all levels should be encouraging students to learn foreign languages rather than going for the easier options.

    "The need for foreign language skills for success in highly competitive international marketplaces is self-evident.

    "Foreign language studies also impose intellectual disciplines on students and help them understand how languages work, including their own."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 21)
    

    • Listen to her
      
      "Bring it on! Please let Julie Bishop bring performance-based pay in for teachers. This would mean that the performances would have to be based or rated against set or fixed criteria. However, if our State education authorities for the past five years are anything to go by, these criteria would keep changing regularly (every week) and therefore the outcomes determined at the start of the management period would become null and void, but teachers would still be paid at the higher predetermined rate!

      "Or better still, our State education authorities might even have to decide on something and not tamper with it for at least 12 months or longer. If only!"

      M. Crowe, Albany
      
      

      
      
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
• School's out and home's in, says education rebel
  by Bridie Smith
  
  "John Taylor Gatto attracted his fair share of attention in three decades teaching in some of New York's toughest schools.

  "In 1991 he was named New York Teacher of the Year, making even bigger headlines when he used his acceptance speech to resign from the profession.

  "But it's in his retirement that the former English teacher has generated the most interest, travelling the world speaking out against compulsory schooling. All this has made him a controversial critic known as the "educational saboteur".

  "If Mr Gatto had his way, schooling would be voluntary and more children would be home-schooled, with curriculums tailored for individual students.

  "He says the primary flaw of the conventional school system is that it teaches children to remember information rather than understand it, which does not produce critical thinkers.

  "Schools basically teach nothing at all except obedience," Mr Gatto said ahead of his arrival in Melbourne tomorrow. "They break the imagination and they break the self-confidence. Testing drives the curriculum, turning teachers into clerks.

  "Australian schools strip kids of real experience, just as US schools do."

  "Mr Gatto, who will speak at the National Home Education Conference from June 6 to 10, said home schooling had many advantages for children.

  "You tailor the procedures to the person you are working with by understanding their strengths and interests," he said.

  "As soon as you see someone working in their area of interest, you don't have to discipline them … they work around the clock."

  "The author of five books on education, including Dumbing Us Down, Mr Gatto said he expected the number of home-schooled students to increase in Australia, as it had done in America.

  "Home Education Network spokeswoman Susan Wight said about 1000 Victorian children were home-schooled.

  "Ten years ago it was seen as the province of religious people or hippies, but in the past 10 years there has been a growing move by mainstream families to look for an alternative," she said.

  "So many children are coming out of school and can't read or write and parents have just had enough of that."

  "Ms Wight said dissatisfaction with the quality of education was the main reason parents were seeking an alternative, but parents were also pulling children out of schools because of bullying."

  http://www.nhedconference.com

  http://www.johntaylorgatto.com

  From The Melbourne Age at link
  
  
  
  
• Co-ed school gets green light to even up the sexes
  
  An inner-city private school has won the right to favour applications from female students over those from males in order to restore a gender balance. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal gave St Michael's Grammar School an exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act until 2010.
  
  
  
  
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Fostering excellence rewards performance
    by Gavin Brown
    
    "The welcome creation of an endowment fund, with an initial injection of $5 billion, from which to finance university infrastructure, is making more pointed the debate around Australian universities about the best way to distribute such funds.

    "All of our universities have for years been striving to succeed in an increasingly competitive international environment with decreased government funding. Now this international competition has become obvious to all with the publication of academic rankings by the London Times Higher Education Supplement, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Newsweek.

    "If one takes the research rankings from the first of these and demands that the position in each of the academic areas surveyed is in the world's top 40, only 16 universities qualify. Of these top comprehensive research-intensive universities, six are in the US. There are two each in Britain and Japan, one each in Singapore, China and Canada and three in Australia: the Australian National University, Melbourne and Sydney.

    "Good," say the commentators, "let's invest in the other Australian universities instead." Wrong.

    "What I described is only one ranking outcome and a precarious position. China and Singapore continue to pump funds into their leading universities. Taiwan and Korea have begun multibillion-dollar schemes to create world-class universities and Germany and Japan, which feel they have slipped, are also providing large sums of money to boost their top universities.

    "Imperfect though they are, international rankings matter because people use them. They ensure a seat at the global table and they attract outstanding academics and students alike.

    "I am not arguing that the new infrastructure fund should simply be handed over to our obvious leaders: Sydney, Melbourne and the Australian National University. I do believe that it must be allocated competitively where it can have the greatest chance of ensuring that we have a few genuinely world-class universities. We can't afford 38 world-class Australian universities. We just don't have the money or resources.

    "It may seem extraordinary that I have to argue that universities such as Sydney should be allowed to compete on equal terms. Sadly, this is necessary because many existing funding schemes favour non-metropolitan universities and our results in the teaching and learning allocation are handicapped because our students have higher entry scores.

    "It is argued with a straight face that we have received more than 150 years of tax-payer support, as if we have given nothing back to Australian society in that time, and should be penalised."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Faith, freedom and the role of schoolteachers

      "It seems George Pell has lost the plot. Again. When we stop questioning what we know and believe and start blindly accepting what we are told, education becomes indoctrination ("Fidelity oath for principals", June 4). Surely the strongest faith is that which has been examined and analysed, not force-fed. George, please reconsider this absurd rule. It will erode the quality of a Catholic education and give further ammunition to those who say the church has lost touch. Moreover, you're making me feel ashamed to be Catholic."

      Patrick Wall, Longueville
      
      

    • "I agree with George Pell. Jesus's message has been somewhat obscured in recent times to include unimportant side topics such as peace, love and understanding. Cardinal Pell knows that what Jesus really came to teach us was intolerance on homosexuality, birth control and women's ordination. I'm glad someone is finally getting the church's priorities back on track."

      Brett Elliott, Boondall (Qld)
      
      

    • "In asking school principals to agree to core beliefs of Catholicism, Cardinal Pell is doing no more or less than members of other religious and political groups ask of their leaders. So what is the problem? Those who do not like Catholic beliefs do not have to support them. Those in leadership positions, paid for by the church presumably, owe visible loyalty to what they profess to believe in."

      Alice Larkin, Maroubra

• USA Today and CNN
  
  
  • Early reading program gets mixed results
    Associated Press
    
    "WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal program designed to give preschoolers a boost in early reading got a mixed report card Monday.

    "The Early Reading First Program has had a positive effect on children's print and letter knowledge, according to a report released by the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences.

    "But the study also found the program has had no impact on phonological awareness, which includes rhyming, or oral language, which includes vocabulary development. The program has led to more professional development for teachers, according to the study.

    "Early Reading First was created as part of the 2002 No Child Left Behind education law. It is different from the Reading First program, which is aimed at older elementary-school children and has been criticized in federal reports for conflicts of interest and mismanagement.

    "The No Child Left Behind law required the Education Department to conduct the study released Friday.

    "Early Reading First is a federal grant program aimed at low-income children ages 3 to 5 years old. School districts and other groups that run preschool programs can receive the grants. The government has made five rounds of grants so far. The awards have ranged from $750,000 to $4.5 million per site for a three-year period."
    
    From USA Today at link
    
    
    

Wednesday 6 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Harder OBE courses to earn better uni ranking (page 9)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "High school students who study new outcomes-based education courses at a more difficult level will receive bonus marks towards improving their tertiary entrance ranking.

    "The Tertiary Institutions Service Centre, which processes university applications, will tell schools today that students studying any of the new courses at stage three level in Year 12 in 2009 will automatically receive an extra 15 marks in their final exam.

    "From next year, Year 11 students who take new OBE courses can choose between a harder and an easier form of each subject, known as stage one and stage two, and progress to stage two or three in Year 12.

    "In April, the universities said they feared Year 12 students who opted for the courses with easier content, rather than the more difficult stage three option, would not have the education needed for tertiary study.

    "They proposed that Year 12 students should study at least three out of their best four subjects used to calculate university entrance at the more difficult stage three level.

    "But because 27 new courses have since been deferred, the universities have opted for less restrictive requirements and students will be able to use almost any combination of new stage two or three courses and current TEE subjects for tertiary entrance in 2010. In 2009, there will be exams in 21 new courses, each at stage two and three, and 29 TEE subjects.

    "TISC chief executive Steve Hoath said the universities wanted to encourage students to do stage three courses as much as possible, so they had introduced the bonus as an incentive. "To really reward those students for taking on the more demanding course, otherwise they might just choose what they think is easiest, and that's not good educationally," he said.

    "Curriculum Council chairman Bill Louden said the decision would allow students to take subjects they thought they could do well in, and have them all counted for university entry.

    "WA Secondary School Executives Association president Alison Woodman said the decision was a good compromise, although she was disappointed new Year 11 and 12 courses were less flexible than planned.

    "People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes president Marko Vojkovic said students choosing their Year 11 subjects now for next year would have to decide whether they wanted to attend university."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • TISC Letter to Schools: 2010 University Admission Requirements for School Leavers
    

    
    
    
  • Editorial
    School ties with business should be encouraged (page 18)
    
    "The proposal for closer ties between schools and business should be taken up by education systems and industry.

    "Australian Secondary Principals Association president Andrew Blair is to tell a national business forum today that high school students should be able to attend specialist business schools and teachers to spend time in industry.

    "Business is the driving force of the economy but students and teachers often have little idea of how it operates.

    "One of the effects of a closer relationship would be to give teachers a better understanding of employers' expectations of school leavers."

    From The West Australian
    

    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • The Higher Education Supplement has ten stories today, including:
    
    
    • Learn from our mistakes
      by Kevin Donnelly
      
      "Although I am not mentioned by name, it is obvious that Graeme Turner's reference ("Another way of looking at it", HES, May 30) to "members of the commentariat" controlling debates about English, especially literature, points to critics such as me who have argued for years that all is not well with the subject.

      Indeed, some of the critical comments he cites that blame the parlous state of English teaching on the influence of critical literacy and postmodern theory are mine.

      "The first point to make about Turner's article is that there is much to agree with and he performs a valuable service in acknowledging recent mistakes in how English has evolved as a discipline and in suggesting a way forward in terms of strengthening the subject.

      "As I have argued for many years, the dumbed-down and politically correct nature of the curriculum is not the fault of classroom teachers. For far too long syllabus development, especially at the senior school level, has been controlled by educational bureaucrats and boards of studies far removed from the realities of the classroom. The result, best illustrated by the imbroglio in Western Australia caused by imposing an outcomes-based education approach on years 11 and 12, is that English subjects that are overly theoretical, jargonistic and decidedly teacher and student unfriendly are forced on schools. Such complaints are not mine; they summarise the criticisms made by teachers of the new WA literature course.

      "Increasing public concerns about English teaching can also be explained by theoretical developments in the subject at the tertiary level.

      "Not only have English departments, especially those teaching Australian literature, disappeared to be replaced by cultural studies, in which students are made to deconstruct texts in terms of power relations, but the present smorgasbord approach to curriculum offers a fragmented and jaundiced experience of the subject. [emphasis added]

      "What's to be done? One approach to developing English syllabuses can be found in the federal Opposition's paper New Directions for our Schools.

      "The paper puts a case for a national curriculum and gives the job to a proposed national curriculum board, with the Curriculum Corporation and the Australian Council for Educational Research playing key supporting roles.

      "One strength of the Australian Labor Party's proposal is that it adopts a collaborative approach with the states and territories.

      "It also argues, as I have, that curriculum must respect what American academic Jerome Bruner terms "the structure of the discipline".

      "In opposition to the argument that education can be based on so-called competencies or generic skills, the ALP paper argues: "A national curriculum should be developed in each of the key disciplines. The disciplines are the best means we have found of understanding the world around us. Every student should gain a foundation of knowledge and skills in each of the central disciplines."

      "Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop also argues in favour of a national curriculum, represented by what are described as core curriculum standards and nationally consistent standards in key subject areas, including English.

      "Although states and territories would be able to develop their own syllabus and materials, a re-elected federal Coalition Government would seek to enforce the adoption of a national curriculum by linking its acceptance to continued funding, in contrast to the ALP's collaborative approach. There is also a condition that state and territory Year 12 certificates must "include a component of rigorous external assessment".

      "This has not received much public comment but it would significantly alter how Year 12 was taught and assessed, especially in Queensland and the ACT.

      "The greatest danger in developing a national curriculum is the failure to learn from the mistakes of the past. From the Curriculum Development Centre's Core Curriculum for Australian Schools to the Keating government's national statements and profiles and the present Statements of Learning, all attempts to develop a national curriculum have been misconceived and flawed. Millions of dollars have been wasted and the work of teachers has been made increasingly frustrating as a result of failed experiments such as Australia's adoption of outcomes-based education. Not only that, but there is a growing consensus that standards have fallen. [emphasis added]

      "Much can be done to ensure that the next attempt at a national curriculum is successful. The first step is to identify what qualifies as a worthwhile syllabus. Groups in the US, such as the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and the American Federation of Teachers, argue that syllabuses must be concise, explicit, based on the academic disciplines, related to each year level and internationally benchmarked.

      "People responsible for designing syllabuses should include subject specialists at the tertiary level as well as classroom teachers, just as occurred in the past when Year 12 certificates such as matriculation were controlled by groups such as the Victorian Universities and Schools Examination Board. [emphasis added]

      "Given the increasing diversity of those staying on to years 11 and 12 in terms of ability, interest and post-school destinations, it is also vital that we do not adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. Countries that perform strongly in mathematics and science generally have a differentiated curriculum with distinct pathways through the senior years.

      "While many within the education establishment, such as the Australian Curriculum Studies Association, the Australian Education Union and the Australian Association for the Teaching of English, dismiss media commentary as sensationalist and misplaced, it is also crucial that curriculum, and education more broadly, is open to ongoing public debate and scrutiny."

      Kevin Donnelly, author of Dumbing Down, taught in secondary schools for 18 years and was a member of the Victorian HSC English Panel of Examiners and the Victorian Board of Studies.

      From The Australian's Higher Education Supplement at link
      
      
      
      
    • A matter of balance
      by Garry Collins
      
      "Graeme Turner's piece on school English teaching ("Another way of looking at it", HES, May 30) argued that English syllabus development and implementation would benefit from more input from teachers and discipline specialists. Pointedly, he didn't mention teacher educators, academics who work in education faculties.

      "In his alternative history of what has happened with English, he also said "universities and discipline specialists abandoned English in the schools and the educationists moved in".

      "He may be right in suggesting English discipline specialists should have more involvement than they sometimes have had in the recent past, but to lose the contribution of teacher educators, people who have taught the subject at school level as well as participated in formal study and research in education, would be a decidedly retrograde step.

      "Tertiary-level English does not neatly map on to school-level English, nor should it, because they cater to different cohorts of students. This needs to be borne in mind when university academics in English provide input for syllabuses at secondary school level.

      "Turner's call for teachers to have greater input into the development of school English syllabuses implies they have little or none. This is not really the case, at least in Queensland.

      "Teachers serve on syllabus advisory committees of the Queensland Studies Authority - I have been one - and when new syllabuses are trialled the teachers who work with the provisional materials have the opportunity to provide feedback.

      "In addition, professional associations such as the English Teachers Association of Queensland provide a means for teachers to voice opinions and have them passed along for consideration.

      "Turner argues that the Queensland syllabus, for one, is "an uneasy and unsatisfactory compromise between the interests and approaches of several disciplinary contenders for the ownership of English studies". Yet it is only to be expected that syllabus documents, particularly in subjects such as English, will be contested and their final form the result of a series of compromises.

      "However, I would argue a syllabus that is productive for students is possible without an all-or-nothing contest for ownership of the subject area.

      "Among the various competing interests, Turner lists two clusters: literary studies, cultural studies and media studies on the one hand, and education and critical literacies and systemic linguistics on the other.

      "That the development of ordinary literacy is not specifically mentioned further indicates how English is different at secondary school level from the way it is enacted in universities. It would be undesirable for any of these interests to own the subject, but all should have legitimate influence and scope.

      "For me, English at school level provides the curriculum space in which students have opportunities to do three things:

      * First, to learn to use the language well: to read, write and speak effectively. My definition of reading here includes viewing.

      * Second, to engage with representations of life through literature, both canonical and contemporary. As well as involving some appreciation of cultural heritage, this includes opportunities for personal growth through vicariously experiencing lives and the consideration of ethical issues that are seldom addressed elsewhere in the curriculum. Literature here needs to be defined broadly enough to include a place in the English curriculum for some consideration of film, which is the main popular art form in contemporary society.

      * Third, to gain an understanding of how the language works to render representations of the world. This would include the approach usually referred to as critical literacy and some knowledge of functional grammar.

      "In line with this third aim, I am a strong supporter of critical literacy and an enthusiast for the functional grammar derived from systemic functional linguistics.

      "Traditional grammar was almost exclusively concerned with avoidance of errors, but functional grammar goes further by providing a metalanguage to explain how the language works to construct meanings appropriate to subject matter, purpose and audience. Functional grammar includes all the terms that most people would understand grammar to be concerned with: parts of speech (such as nouns and verbs), phrase, clause, tense and so on.

      "In my view, critical literacy and functional grammar are the two most potentially productive innovations to come along since I have been in the profession. But I have no wish for either of these approaches to own English. I see critical literacy as a powerful lens to be brought to bear, from time to time, on texts being considered with students. However, I don't want it to dictate everything that is done in the English classroom or to be the main thrust of all assessment tasks.

      "I suspect the main cause of some of the public angst about the state of English teaching is that the fundamentally beneficial and powerful idea of critical literacy is being implemented in an unbalanced way in some schools, albeit with the best of intentions. The sensible reaction is not to throw out the idea but to work to get the balance right.

      "Turner quite rightly asserted that "reading literary texts only for their ideologies sidelines most of the things that may make them interesting to us". The two key words in this sentence are only and most.

      "Having the tools of critical literacy available does not mean they have to be used all the time and to the exclusion of all other considerations. Sensible further development of school-level English should not be a return to the past because the world schools serve has changed in significant ways. Compromises in syllabus design can be achieved to appropriately balance competing interests provided there is proper alignment of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

      "Instead of being sidetracked by unproductive and unnecessary alternatives, we should concentrate on getting the balance right in common courses and providing appropriate differentiation to cater for variations in student ability and interest."

      Garry Collins has been an English department head in Queensland state high schools for more than 30 years, is the president of the English Teachers Association of Queensland and a member of the national council of the Australian Association for the Teaching of English.

      From The Australian's Higher Education Supplement at link
      
      
      
      
    • Reform outdated system, say unis
      by Dorothy Illing, Higher education writer
      
      "Australia's most powerful block of universities has thrown down the gauntlet to the major parties to introduce a radical new model for higher education underpinned by student vouchers and price deregulation.

      "After more than three decades of tightening government controls, the big research universities argue the sector must now shed its outdated regulated system in order to prosper.

      "The centrepiece of the Group of Eight plan, to be unveiled today in a discussion paper, is a system of portable government-funded scholarships that would shift control of demand for university places away from the commonwealth.

      "Universities would be free to offer places based on student demand. They could also set the price of courses but a cap would be imposed by a new independent tertiary education commission, a joint state-federal body.

      "The move comes as both the Coalition and Labor compete for the high ground on higher education, which will be a key election issue this year.

      "With bipartisan support on some issues - such as the need for income-contingent student loans - the universities argue it is time to go back to the drawing board on higher education.

      "This convergence of views on fundamental tenets of policy is a rare historical opportunity, after 35 years of disagreement, to achieve a coherent policy outcome for Australia," the paper says. "We see the opportunity to replace the existing centrally controlled supply model with a more dynamic model of 'balanced incentives' to steer the future development of a diverse, high-quality sector."

      "The model plays to Education Minister Julie Bishop's push for universities to differentiate, but it would leave smaller institutions exposed in a market where some are struggling to attract students..."
      
      Full story in The Australian's Higher Education Supplement at link
      
      Similar stories in The Melbourne Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
      
      
      

  • State teachers net laptops
    
    All Queensland state school teachers to receive free laptops.
    
    
    
  • Costa to boost schools budget
    
    Schools, kindergartens and TAFE colleges will be the winners in the NSW budget, with $727million extra to be spent on education in the state over the next four years.
    
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Freethought fades in hire education
    by Sacha Molitorisz
    
    "The grass was green and clipped and the sandstone venerable and imposing. Here in Sydney Uni's old quadrangle, you could smell the history. And the vomit. The result of drunken debauchery?

    "No, probably pre-exam jitters," the Zeitgeist said. "Unis are pretty sober places these days."

    "Standing on the lawn, the Zeitgeist was wearing designer jeans, designer sunglasses and a T-shirt that said: "$ellout!"

    "It's meant to be ironic," he said. "Irony is huge, especially on Australia's campuses. Here at Sydney Uni an arts degree costs a domestic student using the fee-help program about $20,000 a year. Unis are more expensive than ever - but are they offering more services and opportunities? Um, did the Spanish Inquisition encourage free thinking?

    "I'm not just talking voluntary student unionism, which is cutting into extracurricular activities. I'm talking about the 'exam period', a notion that's become as meaningless as a postmodernists' symposium. This week is the last week of semester. Next week is stuvac, the 'study vacation'; then the exam period starts. But some departments are holding exams this week, because it's cheaper and easier."

    "Around us, everyone was dressed in expensive designer clobber. Not a goth or slacker in sight. These students looked like bankers on vacation.

    "Two centuries ago Wilhelm von Humboldt helped dedicate universities to research and inquiry. But Humboldt would despair at how humanities are being shunned. In the US 22 per cent of bachelor degrees are now in business. By contrast, only 4 per cent of US graduates major in English, and 2 per cent in history.

    "Similarly, Australian unis are becoming glorified technical colleges. Students don't want their minds broadened - they're paying too much for that. They want a vocational qualification that leads directly to some money-shuffling sinecure or other."

    "Perhaps the Zeitgeist's shirt was a comment on tertiary education after all. Was he being ironic when he had said he was being ironic?

    "Meanwhile, vice-chancellors earn inflated salaries and live in university mansions. Or doublecross students by closing newly opened offshore campuses. Uni bosses seem bound by the three P's: pillage, plunder, profit. As electricity becomes more expensive, I predict lecture halls will be illuminated by candles. We stand on the cusp of a new Dark Age. Or, at the very least, a Dim Age. As James Joyce wrote, 'Thus, or words to that effect, saith Zarathustra, sometime regius professor of French letters to the university of Oxtail'."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Having it both ways

      "Let Dr Pell sign up headmasters to life in the 12th century if he wants, as long as he doesn't expect any Australian taxpayer dollars to fund schools teaching a medieval curriculum of bigotry, intolerance and vilification in stark contrast to Australian values such as fairness and respect for human rights."

      Peter Fyfe, Newtown
      
      

    • "Cardinal Pell is quite right to try to put a lid on independent thought. Look at that Galileo chap; absolute troublemaker. You have to nip it in the bud."

      Joe Weller, Lewisham
      
      
      
      

Thursday 7 June

• Letter from WACOT
  
  
  • Dear College Members

    On behalf of the Board of the Western Australian College of Teaching I am taking this opportunity to address members on the status of the Board election.

    Firstly, I would like to stress to all our members that we are very anxious to see the election of teacher representatives to the Board held expeditiously and have done all in our power to see that elections are held as soon as possible. A Board comprising elected members is in the best interests of the College and the profession.

    The cancellation of last year’s election was a significant blow to the College, and we continue to do everything in our power to ensure that members are given the opportunity to vote as soon as possible.

    On 16 February 2007, the College asked the Minister for Education and Training to draft regulations for the election. Drafting instructions were sent by the Minister’s office to the Parliamentary Counsel’s office and the preparation of regulations was commenced.

    Today the College received a letter from the Minister advising that, during the preparation of the regulations, a contradiction between two sections of the Act had been found. As the contradiction relates to the term of appointment for elected members, it is essential that this be rectified before the regulations are completed. Click here to view a copy of the Minister’s letter, which is currently available on the College website.

    It is, I feel, important to point out that contradiction in the Act was not the result of any action by the College.

    The College understands that the election remains a priority for members and although this process is now largely out of our hands, we will continue to provide updates to our members on its progress through the parliamentary system wherever possible. We appreciate that further delays to the preparation of regulations for the elections will cause considerable concern. The current Board, however, was legally constituted with ten teacher representatives and is fully functional. The Board will continue to work in the best interests of its members.

    Despite this setback, an election before the year’s end remains our very clear objective.

    Information relating to the elections has been compiled in a Frequently Asked Questions format and is also available on our website.

    So that an election can be conducted in a timely and efficient manner once a date has been set, I urge members to ensure that they have updated their address and place of work on the College database.

    Suzanne Parry PhD
    DIRECTOR
    WESTERN AUSTRALIAN COLLEGE OF TEACHING
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Uni professor slams Rudd's 'noodle' plan
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "A Rudd Labor government risks creating a "noodle federation" as states sign up to different pieces of its education policy rather than developing a cohesive national framework.

    "University of Queensland professor Kenneth Wiltshire described Kevin Rudd's self-described education revolution as "about six dot points in search of a rationale", containing little detail of how the measures would be implemented.

    "Speaking after giving evidence to the Senate inquiry on the academic standards of school education, Professor Wiltshire said the ALP policy lacked coherence and the only plan for implementation was an assertion that the states would co-operate "by some magical mechanism".

    "There's no guarantee whatsoever just because the state governments are the same political party Mr Rudd is going to get their co-operation," Professor Wiltshire said.

    "Public policy by definition should have content, its rationale, the tool of implementation.

    "But the 'education revolution' has no costing, no delivery mechanism; it needs to be spelt out in far more detail.

    "I fear Mr Rudd's creating a noodle federation, with some states referring powers to the commonwealth and some states not."

    "Professor Wiltshire, the JD Story professor of public administration at the university, chaired the review of the Queensland school curriculum under the Goss Labor government.

    "He served as a special adviser to the Australian National Training Authority and was Australia's representative on the executive board of UNESCO, the UN education body, until 2005.

    "In evidence to the inquiry, Professor Wiltshire described the Queensland education system as the worst in the country.

    "He said the school system forced subject specialisation on students at too young an age, requiring them to choose between being literate or numerate - between the humanities and the sciences - at 12 or 13, and to decide on an academic or vocational pathway at 14 or 15.

    "We're forcing these choices on kids at far too young an age," he said.

    "We should be keeping options open and giving them a generalist education for as long as possible."

    "In his evidence, Professor Wiltshire also highlighted the lack of careers guidance in schools and called for "root and branch" reform of the TAFE system, arguing for the introduction of a HECS-style scheme.

    "Professor Wiltshire said the only improvements in educational standards over the past decade had occurred as a result of intervention by the federal Government.

    "He said reforms over the past 10 years - including better reporting on students, greater choice for parents, and moves to a national curriculum - would not have occurred if the federal Government had not taken a stronger role in education.

    "State governments obviously haven't been able to properly deliver what people want," he said.

    "Professor Wiltshire called on the inquiry to recommend a federal-led approach to curriculum, a strong national board for curriculum reintroducing syllabus specifying content, and strong national performance standards and assessment."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Editorial
    Time to reform higher education
    
    Central planning is depriving us of quality universities
    
    "When the winds of micro-economic reform began to blow the cobwebs away in the Australian public sector two decades ago, it was unfortunate that higher education was walled off from change. Yet as Australia struggles to meet the shortage of skilled labour, it is time to address the rigidities in the tertiary sector that have rendered it incapable of responding flexibly to meet the demands of the labour market.

    "The Dawkins reforms undertaken two decades ago have imposed a level of centralised control over tertiary education that would warm the heart of a Soviet commissar. Prices are set centrally without regard to real costs just as places are allocated centrally without regard to student demand. At the same time, governments have progressively diminished the amount taxpayers spend on tertiary education with domestic and international students making up the shortfall in government funding. Yet by a perverse distortion of the principle of market forces, students are obliged to pay for tertiary education but have been deprived of the power of the consumer to exercise influence by choosing the course or institution where they study.

    "Yet while universities have been trapped in a system of central planning, they are now competing in a global marketplace for international students who provide vital streams of revenue. Prestigious international universities, such as Carnegie Mellon, are now locating campuses in Australia. There are also at least 62 private-sector higher education providers in Australia.

    "Up until now, governments have been loath to deregulate the tertiary sector, hostage to interest groups who claim it would inhibit access for lower-income students to higher-priced institutions. Similarly, governments have been fearful of relinquishing control of the allocation of places, lest institutions close in regional Australia.

    "But students and the nation are ultimately losing out from a system that is enforcing uniformity and favouring mediocrity. The Australian has always supported excellence in higher education and places enormous importance on the value of liberal arts education. Similarly, the acute shortage of skilled labour across a number of sectors -- including mining, finance, health and education -- is giving renewed urgency to reform of the tertiary sector.

    "We therefore welcome the proposals of the Group of Eight universities to end the central planning of Australian universities while retaining the system of universal entitlement to an income-contingent loan. Education must nurture the talents of the next generation according to their ability, not their bank balance. But there can be no argument against allowing students to decide what and where they study, provided they meet entry requirements. Similarly, universities should be free to alter their offerings to meet demand. There is also a need for the price of courses to reflect their real cost, which could be established by an independent body such as the Productivity Commission with universities able to add a profit margin of up to 25per cent as currently applies. The Government should use incentives such as higher value or additional scholarships to encourage students to study in areas where there are critical shortages, to maintain rural campuses or to encourage the participation of certain groups. A deregulated market would foster greater diversity through specialisation and allow universities to build expertise to compete more effectively in the global market place.

    "It is time to bite the bullet in this critical area and allow market forces to deliver the world-class tertiary education sector that Australia needs to meet the challenges of the 21st century."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    

  • Unions pan Bishop's scheme for McSchools
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Charter schools could be established in Australia offering public education while operating as a private business with corporate sponsors under new options outlined by Education Minister Julie Bishop.

    "The approach drew a furious response from unions who warned it could lead to schools churning out students with a "skill set for McDonald's".

    "Launching a new forum to build a stronger relationship between business leaders and the nation's schools, Ms Bishop yesterday flagged the option of corporate sponsorship of public schools to improve the employability of graduates.

    "I think that we must consider how business can better invest in schools; that is, government and non-government schools," Ms Bishop said yesterday. "It is almost beyond the capability of any one government to resource schools so they have access to the latest and best technology," she said. "And yet we have companies in this country who would be well-positioned to support the provision of those resources in schools."

    "Conservatives have long pushed the benefits of charter schools to allow principals greater power to hire and fire teachers and more autonomy from education bureaucrats.

    "Australian Education Union president Pat Byrne said it was astonishing to suggest it was beyond the capabilities of one government to resource schools.

    "We don't want children with a skills base that equips them for McDonald's rather than the broader needs of the community," Ms Byrne said.

    "Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith said he was not opposed to greater industry involvement, describing it as "sensible and important".

    From The Australian at link
    
    Similar story in The Melbourne Age
    
    
    
    
  • TAFE system failing to fix skill shortages
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "The TAFE system is churning out naturopaths, reiki healers and reflexologists but cutting hours in areas of skills shortages, including information technology.

    "Outlining his plan to shake up the training sector and encourage TAFEs to offer fast-tracked apprenticeships and more flexible, work-based training, Vocational and Further Education Minister Andrew Robb warned the current funding incentives "handcuffed" the sector.

    "Figures show a big jump in the number of TAFE tuition hours in cheaper courses offering complementary therapies, sport and recreation, but less time spent on mechanical and industrial engineering and hospitality, which cost institutions more to run.

    "Mr Robb will discuss his plan with state ministers tomorrow to fund TAFE colleges on student place numbers rather than linking funding to hours taught, which has encouraged popular "quickie" courses that are cheaper to teach and offer little incentives to fast-track apprenticeship training.

    "Incentives within the system were "all wrong", Mr Robb told The Australian.

    "There's been an attraction to bolster the low-cost areas because they make more money out of it, when industry and the community are desperately looking for a significant increase in areas of skills shortage and the trades," he said yesterday.

    "In complementary therapies there's a million hours increase in the numbers of hours taught. At the same time ... mechanical and industrial engineering is down 60,000 hours."

    "If TAFE directors were paid on the basis of places and not on contact hours, there would be a greater incentive to fast-track apprentices, he said.

    "Electricians in New Zealand have 600 contact hours of training; in Australia they've got 1000 contact hours," Mr Robb said.

    "(The New Zealanders) have got all the competencies that our electricians have and yet they do 400 hours less in contact hours."

    "TAFE directors have backed Mr Robb to offer the system greater autonomy.

    "Currently, TAFEs that make a profit from innovative course offerings have to give the money back to state governments.

    "Instead of doing the four-walls classroom approach, they might decide if we provide training for 20 apprentices at a certain plant down the road, I could deliver some of that formal training in the workplace," Mr Robb said.

    "That's going to be a lot more efficient from a contact hours point of view. All of a sudden they saved more money."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Minister backs call to lift cap on fees
    by Dorothy Illing
    
    "Education Minister Julie Bishop has supported demands for greater deregulation of universities but warned that any changes must not punish smaller and regional universities.

    "Responding to calls by the big research universities for the main parties to adopt full deregulation, Ms Bishop welcomed the debate and said the Howard Government was moving in that direction.

    "The Group of Eight universities unveiled their higher education blueprint, revealed in The Australian yesterday, including portable national scholarships, deregulated tuition fees and a new national education commission.

    "But students warned against any move to increase course costs, which have already escalated under the Government's policies.

    "National Union of Students president Michael Nguyen said the proposal would allow universities to charge 25 per cent above the cost of delivering a course.

    "Chair of the Group of Eight and vice-chancellor of Melbourne University Glyn Davis said deregulation would not necessarily mean higher course costs. The price of some courses would go up but others might go down, he said..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    Similar stories in The Melbourne Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    

    • Most Talked About: Cardinal Pell
      There are eight Letters on this, including:
      
      
    • He’s learned little from two millennia of Church meddling
      
      "My father was a Marist Brother and my brother is a priest. George Pell’s recent bullying tactics in forcing principals of Catholic schools to sign a pledge to follow his interpretation of the Catholic faith and now the threatening of Catholic politicians over the stem-cell research debate are two very good reasons why my two young children will not go to a Catholic school."
      
      Michael Fitzsimons, Maroubra, NSW
      
      
      
    • "It took more than 200 years, from the 1530s until 1745, for the British to remove the Pope from a position of privileged influence in British politics. Yet now the Pope’s representative in Australia demands, with threats, that Australian Roman Catholic members of parliament give their first loyalty to Rome instead of to the people of Australia.

      "I think that is treason, and if Cardinal Pell cannot be so prosecuted under current legislation, then the law should be changed so that he can."
      
      John Hill, Pearce, ACT
      
      
      

• The West Australian
  
  
  • 2 out of 3 parents condemn schools (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Nearly two-thirds of Australian parents believe their children’s high school education is poor and less than half believe students leave school with adequate skills in key subjects such as maths and science.
    
    "A damning national random phone survey of more than 2000 parents for the Federal Department of Education, Science and Training in March shows parental confidence in education has plummeted since a similar survey in 2003.

    "Just 40 per cent rated secondary education in their State or Territory as good or very good in the 2007 report Parents’ Attitudes to Schooling, compared with 52 per cent who rated them highly four years ago. Only 58 per cent of parents rated primary school education highly this year, compared with 62 per cent in 2003.

    "Parents of children at private schools were generally more positive about their children’s education than those with children in State schools.

    "Nearly 60 per cent of parents said they wanted aspects of their child’s education improved with the top three being curriculum quality and content, teaching standards and school facilities and resources.

    "Less than half believed students were leaving school with adequate skills in science (47 per cent), numeracy (40 per cent), literacy (37 per cent), Australian history (24 per cent) and job-related skills (32 per cent), although 70 per cent believed students were leaving school with adequate computer technology skills.

    "However, most parents believed their child’s school was doing a good job with issues such as manners, attendance, bullying and drug use.

    "Parents rated teacher quality as the most important factor when choosing a school, followed by a secure environment, discipline, values, facilities and academic reputation. Prestige, tradition and religion were well down the list for most.

    "Rob Fry, president of the WA Council of State School Organisations, said he was not surprised at the findings after a decline in recent years in the number of parents involved in school life and so they were unaware of many of its positive aspects.

    "The media was partly to blame because it reported more on negative education issues than positive. “And the stoush that’s continually going on between the Federal and State governments . . . undermines confidence in education,” he said.

    "Education Minister Mark Mc-Gowan defended WA schools and accused the Federal Government of constant meddling and reprehensibly using public schools as a political football. His recent fundamental reforms included reinstating syllabuses, putting stronger content in courses, reintroducing Australian history and a new literacy strategy."

    From The West Australian at link [Also add / read "readers' comments" at that link]
    
    See similar story from The Melbourne Age on 1 June
    
    
    
    
  • Now that Archbishop Hickey has joined Cardinal Pell in threatening MPs who vote for therapeutic cloning, today's West had a wide range of articles, Op Ed pieces, the main Editorial plus a bunch of Letters to the Editor.
    
    But as usual, Alston says it best!
    



© The West Australian




• The Melbourne Age
  
  
• Elite universities' proposal aims to bury full-fee debate
  by Jewel Topsfield
  
  "Controversial full-fee university degrees would be redundant under a radical plan by eight leading Australian universities to reform higher education.

  "The Government and Opposition are locked in an ideological battle over full-fee degrees for local undergraduates in the lead-up to the election. Labor has pledged to ban the degrees if elected, claiming they are unfair because wealthy students can buy their way into university, while the Government has abolished caps on them.

  "But the chairman of the Group of Eight elite Australian universities, Professor Glyn Davis, said Australia could "get that old debate behind us" if universities offered places based on student demand.

  "Under the group's plan, the Commonwealth would no longer control how many Government-supported places universities could offer and students would decide which course and which institution they wanted to attend. It proposes that the Productivity Commission would determine the cost of providing university courses and institutions would be able to charge students up to 125 per cent of that cost.

  "Students would apply for national scholarships and the funding attached to them would follow the student to the university of their choice. HECS-style loans would be available for other students and to cover the balance of scholarship students' fees.

  "(Currently) the Government says you can have this number of law places and that's all you can offer and if you want to offer more the only mechanism is full-fee places," Professor Davis told the National Press Club. "If universities could respond to demand they wouldn't need full-fee-paying places."

  "About 3 per cent of Australian undergraduates are now full-fee students.

  "In this year's budget, the Government announced it would scrap the 35 per cent cap on domestic full-fee degrees and 25 per cent for medicine degrees.

  "The Group of Eight has also called for control over Australia's 93 universities and TAFEs to be handed to a new Australian Tertiary Education Commission.

  "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said the proposals would benefit the eight elite universities, but she was concerned about the impact on regional universities. She also raised concerns that a higher education commission could add to red tape."

  From The Melbourne Age at link
  
  Similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  
  
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Uni voucher system graduates to a serious idea
    by Steven Schwartz, vice-chancellor of Macquarie University [and formerly vice-chancellor of Murdoch]
    
    "The Group of Eight universities has launched a far-reaching higher education policy statement and, again, educational vouchers have been thrust into the spotlight.

    "Ever since the Nobel economics laureate Milton Friedman suggested funding education with vouchers in 1955, the idea has surfaced periodically in Australia only to be met with howls of rage from education unions and yawns of apathy from everyone else.

    "There are three reasons this time could be different. First, educational vouchers can no longer be dismissed as impractical. School voucher systems operate successfully in several countries and a university voucher system has been introduced in Colorado.

    "Second, both sides of politics are committed to a diverse system of higher education. By forcing universities to find a competitive niche, vouchers foster diversity more effectively, and certainly more efficiently, than the present system of centralised formula funding.

    "Third, it has previously been taken for granted that vouchers would be politically unpopular because they would have to be rationed. It was feared that promising everyone a voucher would lead many extra students to enrol, thereby causing a budget blowout. But times have changed. There is no longer any need to worry about hoards of frustrated students queuing for vouchers because, the Government says, there is no longer any unmet demand.

    "Everyone who wants to attend university is already being admitted. Unless it decides to be uncharacteristically generous, a universal voucher entitlement would cost the Government no more than the block grant system.

    "Vouchers would overcome anomalies inherent in the present funding arrangements by introducing rudimentary market forces into a system that operates according to Government fiat. At present, universities have little ability to respond to student demand. The quota of Government-subsidised student places at any university each year is determined by history: universities get about the same number they received the previous year, with small adjustments.

    "We know that students prefer some universities to others. However, even if they wanted to, popular universities are prohibited from expanding their intake to meet student demand. Indeed, like plant managers in the old Soviet Union, university managers are punished if they enrol "too many" students.

    "As a result of quotas, many qualified students are turned away from their university of first choice. They are forced to try their second, third or even fourth choice, until they finally find a university that will admit them. By limiting the number of places in any university, the Government makes it impossible for universities to expand their intake in response to student demand. It is a way to protect less popular institutions whose students might go elsewhere if given the chance.

    "Giving funding to students in the form of vouchers and eliminating quotas would allow universities to adjust supply to meet demand. But vouchers would not be enough. To ensure the highest levels of excellence, they would need to be combined with the deregulation of university fees.

    "At present, the amount students pay through the Higher Education Contribution Scheme is largely determined by the Government; universities have limited leeway to charge more. Yet, they are in competition with generously funded competitors from around the world. If we want to compete in the premier league, we have to direct resources to those institutions that achieve the highest standards of excellence. Lifting the cap on student contributions would allow our best universities to raise their fees; this would bring them the additional resources they require to compete with the world's best. To ensure that access to elite higher education institutions is not limited to the rich, universities that raise their fees should be required to spend some of their new wealth on income support for needy students.

    "In reality, however, only a small number of institutions would be able to charge premium fees and provide exceptional services. Many would go for low price and high volume. Other models would also develop. Some universities would offer vocational and technical types of education. Others would focus on distance learning. Some would deliberately focus on a small number of programs that met student needs.

    "Under a voucher system, universities would have to be attractive to students because that is the only way they would receive any resources. Students would benefit because they would control the purse strings and would therefore be able to influence what was taught, by whom and when. Institutions would benefit by being able to adjust their offerings to meet student demand. Most of all, Australia would benefit from having stronger world-class universities to produce the graduates we will need to ensure social and economic progress."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    

• Letters to the Editor
  
  
  • Eleven Letters on Cardinal Pell
    
    
    
    

• The Times
  
  
  • 484 schools to join one-to-one tuition project for maths
    
    Thousands of primary pupils in England will get up to ten hours of one-to-one tuition a week to enable teachers to help those who are coasting or at risk of falling behind.
    
    
    
    
• USA Today
  
  
  • Data suggest states satisfy No Child law by expecting less of students
    
    According to a Gannett News Service analysis of test scores, many states have taken the safe route, keeping standards low and fooling parents into believing their kids are prepared for college and work.
    
    
    
    
• CNN
  
  
  • Report: Math and reading scores up since NCLB
    
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- Students are doing better on state reading and math tests since the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted five years ago, according to a report Tuesday.
    
    Similar stories in most major American newspapers.
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Corruption rife in world's schools and universities
    
    Bribery and graft in schools and universities is seriously undermining education systems worldwide and costing governments billions of dollars, according to a new report funded by Unesco.

Friday 8 June

• Education Department costs up $52m in two years
  
  
  • Media Statement: Peter Collier MLC, Shadow Minister for Education and Training
    
    "The Department of Education and Training (DET) increased spending on salaries and other costs at its head office by $51,769,000 in the two-year period between 2004 and 2006.

    "The amount of the increase was significantly higher than the entire budget for all the DET's District Offices in 2006.

    "Shadow Education Minister Peter Collier said the $51.7m increase in spending at the DET head office coincided with a period when the department was at its least effective.

    "The 2007 school year began with a massive shortfall in teacher numbers, because the Education Department had not processed their applications in time," Mr Collier said.

    "It is shocking that nearly $52m more has been spent at the head office of DET in two years - about $7m more than the department spent on all of its district offices from Albany to the Kimberley in 2006.

    "It is a scandal that this increased expenditure coincides with poor performance of its duties.

    "If figures were available to March this year, the $52m would balloon even more because there have been 130 extra staff put on at the department since December."

    "Mr Collier said the increases could be largely attributed to former hapless Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich and a siege mentality she had adopted that appeared to have been absorbed into the DET during last year's debate over aspects of Outcomes Based Education. [emphasis added]

    "I believe the former Minister imposed her own Labor ideological culture on DET" he said.

    "This government works on the philosophy of increasing staff levels wherever they see a system failing, rather than getting the existing staff to roll up their sleeves and do the required work.

    "Also, nine senior officers at the DET remain employed in an acting capacity and this promotes the inclination of many of these to become compliant to the government's wishes rather than do what they would deem to be the right thing if they were permanently employed.

    "I call on the new Minister to root out these problems of his predecessor's creation and get his department working efficiently and effectively.

    "It is a disgrace. The ball is in the Minister's court to fix and to stop this ridiculous waste of taxpayers' money without any improvement in service to the public and to the education system in Western Australia."
    

  
  

• The Australian
  

  • No tech college graduates
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Three years after John Howard unveiled a system of Australian Technical Colleges to tackle the nation's skill shortage, not one student has graduated and enrolments are below capacity.

    "The Prime Minister announced a network of training colleges during the 2004 election campaign to revolutionise vocational training and act as an alternative to the state-operated TAFE system, but it has now emerged that about two-thirds of the colleges outsource their training to TAFE colleges or private operators.

    "Five of the six training colleges in Victoria send their students to TAFE for the training component of the curriculum.

    "Intended to offer tuition to 7200 students in Years 11 and 12 in 25 colleges with funding of $485million, and a further three announced in last month's federal budget, by February only 1802 students had enrolled in 21 colleges that had a target of 2185 students.

    "The federal Education Department yesterday said the colleges were opening ahead of schedule and all 28 would be operating by 2009. When at full capacity, each college would enrol 300 students, with the network training a total of 8400 students a year.

    "But Labor education spokesman Stephen Smith said the colleges would produce only about 10,000 students by 2010, despite the federal Government having estimated the nation faces a shortfall of 200,000 skilled workers in the next five years..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Cut & paste: Politics remains the barrier to higher education reform
    
    University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis expresses his concerns to the National Press Club this week
    
    "Why did higher education get left behind amid the general enthusiasm for an open and competitive Australia? Why do universities join pharmacies, taxi drivers and newsagents as industries left outside the process of microeconomic reform? There are complex reasons rather than a simple explanation, and most are about politics.

    "On price, governments fear the electoral backlash from authorising rises in tuition fees. A regulated system with no market mechanism at play means any increase in costs for students is a government decision, and therefore a political calculation.

    "As a result, fee increases for most Australian students are sporadic and unrelated to the costs of delivering the service. Australia has opted for a curious system in which students must pay, but cannot exercise influence through their choice of course or institution. Price deregulation remains controversial because it is perceived to have equity and access implications, despite evidence to the contrary.

    "Likewise, the logic for government retaining control over the distribution of places reflects a concern that, left unconstrained, Australia's public universities might close small and uneconomic regional campuses. Given the importance of the local campus to many Australian towns, allowing markets to allocate students is just too risky for government. So it continues to be government, rather than our institutions, which decides where campuses should be located and what they will teach..."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Ignorance as a second language
    by Robin Jeffrey, convener of the Australian National University's college of Asia and the Pacific
    
    We need to beef up knowledge about the region and its people's tongues
    
    "The Dutch do it. The Norwegians do it. Even the French and the Canadians do it. The Indians do it a lot. They all learn second (and third) languages. Australians do not. Yet there's broad though passive agreement: Australia's capacity to understand and talk with Asia and the Pacific is deficient, even pathetic.

    "Federal Education Training Minister Julie Bishop asserted that the Government was trying to do something about it by spending $112 million on school language programs. Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd promised $65million towards learning the languages of Asia.

    "The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry called for more language teaching in a report in April. So have the Australian Council of State School Organisations and the Group of Eight universities.

    "The Australian Federal Police, the Australian Defence Force and non-government aid organisations cry out for linguists. The Flood report on intelligence did the same.

    "Although Australia has never been more enmeshed in Asia and the Pacific, its capacity to speak the languages and know the cultures is probably less than it was 15 years ago..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Centres aim to lift school retention rates
    
    Vocational training will be bolstered to lift Tasmania's low school retention rates and meet the skills shortage that is holding back investment in the state.
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Education Minister demands explanation on vocational colleges
    
    "A meeting of State, Territory and Commonwealth Training Ministers has broken up amid criticism of the Federal Government's vocational training colleges.

    "Western Australia's Education and Training Minister, Mark McGowan, has left the meeting in Brisbane accusing his Federal counterpart, Andrew Robb, of refusing to release information about the effectiveness of the Australian Technical Colleges program.

    "Mr McGowan says the Federal Government is being secretive about the colleges' attrition rates and costs per student because the program has been an embarrassing failure.

    "He says the Commonwealth has committed more than $500-million to what he calls the "high cost, low return" colleges, which he says have resulted in just 62 students in WA.

    "He says taxpayers are entitled to know where the money has gone." [Perhaps Mr McGowan could start by explaining how Silver City burned up an extra $52 million in two years???  Web]
    

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
  • Uni scheme to ease engineer shortage
    
    "A group of Australian Universities has joined forces to encourage students to study engineering, to help solve the skills shortage.

    "A program devised by the Australian Group of Technical Universities will introduce aptitude tests for potential undergraduates, modify engineering courses to meet workplace demands and encourage students through an advertising campaign, to study engineering.

    "Launching the program at Curtin University in Perth, the Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said it was important to encourage students to study subjects that would lead them into engineering degrees.

    "Currently we are in the middle of a mining and resources boom and also an increase in construction activity in the state and engineers are fundamental to ensuring that we can meet the work needs of that boom," she said.

    "The chairwoman of the Australian Technical Group of Universities, Daine Alcorn, says the program will provide an extra 3,300 engineers in the next four years, with skills better suited to the workforce.

    "What we're actually doing is working closely with industry as well, to make sure that when they do graduate in four years time they have the skills that industry really wants," she said.

    "There's been some question about whether our engineering programs are a little bit old fashioned, perhaps should have some different skills."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Bishop's admission
      
      "Julie Bishop's statement ("Call for business to fill funding gap", The Age, 7/6) is a relief. She's finally admitted that the Government can't handle education. No doubt they will make it official, scrap the portfolio, and put the minister out for work experience."
      
      Robert Gardiner, Welshmans Reef
      
      
      
    • Industry trip
      
      "Teachers had a program to give them access to industry years ago called the TRIP (Teachers Release into Industry) Program. The main problem with it was getting teachers to go back into schools after they had experienced well-resourced nine-to-five employment where they had one job to do and the time to do it."
      
      Cameron Bell, Ringwood

 

Saturday – Sunday, 9 – 10 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Opposition wants more Year 10 tests (page 68)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "All Year 10 students should sit compulsory Statewide tests on top of reading, writing and maths tests that children already take four times during their education, shadow education minister Peter Collier said.

    "But the idea of adding more tests to schools' already overcrowded curriculum horrified the teachers; union and high school principals.

    "Mr Collier told Parliament this week that the extra tests, in key subjects such as maths, English and science, would provide information on students' progress up until the end of lower secondary school.

    "It would be a valuable tool to assist students and parents with decisions regarding the selection of courses for senior secondary," he said.

    "In terms of format, I envisage that it would be a core skills test in the main learning areas that includes aptitude assessments and problem solving."

    "But the State School Teachers Union acting president Anne Gisborne said schools were being forced to "over test" as children sat literary and numeracy assessments in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. She said teachers were sinking under the assessment demands the system imposed on them.

    "WA Secondary School Executives Association president Alison Woodman said there were already good systems in place to monitor student performance and extra tests would provide no advantage.

    "It's teaching and learning that makes a difference, not testing," she said.

    "Mr Collier also said a Liberal government would drop the "levels" system of marking in primary and lower secondary school - a key part of outcomes-based education that was dumped from most new Year 11 and 12 courses in January. But grades that will appear on lower school reports will still be linked to levels.

    "At the moment, there is a stand-off between what the Department of Education and Training is insisting upon with regard to assessment at the primary and middle school years and what teachers and the community want," he said. [emphasis added]

    "But Ms Woodman said the levels were sign posts in a sequential curriculum and it made no sense to remove them,.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said Mr Collier was a former champion of OBE who had performed a "quadruple backflip".

    From The West Australian
    
    

    
    
  • Independent schools fight for right to discriminate (page 71)
    by Ben Spencer
    
    "Independent schools have vowed to fight for the right to hire and fire gardeners and cleaners on the grounds of religion, rejecting a proposal that would restrict exemptions under WA's anti-discrimination laws to teachers and employees with educational responsibilities..."

    "Administrative staff, gardeners, caretakers, cleaners and other employees with no formal teaching, educational or pastoral responsibilities would no longer be covered by the exemption clause..."

    "Catholic Education Office assistant director Terry Wilson saw no problem with the changes, saying they would have no impact on Catholic schools whose only requirement on the grounds of religion was that religious education teachers were Catholic."

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

• CNN
  
  
  • Google to digitize Big Ten school books
    
    STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Twelve major universities will digitize select collections in each of their libraries -- up to 10 million volumes -- as part of Google Inc.'s book-scanning project. The goal: a shared digital repository that faculty, students and the public can access quickly.
    
    
    
    
• The Times
  
  
  • Trendy teaching is back
    
    Four out of five primary schools are introducing ‘creative learning’, with lessons about ‘groovy Greeks’. Should we worry?
    
    
    
    
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed / Blog [meaning you can add / view readers' comments]
    Fresh air for unis
    by Paul Kelly
    
    "It is a rare event: an industry belatedly seeking its own deregulation, with Australia’s university leaders this week throwing out a challenge to the Howard Government as well as the Rudd Opposition.

    "Kevin Rudd talks endlessly about his education revolution and John Howard boasts about his education budget. But how serious are they?

    "The proof of deeper reformist currents under way has come with a blueprint from the Group of Eight universities that constitutes a genuine education revolution from within the sector.

    "This is a wake-up call to the politicians. It is an appeal to the political class and an effort to shape university policy during and, more critically, after the 2007 election. When industry leaders demand market-based reform of their own sector, it suggests the electoral cycle has turned.

    "These events are not before time. There should be no doubt: the Go8 blueprint is a historic challenge to Australia’s political culture.

    "It is unlikely Rudd has yet read the document. But he will, and he will be judged by this template if he becomes prime minister. Consider this question: Will Rudd have the vision and courage to redefine and deregulate Australia’s higher educator sector in the same way that Bob Hawke and Paul Keating deregulated the economy? Yes, this is the question.

    "Education Minister Julie Bishop and Opposition spokesman Stephen Smith are interested and welcoming. But no more than this. They have not committed to the Go8’s big leap. Indeed, the real message from Bishop and Smith suggests it is a bridge too far.

    “The Dawkins university system is dead,” says Glyn Davis, University of Melbourne vice-chancellor and chairman of the Go8, in an interview with Inquirer, keen to drive the point home.

    “The Opposition and the Government both believe the Dawkins system is finished, and we agree with them. The contest now is to define its replacement. We believe the future of higher education requires a clarity of government arrangements and a market that over time allows universities to choose their own path.”

    "In his speech to the National Press Club this week unveiling the Go8 plan, Davis said it was time for universities to abandon their lot with taxi drivers, pharmacies and newsagents as industries that were left behind in the transition to the open, competitive and deregulatory ideas that have penetrated many industries and most corporates since 1983.

    "The tragedy of Australia’s universities is that they caught the downside of economic reform but failed to capture the upside. This has been a political and institutional failure, with Australia paying a high price as a nation.

    "The Go8 blueprint is an intriguing mix of market pricing, de facto vouchers, greater university autonomy, more federal funding, a much stronger commitment to research and a new statutory authority to oversee policy. It is crafted with an eye to politics, with design features for the Coalition as well as Labor.

    "The Go8 position is driven by three concepts. First, that despite the various Howard government reforms, “the over-arching policy design no longer suits Australia’s contemporary circumstances”. The Government and Opposition refuse to confront the reality, namely that the system is “under-resourced and over-regulated” and “will not serve Australia well into the future”. How many times does this point have to be made?

    "Second, the blueprint—with equal optimism and evidence—asserts there are “signs of unprecedented political bipartisanship on a number of fundamental policy issues”. It sees the political door opening on a rare opportunity for university reform. For the record, however, Smith promptly repudiated the Go8’s bipartisanship claim and denounced Howard for his underfunding of universities.

    "Third, the Go8 declares its faith in the immense opportunities and benefits that await Australia if only it will move to “unleash [its] intellectual potential in the globalising knowledge society”. Yet Australian public policy is crippled by a limited vision of such opportunities. By contrast, Asian nations are determined to become the wave of the future..."
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link [read / add comments at the same link]
    
    
    

  • Feature
    Vouchers are the way to go
    
    They are the logical next step in improving education outcomes and would be a winner for the politicians who back them, writes Kevin Donnelly
    
    "What is the best way to strengthen schools, raise standards and, in an increasingly competitive and challenging international environment, ensure that more Australian students perform at the top of the league table?

    "One approach, favoured by those with a vested interest in preserving the status quo, such as the Australian Education Union and the educrats responsible for the present parlous state of Australian education, is centralised and bureaucratic.

    "Schools, especially government schools, are forced to conform to a top-down and inflexible system of command and control management where there is little, if any, room for autonomy at the local level, or flexibility in curriculum and developing more effective ways to meet the demands of parents and the marketplace.

    "The alternative, based on research identifying the characteristics of "world's best" education systems (as measured by international tests) and overseas innovations such as vouchers and charter schools, is to free schools from provider capture and to increase parental choice.

    "Vouchers involve parents receiving an agreed amount of funding from government that they can then use to send their children to either government or non-government schools.

    "The money follows the child and, as a result, good schools prosper and grow while underperforming schools face the consequences of falling enrolments and reduced demand.

    "Related to school choice is the need to ensure that how well schools perform, or underperform, is made public. When school effectiveness is clouded in secrecy, it is impossible for parents to make informed decisions about where their children go to school.

    "At the minimum, all schools should be made to release details about educational performance, staff morale, absenteeism, student behaviour and, where relevant, indicators such as Year 12 results and post-school destinations.

    "Compare this to the present situation in Australia where, notwithstanding the rhetoric about identifying and turning around underperforming government schools, there are few, if any, consequences for failure and, as a result, thousands of students receive a substandard education.

    "Vouchers can either be universal or targeted at particular disadvantaged groups, such as children with disabilities or children educationally at risk because of their socioeconomic background. Vouchers can also either provide the full cost of educating a child, measured by the per-student cost of educating a child in a government school (about $10,000), or they can be set as a percentage, for example, by being means tested.

    "However, increasing educational choice by giving parents the right to choose where their children go to school is ineffectual if all schools, government and non-government, are forced to follow the same industrial-age management regime and dumbed-down, politically correct curriculum.

    "The other side of the voucher equation is what in the US are termed charter schools. If schools are to be in a position to respond to community expectations, they need the autonomy and flexibility to meet parental demands.

    "Charter schools, within general guidelines, fashion their own management style and curriculum, freed from the constraints of an intrusive and insensitive government-controlled bureaucracy.

    "As outlined in a 2006 paper prepared by the Australia Institute, titled School Vouchers: An Evaluation of their Impact on Education Outcomes, those associated with the cultural Left side of politics are staunch critics of freeing up schools and increased parental choice. The authors of the paper argue there is no evidence increased competition and autonomy improve educational outcomes.

    "An argument is also put that Australian society will become less cohesive as vouchers will lead to "greater segregation on the basis of race, religion, academic ability and socialeconomic status" and, based on the assumption that choice will lead to more parents choosing non-government schools, that state schools will be seen as second-rate and the least preferred option.

    "As might be expected, given that its continued survival depends on a centrally controlled, compliant state system of education, the AEU is also opposed to vouchers and the existence of non-government schools more generally.

    "After criticising the federal Government's introduction of literacy vouchers, the AEU, at its 2005 federal conference, attacked opening schools to market forces by stating "the introduction of the voucher system of funding ... will ensure that much-needed government funding is directed away from those public schools with the greatest need into private pockets without any accountability requirements whatsoever".

    "According to Pat Byrne, the AEU president, the Howard Government's policy of supporting parental choice is a ruse to destroy the state system.

    "It's ironic that supporters of state schools, such as the AEU, spend thousands of dollars on campaigns talking up government schools, under slogans such as "state schools are great schools", while arguing that introducing vouchers will lead to increasing numbers of parents fleeing the state system.

    "Logic suggests that if state schools are as successful as their advocates make out, despite the introduction of vouchers many parents will still prefer state schools. The popularity of selective government schools in NSW and the fact that Victorian parents, if they can afford the real estate, are buying into areas with highly regarded state schools, proves that given a choice, parents will not necessarily "flee" the government system.

    "In his book Education Matters: Government, Markets and New Zealand Schools, Canberra-based economist Mark Harrison, in opposition to arguments about lack of effectiveness, details research showing that voucher-related choice and competition improve educational outcomes. Common sense also suggests this would be the case. If nothing else, the collapse of communism and the success of capitalism proves that the old days of statism have long since died and the most effective approach to government policy is to allow responsibility and decision-making to rest in the hands of those most affected, ie, at the local level.

    "Harrison cites research undertaken at Harvard University into voucher schemes implemented in Washington and New York as concluding that "the academic achievement of voucher students who attended private schools grew faster than the similar students who did not receive a voucher and attended public schools".

    "Research evaluating the Milwaukee scheme arrives at a similar conclusion about the benefits of vouchers; instead of lowering standards or creating social fragmentation, there is evidence that not only are students' test scores improved, in addition, as Harrison states, "parents are highly satisfied, there was no creaming, parental involvement increased, the program targeted disadvantaged students successfully and reduced segregation".

    "Caroline Hoxby, a US-based academic and author of School Choice: The Three Essential Elements and Several Policy Options, on examining the results of the Milwaukee scheme, also argues that increasing choice and competition lead to improved results, as measured by improvements in students' mathematics scores.

    "Those supporting vouchers also make the point that improved standards are not restricted to schools enrolling students with vouchers; nearby government schools, given the reality of competition and the consequent incentive to improve, also register stronger results.

    "On identifying the characteristics of those education systems that achieve the best results in international mathematics, science and reading tests, Ludger Woessmann, from the University of Munich, reinforces the importance of choice and competition, especially as the result of a strong private school sector and decentralisation of management.

    "Woessmann argues the market provides strong incentives for schools, as institutions, to provide a better service by meeting the expectations of parents and raising standards. If parents are not satisfied, they go elsewhere, and there are clear consequences and rewards for performance. While acknowledging the central role individual teachers play in successful learning, Woessmann also makes the point that those education systems suffering from provider capture, especially where teacher unions have an undue influence, underperform in terms of international test results.

    "While critics of vouchers, such as the AEU, emphasise that increased diversity and competition will only benefit so-called wealthy, elite, non-government schools, it is significant that American voucher schemes focus on supporting disadvantaged groups such as Hispanics and African-Americans. Such is the success of these schemes in addressing educational disadvantage, as noted by Terry Moe, a researcher at the Hoover Institution, that "in poll after poll, the strongest supporters of publicly financed vouchers are blacks, Hispanics and the poor, especially in urban areas".

    "As the 30 to 40per cent of Australian parents who send their children to non-government schools are well aware, debates about vouchers are of more than academic interest.

    "Not only do these parents pay taxes for a system they do not use, thus saving state and federal governments millions of dollars each year, hard-earned cash has to be found to pay school fees.

    "The reality is that parents who, as a result of the perceived shortcomings in government schools, choose non-government schools are financially penalised. While state and federal governments support such choice by partially funding students attending non-government schools, the amounts provided are well short of the costs involved and the system lacks the preconditions necessary for an effective voucher system.

    "On the grounds of equity and social justice, it makes sense if more parents, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, are able to choose between government and non-government schools. Ideally, such a voucher would be set at $10,000 and the money would follow the child.

    "Vouchers and charter schools, reflecting a commitment to choice, competition and accountability, present new territory in the education debate.

    "At first glance, such initiatives are a natural fit for the Howard Coalition Government and, given the cultural Left's antagonism, something traditionally opposed by the ALP. As such, vouchers and charter schools provide one policy area where there are clear differences between the two parties and fertile ground for public debate."

    Kevin Donnelly is director of Melbourne-based Education Strategies and author of Dumbing Down.

    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Parent rage pushing teachers to the edge
    by Mark Russell
    
    "Principals want the State Government to introduce new laws to protect teachers from an increasing wave of attacks by aggressive parents.

    "They want legislation declaring schools to be "special places" where a certain standard of behaviour is expected.

    "The call comes amid claims teachers are being punched, kicked, choked and spat on.

    "Many teachers have received death threats from parents.

    "Victorian Principals Association president Fred Ackerman said the number of incidents of parents physically and verbally abusing teachers and principals had never been higher.

    "Mr Ackerman, whose association represents more than 1200 principals, said many teachers did not feel safe in their work environment.

    "Teachers had been head-butted and had their children threatened and their cars vandalised with screwdrivers.

    "Some angry parents had stormed into classes and confronted students who were bullying their child, and then violently turned on the teacher if they dared to intervene.

    "Female principals had been punched in the face while others were told they would be killed if they picked on a particular child.

    "Death threats do occur, but the degree to which they're fair dinkum, who knows?" Mr Ackerman said. "But it does happen.

    "There's no doubt about it, parents have threatened to kill teachers and principals, run them over …

    "Parents are reacting when they feel their children have been victimised, bullied and unfairly treated by either another student, another parent or a teacher."

    "A Government spokeswoman rejected the need for new laws to protect teachers.

    "She said the Government was taking action to reduce parent-rage incidents by providing training for teachers on how to defuse possibly violent situations.

    "Mr Ackerman said principals were being forced to take out more trespass notices against aggressive parents, banning them from school grounds.

    "He said some parents had substance abuse problems and it was not uncommon for a parent to turn up drunk or on drugs at a school's morning assembly and scream out abuse.

    "Increasing numbers of teachers and principals were taking time off for stress-related issues, including having to deal with parent rage.

    "The issue had gone largely unreported in the past because principals were reluctant to make it known their school was having problems.

    "Mr Ackerman said the Education Department was not doing enough to support and protect teachers and principals. Schools needed more social welfare staff."
    
    From The Sunday Melbourne Age at link
    
    

    • A catalogue of violence, intimidation on campus
      
      
      
      
  • Op Ed
    The unkindest cut is Dickens minus 40%
    
    Short versions of classic novels are pitched at a culture obsessed with quick fixes.
    
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    The indigestible truth about junk food ads and our kids
    
    Instead of imposing bans on junk food advertising, Prime Minister John Howard and Mr Abbott have an approach that encourages greater community awareness of healthy lifestyles. Yet it is perhaps time to face the fact that this approach has not worked. It is depressing, but true, to say that two-thirds of adult males, half of adult females and a quarter of our children are overweight. Many of the habits we indulge as adults we picked up as children — a fact keenly recognised by fast-food purveyors who use a plethora of child-friendly characters and gimmicks to buy the loyalty of pre-pubescent consumers into adulthood. And while we might argue that after 50 years of television advertising no one is taken in by those tricks any more, advertisers well know that no audience is easier to beguile than one that is smugly confident of its own sophistication. Perhaps, then, it is time we confronted the reality that we are losing the battle against childhood obesity and introduced new restrictions on the way junk food is marketed to children.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Sunday Telegraph
  
  
  • PM attacks 'pro-union' lessons
    
    High-school teachers have been told to give "lessons" on the Government's WorkChoices laws, which the Howard government believes will subtly undermine its chances of winning over first-time voters.
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Private school fees rise despite windfall
    
    Melbourne's top private schools have enjoyed windfall gains in Commonwealth funding with increases of up to 500 per cent in recent years, but have continued to hike their fees at well above the inflation rate.
    
    
    
  • Building boom as elite schools play catch-up
    
    New multimillion-dollar buildings are to become a common feature on the campuses of Melbourne's elite private schools, with state-of-the-art wellbeing, education and leadership centres under construction as a building boom sweeps the sector.
    
    
    • Principal slams massive edifices
      
      
      
      
  • Editorial
    Elite schools enjoy a boom with a view to expand
    
    "There is an acute sense of peering through Alice's looking glass when education, funding and social equity are examined. What should be a fairly simple relationship between government funding and the needs of schools to educate their students is turned on its head, elongated to the point of disfigurement and bent to the will of other factors.

    "The Age today publishes a number of reports and statistics that reveal the nexus between Commonwealth funding to Melbourne's private schools and what those schools do with that money. In many cases, the huge inflows of cash are going into buildings and not, say some, where they should: that is, in programs. The building boom has been described by former principals of private schools as "indecent" and as an exercise in erecting "monuments to themselves".

    "Like the rest of the economy, these are prosperous times for private schools. The Treasurer, Peter Costello, basking in the warm glow of economic success, says the country is in a "very strong business investment cycle". The principals and administrations of this city's private schools may well say similarly. Some schools have been the recipients of Commonwealth funding increases of 500 per cent in the past few years. On top of that they have increased their school fees by more than the annual rate of inflation. One example from several is Scotch College. Since 2000, it has raised its fees annually by an average of 8 per cent to more than $19,000 this year. Its funding from Canberra has more than doubled to $3.68 million this year. Some increases are more akin to explosions: Mentone Grammar fees have increased almost 80 per cent from $10,230 for year 12 in 2000 to $18,166 this year. Commonwealth grants have risen $760,000 to almost $3 million.

    "Such ballooning of money to private schools seems to fly in the face of the premise behind the change in funding arrangements that the then minister for education, Rod Kemp, announced in 1999 and which came into force in 2001. Previously, funding was calculated through the Education Resources Index, which the Federal Government labelled "unworkable". The socio-economic status model was adopted, which calibrated funding to a school based on the parents' SES, which used students' addresses linked to the Australian Bureau of Statistics database. An SES score was then attached to every school: a high total would mean lower funding and vice versa. The neediest schools were supposed to derive the greatest benefits. But some private schools have registered extraordinary increases in Commonwealth funding since SES was introduced: Haileybury, for instance, up 583 per cent, from $1.3 million under ERI funding in 2001 to $9 million this year.

    "The schools will argue that they are fulfilling a growing need in the community, that more and more parents are wanting to send their children to a non-government school. Indeed, almost a third of students attend these schools. In the past decade nationwide the number of full-time students attending public schools has grown 1.7 per cent compared with 22 per cent in the private sector.

    "The introduction of SES funding, in effect, has created a pincer movement against the public system. There has been an explosion of applications for enrolment not only at the high end of the private market but at the lower-fee schools. This squeeze is cutting into the public system, and not only the schools themselves, but in the whole idea of state-funded education. Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop this week said schools should encourage corporate sponsorship because governments could not provide adequate resources. Not to the state sector at least. Federal funding to Victoria's public schools has risen only 58 per cent since 2000; it is even less from Spring Street: 44 per cent. The recent billion-dollar commitment from the Premier, Steve Bracks, is a step in the right direction. But it may be too little too late if it is not consistently supported.

    "Meanwhile, the top schools are enjoying a building boom: wellbeing and leadership centres, studios, multimedia and technology hubs. In short, the best education money can buy."
    

    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    
• The Brisbane Sunday Mail
  
  
  • Parents banned by refs
    
    Parents who disrupt junior sporting events will be ejected from grounds under a tough new State Government push to curb sideline abuse and violence.
    
    
    
    • And from the lead Editorial: No place for idiots
      
      The Sunday Mail applauds the initiative. These losers have no place in sport.
      
      
      
      
• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • Bilingual school waits for clear answer on future
    
    Parents at Australia's only Italian-English bilingual public school remain in the dark about the program's future six months after the Government announced changes to its status.

All Alston cartoons are © The West Australian Newspaper
All media quotations, photographs and cartoons © their respective publishers

This page last updated 13 August, 2008 0:38 AM