Monday 18 June

Tuesday 19 June

Wednesday 20 June

Thursday 21 June

Friday 22 June

Saturday – Sunday, 23 – 24 June

 

Monday 18 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers’ union meeting divided, beset by bullying complaints (page 7)
    by Katie Hampson
    
    "A meeting of State school teachers aimed at ironing out problems in the profession was divided yesterday amid accusations of intimidation and bullying.

    "Tempers flared after a motion was put by teachers’ union organisers aimed at creating better security for staff unhappy at being on four-year contracts.

    "As union staff and executives locked horns, two witnesses said they were stunned to see an executive "manhandle" a union staff member while he was speaking at the State School Teachers Union State council meeting.
    
    "It was extremely confrontational and upsetting to watch," said one witness who asked not to be named.

    "Union general secretary David Kelly read out their perks, car, salaries and said, ‘You guys are on $82,000 a year and a travel allowance so what are you complaining about, you should be grateful’."
    
    "Another witness who contacted The West Australian yesterday said it was hypocritical for executives to keep their own staff on individual contracts while publicly opposing Prime Minister John Howard’s industrial relations policies.

    "But last night union president Mike Keely said the allegations were politically motivated by those intent on running the union.

    "I saw hard and a heartfelt debate about union matters," he said.
    
    "The union also came under fire from its own members for failing to address concerns by English teachers, who say the new OBE system has made it difficult to mark students’ work.

    "Mr Keely acknowledged the OBE system had left some well-respected teachers confused but said executives were looking at recommendations to alleviate the pressure.

    "Mr Kelly said last night that proper procedures were adhered to, but would not discuss what was said and what had been negotiated for staff."

    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • More students study from afar (page 7)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "The number of State school students forced to study subjects by long-distance correspondence has more than doubled since last year, Education Department figures reveal.

    "This year, 2943 students who were enrolled in public primary and high schools were also studying at least one subject through the SIDE, compared with just 1331 students in 2006.

    "Critics say the leap in numbers reflects the dire lack of teachers, particularly in country areas.

    "A department spokeswoman attributed the increase to the raising of the school leaving age and more students enrolling in languages at regional high schools.

    "State schools are still down 28 teachers, six months after starting the school year with a shortfall of more than 260 teachers.

    "Most public schools will enrol a few student in SIDE when they cannot provide their choice of subject or there is a timetable clash.

    "But this year many students were forced to study key subjects such as Maths, English and Science by correspondence because there were not enough teachers.

    "In April, there were 331 students in Years 8, 9 and 10 at Port Hedland and 17 from Kellerberrin who were studying Science by correspondence, 100 Geraldton students taking English, 27 from Jerramungup and 32 at Northampton doing Maths and 32 Year 11 and 12 students studying Geography at Eastern Goldfields SHS. While schools across the State were struggling to find teachers, SIDE also took on the full time equivalent of an extra 25 teachers to cope with the additional students.

    "Independent MP Liz Constable, who obtained the SIDE figures through parliamentary questions, said they reflected the huge shortage of language teachers, a problem the department had failed to deal with over many years.

    "Despite their arguments and excuses, it also reflects the shortage of teachers and that shortage is felt the hardest in regional and remote schools," she said.

    "There's no excuse for Geraldton Senior College to be without English teachers."

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said it was natural that more students would study through SIDE because of the increase in the school leaving age.

    "The alternative is the former system, where they left school at 15," he said.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said the raising of the school leaving age had been on the agenda for years.

    "It is simply inconceivable that the Government didn't adequately prepare for the inevitable increase in demand for teachers that this change would present," he said.
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Stand by for HECS increases, warns Labor [late update: online only]
    AAP
    
    "More students face increased HECS fees, Labor warned, as Sydney University appeared set to raise the cost of a commerce degree by more than $1,000.

    "The university will reportedly be considering increasing commerce course costs for HECS students following the passage of the federal government's budget higher education measures through parliament last week.

    "The legislation removes caps on the number of full-fee students in all courses and reduces commonwealth subsidies for students in commerce and economics degrees from $2,703 to $1,674 - prompting universities to try to make up the difference.

    "Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith said the government had given universities no choice but to push up HECS fees.

    "Today's reports of HECS increases at Sydney University are just the beginning, with a total of 14 universities previously flagging that they would also pass on the increase," Mr Smith said.

    "Last time the Howard government allowed HECS to be increased, all but a handful of universities quickly passed on significant fee increases to students."

    "Students enrolled in commerce courses faced an extra $3,500 in HECS costs over three years, he said, bringing the total cost of the degree to almost $25,000.

    "Along with the removal of caps on full-fee degrees, the change would put a tertiary education further out of reach of poorer students, Mr Smith said.

    "The combination of these changes show that the Howard government remains set on pushing the cost of a university education onto our children and means only one thing for young Australians - if you want a degree in these areas, you'll need to have the cash."

    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Principals see school health role (page 13)
    by Bethany Hiatt and Katie Hampson
    
    "Mental health clinics would be a part of schools and every school would connect to a national communication network to improve the wellbeing of pupils across the State, under a proposal from the Australian Secondary Principals Association.
    
    "It wants such experts as welfare officers, family counsellors, GPs and student support workers in schools..."
    
    "They would provide integrated health and social services alongside classrooms, which would be open to the entire community but easily accessible to students caught up in bullying, drug use, body image problems and conflicts with friends and family..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • School scoundrels to be removed in quest to lift teacher numbers
    by Janine MacDonald
    
    "Bullies and violent students in West Australian schools will be sent to behaviour management centres in an effort to get them out of the classroom and to arrest the state's chronic teacher shortage.

    "Bad behaviour, which includes violent attacks on teachers, forces the suspension of more than 2000 students, mostly male high school students, from West Australian schools each year.

    "Announcing the trial at the weekend, Education Minister Mark McGowan said the three centres would be used to remove students with "pretty extreme behaviour", including physical violence, verbal abuse and property damage, from public schools.

    "He said violent and disruptive students destroyed teacher morale and undermined the performance of others. Many saw suspension as a reward rather than a punishment. About 25 students a year are permanently excluded from school.

    "The trial will start in October, and the continued operation of the centres depends on their success and available funding, but plans are under way for a further five centres for primary students to be opened next year.

    "The students, many of whom have underlying mental health, learning or emotional problems and may have suffered abuse at home, will be taught problem-solving and coping strategies and have intensive literacy and numeracy training.

    "State School Teachers Union WA president Mike Keely said the minister's announcement at this weekend's state council meeting gave teachers a glimmer of optimism that seriously disturbed, dysfunctional and aggressive students would be dealt with appropriately.

    "You cannot care for intensive care patients in the general ward of a hospital and you cannot care for children seriously damaged emotionally, physically ... in the classroom," he said. "(These centres may) rescue some kids from a life of total disaster."

    "A suburban school was forced into a virtual lockdown last year after a student "went feral", threatening people with a lump of wood.

    "Despite teaching vacancies falling from 250 to 28 since the beginning of the school year, the teacher shortage is a continuing problem.

    "The SSTU is pushing for substantial increases in teaching salaries to prevent the drain from the school system to the booming resources industry."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Reading Recovery is 'failing'
    by Justine Ferrari
    
    "The most common remedial reading program used in Australian schools is failing the students who most need help and some studies suggest the gains produced are lost in the following two years or so.

    "A review of 20 years' research into Reading Recovery, just published in the International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, says the program has not delivered all it promised, particularly long-term benefits for students and a significant reduction in the need for special education services.

    "The success of the program appears to be inversely related to the severity of the reading problem. A student with a severe problem is unlikely to be a success," it says.

    "In some studies, research has shown that short-term gains are often not retained and that these have all but disappeared by Year 3, Year 4 or Year 5.

    "Although it has been implemented for 15-20 years in some education systems, Reading Recovery has not demonstrated that it has dramatically reduced literacy failure within education systems."

    "Results published by the NSW Education Department on the basic skills test conducted in years 3 and 5 show that only one in three ex-Reading Recovery students reached the state average.

    "The review conducted by researchers from Macquarie University, including one of the nation's leading literacy experts Kevin Wheldall, says the one in three students who are helped by the program would probably have caught up in their reading skills anyway.

    "Reading Recovery is offered to the bottom 20 per cent of readers in every Year 1 class, providing them with one-on-one tuition to bring them to the level of the average reader in their class. It is widely used throughout Australia, particularly in NSW and Victorian schools as the main way of helping children struggling with reading.

    "Professor Wheldall yesterday said the argument over Reading Recovery was not whether it was effective but whether it was effective enough.

    "He said the program should target the lowest 20 per cent of readers overall, not the lowest 20 per cent in every class, which meant that some students in higher-achieving schools received help while those in lower-achieving schools who might be poorer readers missed out."

    From The Australian at link
    
    See also today's Op Ed, which discusses MULTILIT (making up lost time in literacy)
    
    
    
    
  • Study to spark geography revival
    by Justine Ferrari
    
    "Geography will be elevated to one of the nation's priority school subjects with the announcement by the federal Government of a study into the decline and teaching of the discipline.

    "The study, to be completed by early August, will investigate the reasons for the slide in the quality and rigour of geography taught in schools and determine the fundamental knowledge all students should have by the end of Year 10.

    "The announcement by Education Minister Julie Bishop puts geography alongside English, maths, science and Australian history in the development of core content for a national curriculum.

    "It follows a sustained campaign by geography teachers, academics, professional geographers and The Australian highlighting the demise of geography, particularly due to its integration in the catch-all subject Studies of Society and the Environment (SOSE).

    "The study is viewed as the first step in rehabilitating geography as a distinct discipline. Geographers and teachers hope it will result in a summit similar to The Australian History Summit held last year to discuss the teaching of that discipline.

    "Following the inclusion of geography in SOSE in years 7-10 in all states except NSW, geographers have argued that the discipline has lost its focus, is often taught by non-specialists and has become a series of issues pushing opinions, particularly on environmental and political issues.

    "The Labor states and territories announced in April they would drop SOSE and revert to the traditional disciplines of history, geography and economics.

    "The federal Government will spend $45,000 on the geography study, to be conducted by evaluation and management development consultancy Erebus International.

    "It will outline the curriculum in each state and territory from years 3-10, where it is located and the number of mandated hours in the timetable.

    "The study will also investigate the teaching practice of geography; the factors that affect the teaching and learning of the discipline; and the fundamental knowledge every Australian student should have in geography by the time they enter Year 11.

    "Australian Geography Teachers Association president Nick Hutchinson said he hoped the study would be the next step in the process of boosting the profile of geography in schools.

    "I'm hoping that there may be some groundswell for having a meeting to decide the kind of geography curriculum, the bones of a curriculum, in something similar to the history summit," Mr Hutchinson said.

    "AGTA, the Institute of Australian Geographers and the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland have called for the subject to be compulsory in high school until Year 10, as it is in NSW.

    "IAG president Jim Walmsley supported the idea of a geography summit to discuss the findings of the study and the shape of a national curriculum.

    "The study is a welcome move and will lead to a distinct identity for geography again, removing it from some of the wishy-washy fields in which it has appeared," Professor Walmsley said.

    "Ms Bishop said the IAG and AGTA had raised concerns that too little geography was taught in schools, "and that in some cases, environmental and political studies are masquerading as geography".

    "Parents have also raised concerns about the lack of rigour in the teaching of geography," Ms Bishop said. "The teaching of geography is vital to link students with society, culture and the physical environment at the local, national and global level."

    From The Australian at link
    
    Similar story in The Melbourne Age
    
    
    
    
  • 'Tough love' for Aboriginal communities
    
    Aboriginal families would be stripped of welfare payments if their children were abused or missed school under a plan by indigenous leader Noel Pearson to make benefits conditional on behaviour.
    
    Full report available at this link
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Children are scared [from 16 June: scroll down to second editorial]
    
    Sexual abuse of indigenous children is culture-wide
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Teachers key to remote schools
    by Kirsten Storry
    
    A drill system could aid communities
    
    "In Aurukun on Queensland's Cape York, the school leadership refuses to accept that the complexity of the issues facing the indigenous community is an excuse for its children not getting a good education.

    "While a massive enrolment drive in recent years has seen numbers rocket from about 180 to 290 students, attendance rates remain low. So you name the attendance "carrot", Aurukun's school leadership has already tried it. But attendance is only the tip of the educational iceberg in Aurukun and other remote indigenous communities across northern Australia. Even when carrots get children into the classroom, the school has no control over who will be there to teach them.

    "It is no secret that remote primary schools are not staffed with teachers who have proven their effectiveness in the classroom, but rather with first and second-year teachers. The centralised teacher allocation system rewards teachers who serve time in remote schools with fast tracking to good positions in good schools.

    "Some new teachers may already have grasped best practice and some even thrive on the challenge of teaching in a remote school. But too many inexperienced young teachers find themselves just counting down the days to freedom, or simply leave early. Remote schools face teacher vacancies each semester, despite the glut of primary school teachers.

    "Teaching in remote communities is not for the inexperienced. Few children are "school ready". Many come with no previous exposure to English, let alone reading and writing. Many would not have slept or eaten adequately, let alone had anywhere to do homework or anyone to supervise it. In each classroom, there will be students who are regular attendees, students who might attend two or three days a week and then disappear for weeks at a time and, after an enrolment drive, students who have never set foot there before. [emphasis added]

    "It is little wonder that remote community schools report that only 20 per cent of their students might achieve the national benchmarks for minimum levels of literacy and numeracy. Many believe even 20 per cent is an overestimate. Indeed, in Western Australia in the late 1990s, researchers found that 80 per cent of children in primary school were reading at kindergarten level or below.

    "But the research tells us that teacher quality can make a significant difference to learning outcomes. Economist Andrew Leigh from the Australian National University, for example, has reported that a teacher in the top 10 per cent can achieve the increase in literacy and numeracy test scores in half a year that a teacher in the bottom 10 per cent can achieve in a full year.

    "Imagine the difference that good teaching could make in remote community schools. But how do we make it happen? First, remote schools need to attract teachers who have a track record of effectiveness in the classroom. Under the centralised teacher allocation system in all states and territories except Victoria, school principals and communities currently have little say in which teachers are hired and how much they are paid.

    "This will only be achieved if remote schools are exempted from the centralised system and have greater flexibility to offer employment packages and salaries that will attract effective teachers. The mining industry has shown that it is possible to attract a large skilled workforce to remote areas on high salary Australian Workplace Agreements.

    "It is in the interests of Australian taxpayers to pay out in teacher salaries now before today's children leave school without the basic literacy and numeracy that they need to gain employment and avoid the welfare trap. Second, remote schools need assistance to close the literacy and numeracy gap facing their students.

    "Research in the Cape York communities of Coen in 2005 and Kowanyama in 2000 showed that the average child was falling about nine months behind in literacy for every year of primary school. To even begin to close the gap, these children need intensive, systematic, skills-based instruction and they need it for several hours each day.

    "The good news is that Kevin Wheldall and Robyn Beaman have pioneered MULTILIT (making up lost time in literacy), a lesson-by-lesson program of phonics drills and reading practice that teaches children both the strategies and the work ethic with which they can succeed.

    "The beauty of MULTILIT is that it need not be delivered by teachers with education diplomas.

    "Those university students or recent graduates who are up to the challenge - both of living in a remote community and delivering this program with energy and rigour - could train as literacy instructors and work for a semester making a difference in a remote school. Eventually, if primary school teachers embed this program from the first year of school, Year 3 to 6 teachers could stop putting out spot fires and start teaching the same curriculum as other schools. [emphasis added]

    "Let's fix teaching quality in remote community schools and better attendance will follow."

    Kirsten Storry is a policy analyst in the indigenous affairs research program at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney.

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Rann offers campus to London university
    
    Another top foreign university could have a campus in Australia as early as next year as more overseas operators eye off the nation's lucrative higher education market.
    
    
    
    
  • Fast broadband deal for millions
    
    Millions of Australians in rural and outer-metropolitan areas will be given a promise of fast broadband access in a $2 billion package to be unveiled today - the first part of a two-step strategy to rewire the nation.
    
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Op Ed
    2012: a staffroom odyssey
    by Peter Hodge, a Melbourne teacher
    
    "Committed teachers who, though underpaid, continue to devote the best years of their working lives to our children will decide to walk away from teaching en masse should performance pay be introduced.

    "If federal Education Minister Julie Bishop sincerely believes in the educational benefits of her policy, she clearly knows little about her ministerial portfolio, and even less about teachers.

    "Fast forward to the beginning of the 2012 school year and assume a "performance pay" system imposed on my school has been in operation for several years now. Even before the students arrive there are squabbles over class lists — primarily, how many strong and weak students there are in each class.

    "Teachers previously prepared to accept that the distribution of students evened itself out over a few years now demand a better than average list every year. They fear their livelihood depends on it.

    "The new system, that has sown mistrust from the outset, has gradually eroded collegiality within faculties. Where sharing of resources was once routine, teachers now prefer to hoard their intellectual property for their own use and students are the losers.

    "Rather than leading to improved standards, analysts discover that standards have actually fallen. There is no longer any incentive for teachers to challenge students.

    "In 2007, I convinced parents and students in years 7 to 10 that exposure to harder concepts and tasks may temporarily result in lower grades but benefits would be yielded in later years. In retrospect, such a philosophy appears crazy.

    "Meet the Australian Essential Learning Standards requirements (the new national curriculum) but go no further — that is our mantra. The prudent teacher seeks mediocrity, indeed to be the most mediocre, although, of course, we never say that.

    "The bright students are a little frustrated, but those of us who have best learnt the game have never been more popular. If we don't set too much homework, don't stress the kids with concepts that many find difficult, if we set tests that everyone can pass, the students are happy. But for many students, the jump from year 10 to 11 has never been harder, and the universities are complaining that students are ill-prepared for the courses on which they are embarking.

    "I am a mathematics teacher. In 2007, assuming the students could handle it, I endeavoured to prove every theorem we encountered. They should demand no less, I insisted. "Why?" was an important question back then, when teaching was still a vocation.

    "In 2012, some of the weaker students think they are doing better than they are, but they are happy, and that makes their parents happy, which is a big plus when I come to argue for a pay rise. Thankfully, they will be someone else's problem next year.

    "Record number of teachers on long-term sick leave", the headline screams. No wonder. For many teachers, the battlefield has expanded from the classroom to the staffroom. In the new dog-eat-dog environment, there is no workplace sanctuary for teachers.

    "Worse, with the higher staff turnover, there is little continuity for students and, as thousands of experienced teachers have retired or forged new careers, the average age of teachers is younger than ever before; many have never worked under a different system.

    "But this is exactly what the Howard Government wanted when it proposed these changes in 2007, isn't it? The teacher unions have been effectively neutered and schools have become competitive workplaces. That irksome egalitarian attitude, once so characteristic of teachers, has been crushed once and for all.

    "Adam Smith's invisible hand of the market place — that's what rules in most schools now. For teachers, the pie never increased in size, it was simply carved up differently.

    "Of course, some aspects of the scenario I have painted will be familiar to many teachers already. Yet, with further change, the potential impact on our education system will be severe.

    "It's difficult to credit that Ms Bishop truly believes the rhetoric about teacher performance that she has spouted in recent months. A more plausible explanation is that, having ticked off the ABC and IR laws (among others) in its ideological war, education and teachers, in particular, are next on the Howard Government's list. Teachers — with all their "holidays" — are a soft target for any government, much easier to tackle than dealing with problems such as resourcing schools.

    "The Victorian Institute of Teaching has also been quiet on this issue. Its purpose is to "promote the profession of teaching to the wider community". Yet, members (membership is compulsory) must be wondering what value they are getting for their $69 annual fee.

    "VIT has just released its Draft Code of Conduct for teachers, which is well and good, but in the absence of a parallel campaign to boost awareness of the good work teachers are already doing, the institute seems like a political tool foisted on the profession.

    "As it is with most spheres of work, there are teachers who work harder and demonstrate greater aptitude than others. That's life. However, in the world of education, I'm yet to learn of a scheme capable of measuring performance in a fair and equitable manner, and of rewarding teachers without causing a divided workforce.

    "Both state and federal government need to seek better ways of remunerating teachers, without adding to the burden of tasks they already complete. In the meantime, education ministers should switch tack and focus their concerns on raising public awareness about the vital role teachers have played for decades."
    
    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

• The Monday Education Section is back (and on time!), with 12 articles and five Letters today, including:
  
  
  
  • Variety is the syllabus of life
    
    Denise Ryan examines a method of teaching that concentrates on the individual student.
    
    
    
  • Schools must embrace business
    by Andrew Blair, president of the Australian Secondary Principals Association
    
    The involvement of business and industry in schooling and in curriculum in Australia has never been more important. Developing skills cannot be the sole province of schools - business and industry must contribute. They exist in the global market and understand the skills set required from our school graduates, so they need to be part of the current discussion on national approaches to curriculum consistency and standards.
    
    
    
  • Five Letters on education
    
    
    
    
• School leavers shun trades for university: report
  
  More year 12 graduates are shunning trades in favour of university, according to figures that will heighten concern about Australia's skills shortage.

Tuesday 19 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Private schools fight for govt funding [late update: online only]
    AAP
    
    "The independent schools lobby has written to federal politicians to counter the Australian Education Union's (AEU) campaign against the government on public school funding.

    "In fact sheets distributed to MPs, the Independent Schools Council of Australia (ISCA) seeks to point out total funding for private schools versus that given to public schools.

    "The AEU has been running a high-profile campaign, including television ads, accusing the federal government of reducing public schools' slice of the education funding pie from 42 per cent to 35 per cent.

    "The influential union has been pushing for a funding hike of $2.9 billion a year for public education.

    "ISCA executive director Bill Daniels said the debate about education funding had been muddied because it often did not take into account state governments' contributions to public education.

    "Some people have the impression that non-government schools get more public funding than government schools," Mr Daniels said.

    "Nothing could be further from the truth. Students in independent schools on average receive less than half the public support of students in government schools, and many students get far less."

    "Total state and federal government funding for public school students averaged $10,715 per student each year, while those in non-government schools received an average of $5,050.

    "Government funding for private schools had increased, he said, because their enrolments had soared in the past two decades.

    "Despite this, families accounted for more than half of private schools' funding.

    "One of the ISCA fact sheets pointed out that those opposed to public funding of private schools referred only to the federal government's contribution, ignoring the fact that state governments provided the bulk of funding for public schools.

    "The papers call for all schools to receive "stable and predictable" funding over several years.

    "Labor has promised no school will be worse off under a Kevin Rudd government, though it has identified public primary schools as a priority area.

    "Federal opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith has said the so-called "hit list" of private schools which former leader Mark Latham identified for funding cuts was a mistake and was no longer part of the ALP's platform.

    "An AEU survey of 400 voters last month found 67 per cent agreed the government had under-funded government schools and 78 per cent believed any increase in federal education funding should go to the public sector.

    "Prime Minister John Howard says public schools account for 67 per cent of enrolments but receive 75 per cent of total commonwealth and state government funding."

    From The West Australian online at link
    
    
    
    
  • SA teachers to strike next week [late update: online only]
    AAP
    
    "South Australian teachers will vote to shut down schools for an hour next week as part of escalating industrial action against the state government..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian online at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor [18 June: online edition only]
    
    
    • About time Mr McGowan
      
      "It has only taken 25 years but we now have somebody who might have a clue about running education.

      "Every successful business knows that the secret of success lies in the treatment and handling of the main resource...staff.

      "The Education Department appears to have done just about everything possible to discourage its staff from staying.

      "Perhaps now we can get some sense back into the organisation."

      Robert Howells, Ballajura
      
      

    • One hundred years ago
      
      "Mr Abbott, don't you have better things to do than look back 100 years ago and think, "hmm...well that didn't work, let's bring it back" (Return of cane to schools opposed, June 16).

      "I think this country has bigger health issues than trying to reinstate the cane."

      Nigel Siegwart, Mullaloo
      
      
      

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Report suggests teaching students how to vote
    
    All students should be taught in secondary school how to vote to tackle the problem of young people failing to cast a ballot and showing little interest in Australian political affairs, a bipartisan report has recommended.
    
    
    
  • Schools singled out as best for university enrolments
    
    Single-sex schools are the state's top performers when it comes to university enrolment rates, according to Government data released yesterday.
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Memo leaders: speeding on the superhighway is not an offence
    
    It could be argued that it has taken an election year, an unprecedented run of bad opinion polls and a reinvigorated Opposition to get the Federal Government to finally tackle an area that affects every facet of life and then to get it to jump-start its policy into the present.

    There is hardly an area of society that is not affected in some way by the internet. Life has become dependent on it. In particular, commerce is built on the internet and what every businessman and woman, and every consumer and user of the internet, wants is a faster service. For years Australians have lived in the dark while other countries have acknowledged where the future lies and set out their economic planning based on a high-tech future. Now at last with yesterday's announcement the light is switched on.

    
    
    
  • Performance pedagogy [yesterday's Blog]
    
    "Committed teachers who, though underpaid, continue to devote the best years of their working lives to our children will decide to walk away from teaching en masse should performance pay be introduced, writes Peter Hodge.
    
    "If federal Education Minister Julie Bishop sincerely believes in the educational benefits of her policy, she clearly knows little about her ministerial portfolio, and even less about teachers, he argues.

    "Do you agree?

    "Is Julie Bishop out of touch or does performance pay make educational sense?"
    
    Reader Comments – 14 posted so far, including:
    

    • In my view everyone who works in the paid or self-employed work force should be rewarded on the basis of merit, skills, qualifications, experience.

      Reward on the basis of length of service is not right.

      Therefore, in principle Julie Bishop has a point if she wants to reward teachers on the basis of merit.

      The difficulty arises from the implementation. It would clearly be wrong if a teacher would be given a bonus just because his/her students achieved high marks in one or more subjects.

      I for instance would give a teacher a bonus who manages to turn an unruly child that has no guidance from parents, into a socially adaptable and friendly child because a socially adaptable child is a lot easier to teach than an unruly child. The s.a. child will also be the better learner because the child is more likely to be a willing learner in contrast to the unruly child.

      Just one of many thoughts, but don't solve this challenge with statistics.

      Posted by: marg on June 18, 2007 12:08 PM
      
      

    • Julie Bishop is pushing an IR agenda, not an educational one. It is her wish that teachers be put on nineteenth century AWAs so that they can be bullied and exploited by principals.

      A society that really wanted to improve the quality of teachers would improve the pay and conditions for the whole profession, not just a select few. What is better - a system in which your child has a one-in-twenty chance of getting a really top teacher and a nineteen-in-twenty chance of getting an average or even poor one or a system in which your child has a nine-in-ten chance of getting a really good, but not outstanding, teacher?

      Teacher pay, secondary staffing levels and teaching conditions have all declined dramatically over the past two or three decades. The solution is not to select a few teachers and give them one-off bonuses at the whim of principals, but to rebuild the teaching profession so that able and independent-minded people will enter, and remain in, it.

      In November last year, Victorian male average weekly ordinary time earnings were $1107.30 ($57,777 pa) in (ABS 6302.0, November 2006).

      In 1975, a beginning teacher was paid 118.8 percent of MAOTE. That equates to $68,639. A beginning teacher started this year on $46,127 - a relative cut of $22,512 or 32.8 per cent.

      In 1975, after seven years a teacher reached the top of the scale and was paid 166.6 per cent. That would be $96,256 at the start of this year, compared with an actual $57,775 - a relative cut of $38,481 or 40 per cent. The new top level for most teachers, which now takes eleven years to reach, paid $65,414 – a relative cut of $30,842 or 32 per cent.

      In 1975, a senior teacher was paid 189.8 per cent. That would be $109,660 for the highest paid leading teacher today, who was actually paid $78,675 at the start of this year – a relative cut of $30,985 or 28.3 per cent.

      In 1981, under the Thompson Liberal Government, the secondary pupil-teacher ratio was 10.9:1. In 1992, under the previous Labor Government, it was 10.8:1 (which should give the lie to the clam that the teacher unions control the Labor Party). Last year, it was 12.0:1, showing that secondary schools have still not recovered from the staffing cuts of the 1992-99 Liberal Government and are almost 2,000 teachers below a decent staffing level.

      Throughout most of the ‘eighties, the maximum secondary teaching load was 18 hours a week (plus an extra once a fortnight). It is now 20 hours (including the extra). The time allowance pool for organisational duties was a minimum of 90 minutes per teacher. Today it is zero.
      Teachers used to be employed on a permanent basis. Now some 18.6 per cent of teachers are on short-term contracts, as are more than six in ten of teachers under 25 years of age.

      Those who criticise the quality of teachers should turn their attention to the quality of principals, given that it is the latter who will be expected to choose the select few deserving of recognition. My experience is that the quality of principals declined markedly in the past 15 years, just as their powers were increased. Our schools will work better if more able people can be selected to lead schools, people who see themselves as the first-among-equals, not tin gods. Schools with a large degree of democratically expressed collegiate professional judgement work better than those in which a principal simply lays down the law.

      The whole performance pay mantra is yet another import from the world of business, like key selection criteria, key performance indicators, performance appraisal, annual reports, etc, etc. These have all formed a time-consuming and utterly ineffective burden on the actual educative purposes of schools.

      The most fascinating thing about this debate is the credence given to those who know nothing about our schools over those who have had years of experience in them.
      
      Posted by: Chris Curtis on June 18, 2007 12:53 PM
      
      

    • Performance related pay is a great idea - in some industries, but not education.

      As others have already pointed out, there is no satisfactory way to measure a teacher's performance. So while on face value it seems odd to award pay increases purely on the basis of length of service, that does provide one method of ensuring teachers teach longer.

      There are myriad problems in education, poor pay being just one. Changes do need to be made, but that's not to say that we should follow the private sector's example.

      I think the government should pull all taxpayer's money from private schools and reinvest it in the public school system.

      
      Repair school buildings, fill them with proper facilities, resources and textbooks, pay the teachers properly.

      If we can spend billions on illegal wars and billions propping up the private system, then we should damn well spend billions improving public education for the benefit of this country.

      Posted by: Modeski on June 18, 2007 1:05 PM
      
      

    • Peter hodge is correct in the likely result of Ms Bishop's proposals. The desire to achieve results will be in the forefront. I have personally been subject to a teacher trying to improve her professional outcomes (1974) when she more or less told me I was a moron and should not attempt higher level maths. If her intention was to motivate me into achieveing high results in her exams, then she was very sadly misread my character, the result was that she removed the little self confidence I had. I was lucky in that the alternative maths teacher at the time advised me otherwise and I am glad I took his advice achieving my 1st degree in Applied maths. The motivation of my then year 11 teacher was to improve her results. She was not a bad teacher or a bad person, but, even then, her issue was to appear successful. If this system of performance pay enters the teaching profession, then we will find more of this attitude of apparent weeding out. Some, who recommend the sytem would likely say that this is not how it is meant to be etc etc. However human nature will out and (at least some)teachers will want to improve their results by deleting those they percieve as not being able to make it. In addition to these comments, my eldest son has just started his teaching career and given the amount of work he has to put in to achieve his goal and the amount of work he has to do out of hours convinces me that to be a teacher requires a lot of dedication and hard work and that given the work load teachers are expected to do then they are grossly underpaid.

      Posted by: Michael Egan on June 18, 2007 1:39 PM
      
      

    • It's not so much the notion of rewarding good performance that is difficult.

      The difficulty in Julie Bishop's proposal is in finding a fair objective means to test a teacher's performance.

      Different schools in differing socio-economic areas will have different requirements of their teachers. Teachers in more trouble-some suburbs may have to spend more of their focus on socialization skills than on pure academics. Teachers in suburbs where English is primarily a second-language, may not ever have any hope of their students matching up to a state or federal standard.

      Personally.... I completely support the notion of performance based rewards for teachers. Performance based rewards is one of the reasons that private schools attract the more successful teachers in our community.

      I don't believe any national standard can be maintained however. I think the fairest approach would be to allow school principles more leeway to set the salaries within their individual schools. They would still have to work to a budget, just as footy teams have to stick within the salary cap, but a school principle in a state school should be able to offer more to attract the type of teacher that the principle believes is most appropriate for the school environment.

      Teachers salaries should no longer be a one size fits all affair, and it's unreasonable for a few low performing teachers to expect to coast through the state school system without making a fair contribution to the welfare of their students.

      I don't understand the backlash on this issue. I don't understand why any parent would want their children to be at the mercy of sub-standard teaching.

      Posted by: oz on June 18, 2007 2:50 PM
      
      
      

• The New York Times
  
  
  • Long Reviled, Merit Pay Gains Among Teachers
    
    For years, the unionized teaching profession opposed few ideas more vehemently than merit pay, but those objections appear to be eroding as school districts in dozens of states experiment with plans that compensate teachers partly based on classroom performance.
    
    
    
    
• Federal ALP Media Statement
  
  
  • Asian Language and Studies School Program
    
    Kevin Rudd tonight announced Federal Labor’s plan to invest in a National Asian Languages in Schools program – to better prepare young Australians to compete in the future with our Asian neighbours.

    This is about securing and creating Australian jobs by giving young Australians the skills they need for the future.

    The $68.6 million National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools Program will work with the States and Territories to promote the study of languages such as Japanese, Indonesian, Mandarin and Korean in high schools.

    Under the plan, Federal Labor’s National Curriculum Board will oversee the teaching of languages in schools and work with the States and Territories to increase the number of qualified language teachers across Australia.

    The National Curriculum Board will also monitor language courses in schools to ensure consistency across the nation and provide incentives for students to become proficient in a language other than English.

    Over four years, the funding will provide:

    · Additional Asian language classes in schools;
    · Teacher training and support; and
    · Development of specialist curriculum for students who display advanced abilities in Asian languages and Asian studies programs.

    To build a secure and economically strong nation for the 21st century, we need to engage with our regional neighbours.

    One of the most effective ways to achieve that is by providing the best opportunity for young Australians to become familiar with the language and cultures of our principle economic partners across Asia.

    In 2002, the Howard Government abolished the National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools Scheme. It ceased on January 1, 2003.

    There is no longer a dedicated Asian languages program in Australia.

    Only 13.4 per cent of Year 12 students take a foreign language, while only half our school-aged population has had any form of language learning.

    In contrast, it is compulsory in Finland for school children to study three languages, while in the Netherlands, 99 per cent of Year 12 students are learning a second language.

    In 2004, more than 25,000 Year 12 students studied a language in Australia.

    Only six per cent of Year 12 students studied an Asian language. Of those, 21 per cent of those studying a language studied Mandarin or Cantonese; 19 per cent Japanese and seven per cent Indonesian. We want that to increase.

    Federal Labor will work with State and Territory Governments to increase the number of qualified language teachers and to retain those teachers who make such a valuable contribution to educating our children.

    This is the latest addition to Federal Labor’s plan for an Education Revolution to give our children the best possible start in life, lift long-term productivity growth and build our future prosperity.

    Federal Labor has already announced that a Rudd Labor Government will:

    o Invest $450 million to provide four year olds with 15 hours a week of high quality early childhood education;
    o Provide $111 million to encourage students to study maths and science at university and use their degrees within the maths and sciences professions, particularly, teaching;

    o Support parental choice by funding all schools, whether they are government, non-government, religious or secular, based on need and fairness;

    o Invest $62.5 million on a program to fund the construction of shared facilities between government and non-government schools;

    o Introduce a National Action Plan on Literacy and Numeracy; and
    
    o Set up a National Curriculum Board to develop a rigorous, consistent and quality curriculum for all Australian students – from kindergarten to year 12.
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Miners left short by unis
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Mining-related departments in universities are shrinking at the time of the nation's biggest resources boom, with 10 geoscience schools closing or downsizing over the past 10 years and only 30 metallurgists graduating a year.
    
    "Mining companies are forced to hire graduates trained in similar disciplines, such as chemical engineering and materials science, and train them on the job to meet the shortfall in professions such as metallurgy.

    "A skills summit organised by the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia in Canberra today will highlight the severe shortages of qualified professionals in geoscience, metallurgy and mining engineering..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    The Skills Summit website
    
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Poll fever boosts net speed 40 times
    
    Internet speeds will be 40 times faster within five years, regardless of who wins the election.
    

 

Wednesday 20 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Principals get help as violence increases (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "State schools are becoming battlegrounds in which teachers are attacked by students, parents and outsiders, with new figures revealing nearly 50 incidents in which parents threatened staff and close to 400 cases of students abusing teachers in the past year.

    "In one incident, a high school student grabbed, pushed and threatened to kill a teacher and blow up their home.

    "Other cases reported to the Education Department include a mother swearing at teachers while grabbing her Year 4 son in a headlock to stop him from speaking and a parent who threw a tissue box at a principal inside his office after yelling at him.

    "Department figures show schools reported 45 incidents of parents threatening staff members since last July, six of which involved physical violence. There were about 388 incidents in which students physically threatened or assaulted teachers. Schools also reported 48 incidents of intruders entering school grounds.

    "Today the department will release an emergency response plan to help principals deal with violent intruders, angry parents and out-of-control students.

    "The State School Teachers Union said violence in schools had escalated in recent years but this was the first time the department had acknowledged that teachers needed to be protected from such abuse.

    "Union occupational safety and health officer Joy Barrett said many violent incidents went unreported and the department figures would not reflect the torrent of serious verbal abuse that teachers also suffered.

    "In the past, some criminal behaviour had been dealt with at school level and not reported to police but the new procedures made it clear that it should be.

    "I think that sends a very clear message that teachers do not have to tolerate this," Ms Barrett said.

    "Police, the union, principals' groups and the department have spent two years developing the strategies.

    "School leaders will be trained to practise "lockdowns", in which students and teachers are secured in classrooms or gymnasiums to reduce exposure to threatened violence, and "safe haven procedures" in which they must lie on the floor and stay away from windows.

    "The Keeping Our Workplace Safe document also contains check lists on ways to manage violent incidents, information on restraining orders and family court orders, legal advice and sample letters to be sent home to parents if an incident occurs.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said the document was one aspect of a multi-faceted approach to school violence, which included plans for new centres to isolate badly behaved students, increased psychological assistance and Saturday morning counselling sessions.

    "Violence at school by parents or students is completely unacceptable and won't be tolerated," he said."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Wrecked units, big damage bill in wake of bungled youth program (page 5)
    by Jessica Strutt
    
    "The owners of four Joondalup apartments used to house youths in the State’s care who were involved in the bungled Balga Works Program face a bill of more than $100,000 after the units were trashed and the fraudster behind the project left WA.
    
    "One of the owners, Bob Padmanabham, claims Michael Carton, a former heroin user and bankrupt who ran the Government-funded program for disadvantaged youth, owes his family more than $24,000 in rent.
    
    "State Parliament’s Upper House will today debate a move to establish a parliamentary inquiry into the project, which is already the subject of police and Corruption and Crime Commission investigations.
    
    "The Department for Community Development removed nine youths from the accommodation in December after The West Australian revealed that former workers at the facility had raised serious concerns about the way it was run by Mr Carton.
    
    "The West Australian visited the apartments this week and found slashed couches, torn curtains, cut security screens, smashed hot-water systems and white goods, and holes in ceilings and doors.
    
    "Mr Padmanabham said the fully furnished units were new when Mr Carton signed the lease for the state wards to live in them.
    
    "Legal advice he received was that he would be unlikely to recover losses from the Government but that did “not exonerate the Government from their general duty to be accountable for their actions, particularly in respect of taxpayers’ money being spent on community projects”.
    
    "Mr Padmanabham said he was angry the Government had thrown millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money at the program but never bothered to ensure that it was being operated properly and that the money was going where it was supposed to.
    
    "In February, Child Protection Minister David Templeman responded to a letter from the aggrieved owners, saying his department would see if its insurers would accept a claim for any damage to the property.
    
    "But a month later, Premier Alan Carpenter, who was education minister when Government money started to flow to Balga Works, wrote to the Padmanabham family saying Mr Carton’s company was responsible for paying outstanding money.
    
    "In December, The West Australian revealed that when former education minister Ljiljanna Ravlich received a letter from a couple living near the Joondalup units raising serious concerns about the amount of Government money being spent on the project, she wrote back commending the program.
    
    "Mr Carton did not return calls from The West Australian yesterday."
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Public sector wage freeze angers unions [late update: online only]
    
    NSW unions say the state government's pledge to freeze public sector wage increases will make it difficult to retain key workers such as teachers, police and nurses.
    
    
    
    
• The Times
  
  
  • Farmyard sounds 'will help children to read and spell'
    by Alexandra Frean, Education Editor
    
    "Children are to be encouraged to moo like a cow, ee-aw like a donkey and to make banging noises with sticks and pots, under a revival of back-to-basics literacy teaching.

    "Government guidance on the teaching of synthetic phonics published yesterday suggests that children learn to read and write best if they are taught first to distinguish between the 44 different phonemes or sounds of the English language before reading whole words.

    "But the 208-page document, to be made available to all state primary schools in England, was described as insulting by Britain’s biggest teaching union, which criticised it as another attempt to micro-manage classroom practice..."
    
    "For decades, the teaching of reading has been polarised between advocates of the “whole language” approach, which involves understanding words from their context or guessing them from their shape, and supporters of traditional phonics, which involves learning how to blend the sounds of the alphabet into words.

    "Since the 1960s the whole language method has predominated in most primary schools, although latterly schools have used a mixture of the two.

    "The new guidance document for teachers, accompanied by a DVD, makes clear that phonics should be the prime means for teaching children how to read and spell, and recommends a teaching programme called Letters and Sounds..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Times at link
    
    Similar story in The Guardian
    
    
    

• CNN
  
  
  • Web cam exam proctors are latest cheating deterrent
    
    The number of college students taking courses online is surging, creating a tough dilemma for educators who want to prevent cheating: Do you trust students to take an exam on their own computer from home or work? The dilemma is one reason many online programs do little testing at all. But some new technology that places a camera inside students' homes may be the way of the future.
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • The Higher Education Supplement has 16 articles, including:
    
    
    • More opportunities opening to study
      by Milanda Rout and Brendan O'Keefe
      
      "Improving their chances of getting into university was on the minds of thousands of Victorian students who have sat the General Achievement Test, which is being used for tertiary course selection for the first time.

      "The aptitude test has previously been used only as a benchmark to check Victorian Certificate of Education exams and assignments but a decision by Monash to trial it in middle-band selection has given it new significance.

      "Almost 50,000 Year 12 students sat the general knowledge test last Thursday.

      "Some of my friends used to say the GAT didn't count and it was just three hours of sitting around and doing nothing and that they were going to leave early," said Northcote High student Jacob Erlandsen, 17.

      "But it was different this year. It means something. It would be shocking to ... miss out just because of a few ENTER points."

      "Monash pro-vice chancellor Merran Evans said the university was still finalising the faculties that would use the GAT to help in middle-band selection during the trial. But she confirmed students applying for law courses would have their GAT scores considered if they fell just below the required ENTER score.

      "Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre director Elaine Wenn said Monash was the only university using the GAT for course selection for the 2008 intake.

      "But I would be expecting some other institutions to do it for 2009 entry," she said.

      "Meanwhile, Macquarie University will trial an aptitude test next year as an alternative to the university admissions index for recruiting much-needed students into science, technology, engineering and mathematics, vice-chancellor Steven Schwartz said..."
      
      Full story in The Australian's Higher Education Supplement at link

      
      
    • Unis synchronise degrees in mining
      
      The nation's top three mining engineering universities have joined to offer a common degree in a world-first collaboration aimed at redressing the skills shortage in the resources sector. The University of Queensland, the University of NSW and Curtin University in Western Australia have launched Mining Education Australia, a venture under which they will pool resources and share academics, facilities and curriculums.
      
      
      
    • Local kids go slow on full-fee degrees
      
      Universities face a steep uphill battle in recruiting Australian fee-paying students, latest figures show, as federal parliament last week removed the final quota restricting numbers of full-fee paying students in highereducation.
      
      
      
    • Collision courses as lobbyists buttonhole Canberra
      
      Scores of humanities academics have descended on Canberra to collar federal politicians on the valuable contribution humanities can make to innovation, just as the peak science lobby complains that science is bleeding funding to the humanities.
      
      
      
      
  • Preschools left out as repair work mounts
    
    Preschools are the glaring omission in the NSW budget, which fails even to mention the word despite the state having the lowest proportion of children in preschool education in the nation.

 

Thursday 21 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Balga Works faces MPs' probe (page 17)
    by Jessica Strutt
    
    "The Greens will support a move by the Liberals to establish an Upper House inquiry into the Government-funded Balga Works program for disadvantaged youths.

    "Greens MLC Giz Watson told The West Australian last night she wanted the matter investigated by the estimates and financial operations committee she chairs, rather than a select committee. Her support for the parliamentary inquiry is crucial because the Greens hold the balance of power in the Upper House.

    "Her comments came after a debate in the House on shadow education minister Peter Collier's move to refer the matter to a parliamentary inquiry was adjourned until next week.

    "Mr Collier wanted to establish a select committee into the bungled Balga Works program but will support Ms Watson's move to instead refer it to a standing committee..."

    "Mr Collier told the House the bungled Balga Works program had a devastating impact on the disadvantaged youth it was supposed to assist. He criticised the Government for continuing to fund the program despite repeated concerns being raised about its operations from former staff and even Labor MPs. He accused the Government of blocking his attempts to obtain information on the program, saying the only way to get to the bottom of what had happened was to refer it to a parliamentary committee.

    "The warning signs were loud and clear... employees (of the program) were going to members of Parliament, they were going to the Minister's office... and they were ignored on every occasion." He said. "Why that program continued through 2005 and 2006 is beyond comprehension." [emphasis added] ...

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Plan aims to improve teacher standards [late update: online only]
    AAP
    
    "Teachers would need to have high levels of literacy and numeracy and understand key mathematics concepts under a proposal to introduce a national accreditation scheme.

    "The proposal released by federal government agency Teaching Australia follows a parliamentary inquiry into teacher accreditation.

    "It aims to standardise teacher quality across Australia, as more than 400 study programs currently provide teacher training.

    "Under the blueprint, teaching graduates would be required to know the subject matter they intend to teach, know how different students learn and be able to identify learning goals.

    "They would have to promote critical inquiry among students, be able to tailor their teaching for different students and be willing to be part of a professional community.

    "Broadly, the required standards would determine graduates' professional knowledge, practice and commitment.

    "New program benchmarks would determine a university or training college's success in preparing trainee teachers for the workforce.

    "The national accreditation system will enable teacher registration authorities to accept national accreditation as providing the assurance that a program meets the teaching qualification requirement for registration, which is in turn a pre-requisite for employment," the report said.

    "Individual teachers and universities would not be accredited, but rather the courses in which they would be required to achieve certain outcomes.

    "The accreditation system would be managed by a 15-member panel, tentatively titled the Australian Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.

    "The group would be responsible for making accreditation decisions, publishing outcomes and making recommendations about accreditation policies.

    "If endorsed by the government, a national accreditation scheme could be trialled as early as next year.

    "Teaching Australia chairman Gregor Ramsey said the plan would give parents and schools confidence knowing that new teachers had met the highest standards.

    "The standards proposed will provide assurances about the quality of individual professional preparation programs and their graduates," Dr Ramsey said.

    "They have the potential to improve schooling."

    "The report was put together by Teaching Australia after consultation with teachers."

    From The West Australian online at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor (page 21)

    A Don Jackson classic on 'bring back the cane', plus this one

    • Punish them
      
      "... The problem is that the ability to punish has been taken away from our schools and teachers. They are supposed to deal with bullies without any guidelines..."

      "I have been in a school office while a parent was ranting and raving at the headmaster in an abusive way because their child had been put at a separate desk to stop disruption of the class.

      "When are parents... going to take the bull by the horns and allow schools to bring back punishment for bad behaviour without the threat of being sued 20 years down the line? The judicial system needs to stand behind our teachers and headmasters and throw out cases alleging bullying.

      "It is up to parents, in conjunction with the education system, to teach children what is good behaviour and what is bad..."

      C. Prentice, Mindarie

    
    Complete Letters to the Editor in The West Australian

     

• The Australian
  
  
• PM delivers a lesson on history for schools
  by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
  
  "John Howard has warned that history has "gone missing" in the nation's schools and threatened the states with funding changes if necessary.

  "Speaking yesterday at the presentation of the first $100,000 Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History, he said he wanted to co-operate with the states. But if that failed, he vowed to take action. "Australian history in many schools has simply gone missing," he said.

  "Vast numbers of students had no exposure to a coherent and sequential understanding of our national story. As a Government, we want to turn this around, working ideally in co-operation with the states and territories.

  "That said, I will use the prime ministerial bully pulpit and any other commonwealth levers, as appropriate, to ensure our schools deliver what Australian parents want."

  "Australian history should not be an optional extra but a core part of every child's education, he said. "Critics who claim this is an exercise in national triumphalism by stealth are in denial."

  "The Prime Minister awarded the new prize to two writers: historian Peter Cochrane for Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy and journalist Les Carlyon for The Great War.

  "Carlyon said he agreed with Mr Howard's thesis that history had gone missing. "The reason ... is not so much a left-wing thing, it's a fault in methodology," he said. "It's a bit like journalism: you've got to find out first what happened ... then you can write the editorial. To me, the method is wrong when you go ... at it with a theme. There's jargon and gobbledegook."

  "Cochrane said history teachers and academics needed to tell a story to reach a wider, non-specialist audience. "Academic history, I think, has gone too much into theoretical speculation and talking and arguing about concepts," he said.

  "The Prime Minister said the fashion for moving away from traditional notions of history had gone too far. "We are, I hope, emerging from a period in which national history came to be seen as old history: history from above or elitist history," hesaid. "The corrective came in the form of new history, history from below, history by social movement; what G.M. Trevelyan called history with the politics left out. While perhaps justified at some level, I happen to think this corrective went toofar.

  "Of course, there is no single narrative. Contending narratives ... are part of every nation's history," Mr Howard said. "Indeed, without them, history is boring. And history should never be boring."

  "Nicholas Brown, of the Australian National University, said "history wars" were not always positive. He likened them to "an industrial dispute between academics on who is right and who is wrong".

  "Associate professor of history and politics at the University of Wollongong Greg Melleuish said history wars were healthy as long as they did not degenerate into abuse. He said Mr Howard's speech "took a lot more of a nationalist line than the Prime Minister did, say, in the Australia Day speech last year".

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
  
• Disadvantage escape plan for Aboriginal students
  by Patricia Karvelas
  
  "Boarding houses for indigenous children will be built across the nation in an effort to boost their chances of escaping poverty and dysfunction by gaining access to top-class schools.
  
  "The Indigenous Land Corporation - the nation's peak indigenous land business - will today outline its radical plan and call for help from state education departments to explore ways of operating the boarding houses.

  "The facilities, which would either be bought or built on land purchased by the ILC, would initially be established in regional centres and later spread to cities.

  "The corporation has not outlined a budget for its proposal. But last year it spent $8 million on its land-acquisition program, which until now has focused on helping indigenous communities buy land to operate businesses such as cattle stations.

  "The plan emerged yesterday amid increasingly bitter debate over Aboriginal policy, triggered by Cape York indigenous leader Noel Pearson's release of a report on Tuesday calling for welfare payments to be taken away from indigenous parents who are found to be neglecting their children, with the money quarantined for use on food and rent..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Editorial
  Paternalism is not a term of derision
  
  Little thanks in the hard task of fixing disadvantage

  "Of all the insults bandied about in indigenous politics, the most abused must be the charge of paternalism. As an agitated Noel Pearson said on ABC radio yesterday: "Ask the terrified kid huddling in the corner, when there's a binge-drinking party going on down the hall, ask them if they want a bit of paternalism." Those who oppose the supposedly paternalistic intervention of outsiders are condemning many Aboriginal children to a living hell..."
  
  "It is encouraging that practical solutions are now emerging from Aboriginal organisations. As The Australian reports today, the Indigenous Land Corporation has announced a new strategy to generate employment, training and education opportunities. This includes the creation of boarding facilities in regional centres to enable young Aborigines in remote areas to have access to decent education facilities. Mr Pearson's 350-page report calls on the federal Government to work with the Cape York Institute in four north Queensland Aboriginal communities. The plan requires the commonwealth to attach basic obligations to welfare payments such as ensuring that parents send their child to school [emphasis added], that children are not subject to abuse or neglect and that parents meet their obligations as tenants...."
  
  Full Editorial in The Australian at link

  
  
  

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Schools will lag 'without business'
    by Bridie Smith
    
    "Australian schools will fall behind their overseas counterparts unless they follow international examples and form partnerships with business, an education expert warns.

    "Backing a controversial call made this month by Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop for schools to encourage corporate sponsorship, former dean of education at Melbourne University, Professor Brian Caldwell, said the idea that schools should be funded from the public purse was "outdated thinking".

    "Our public school system needs the support of the whole community," he said. "Every business and every community group should be supporting government schools."

    "In a speech to be delivered at the Australian National University in Canberra tonight, Professor Caldwell will argue that business partnerships could better equip Victorian schools..."

    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    See related Op Ed by Brian Caldwell in The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor – several on politicians' pay rise, including:
    
    
    • Politicians' performance pay

      "After spruiking performance pay for teachers for the past six months, how can federal Education Minister Julie Bishop justify her anticipated 6.5 per cent pay rise? What performance criteria did she meet to qualify for this rise?

      "Will Ms Bishop now support a rise of at least 6.5 per cent for Victorian teachers in the August round of the state school teachers' enterprise bargaining agreement? This is considerably more than the 3.25 per cent being offered to Victorian state school teachers by the Bracks Government."

      David E. Spratt, Burwood

      
      
    • Monkey business

      "People make the usual justifications: that if you compare the salaries of corporation leaders with the PM's pay, then the PM is underpaid, and that "if you pay peanuts you get monkeys". These comments imply that the heads of corporations must be brilliant (yet they somehow make mistakes, make financial losses and have to retrench workers) because they get paid so much, and that politicians are duds because their pay is not comparable.

      "Where do teachers fit into this concept? Everybody recognises the important role that teachers play in society, yet they are paid peanuts because the government purse and school corporations say they cannot afford to pay such a large group a level of pay commensurate with their qualifications and societal role.

      "Why can't we expect the same dedication and hard work of our politicians, who in the end get much better superannuation and payouts than other workers?"

      R. Westwood, Heidelberg Heights

      
      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Public education is not just the government's business
    by Brian Caldwell
    
    "An expanded role for business in schools has been placed on the agenda in recent weeks, yet Australia has a long way to go before we match what has been accomplished elsewhere.

    "Resistance is strong in large sections of the educational community and at one end of the political spectrum. There is still the view that business has no place and, at least in the public sector, schools should be built, funded, owned, operated and supported from the public purse and that policy and practice should be solely determined by the provider.

    "England is an exemplar of how schools can establish partnerships with business. Some 2700 of about 3100 state secondary schools have achieved such an arrangement, on a limited scale under the Conservatives but comprehensively under the Blair Labour Government.

    "These schools have changed from a standard comprehensive to a specialist schools model, offering at least one of 11 specialisations while still addressing the broad national curriculum. The specialisations are technology, arts, business and enterprise, engineering, humanities, language, mathematics and computing, music, science, sports and special education.

    "Each school has at least one partnership with business in its area of specialism. Except for small schools, business contributes £50,000 ($118,000) in cash or in-kind support, generating from the Department for Education and Skills an additional £100,000 capital grant and a per-student recurrent grant.

    "The school must demonstrate in a three-year development plan how the specialisation will enhance its overall performance. A non-profit charitable trust is funded by the department to support schools in creating these partnerships..."
    
    Brian Caldwell heads Educational Transformations and is a professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne, where he was dean of education from 1998 to 2004. This article draws from the 2007 Phillip Hughes Oration for the Australian College of Educators to be delivered tonight.
    
    Full article in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

 

Friday 22 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • No help for bad readers (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Struggling children are missing out on proper reading instruction because the Federal Government has failed to act on a report it commissioned into the way literacy is taught in Australia, a leading academic says.

    "University of WA education dean Bill Louden said he was disappointed by the Government's lack of action on the Teaching Reading document released with much fanfare 18 months ago.

    "The report said research proved that systematic teaching of phonics - showing children how to link sounds with letters - played a vital role in the learning to read. It also found that the whole-language approach, which immerses children in books so they absorb words in the same way they learn to talk, was not a suitable method on its own.

    "Professor Louden said the reading inquiry involved a lot of work and was given high status when it was released in December 2005. "But it's not clear to me what the Federal Government has done to follow up," he said.

    "Ken Rowe, a research director at the Australian Council for Educational Research who chaired the inquiry, was also disappointed at the lack of action but said he understood the wheels of government ran slowly.

    "But Melbourne-based literacy expert Kerry Hempenstall, a researcher who helped agitate for the literacy inquiry to be set up, said it was imperative Australia reformed reading teaching methods and shifted from the whole-language approach, as the US and Britain had done.

    "The report said teachers should be equipped to provide explicit phonics instruction and that all children should be tested when they start school and twice a year after that to chart their literacy abilities. It also called for national accreditation of teacher training courses.

    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said the entire report had been referred to the Council of Australian Governments for action.

    "She also supplied a long list of literacy initiatives the Government was introducing but just two were directly related to the report's recommendations. They were an agreement by COAG to implement diagnostic testing of children in their first year of school by 2010 and proposed national standards for teacher training, which were released yesterday.

    "Professor Louden said most WA teachers used phonics but the issue was how well it was taught and that varied from teacher to teacher. "We have better Year 3 results than most States in reading, so that for me, that would count as evidence that our reading teaching is perhaps the best in the nation," he said.

    "He recommended that teachers receive more resources to help teach phonics in the literacy and numeracy review he did for the WA Government last year."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Crusade to save Aboriginal kids from abuse
    by Patricia Karvelas
    
    "John Howard will seize control of Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory, banning alcohol and pornography and using the military to attack the "national emergency" of alcohol-fuelled sexual abuse of children.
    
    "In the most dramatic revolution in Aboriginal affairs since the 1967 referendum gave the commonwealth power to enact special laws for Aborigines and include them in the census, the Prime Minister will forcibly quarantine half of the social security payments to most indigenous community residents so that parents spend money on food and rent instead of alcohol..."
    
    "Half of welfare payments through Centrelink to parents of children in affected areas will be quarantined to prevent all their money being spent on alcohol. "Effectively, the arrangements will be that that 50per cent can only be used for the purchase of food and other essentials," Mr Howard said. The commonwealth will also make welfare payments dependent on children attending school..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link; several sidebar stories also available at that link.
    
    There are similar headlines, articles, editorials and Op Ed pieces in all major newspapers.
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Tough love needed to save NT children
    
    Good politics is also good policy on Aboriginal Australia

    "The state of emergency that has subjected generations of Aboriginal children to a living hell has finally been given the recognition it deserves. The grand intervention outlined yesterday by John Howard is a long-overdue demonstration that Australia will not tolerate the endemic physical and sexual violence sweeping indigenous communities, which is beyond the comprehension of many who have not witnessed it first hand..."

    Full Editorial in The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Department to appeal in student discrimination case
    
    The State Education Department has applied to the Supreme Court to appeal against a tribunal decision that last month found it had discriminated against a student by failing to provide a teaching aide.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Church school accused of tax swindle
    
    A conservative Christian school is at the centre of an "extraordinary tax sham and welfare fraud" that has cost the Federal Government more than $1 million, State Parliament has heard.

 

Saturday – Sunday, 23 – 24 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • OBE teachers demand more money (page 79)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "The teachers’ union is demanding more money from the State Government to help teachers of Year 12 outcomes-based education courses.
    
    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely is calling for a funding boost to employ relief teachers or extra markers to ease the workload for embattled teachers of English, media, engineering and aviation.
    
    "English teachers in particular have borne the brunt of constant changes to the new OBE course, introduced to Year 11 last year, and a much heavier marking load associated with the “levels” form of assessment which will be discontinued in upper school next year.
    
    "Teachers of the other three courses have also suffered increased workloads.
    
    “We’ll be looking to the (Education) Department and the Minister to support additional funds to be made available for teachers to do a range of things, such as employ paid markers, additional time for teacher relief, for marking, preparation, moderation, those sorts of things,” Mr Keely said after an emergency meeting of union officials.
    
    "He did not know how much the proposal would cost.
    
    “It’s up to the department to do the sums and hopefully get them right,” he said.
    
    “The teacher shortage hangs over all of this. The consequence of a failure to look after these people is that more of them won’t come back next year.”
    
    "But the head of English at a State school who did not want to be named said the proposal, though a partial solution, was too little and too late to be effective.
    
    "It was all but impossible to find relief teachers to take English classes because everyone was burnt out.
    
    “It’s the worst situation I’ve seen in 40 years of teaching,” he said.
    
    “People don’t want to go near English with a barge pole. So they can have the money there but there’s going to be nothing to spend it on because nobody wants it.”
    
    "He said the department should have reduced teaching loads at the start of last year, like many private schools had done, to ease some of the extra pressure the new course had imposed.
    
    "A spokeswoman for the Education Department said it was discussing the proposal with the teachers’ union.
    
    "Independent Education Union assistant secretary Nigel Briggs said it would support any claim for additional funding for teachers at private schools." [emphasis added]
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Red tape cuts winter relief teacher flow (page 61)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Recruitment agencies cannot supply enough relief teachers to meet demand from schools during the peak winter season partly because many teachers are being forced to wait weeks for employment clearances..."

    "[Choice One recruitment consultant Jennifer Heald] said new teachers or those returning from absence were waiting up to eight weeks for the Education Department to process their applications to teach. "I have teachers who could be teaching tomorrow if they could get their government identification numbers," she said..." [This despite a $52 MILLION increase in Silver City's budget over the past two years!! Web]

    "[Class Professionals recruitment agency owner Sam Pintaudi] could supply new teachers to private schools almost as soon as they went on the books, because they required registration only from the WA College of Teaching, but relief teachers for public schools also needed clearance from the [education] department.

    "That's certainly an issue at the moment because it adds another tier of red tape," he said.

    "Mr Pintaudi said pay was also a factor because many people who might otherwise take up relief teaching were being lured into more lucrative jobs.

    "A State school principal who did not wish to be named said he found it almost impossible to get relief teachers. "I have had to disperse students throughout the school, increasing class sizes and dramatically reducing the quality of all teaching programs," he said.

    "My school is in a very low socioeconomic area and we have mums who work at Woolworths and earn $6000 a year more than some of my teachers." ... [emphasis added]

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • WA Govt offers incentives to teaching grads
    
    "Western Australia's Education Minister, Mark McGowan, says final-year teaching students will be offered incentives to work in state schools.

    "Mr McGowan says teaching graduates who are willing to work in the country will also be offered a higher starting salary and will be given immediate permanency with the Education Department.

    "He says the State Government has started recruiting students six months early to compete with private schools.

    "Mr McGowan says he hopes this recruitment initiative will help solve the state's teacher shortage and attract more people to the profession.

    "A good way of ensuring that we have a workforce and an education system that is fully staffed is to make sure we get in early and we offer packages that are attractive, give packages that are attractive to graduate teachers," he said.

    "That's why we're starting now."

    "University of Western Australia dean of education Bill Louden says it is a good move, as most final-year teaching students are offered jobs in private schools midway through their final year.

    "We noticed that last year, three quarters of our young people had jobs after they'd finished their last prac and before their last exams but because only private schools were offering jobs early, they were taking jobs in private schools," he said."

    From ABC News at link
    
    Similar story in The Sunday Times [not available online]
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Parents in firing line
    by Joe Spagnolo
    
    "Parents should limit their children's television and computer time and make them healthy meals, according to the State Government.

    "It is spending tens of thousands of dollars to send WA families colour textbooks about how to be good parents.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan, who commissioned the booklets, said parents had a responsibility to their children that went beyond dropping them at school every morning.

    "It's not up to schools to do everything,'' he said. "Parents need to take responsibility for their children's education.

    "I don't want to hear excuses from parents as to why they can't help their children. Even if you are not well-educated yourself, it does not absolve you of responsibilities.''

    "The Government has spent $60,000 distributing 215,000 copies of the booklet Schools and You to families with children in government primary and secondary schools.

    "It has been trying to push through legislation to force uncaring parents to lift their standards. But the legislation has stalled in the Upper House where the Opposition has knocked out key elements of the Bill, including parental orders..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Times at link [Also see +/- related Op Ed in The Sunday Melbourne Age]
    
    
    

  • Stalker fears at girls' school
    
    An exclusive private girls' school in Claremont has sent a warning to parents after a man driving a white van stalked an 11-year-old student this week.
    
    
    
    
  • Students hit out at 'censorship'
    
    University of Notre Dame students say they are being denied a voice because of excessive censorship of their magazine by the vice-chancellor.
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Washington Post
  
  
  • Schools Pinched In Hiring
    by Michael Alison Chandler
    
    Teacher Shortage Looms As Law Raises Bar and Boomer Women Retire
    
    "As hundreds of thousands of baby boomers retire and the No Child Left Behind law raises standards for new teachers, school systems across the country are facing a growing scarcity of qualified recruits.

    "A labor force that for generations cushioned teacher shortages and kept salaries relatively low is disappearing. Three-quarters of the nation's more than 3 million public school teachers are women, a figure that has changed little over four decades. But in that time, women have become more educated, with more career choices than ever. So far, schools are not faring well on the open market.

    "It's not that you don't have some terrifically talented people going into teaching. You do," said Richard J. Murnane, an economist at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. "The issue is that you don't have enough. And many are the most likely to leave teaching, because they have lots of other opportunities." ...
    
    "The growing paucity of talented recruits comes as federal policies are tightening requirements for teacher qualifications.

    "The No Child Left Behind law, recognizing widespread research that shows teacher quality helps drive student achievement, requires teachers to have college degrees, full state teaching licenses and demonstrated proficiency in their subjects. The requirement is intended to keep school systems from relying on emergency credentials or assigning teachers to subjects they are not certified to teach..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Washington Post at link

    
    
    
• The Times
  
  
  • Ditch lessons, schools are told
    by Geraldine Hackett, Education Correspondent
    
    "State secondary schools are being told to ditch lessons in academic subjects and replace them with month-long projects on themes such as global warming.

    "The pressure to scrap the traditional timetable in favour of cross-curricular topics is coming from the government’s teaching advisers, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).

    "It has provoked anger from traditionalists who believe it marks a return to discredited “trendy” techniques.

    "Schools piloting the new-style lessons for 11-14-year-olds have merged history, geography and citizenship, with teachers drawing up the lessons in teams.

    "Mick Waters, the QCA’s curriculum director, believes the changes will help spur enthusiasm and cut truancy. He said: “The challenge for schools is to create a nourishing and appetising feast that will sustain learners and meet their needs.

    “Although the national curriculum is organised into subjects, it has never been a requirement to deliver it entirely as discrete subjects.”

    "Critics, however, have insisted that the project-based approach, which was popular in primary schools until the 1990s, led to pupils failing to master the basics.

    "Alan Smithers, professor of education at Buckingham University, said: “This will narrow what children learn. People come with up these ideas for the less academic but they wouldn’t dream of letting their own children be taught in this way.”

    "The first sign of a backlash from teachers has emerged with a petition on the Downing Street website against the removal of some of the academic content from a science GCSE curriculum launched last September.

    "About 130 science teachers have signed the petition, which calls for the course to be scrapped because it requires pupils to discuss issues such as pollution but not to learn “hard science”, such as the periodic table in chemistry..."
    
    Full story in The Times at link
    
    Similar story in The Independent
    
    
    

• The Independent
  
  
  • Children to try out six languages before they start secondary school
    
    The idea is to give them a taste of all six so they can then decide for themselves which language to opt for when they transfer to secondary school.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Sunday Telegraph
  
  
  • Principals learn defence plans
    by Sharri Markson
    
    "Primary school principals will undergo police training in how to deal with violent intruders who pose a threat to teachers and students under a new state government safety plan.

    "Principals at the state's 2251 schools will take half-day training by police and education officials using a simulated computer program where a real-life drama unfolds.

    "Under the plan, called Exercise Satchel, principals will rehearse what they would do if their school was involved in a serious incident, such as a violent invader coming into close contact with students.

    "They will also discuss a plan of action if the intruder is armed.

    "Department of Education safety and security director Ike Ellis said the mobile computer training is a world first.

    "We sit the principals down and a scenario develops before them on screen. Their responses are recorded,'' he said.

    "The new program is being rolled out this year to all principals and will continue in 2008.

    "The training comes as new figures show children are bringing an assortment of dangerous weapons into schools and using them to attack and steal from fellow students.

    "Principals at NSW public schools suspended 559 students for up to 20 days each last year for using or bringing a banned weapon, such as a knife, to school or for threatening another person with a weapon.

    "New Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research data shows 156 children aged 10-17 committed assaults or robberies using a knife, brick, glass bottle, rock or screwdriver on school grounds last year.

    "There were also 98 sexual offences on school property in 2006. In one horrific incident, two people under 17-years-old sexually assaulted a victim with an iron club.

    "Altogether, police recorded 1242 assaults and 24 robberies in schools last year, however it is not known whether the attacks occurred during school time or after hours.

    "Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research director Don Weatherburn said the majority of school assaults occurred during lunch breaks.

    "He said there had been a two per cent increase in the number of schoolyard assaults in the past year.

    "The fights are very often provoked by racial taunts or social exclusion,'' he said.

    "Education Minister John Della Bosca said there was a crackdown on bad behaviour in schools with $65 million being spent on discipline initiatives.

    "When you have 740,000 students, there will always be some discipline measures required, but our schools remain among the safest places in our community,'' he said.

    "Opposition education spokesman Andrew Stoner said there were new reports of bullying, violence and threats to student safety each week in schools.

    "These new statistics only confirm that Morris Iemma and Labor have failed to guarantee the safety of our children in NSW public schools,'' he said."
    
    From The Sydney Sunday Telegraph at link

    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Canberra Times
  
  
  • School calls for fairer funding System needs a shake-up
    
    Commonwealth funding for non-government schools in the ACT is unfair, flawed and in need of an urgent shake-up, according to the head of a small Canberra school.
    
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Time to think inside the box
    by Melinda Houston
    
    "Junk food, toy guns and sequinned boob tubes are the least of our worries. While we fret and quarrel over advertising screened during children's television, we seem to be missing a far more crucial issue. The stuff that takes up space between the ads, the programs themselves.

    At a time when kids are watching more TV than ever, and get more of their information about the world from electronic media, quality content has never been more important. And children's television in Australia is in big trouble..."
    
    "There's never been more talk about Australian values, but that concern is not being reflected in any concomitant concern about what our kids are seeing on the telly. There's a reason actors, writers, directors and producers keep bleating about the need for us to "tell our own stories": storytelling is central to any culture, it's how we define and explain ourselves to ourselves. And that's very important when it comes to children, who are employed pretty much full-time in creating themselves and making sense of the world..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed / Blog [reader comments invited]
    Politics aside, an end to the tears is our priority
    by Noel Pearson, Director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership
    
    Worth a look
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    A failed indigenous experiment ends
    
    National emergency confirms three decades of denial

    "The declaration of a national emergency in Aboriginal Australia puts an end to the great experiment of exceptionalism that glorified indigenous culture but was blinded to the modern-day scourges of welfare dependency, substance abuse and boredom. After a decade spent shouting in the wilderness, Aboriginal advocate Noel Pearson has finally been heard. His message is that free money and access to grog has polluted many Aboriginal communities to a point beyond the capacity for a negotiated retreat to the accepted norms of social behaviour. The release of a report into physical and sexual abuse of children in the Northern Territory was the final straw for the Howard Government. That a bipartisan consensus exists to attempt to put things right speaks volumes about how bad they have become..."
    
    Full Editorial in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    

  
  © The Weekend Australian
  
  

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Most Talked About: Tackling Abuse [7 Letters]
      
      
      
      
  • Unis slow to meet mining demands
    
    The number of enrolments in mining-related subjects in Australian universities plummeted on the eve of the resources boom... Figures compiled for The Weekend Australian suggest universities have been slow to respond to massive demand in the industry, despite dire warnings almost 10 years ago.
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Child abuse crackdown on benefits
    by Misha Schubert and Lindsay Murdoch
    
    "Families across Australia could be subject to tough new rules linking their children's school attendance and basic welfare to government payments.

    "As debate raged over the Federal Government's dramatic strike against indigenous child sex abuse, Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough said he was considering introducing food stamps in the form of Eftpos cards for anyone receiving family benefits whose child's wellbeing was in doubt..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    Very similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald

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