Monday 25 June

Tuesday 26 June

Wednesday 27 June

Thursday 28 June

Friday 29 June

Saturday – Sunday, 30 June – 1 July

 

Monday 25 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teaching reading goes back to basics (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "WA schools have been told to emphasise the traditional phonics method of teaching reading when they prepare courses for next year.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan has endorsed strongly the need for explicit teaching of phonics as part of his back-to-basics push for WA education.

    "Speaking out after University of WA education dean Bill Louden attacked the Federal Government for failing to act on a report it commissioned the way literacy was taught in Australia and which was released 18 months ago, Mr McGowan backed calls to increase the emphasis on phonics teaching the early primary school years.

    "Professor Louden, who chaired a wide-ranging literacy and numeracy review for the State Government late last year, said most WA teachers already used phonics but how well it was taught varied between classrooms.

    "He recommended that the Education Department develop more practical resources focusing on explicit teaching of phonics.

    "Mr McGowan has refused to reveal his detailed response to the Louden review so far, but yesterday he said explicit phonics teaching would be included in the new kindergarten to Year 10 syllabuses.

    "This will stress the importance of a phonics programme in the early years," he said. "Schools should be taking a balanced approach to the teaching of reading and that involves instruction that supports the development of oral language, vocabulary, grammar, reading fluency and comprehension."

    "Mr McGowan also signalled a crackdown on teaching reading, writing and maths, saying he expects struggling students to be managed individually after a decade of Statewide literacy and numeracy tests had shown no significant improvement in results.

    "The Federal report, Teaching Reading, said research proved that the systematic teaching of phonics, in which children are shown how to link sounds with letters, played a vital role in learning to read.

    "It also said the whole language approach, which immerses children in books so they are encourage to guess at words using picture and context clues, was not a suitable method on its own. WA schools use a balance of both methods.

    "WA Primary Principals' Association president Colin Pettit yesterday backed the renewed emphasis on phonics. "It does form an important part of reading, though it's not the only part," he said."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Truancy laws on fast track (page 4)
    
    "A plan discussed with State governments to deal with school attendance and child protection problems would go to Federal Cabinet within days, Family and Community Services Minister Mal Brough said..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    See related story on ABC News
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • There's little evidence of so-called boom

      "Since moving to WA in February I've been mystified about the so-called boom this State is meant to be enjoying. I'm yet to see any evidence of positively affecting the lives of West Australians.

      "I've seen many negative effects - higher taxes and cost of living, overcrowded roads and hospital emergency departments - while incomes for public tertiary-sector employees fail to reflect the economic growth or even compare favourably with States that are not "booming".

      "My wife had to take a 15% salary cut for a health position here compared with the equivalent one she had in NSW. No wonder there are teacher and nurse shortages - "move to WA where it'll cost you more to live and we'll pay you less!"

      "The only people I see gaining from this "boom" are real-estate agents and mining executives, and the engineers and tradespeople who are going to capitalise on this State's resources and services and then take their rapidly gotten gains back home.

      "Why do we not see the State's Government using this "boom" to invest in its basic workforce infrastructure? A 30% pay rise for health and education workers would be a reasonable start. It's time those who keep the place running in and out of "boom" times receive due recognition."

      Martin Ebert, Kensington
      
      

    • Equal pay values

      "Perhaps the salary tribunal that John Howard and all politicians back so strongly should use Julie Bishop's merit payment teacher model. How many representatives would be able to show any tangible improvement in problem-solving, knowledge of Australian History, manners, grammar, spelling, participation in physical activity, understanding of cultural and religious differences, environmental awareness (global warming, recycling, saving water ) happiness, volunteering, the workings of government, electoral system knowledge and sensible use of pharmaceuticals, complementary drugs, medical, privacy and consumer rights, and so on of their electorate any more than an experienced, competent teacher can with "the class from Hell" in almost every school in the world."

      Jardine Jamieson , Kalgan Heights.
      
      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • WA awards school truancy software contract

    "An Adelaide-based company which makes products aimed at curbing student truancy has won a contract with the Western Australian Government.

    "MGM Wireless says it will supply up to 800 schools with its SMS messaging software.

    "It will allow an alert to be sent to parents on their mobile phones if their child is absent from school."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Labor plans release of school rankings
    by Jewel Topsfield, Canberra
    
    "All states would be asked to publish school league tables comparing student performances in literacy and numeracy under a Labor government, in a move that continues the party's shift to the centre on education.

    "Teaching unions and most state Labor governments oppose the tables, but federal Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith told The Age he believed the results of the standardised tests should be made publicly available.

    "Under Mr Smith's plan, tables of the results of year 3, 5, 7 and 9 national literacy and numeracy tests would be published.

    "A federal Labor government would seek the agreement of the states to link federal funding of schools to the publication of the results. [emphasis added]

    "Mr Smith said publishing the results would identify which schools were struggling. He said this would help with public policy decisions, including identifying the need for early interventions, such as literacy and numeracy programs.

    "If we can improve those kids' outcomes, we can improve our secondary school retention rates, and then ultimately we'll reduce the number of kids who eventually fall into unemployment or low-skilled jobs, which subsequently disappear," he said.

    "In February, federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said parents had a right to know how schools were performing. She said the states had a wealth of data about individual schools but refused to publish it.

    "Although limited information is available in annual reports, such as the proportion of students meeting national benchmarks, Western Australia is the only state to publish school rankings.

    "A spokesman for Victorian Education Minister John Lenders said any suggestion on how to improve the way information was used to better help students, parents and schools would be examined on merit.

    "But the Victorian Government is clearly sensitive about school league tables.

    "Last week it released data to The Age about the career pathways of year 12 graduates only on the proviso that rankings or league tables not be created.

    "In NSW, legislation was introduced to prevent the publication of school league tables after one school, Mount Druitt High, was branded a failure in a comparison of university admissions in 1996.

    "Teacher unions argue that "naming and shaming" poor-performing schools is a punitive approach, leading to parents pulling students out of schools until only those who cannot afford to move remain.

    "Australian Education Union federal president Pat Byrne said literacy and numeracy tests provided only a tiny indication of how a school was performing. She said a school may have excellent programs, but the results could be skewed by factors such as high numbers of children from non-English-speaking backgrounds."

    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    • Sidebar story: On your mark
      
      
      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Urgent call to tame cyber delinquents
    by Milanda Rout
    
    "Children as young as eight are being bullied in internet chat rooms and primary schoolers are sending pornographic pictures on their mobiles as the menace of cyber bullying reaches a new legion of younger victims.
    
    "Experts are calling for radical action to try to halt the increase in "shocking" behaviour by some children and teenagers in chat rooms and on mobile phones and websites such as YouTube and MySpace.

    "They want a national public education campaign similar to the Cancer Council's "Slip, Slop, Slap" to inform adults and children to think twice about the damage they are doing in cyberspace - to "Think B4 U click".

    "Principals have reported cases of cyber bullying, including primary school children emailing a picture of a rotting human body with messages such as "Have a nice nightmare" and students using text messages to harass one another 24 hours a day..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Unis dig deep for chiefs, not students
    
    NSW universities have found enough pocket money to increase their most senior executives' salaries by up to 22 per cent yet plan to raise student fees to ease their financial woes.

Tuesday 26 June

• The Australian
  
  
  • Blainey to lead history review
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "The appointments of controversial historian Geoffrey Blainey and social commentator Gerard Henderson to help draft a national Australian history curriculum has been attacked as an example of the federal Government imposing its ideological bent on schoolchildren.

    "The two appointments were announced by Education Minister Julie Bishop as part of a four-member committee, along with Australian National University history fellow and editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography Nicholas Brown and respected NSW schools history inspector Jennifer Lawless.

    "But the NSW Government and its curriculum authority, the NSW Board of Studies, yesterday denounced the process as being flawed and ideologically driven, refusing to allow the participation of Ms Lawless.

    "Federal ALP education spokesman Stephen Smith would not comment on individuals on the committee, but NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca questioned the suitability of the appointments, saying Professor Blainey held a particular view of Australian history and Mr Henderson was not a professional historian.

    "There are many respected Australian historians who could have done this job better and whose expertise would have been more relevant," he said.

    "The chairman of the NSW Board of Studies, Gordon Stanley, joined Mr Della Bosca in condemning the process, and both said they had not been approached about Ms Lawless's involvement before the announcement by Ms Bishop.

    "Ms Lawless was a participant at the Australian History Summit held by the federal Government last year to discuss the teaching of history, and was selected as a member of the working group that drafted recommendations that arose from the summit.

    "Professor Stanley refused to explain why Ms Lawless's participation in the process was now unacceptable, and Mr Della Bosca said only that the process was flawed, a stunt and would not lead to a balanced outcome.

    "NSW will not lend its highly skilled personnel and its reputation for having excellent teaching and learning materials to an ideologically driven stunt where there has been no consultation and no attempt to achieve balance," he said.
    
    "Professor Blainey has been a prominent player in the nation's history wars, originally bringing to prominence the phrase the "black armband view of history" to contrast with the "three cheers view of history".

    "Professor Blainey was suggesting that Australians were too ashamed of their past, particularly the early treatment of the indigenous population, and should celebrate their successes.

    "The phrase was seized on by John Howard to challenge the view that Australia was conquered, and became the focus of his attack on the downgrading of the teaching of history in Australian schools.

    "The so-called history wars were documented by one of the most vocal critics of Mr Howard's views, Melbourne University history professor Stewart Macintyre, who became the chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University this year.

    "But Professor Macintyre yesterday welcomed Professor Blainey's appointment, saying he was one of Australia's most talented historians and a superb teacher.

    "Professor Macintyre was encouraged by the diversity of opinions represented on the committee and said while people might disagree with Professor Blainey's views, his credentials were unassailable.

    "He's an extraordinarily gifted historian and someone who has the very rare capacity to teach. I can't imagine Geoffrey Blainey would want to impose his particular view of history on Australian schoolchildren," he said. [emphasis added]

    "People will raise their eyebrows about Gerard Henderson; we studied history together and he has strong views but I think the difficulty is he is out of touch with the discipline and has had very limited teaching experience."

    "Professor Macintyre said the challenge was to interest students studying history by compulsion rather than choice, which was where the experience of Ms Lawless would have been valuable.

    "Mr Henderson said Professor Blainey was one of Australia's most eminent historians, and although they had disagreed in the past, he was confident they could get together on this project. "It would be foolish to dismiss his enormous contribution over decades," he said.

    "Mr Henderson said there were two major traditions in Australian political history; the conservative exemplified by Robert Menzies and the social democratic tradition espoused by John Curtin and Bob Hawke. "They're both very valid traditions," he said.

    "Ms Bishop accused the NSW Government of being heavy-handed in its refusal to release Ms Lawless, who had more than 20 years' experience teaching in Australian public schools, making her an ideal member of the committee.

    "Why is Minister Della Bosca seeking to deprive other states of the expertise gained in NSW from the teaching of Australian history as a stand-alone subject?" she said.

    "But Mr Della Bosca said the appointment of Professor Blainey and Mr Henderson undermined the process, and represented the federal Government enforcing its own ideology on history teaching."

    From The Australian at link
    
    Similar story in The Melbourne Age
    
    
    
  • Return to classroom for inept teacher
    
    A "seriously incompetent" teacher who could not control her students and was accused by her school of failing to explain basic English concepts has been given the all-clear to continue working in the classroom... The panel of three teachers found she was seriously incompetent at classroom management but could remain a registered teacher by undertaking 10 hours of professional development and being helped by a mentor.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • For teachers, the future spells grammar
    by Anna Patty Education Editor
    
    "All students learning to become teachers will be required to study spelling and grammar and how to control classroom behaviour.

    "The NSW Minister for Education, John Della Bosca, will today release the new teacher standards, which will be compulsory in all universities across the state from 2009 and the first of their kind in Australia.

    "The standards are likely to be adopted nationally, since teacher institutes around the country have agreed to propose the NSW model to the premiers' conference later this year.

    "The NSW Institute of Teachers developed the new standards, which include basic literacy, managing classroom behaviour and computer skills. Students will be prepared for teaching children with disabilities and those from an indigenous or non-English-speaking background.

    "Mr Della Bosca said the standards were being introduced because "every child deserves a good teacher".

    "Teachers who graduate from universities to teach in NSW schools must be properly prepared for what they will face in the classroom," he said.

    "The mandatory content will ensure universities have a crystal-clear understanding of what schools, parents and the entire community expect of graduates."

    "Primary-school teachers will be prepared to teach reading, writing and comprehension skills. Secondary-school teachers would be taught how to continue developing literacy in all high school subjects.

    "Teachers would also be required to understand Aboriginal history and its significance for indigenous Australians. They will also have to demonstrate an understanding of the learning needs of indigenous students in the city and bush.

    "Teachers would also "need to understand what constitutes racism and anti-racism strategies, policies and legislation and have an awareness of the key stakeholders in Aboriginal education".

    "Students would also be required to study multiculturalism and be able to respond to pupils from different cultures and languages.

    "Courses would also show students how to teach children with a disability or behaviour disorder and they would study child development and mental health.

    "Information technologies would also be an important part of teacher-training courses.

    "The chief executive of the NSW Institute of Teachers, Tom Alegounarias, said the requirements had nothing to do with any perception or evidence of a decline in literacy standards. "There is no evidence that the literacy standards of teachers have fallen, but community expectations are increasing," Mr Alegounarias said.

    "The deputy president of the NSW Teachers' Federation, Angelo Gavrielatos, said the changes had been developed in consultation with the profession.

    "We have always sought improvements in the preparation of teachers to better equip them with the necessary skills to be able to address the myriad of issues and complexities of teaching in the 21st century," Mr Gavrielatos said.

    "The federation also supports the expansion of prac teaching, which gives trainee teaching experience before graduation."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Op Ed
    We are missing the mark on national education policy [late update from 25 June]
    by Simon Marginson, Professor of Higher Education, University of Melbourne's Centre for the Study of Higher Education
    
    Policy makers need to shun short-term politics for long-term vision
    
    "Education, science and scholarship are the tools for understanding and coping with the many challenges facing us in future. But Australians need to consider whether the tools this country has at its disposal will be sufficient to meet these challenges.

    "Compared to education, training and research in North America, Western Europe, Singapore, Korea and China, Australia is going backwards. Our total spending on education was once well above the OECD average. Now, at 5.8 per cent of GDP, it has fallen below the average and trails the United States and Korea, which spend 7.5 per cent. And, while our spending on private education is higher than average, public spending is just 4.3 per cent, compared with the OECD average of 5.2 per cent.

    "Australia has two research universities in the world's top 100 (ANU at No. 54 and Melbourne at 78) but the UK has 11, Canada and Sweden each have four and even tiny Switzerland has three.

    "Because education is essentially an investment in the future there is always a danger that governments fixated on opinion polls will neglect it. Regrettably, public policy over the last two decades has left the nation with four crucial weaknesses in this area.

    "Firstly, though it is now well recognised that early learning at ages three to five years is the foundation for everything that happens later, only 42 per cent of Australian three and four-year-olds are enrolled in pre-school programs. We spend an infinitesimal 0.1 per cent of GDP on early learning (one-fifth of the OECD average) and we staff our pre-schools with the worst-paid teachers when they ought to be among the best.

    "Secondly, only 77 per cent of our 15 to 19-year-olds are in education. In Canada, it's 91 per cent. Comparative standards testing shows that, while our high achievers at school are as good as those of other nations, our low achievers are not. The legacy of weak early learning and a divided school system is an underclass of people who leaves school early, with poor job prospects.

    "Thirdly, after early learning, vocational education and training is the most under-funded area of education, the casualty of a decade of buck-passing and blame-shifting between federal and state governments since their funding agreement collapsed in the late 1990s.

    "Finally, higher education is now just 41 per cent government-funded. Since 1995, public funding for each student has fallen by 30 per cent, much the largest such decline in the OECD. Fee-based courses have expanded to fill the gap. A quarter of all students in Australian universities are now fee-paying overseas students..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • $10m funding to help 700 schools
    
    More than 700 schools will share $10 million in funding for maintenance and repair works the State Government announced yesterday, with an additional $6 million to fund toilet block upgrades at 58 schools.
    
    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • Study on I.Q. Prompts Debate on Family Dynamics
    by Benedict Carey
    
    "The new evidence that eldest children develop higher I.Q.’s than their siblings has intensified the debate over two of the most stubborn questions in social science: What are the family dynamics that enhance intelligence? And can they — and should they — be changed?
    
    "The new findings, from a landmark study published Friday, showed that eldest children had a slight but significant edge in I.Q. — an average of three points over the closest sibling. And it found that the difference was not because of biological factors but the psychological interplay of parents and children..."
    
    Full story in The New York Times at link
    
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Ex-Aides Break With Bush on 'No Child'
    
    Five years after they helped craft and implement the initiative, senior administration officials from Bush's first term are speaking out against the law with increasing boldness. The shift, combined with mounting criticism from both the political right and left in Congress, is causing supporters of the law to worry that it might not win renewal this year.
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • 150,000 pupils targeted by homophobic bullies
    by Tim Ross, PA Education Correspondent
    
    "More than 150,000 pupils have been targeted by school bullies because they are gay, research suggested today.

    "Two-thirds of lesbian and gay pupils have experienced homophobic bullying, ranging from verbal abuse to violence and even death threats, the survey by equality organisation Stonewall found.

    "About half of teachers did not intervene when children used homophobic language like "dyke", "queer" or "rug muncher" , the study said.

    "And some pupils even claimed their teachers joined in with the abuse..."

    Full story in The Independent at link
    
    
    
    
• ALP Media Releases
  
  
  • Education Minister Mark McGowan Media Statement
    
    Parents with children starting public school kindergarten next year will soon receive a booklet full of ideas to help them become involved in their child’s learning.

    Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan said the booklet, called Learning begins at home, was an invaluable resource for parents.

    “It provides parents with practical information, ideas and activities to create a stimulating learning environment at home,” Mr McGowan said.

    “The booklet also has tips on how parents can help their children with reading, writing and maths as well as information on services, activities and fun things to do in the community.

    “Being actively involved in your child’s learning, by reading to them and telling them stories, is a great way to prepare them for starting school.”

    Mr McGowan said parents have until Friday July 27 to enrol their child in kindergarten and pre-primary for 2008.

    “Kindergarten and pre-primary programs in public schools offer the next step in a child’s educational journey,” he said.

    “These programs build on the learning experiences provided at home by parents, with a focus on literacy, numeracy, building relationships and physical activity.

    “In partnership with parents, teachers encourage children to explore, play, learn and develop positive attitudes to learning.”

    Children who turn four on or before June 30 next year can go to kindergarten in 2008.

    Those who turn five on or before June 30 next year can attend pre-primary in 2008.

    For more information about kindergarten and pre-primary or to download a copy of the Learning begins at home booklet visit http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/ece.

    Minister's office - 9222 9111
    
    
    

  • TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW – MADONNA KING, ABC 612AM, BRISBANE
    TUESDAY, 26 JUNE 2007

    SUBJECT: SKILLS SHORTAGES; SCHOOL RETENTION; LABOR’S TRADES TRAINING CENTRES; STUDYING & TEACHING MATHS & SCIENCE; EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION; PARENTAL CHOICE IN SCHOOL EDUCATION; INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION

    KING: Australia will be short of 250,000 workers over the next five years. That’s what the figures suggest. We often talk about education and careers and how we’re going to fill these jobs, but how are we going to do that and what industries are they in? The skills shortage, our politicians keep calling it, is something we’re going to start looking at in depth on this program.

    This morning, Kevin Rudd’s Spokesman on Education is in Brisbane. He’s here to address the Queensland Teachers Union, apart from other things, and I thought we’d ask him about this skills crisis.

    Good morning Stephen Smith.

    SMITH: Good morning Madonna.

    KING: Now good news, you were just telling me that every time you come it seems to rain in Brisbane?

    SMITH: Every time I’ve been in this studio it’s rained. I think it’s certainly three times, a good thing!

    KING: Do you think you should come back perhaps a bit more often?

    SMITH: Well, I’m scheduled to be in Queensland on a regular basis between now and the election.

    KING: You and every other politician I suggest.

    How serious is the skills shortage that we’re looking at?

    SMITH: Well, it’s very serious and the figure you quoted is essentially the Government’s own figure. That’s arisen, in our view, from a period of long-term complacency and neglect. Not making the investments in vocational education and training, including in our TAFEs. But also because of, more recently, a resources boom to China.

    So, it’s now twofold. In the traditional trades: electricians, plumbers, painters, carpenters.

    And that has adverse implications not just for industry but also for householders. I don’t know what it’s like in as much detail here, but in Perth, getting those skilled traditional tradesmen is difficult for householders, let alone for industry.

    But also, we’re now seeing a skills shortage in some of the professional areas that are very important to our economic and productive future.

    KING: Like…?

    SMITH: Engineering, scientists, mathematicians. And last week in the Parliament, there was a Skills Summit put on by the Professional Engineers Association which drew attention to some of the professional skills deficits that we now have: Metallurgists, Geologists.

    So, there’s a bit of an irony that in the industry where we’re now seeing booms both in Queensland and in Western Australia, my own State, we’ve got that professional skills shortage as well. It requires a long term investment at every level.

    KING: Some people would say that your former Government’s partly to blame. I remember in the 1980s, I remember working in Canberra and the whole emphasis was on stopping your child thinking they were going to finish school in grade 12. Everyone had to have a University degree and as a result of that, some people would say we’ve stopped thinking about the trades and putting people through the trades. But you’re saying there’s as bigger problem in those areas where we have University graduates?

    SMITH: Well, certainly we’ve got to do better to keep kids in school till Year 12. All of the studies show a couple of things. Firstly, that our secondary school retention rates have stagnated over the last half dozen to 10 years at about 75 per cent.

    We’ve committed ourselves to increasing that to 85 per cent and ultimately 90 per cent because all the evidence says that if you finish secondary school, you’ve effectively got double the chance of getting another qualification. Now, that might be an apprenticeship or a vocational education and training qualification either from a TAFE or from a private registered training organisation, or indeed a University.

    We’ve just recently launched a $2.5 billion Trades Training Centres in schools program to do two things. To increase those retention rates. But also to give kids in secondary school a much better taste of those traditional trades and vocational skills to get the numbers through to address that skills shortage that we spoke about earlier.

    KING: That’s at one end of the market but at the other end, how do we convince people to become scientists and mathematicians and engineers?

    SMITH: Well, again we’ve got to encourage young Australians to do those things that, to use the phrase, the Nation State regards as important. One of the early Education Revolution documents that we released in January or February this year was to encourage young Australians to both study and teach Maths and Science.

    In our secondary schools, one in ten maths teachers have got a maths major and less than 25 per cent of science teachers have got a science degree. So, our suggestion was to reduce the HECS contribution that maths and science students need to pay. But then, if you stay in a relevant occupation, i.e. teaching, that we will remit by 50 per cent the HECS debt that you have to pay once you’re in employment.

    KING: We’re not going to fix this skills crisis in five years are we?

    SMITH: No, we’re not. It requires a long-term investment and this is our great criticism of the Government generally when it comes to economic policy. Yes, we’ve had 16 years of continuous economic growth, a lot of that, everyone acknowledges, set up by the reforms of the previous Hawke-Keating Labor Governments…

    KING: Well, not everyone…

    SMITH: Oh no, I think even John Howard, you know, in his begrudging moments will have to acknowledge that. But all the objective economists and commentators do. And then more recently a resources boom. But the Government hasn’t provided for our long-term productive future. That means making the investments in education, and in skills and in training.

    KING: I don’t think there’s an issue we report on more on this program than education. You know, whether you’re a mum, a dad, a grandparent, a teacher, whatever, it’s crucial for our future.

    In really simple terms, where does the proposed Kevin Rudd Government differ most from the education policies put out by Julie Bishop?

    SMITH: Well, we believe you’ve got to invest much more in education at every level. Investing in education, skills and training of our people and our workforce is the single most important thing we can do, firstly, to maximise an individual young Australian’s potential, give them a chance to get ahead. But, secondly, and this is the real importance these days generally, it’s the single most important economic investment we can make.

    Our argument is that at every level, whether it’s early childhood education, primary, secondary, vocational education and training, Universities or on-the-job training and professional skills development, the Government has not invested as much as it should.

    KING: How much more in money terms would you put in?

    SMITH: Well, our comparisons now have to be international. In the old days you’d make a comparison between what was being invested in, say a Western Australian school or University, versus a Queensland school or University. Our horizons now have to be much broader than that. How are we going as compared with neighbouring countries and internationally? We are now in an international competition for education at every level.

    KING: But, that doesn’t answer the question of how much more money an ALP Government would give to education than a Coalition Government?

    SMITH: Well, I don’t think we can invest enough, that’s the first point. Secondly, it’s got to be a long-term enduring commitment…

    KING: But, there has to be a limit too…I mean…

    SMITH: Sure, you’ve got to be responsible. But we need to start thinking in terms of a long-term investment, not a cost. Just a couple of examples, in early childhood education we are one-fifth the OECD average. So, in January this year we announced a half billion dollar program to open up early childhood education, 15 hours a week for four year olds. And in our Trades Training Centre program, that’s a $2.5 billion program giving every secondary school, 2,650 secondary schools across the country, and a chance for up to $1.5 million in assistance in those traditional trades training areas.

    KING: Then how are you going to fund these things?

    SMITH: Well, as I say, we’ve had economic growth for 16 years, a resources boom to China, we see surplus after surplus, and we will do it in a responsible way. We of course want to continue to operate with surpluses, we will do it in a responsible way. But we’ve just said we will make investing in education at every level our top priority.

    KING: You mentioned about the four year olds, and this is often a big debate on whether we’re requiring our kids to begin formal schooling too early. Are we forgetting to let kids be kids? What do you think there?

    SMITH: Well, firstly, our Early Childhood Program won’t be compulsory. It will be 15 hours a week of play-related education if mums and dads want to take it up. But again, all the studies show that, particularly for kids that might come from a disadvantaged background or a dysfunctional background, that if you can get the investment in early, you’ve got a much better chance of getting, ultimately, a successful educational outcome.

    KING: But is four too early? In other countries around the world do they do it earlier?

    SMITH: Well, as I say, when we talk about early childhood education we’re talking about, you know, four going on five, so the year before you go into primary school. The investment we make in early childhood education is one-fifth the OECD average. Fiona Stanley from my own State of Western Australia has done a lot of work in early childhood development, and she’s developed a thing called the Early Development Index.

    KING: We’ve spoken to her about that.

    SMITH: That follows on from a lot of good work internationally, particularly in Canada. But all the evidence, all the research shows that if you can make an investment early in kids, you’ve got a much better chance of a first class educational outcome.

    Just very quickly, I still go to primary schools in my electorate and I see kids in grade 3, 4, 5, and 6, their ultimate educational outcome has already been determined. And it’s not finishing secondary school, it’s not going to TAFE or doing an apprenticeship, it’s not going to University. It’s scarpering from school at the first available legal opportunity.

    KING: It would be naïve to think that you can fix that?

    SMITH: We can. In the 80s and 90s we massively increased secondary school retention. We think we can do that again by making the traditional trades training suite available to young Australians. If you finish secondary school you’ve got double the chance of getting another qualification and double chance of staying in gainful employment for all of your adult life.

    KING: Well, one of the things your doing up in Brisbane is addressing the Queensland Teachers Union, what’s the point of that address?

    SMITH: Well, it’s the Queensland Teachers Union Conference today. They invited Kevin. Kevin couldn’t do it, he’s up in Cairns, and so I’m a substitute.

    I’ll be speaking to them about some of the important areas where we think in schools investments need to be made.

    I think historically in Australia we’ve occasionally been at risk of ending up with a two tiered system. For a while in the 60s and the 70s that was poor Catholic schools. If we’re not careful now it’ll be poor Government primary schools.

    So, I think we’ve got some areas crying out for greater investment: Government primary schools; education in rural and regional Australia generally, the further you are away from the GPO in the capital city of the State or Territory in which you live, then the more chance you have of having a reduced educational outcome; and then special education and indigenous education. They’re the areas, I think, that are crying out for greater investment.

    KING: What do you think is the difference between what’s offered now from our private schools and our public schools?

    SMITH: Well, in very many schools there’s no difference.

    Our attitude is very strong on this. It’s entirely a matter for parents to choose where they want to send their kids. That’s a matter of their choice. Some people do it for personal reasons or for religious reasons and some parents will send their kids to a Government school for primary school and a private school for high school and vice versa.

    We say we’ve got to make a greater investment in all of our schools.

    We’ve also made it clear that we think that the debate we had in the past about taking money off some private schools was divisive and we thought that was a mistake and we won’t be going down that road. But we’re happy to leave that choice to parents. Our key objective is to increase investment in all of our schools and to improve the educational outcomes of all of our schools, irrespective of whether they’re Government or private, whether they’re religious or secular.

    KING: Last question. You’ve got kids that are early teenagers?

    SMITH: I do. Our son is fifteen going on fifteen and our daughter is thirteen going on sixteen, Year 11 and Year 9.

    KING: So what do you think kids that age, teenagers, we all talk about them, what do you think is the biggest issue facing them? There was an amazing study that came out a couple of weeks ago that showed that 25 per cent, one quarter of kids, who are teenagers between 10 and 14 didn’t think that they would make it to adulthood because of terrorism and the like. I mean is it bullying, is it the fear of getting a job? What is it in kids’ minds?

    SMITH: Well, in some respects it’s all of those things. You made the point earlier about are we letting kids, you know, avoid the innocence of childhood. I think, now for example when I go to secondary school graduations and the kids are 16 or 17, often I say to myself they’re like we were in my generation when we were 26 or 27. I think that has a lot to do with the modern mass media information that’s provided. And it’s not just electronic media, it’s online, it’s digital. So the array of information and materials which kids are now exposed to is massively much more than what we were exposed to when we were their age in earlier generations.

    KING: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

    SMITH: Well, it’s both a good thing and potentially a bad thing. One of the things parents do worry about very much is kids being exposed to inappropriate content. The other point is that now, instead of worrying about whether you’ve got an up to date text book, kids get online, they google stuff, they go to reputable sites and they’re much more well informed and that’s obviously a terrific thing.

    KING: Stephen Smith, thank you.

    SMITH: Thanks Madonna.

    KING: That’s Opposition Education Spokesman, Stephen Smith.

    Ends

    Contact: Adam Siddique on (02) 6277 4108 or 0407 473 630

 

Wednesday 27 June

• The Australian
  
  
  • History students may skip Gallipoli
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "High school students would be able to avoid studying Gallipoli and the Anzacs under the draft Australian history curriculum prepared as a result of last year's history summit.

    "The draft for high school history, obtained by The Australian, also overlooks the achievements of the Hawke-Keating governments and theeconomic reforms of the past 25 years.

    "A four-member committee that includes controversial historian Geoffrey Blainey and social commentator Gerard Henderson will now review the curriculum for the federal Government, and develop a national Australian history curriculum for Years 9 and 10.

    "The Government's refusal to release the draft curriculum has prompted speculation among historians that John Howard intervened in the process and appointed Dr Henderson to ensure his more traditional view of history teaching prevailed.

    "Historians questioned Dr Henderson's qualifications for the role, and said his appointment suggested the Prime Minister found the draft curriculum - written by Tony Taylor, Monash University professor and head of the National Centre for History Education - too progressive.

    "This group might see Professor Taylor's draft as not traditional enough and not prescriptive enough and therefore they have been put into position to force the draft into a shape that is more acceptable to the Prime Minister's office," one historian said.

    "The vice-president of the Australian Historical Association, Martin Lyons, said Dr Henderson's inclusion on the committee was puzzling because "he has no experience for this task and his inclusion looks toomuch like an ideological statement".

    "He is there to push a certain political line," he said.

    "The draft curriculum was intended to provide a model for teaching Australian history in a sequential way through primary and high schools, from Years 3 to 10.

    "For high school students, it is structured around 14 guiding questions based on 29 key dates and milestones covering 10 time periods, from the arrival of the first people in 40,000BC to 60,000BC to the late 20th century.

    "Students would be required to study three of four pre-Federation questions, three of four post-Federation questions and two of six questions covering the entire period.

    "Of the four post-Federation questions, only one deals with Australia going to war and the nation's experience, leaving it open for teachers and students to choose the other three questions dealing with how Australia became a nation, who could be an Australian and the role governments play in improving the welfare of the people.

    "In the milestone events identified in the curriculum, the period entitled "Shaping Modern Australia" from 1967 to present names the constitutional referendum on Aborigines and the end of the White Australia policy; the protests against the Vietnam War in 1970-71; the dismissal of the Labor government in 1975; the 1992 Mabo judgment; and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

    "Wollongong University professor of history and politics Gregory Melleuish - author of one of the background papers for the Australian History Summit - criticised the curriculum as providing a patchy view of the nation's history, particularly after World War II. Professor Melleuish said late 20th-century Australian history was presented as a series of social movements including republicanism, feminism and other rights, but was glaring in some of its omissions. "Why is the fall of the Whitlam government seen as one major event and the achievements of the Hawke-Keating governments not seen as counting for anything?" he said.

    "Also appointed to the review committee were ANU history fellow Nicholas Brown and the NSW school history inspector Jennifer Lawless. But NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca on Monday refused to allow Ms Lawless to participate further in the process. Mr Della Bosca questioned the suitability of Dr Henderson's appointment to the reference group, saying he was not a professional historian.

    "But Dr Henderson yesterday defended his inclusion, saying he had a PhD in political history and his "extensive list of publications" included two well-reviewed history books. "Della Bosca seems to hold the view that only tenured academics on taxpayer-subsidised campuses are entitled to be regarded as historians," he writes in The Australian today."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • The Higher Education Supplement has 19 articles today, including:
    
    
    
    • Op Ed
      Ill-prepared for the rigours of uni
      
      A one-size-fits-all higher school certificate doesn't make a lot of sense in the light of Australian and international experience, insists Kevin Donnelly
      
      "Much of the recent higher education debate has focused on issues such as deregulation, the best way to support research and the role of government in funding tertiary institutions. Equally important is the question of identifying the best way to prepare and select students for university study.

      "The question is especially apposite given the Senate employment, workplace relations and education committee's inquiry into the level of academic standards in Australian education.

      "In particular, the committee is investigating "the extent to which each stage of schooling equips students with the required knowledge and skills to progress successfully through to the next stage" and "the standards of academic achievement expected of students qualifying for the senior secondary school certificate in each state and territory".

      "For the baby boomers who went through school during the 1960s and '70s, university preparation was relatively straightforward. The minority of students who stayed on until Year 12 undertook academically based and competitive courses such as Victoria's matriculation, courses designed and assessed for the express purpose of preparing and selecting students for further study.

      "As a consequence of most students leaving before Year 12 and the existence of technical and high schools, with high school students further streamed into academic and non-academic classes, those students undertaking certificates such as matriculation were well suited to the task.

      "This was a time university subject specialists were involved in designing and examining Year 12 subjects. Most university courses specified prerequisite subjects and the success of students was measured by externally set, norm-referenced examinations based on the idea of pass-fail and ranking students in terms of results.

      "As noted in the 2006 report Australian Certificate of Education: Exploring a Way Forward, written by Geoff Masters and other researchers at the Australian Council for Education Research, such is no longer the case.

      "During the past 20 or so years, several state reports have led to or proposed significant changes in Year 12 certificates.

      "Arguments in support of change include the need to cope with the increasing numbers of students staying on to Year 12; the diverse needs, interests and post-school destinations represented by such students; and the need to better equip students with the types of competencies needed for lifelong learning.

      "Within Victoria, during Joan Kirner's reign as education minister and the development of the Victorian Certificate of Education, an argument was also put that traditional academic subjects and competitive, formal examinations privileged wealthy, middle-class students to the detriment of non-English-speaking students and those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.

      "The result of changes? Senior school certificates across Australia no longer are designed primarily to prepare students for university study. Whether measured by the fact that university discipline specialists no longer exert the influence they once did, the explosion in non-academic subjects or the introduction of vocational education and training courses, the present certificates bear little relationship to those of the '60s and '70s.

      "Australian states and territories, except Victoria, where the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning has been introduced, have adopted a one-size-fits-all approach. Students, whether destined for university, a trade or vocational education and the world of work, are made to undertake the one certificate that seeks to be all things to all students, regardless of ability or interest.

      "Controversial certificates such as the proposed West Australian Certificate of Education, with its outcomes-based education approach, and the South Australian Certificate of Education downplay the importance of external, competitive examinations. They adopt a criteria-based approach whereby students are not ranked against each other but assessed against so-called levels of achievement.

      "Year 11 and 12 certificates have been transformed to such a degree that the 2006 Australian Certificate of Education report concludes: "With only a minority of young people now aspiring to enter university directly from Year 12, preparation for tertiary study has ceased to be the primary purpose of senior secondary schooling." [emphasis added]

      "The purpose of senior school certificates, instead of giving university-bound students a rigorous grounding in the established disciplines of knowledge, is defined in a more utilitarian and student-centred way. Studies must be immediately relevant and engaging. Generic competencies and skills, what the ACE report defines as "general capabilities", are given priority.

      "How successful are present approaches? Based on several submissions to the senate inquiry into standards and education, the answer provides cause for concern. There is also anecdotal evidence that increasing participation has become an end in itself and that standards have been compromised as universities fight for market share.

      "Further evidence that all is not well can be found in the submission to the Senate inquiry by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute that argues not enough senior school students are taking more demanding courses, partly because universities have dropped the need for prerequisite subjects; that there is a wide variation in the quality of Year 12 curriculum documents; and that the shortage of well-qualified mathematics teachers is compromising standards.

      "Such concerns are not new. A 2002 Department of Education, Science and Training funded report, titled Changes in Academic Work, noted that 54 per cent of the academics interviewed across Australia believed academic standards had declined through time.

      "A second report, A Survey in Student Standards in Economics in Australian Universities 2003, also suggested senior school courses failed to provide the necessary foundation learning for undergraduate study. It noted that most departments across Australia agreed first-year courses had been watered down.

      "At the Australian Defence Force Academy, where high-achieving students from across Australia compete for entry, such are the concerns about falling standards that remedial classes have been introduced in essay writing and basic algebra.

      "One of the most disappointing aspects of the two ACER reports, the Australian Certificate of Education: Exploring a Way Forward and the Year 12 Curriculum Content and Achievement Standards, is their failure to look internationally for solutions.

      "The international context is especially important given that much of what is occurring here is in opposition to what is happening overseas. Adopting a myopic approach to curriculum is self-defeating.

      "Unlike Australia, many of the countries that are more effective in increasing participation and achieving high standards have a highly differentiated senior school system.

      "Countries such as The Netherlands, Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore, instead of forcing all students to complete the one certificate, have a range of certificates designed to suit the different abilities and needs of students.

      "Through the years, Australian states and territories have gradually reduced the emphasis on externally set competitive examinations by increasing the amount of work requirements completed outside the classroom and increasing the use of school-based moderation to assess work. In Queensland and the ACT, external examinations have disappeared altogether.

      "This should be cause for concern. Research on education systems in countries whose students consistently outperform their Australian counterparts in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study tests concludes that externally set competitive examinations with a strong academic focus are more effective in raising standards.

      "Several papers written by Ludger Woessmann in Germany and John H. Bishop in the US conclude that externally set competitive examinations provide an incentive for students and schools to perform well and minimise the risk of cheating and plagiarism. Standards are raised as students are required to show evidence that they have mastered essential knowledge, understanding and skills necessary for further study.

      "In detailing the benefits of curriculum-based external examinations, Woessmann notes: "Central examinations should have a positive impact on the efficiency of resource use in the education system and on the performance of students. "In accordance with this hypothesis, students in countries with centralised examinations scored 16.1 points higher in mathematics and 10.7 points higher in science than students in countries without centralised examinations."

      "The principal recommendation of the Australian Certificate of Education report is to have a "single Australian Certificate of Education awarded by each of the states and territories in place of existing certificates" on the basis that a single certificate can meet the needs of all students, whether destined for university, a trade or work.

      "The ACER report also recommends that a national standards body be established, with the governing board appointed by the federal education minister, to oversee the work of subject panels made up of curriculum specialists and representatives of subject associations.

      "The national standards body would be responsible for identifying in key subject areas what are termed curriculum essentials, defined as "fundamental knowledge, principles and skills"; and achievement standards, described as "a nationally consistent framework of levels (A to E) against which student performance would be reported"; and overseeing a new national test of employability skills.

      "The dangers of mandating a one-size-fits-all, centrally imposed approach to senior school certificates are manifest. One only needs to imagine the impact on standards if the much criticised West Australian outcomes-based education model were to be adopted nationally and forced on schools. [emphasis added] [We're still the # 1 laughing-stock.  Web]

      "It is also true that education is a global affair. Many New Zealand schools offer the Cambridge International Certificate as an alternative to the locally developed National Certificate of Educational Achievement. Across Australia, increasing numbers of schools are opting for the International Baccalaureate, as the certificate is seen as more academically rigorous than local alternatives.

      "While the option of the federal Government establishing a stand-alone Year 12 certificate in competition with existing state and territory certificates was summarily dismissed by Masters's ACER report, the more viable option is to develop an unashamedly elitist, academically rigorous Australian certificate utilising external examinations based on the established disciplines of knowledge for those students best able to benefit from a university education."

      Kevin Donnelly was a member of the steering group for the ACER Year 12 reports. He is also a former member of the Victorian Board of Studies and the Victorian Year 12 English Panel of Examiners.

      From The Australian's Higher Education Supplement at link
      
      
      
      
    • Op Ed
      Knowledge deficit looming
      
      Science should drive the political agenda, not the other way around writes Julian Cribb
      
      If the 2007 election is about Australia's future, then science is a blank spot on campaign maps. The main political parties appear to assume we can have a future without investing a lot more in science. There have been odd dollops of funds or pledges here and there, but nothing resembling a coherent strategy to invest in substantial growth in knowledge generation.
      
      
      
      
    • Humanities lag in an e-world
      
      A digital divide is emerging in the humanities, arts and social sciences sector between academics who use modern technology in their research and those who do not.
      
      
      
    • Op Ed
      Learning is its own reward
      
      The humanities need objectivity, writes George Brandis
      
      We often hear the lament that the humanities are in decline. The declining enrolments in arts degrees at Australian universities during recent years lends credence to that view. But why has this happened?
      
      
      
      
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Gerard Henderson defends himself, after NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca claimed Henderson is not a "professional historian"
      
      A few facts, minister
      
      "According to NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca ("Blainey to lead history review’’, 26/6), I am not a professional historian.

      "Consequently, according to the minister, I am not entitled to be part of the federal Government’s reference group which will provide advice on a model curriculum for the teaching of Australian history in Years9 and 10.

      "The fact is that I have a PhD in political history. The assessors of my doctoral thesis included historians Patrick O’Farrell and Edmund Campion. My extensive list of publications includes two well-reviewed history books along with numerous published essays and articles on historical topics. I also taught at universities for four years.

      "Della Bosca seems to hold the view that only tenured academics on taxpayer-subsidised campuses are entitled to be regarded as historians. This is as ill-formed as his claim that the reference group is an "ideologically driven stunt’’. The fact is that Coalition and Labor MPs alike support the teaching of narrative history in schools.

      "If the minister had done any research, he would be aware that delegates at last year’s history summit praised the NSW history curriculum as the best in the country. At the summit, I found myself in substantial agreement with the former NSW premier Bob Carr, who was a fellow delegate. Della Bosca and Carr go back a long way. Perhaps next time the minister should check with his former leader before sounding-off in the media."
      
      Gerard Henderson, Sydney, NSW [Similar Letter in today's Sydney Morning Herald]
      
      Also see the lead Editorial on this general topic in today's Sydney Morning Herald [below]
      
      
      

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Editorial
    Historically, it's a puzzling decision
    
    "The State Government's decision to remove one of its employees from working on a national curriculum for Australian history is puzzling. Jennifer Lawless, an experienced history teacher and Board of Studies inspector, was an invited participant at the Federal Government's History Summit last August. This reflected respect for her and for the teaching of Australian history in NSW schools, widely acknowledged the best in the nation. Participants at the summit elected her to a working group to develop some of the summit's recommendations. The State Government showed no disquiet with any of this.

    "This week, Ms Lawless was invited by the federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, to serve on a new reference group to advise on a model Australian history curriculum for years 9 and 10. Any curriculum to emerge from this process may well be diminished if NSW is not involved. So why withdraw her from the process now? The NSW Minister for Education and Training, John Della Bosca, has called the reference group "a political stunt". He has criticised the choice of two of its four members, the historian Geoffrey Blainey and the commentator Gerard Henderson. Mr Della Bosca says Professor Blainey's problem is that he "has very firm views on one interpretation of Australian history, which happen to accord with the Prime Minister's", while Mr Henderson is "not a professional historian".

    "These are not serious objections. Professor Blainey is Australia's greatest living historian, whatever his views, so the notion he should be excluded from a process such as this is eccentric. And Mr Henderson may not be a professional historian, but he has a PhD and has written two respected history books. In any case, Professor Blainey and Mr Henderson are not the only members of the group. There is also the historian Nicholas Brown and Ms Lawless, until she was withdrawn. Mr Della Bosca has not criticised their views or expertise.

    "A striking feature of the move towards a national curriculum for Australian history is that until now, it has largely avoided becoming a political football, despite the potential for this to occur. The left was anxious the process might be taken over by conservatives, while the right worried about the principle of Canberra imposing its will on the states. But so far most of those involved remain supportive. This is partly due to good management by Ms Bishop, and partly because Australian historians are happy someone - anyone - in government is taking their subject seriously."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Nothing new

      "Mr Della Bosca, every teacher is a good teacher, most of your new standards are already done ("For teachers, the future spells grammar", June 26). Primary teachers already teach reading, writing and comprehension so what's so new about that? Multiculturalism came into schools years ago.

      "Our children are taught about other cultures and indigenous Australians from infants on, so most of those training have already seen it in action. Please go to any school unannounced today and you will see all these things being taught."

      Sue Harris, Goulburn
      
      

    • "Well, stone me. Imagine teachers now having to be proficient in spelling and grammar. And be able to control classroom behaviour. Radical stuff indeed. So - um - what exactly do they study during their time at university?"

      Peter Owens, Wentworth Falls

      
      
      
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Cash call by regional campuses
    
    A nationwide coalition of universities and community groups will mount an election-year campaign for up to $200 million for regional campuses, arguing without it some may struggle to survive.

 

Thursday 28 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Greens join liberals to force inquiry into Balga youth programme (page 10)
    by Ben Spencer

    "The bungled Balga works programme for disadvantaged youth will be investigated by a powerful parliamentary committee after the Greens last night sided with the Liberals in demanding an Upper House inquiry.

    "The State Government was forced to agree to the inquiry after realising it would not have the Green's support in opposing the Liberals' motion to have the controversial programme referred to an Upper House committee.

    "The Government had argued a parliamentary investigation would jeopardise an ongoing police investigation into the matter.

    "It comes after the West Australian revealed in November that police and the Corruption and Crime Commission were investigating the programme, under which the Education Department paid private company Hurson Pty Ltd more than $2 million without a complete tender process.

    "Outside Parliament, shadow education minister Peter Collier said the investigation by the estimate and financial operations committee should finally reveal the truth into the much-maligned programme after he had spent the past six months trying to get adequate answers. Mr Collier, who had wanted the matter investigated by a select committee but agreed to a Greens move to have it referred to a standing committee, said Balga works had cost taxpayers $3 million already and a succession education ministers had their fingerprints on what had become a major Government embarrassment.

    "Today's decision was a victory for the dozens of former Balga works employees and hundreds of former students abandoned by this Government," Mr Collier said.

    "Greens MLC Giz Watson, who chairs the committee, said she had not been satisfied with the Government's responses to queries from Mr Collier over the past six months.

    "The Government still had many questions to answer, she said."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Teachers want $2.9b pay boost (page 15)
    by Rhianna King, Canberra

    "A new pay system which would reward teachers with raises if they could show they had improved their students' performance will be put to the Federal Government by the teachers union today.

    "The Australian Education Union's professional pay framework would require and extra $2.9 billion in government funding a year and involve the creation of a new classification of "accomplished teachers".

    "The current incremental pay system - which in WA allows teachers to access three pay levels by getting additional qualifications - would remain and a new bracket would be created.

    "Teachers could access the extra money and become "accomplished" if they could prove through a "mixture of practice, professional development and student learning" that their students' performance had improved.

    "In WA, teachers start on $45733 and can earn as much as $77744.

    "The framework paper said retaining teachers was becoming increasingly difficult as teachers' salaries fell behind other professionals. "There is no career option for teachers but to move to administrative and leadership roles after 8 - 10 years," it said.

    "Under the union's plan, a set of standards would be set through the independent research, and teachers would be assessed by a panel of other teachers.

    "Education Minister Julie Bishop has asked the States to adopt a performance-based pay system which would see teachers' pay based on students' results rather than years in the job, but AEU president Pat Byrne said the "cash for grades" scheme would fail.

    "WA Education Minister Mark McGowan has rejected Ms Bishop's plan, saying teachers could already get higher salaries through the existing system.

    "Ms Byrne said no scheme would work unless significantly more funding and resources were injected in the system, starting with the $2.9 billion annual increase.

    "The union also wants improved teacher training courses and for new teachers to be mentored before starting work."

    From The West Australian
    
    Also see the following article on this in The Melbourne Age
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Teachers push pay plan
    by Bridie Smith
    
    "A pay rise model that would reward teachers based on achievement will be launched by the nation's powerful teacher union today.

    "The proposal is designed to stymie the Howard Government's push for a federally imposed system by 2009.

    "Australian Education Union federal president Pat Byrne said the union's model would recognise and reward knowledge and experience, instead of relying on the "cash-for grades" system proposed by federal Education Minister Julie Bishop.

    "Under the union's plan, which also calls for an additional $2.9 billion in annual funding for public education, professional standards would be set and tied to salary increases, instead of one-off cash bonuses for teachers.

    "A new classification called the "accomplished teacher" would also be established, to be assessed on teachers' contribution to students' results and the teachers' participation in professional development.

    "In a reference to union concerns about the Federal Government's push for performance pay, Ms O'Byrne said identifying good teachers involved more than consulting literacy and numeracy results.

    "She said the additional funding would be used to reduce class sizes and teachers' workload, which was a common cause of people leaving teaching. It would also fund more administrative support for teachers, allowing them to concentrate on teaching.

    "It doesn't matter how much you pay a teacher, if their classes are too big or their workload is unmanageable, it's going to be hard for them to achieve quality student outcomes," she said. "That's why any new teacher pay scheme must be accompanied by an increase in public school funding."

    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Bold plans for school the Kennett cuts killed off
    
    
    
  • Chaplain funding spans language gap
    
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Bishop's lesson full of political ideology
    by Gregory Melleuish
    
    Compulsory Australian history may not be a good thing after all
    
    "There is nothing new under the sun. In a lecture delivered in 1890, Charles Henry Pearson, the Victorian liberal politician and writer, wrote: "The indiscriminate popular cry for the introduction of a large measure of historical teaching into our public schools is, to my apprehension, [both] foolish and mischievous." Pearson, who had written quite an amount of history, was sceptical of the capacity of young minds to appreciate history, an art that generally requires the attainment of middle age to master.

    "Moreover, he was convinced that while young people were not capable of understanding legal or political institutions, they seized "instinctively upon whatever is personal or anecdotal in a narrative".

    "You may disagree with Pearson's analysis, but it indicates a level of intelligence and sophistication that the present discussion about the teaching of history in Australian schools has not attained. We have not really had a debate about the desirability of teaching history, in particular Australian history, as a compulsory subject. It has just been assumed by both sides of politics that compulsory Australian history is a good thing.

    "But is it? Are the arguments in favour of the teaching of Australian history in schools strong enough to justify compulsion? Or would young minds be better served if, for example, they undertook the compulsory study of a foreign language?

    "The basic argument used in favour of the study of history is that we need to understand our past. It is an argument based on sentiment that emphasises the bonds that tie the generations together. But what exactly is our past and why, in a country inhabited by the descendants of migrants from so many parts of the world, should it be limited to the Australian past?

    "There are many good arguments in favour of the study of history. Consider what Pearson says about the personal and the anecdotal. History provides an excellent opportunity for young minds to explore the way humans behave, why they choose certain courses of actions and how they end up in various circumstances. To study history is to be provided with a laboratory in which to explore character.

    "Unfortunately, history at present is not much interested in character or the actions of individuals. Historians are far more interested in the action of impersonal forces, of institutions, ideologies and social forces. This raises significant problems for any attempt to teach history and historical analysis to young people.

    "We are often told history encourages what are termed critical skills. But there must be a question over the capacity of young minds to exercise these critical skills. After all, the greatest historians can exercise such capacities because they have had decades to reflect on human nature and its relationship to the course of events, to acquire a measure of wisdom.

    "Unfortunately, and this should not surprise anyone, when young people exercise their critical skills, too often they are merely parroting a fashionable ideology. It's like reciting tables. When you look at the history curriculum held up to us as the exemplar for the whole country, the NSW Year 10 course in Australian history, you can see ideology masquerading as critical thinking.

    "Here lies the central problem for the teaching of history in schools. In recent times there has been a move to consider history in political rather than professional terms. Many professional historians are more interested in serving political causes than historical ones. They are more interested in conducting history wars that have political objectives than in engaging in professional debates that have as their objective the establishment of historical truth. This is particularly true of those historians working in the area of Australian history.

    "Given the state of the history profession in Australia, it was always odd the Howard Government sought to make the teaching of Australian history compulsory in schools. From where did it hope to get the expertise that would enable it to put in place a curriculum that was not ideologically tainted?

    "Surely the experience of the history summit, with its outcome of a series of questions full of ideology and bias, would have taught it the futility of the exercise. Why, indeed, was it so unwilling to release the final form of these questions for public scrutiny? But no, despite all the warning signs, the Government pushes on. Now it has established a working party to take its curriculum to the next level.

    "What I fear is the sort of compulsory history our children will be forced to study. I worry that, like the NSW curriculum, it will be full of ideology parading as criticism. Compulsory Australian history would crowd out the history of the rest of the human race, leaving the next generation culturally impoverished. Above all, I fear that, as in NSW, forcing ideology down students' throats will turn them away from a love of history.

    "What we need is a real debate about the teaching of history in schools. Perhaps federal Education Minister Julie Bishop could begin by reading what Pearson, a one-time minister of education and an important liberal intellectual, had to say on the matter."

    Gregory Melleuish is associate professor of history and politics at the University of Wollongong.

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Census 2006: Prosperity reshaping the nation
    
    ... more school students attended Catholic schools last year than in 2001 as the shift of students from the public to the private sector continued apace, up from 30 per cent five years ago to 35 per cent now.
  
  
  

Friday 29 June

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • States forming teacher pay plans: Bishop [28 June late update from AAP]
    AAP
    
    "State governments are following the federal government's lead on developing performance pay plans for teachers, federal Education Minister Julie Bishop says.

    "Ms Bishop's plan to reward teachers for good exam results and parent feedback has been bitterly opposed by some teachers' unions and failed to win the states' support earlier this year.

    "However, Ms Bishop said on Thursday she believed state Labor governments were developing performance pay models.

    "The Australian government has taken the lead in this, we've identified the problem and we're coming up with a solution," Ms Bishop said.

    "And state governments behind the scenes are looking at performance pay models so they can actually develop their own."

    "The Australian Education Union (AEU) on Thursday released its own pay plan, but also conceded existing salary structures were a disincentive for the best teachers to remain in the job.

    "Ms Bishop said the AEU was "totally opposed" to supporting, rewarding and providing incentives for the best and brightest in the teaching profession.

    "The AEU's pay plan differs from that championed by the federal government in that it does not propose paying one-off bonuses to teachers based on student's exam results or parent feedback.

    "Ms Bishop expects her performance pay to be implemented by 2009 after she receives a report later this year and trials it in schools next year.

    "I expect a report in 2007 and trials and pilots in 2008 and if they are successful then we would make it a condition of the 2009 funding agreement," she said."

    From The Melbourne Age online at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • No way for students to avoid Gallipoli, historians confirm
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "There was never any suggestion that a national history curriculum should omit the study of Gallipoli, the historians who helped to draft it and the federal Education Minister said yesterday.

    "The president of the History Teachers Association of Australia, Nick Ewbank, who helped draft the curriculum, said Gallipoli was among the milestones for compulsory study. His fellow working party member, John Gascoigne, from the school of history and philosophy at the University of NSW, said Gallipoli was among the events in the draft curriculum that all students were required to study.

    "It is certainly the case that you were expected to address these milestone events in the curriculum and Gallipoli was one of them," Professor Gascoigne said.

    "A spokesman for the Education Minister, Julie Bishop, said a media report that stated Gallipoli was not compulsory study was incorrect.

    "Ms Bishop said the report "appears to have been based on an incomplete draft" of the curriculum. "In line with usual practice in curriculum development, it has been referred to an external group for further work," she said.

    "The Federal Government commissioned a professor at Monash University and head of the National Centre for History Education, Tony Taylor, to write the Australian history draft curriculum, following the Australian History Summit held last August.

    "A number of historians who spoke to the Herald yesterday, but who did not want their names published, suggested the Prime Minister, John Howard, had been unhappy with Professor Taylor's final draft and had appointed another panel of experts to rewrite it. "I think the Prime Minister's office is not happy because they don't see dates and content driving this," one historian said.

    "This week Ms Bishop appointed the historian Geoffrey Blainey and the political commentator Gerard Henderson, who has written a history of the Liberal Party, to review Professor Taylor's draft curriculum.

    "The NSW Minister for Education, John Della Bosca, barred Jennifer Lawless, a Board of Studies inspector who has taught history for 20 years in schools, from taking part in the committee, which also includes historian Nicholas Brown, of the Australian National University.

    "The spokesman for Ms Bishop said that while the Prime Minister's office had been consulted about the history curriculum, Mr Howard "is not an interventionist in this process".

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Most Talked About: Teaching History
      
      Ideology and bias? Readers can make up their own minds
      
      "Gregory Melleuish’s article on history teaching ("Bishop’s lesson full of political ideology’’, Opinion, 28/6) describes the series of questions developed by the History Summit as “full of ideology and bias’’. The summit’s commitment was to the preparation of “open-ended’’ questions.

      "In order that readers can judge this matter for themselves, I list below the questions as they were refined by the summit working party. The questions were then worked into a more detailed curriculum (together with landmark events - the other summit recommendation) by Professor Tony Taylor.
      
      Pre-Federation:
      
      How did Aboriginal peoples live and how did they respond to the coming of Europeans?
      How did convict society change into a free society?
      What were the ideals for Australian society and how far were they realised?
      How did Australian democratic traditions emerge?
      
      Post-Federation:
      
      How did Australia become a nation?
      Who could be an Australian?
      Why did Australia go to war; what has been Australia’s experience of war?
      What role did governments play in improving the lives of the people?
      Whole period:What was the nature of the land and how have people interacted with it?
      What was the basis of Australia’s prosperity?
      How was the prosperity distributed?
      What were the roles of men and women; what were the relations between the sexes?
      What religious faiths did Australians hold and what were their influence?
      How different was the history of one of Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia from that of NSW and/or Victoria?
      How did Australians spend their recreation and leisure time?"
      
      John Hirst, (Chair, Summit Working Party), North Balwyn, Vic
      
      

    • "It surprises me that Gregory Melleuish asserts that last year’s History Summit resulted in “a series of questions full of ideology and bias’’. The rest of us at the summit wanted Melleuish to serve on the committee overseeing these questions, but he refused. However, with John Hirst as chairperson, we were satisfied that the enterprise was in good hands.

      "All historians have an ideology of some kind. Melleuish has an ideology; so have I; so have the members of the Blainey panel. But Geoffrey Blainey, Gerard Henderson and Nicholas Brown have long records of ability to show respect for viewpoints other than their own, and can be expected to bring conscientious judgment to their task. I hope the NSW Government will lift its veto on the participation of Jennifer Lawless. She is respected and would contribute a necessary experience of secondary education to the panel. The panel could also be assisted by the addition of an Aboriginal perspective. But, above all, it is important to judge the panel on its outcomes, and not on uninformed speculation."
      
      Geoffrey Bolton, Claremont, WA
      
      

    • "Gregory Melleuish’s about-face on the teaching of history is very disappointing. From the beginning of the history debate, he has been a thoughtful and effective advocate for reform and he made a major contribution to last year’s History Summit. One can only wonder why he has chosen to argue against the cause he previously championed.
      At any rate, Melleuish is misguided and his new arguments are not persuasive. The idea that school students are too immature to appreciate or comprehend history flies in the face of all research into the cognitive capacities of young people: we expect them to grasp mathematics, science, English and other subject areas, so why not history?

      "Melleuish claims that a focus on Australian history will deny students access to knowledge about other parts of the world. This is inevitably true to some extent, but choices have to be made throughout the school curricula, not just in history. At any rate, this limitation doesn’t constitute an argument against educating students in the history of the country in which they are now living their lives. It simply highlights the need to integrate Australian history with carefully chosen histories of other parts of the world."
      
      Mervyn Bendle, Townsville, Qld
      
      

    • "Gregory Melleuish is right to advocate, for primary and secondary school students, a history that is based on narrative, the anecdotal and the personal. Children need to learn the "stories of the tribe’’.

      "As for the question "What are the stories of the tribe?’’, government, universities and associations of history teachers should offer a wide range of possibilities and leave precise choice to individual schools and even individual teachers within the schools. This will encourage diversity of subject matter around the nation and minimise narrow-mindedness based on political or other kinds of bias.

      "For myself, I regard an important part of “Australian history’’ to be “British history’’ - the history of the particular people who founded modern Australia and gave it its language, culture, laws and religion. And an important part of British history is the earlier history of the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Romans. Thus, in my own ideal school, children would encounter the best of the stories of all these cultures, as well as the best of Australian stories from 1770 onwards."
      
      Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic
      
      
      

• Girls have the numbers at school
  
  Girls are increasingly challenging the traditional male domination of mathematics in NSW schools.
  
  
  
  
  

Saturday – Sunday, 30 June – 1 July

• The West Australian
  
  
  • $36m school, hostel projects scrapped (page 77)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "The State Government has scrapped twp big education projects worth $36 million because it claims they are no longer needed.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said he cancelled plans to spend $22 million on a new Rockingham school and $14 million on a boarding hostel for country students attending Perth Modern School so the money could be spread across existing schools..."

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said the changes were proof the State Government had mismanaged its education budget.

    "I would be interested to know how the Government proposes to justify the fact that it is spending $50 million more on bureaucracy within the Education Department central offices and yet it abandons vital facilities," he said..." [emphasis added]

    "Teachers and parent groups said the Government needed to allocate more money to education rather than trying to spread it too thinly..."

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Weekend Australian

Interactive Graphics: 2006 Australian Census
Interesting Information on Education
Click on "Interactive: State-by-state statistics" link

• Failure vital for learning: teachers
  by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
  
  "The denial of failure in classrooms leads to lower expectations among teachers and reduces the intellectual challenge to students.

  "In a submission to the Senate inquiry into academic standards of school education, the Council of Professional Teachers of Victoria argues that failure is part of the learning process, and claims it is missing in the 21st-century classroom.

  "The council defends teachers against charges that the profession is the cause of any perceived decline in standards, saying the constant change in curriculum and pedagogies compromises the quality of teaching.

  "Teach, from an early age, that some failure can be formative," the submission says.

  "Failure can help to develop resilience. Do not endorse inadequate effort. Encourage self-knowledge for the most effective teaching and learning strategies. This must be the very essence of community teaching."

  "The council is the peak body representing more than 40 professional teaching associations with more than 30,000 members in Victoria.

  "After appearing before the Senate inquiry this week, the council's executive officer Olwyn Gray said students were being let down by the lack of intellectual challenge in their classrooms, and that the notion of intellectual risk was increasingly foreign to parents and students. Ms Gray said students had an expectation they would always succeed, which was not how the real world worked.

  "Life isn't a level playing field. I don't want to condemn children to an underclass of underachievers but they need to strive, to say I did well this time and this is the next hurdle," she said.

  "If teachers work successfully with students who fail a particular task, you're helping these children develop resilience.

  "When a child fails, they go back and say, 'OK, I'll try another tack', and find they learn better a certain way. With a stronger degree of self-knowledge brought about by failure, you're not so depressed when you can't do something; you go back with resilience and it helps you take further intellectual risks."

  "Ms Gray said Australian students performed well on international assessments of competence in different subjects, but did less well in tests placing greater emphasis on rote learning, particularly compared with their counterparts in Asia.

  "So many reforms were imposed on teachers, she said, and these were often viewed as being change for change's sake and left no time for teachers to contemplate and refine what they did: "Teachers are just reeling from it -- you get used to the vocabulary and methodology of one thing and then you're on to the next. People get cynical."

  "Ms Gray said her belief was that the problem started in teacher training courses, which were too theoretical, emphasising different theories of learning rather than providing a range of strategies for different students.

  "Teachers need to learn a variety of methods for a variety of students because students learn in different ways," she said.

  "Rote learning is one way -- you need to learn phonic combinations of letters and sounds that way, and the times tables.

  "But they're the basics, just building blocks."

  From The Weekend Australian at link
  
  
  
  
• Turn off the TV and kids are less likely to drop out
  by Stephen Lunn, Social affairs writer
  
  "Lily Tait's future may well have been determined two decades ago. New research based on a groundbreaking study of Australian children has found the more highly educated a parent, the more time a child will spend engaged in activities nourishing their brain.

  "Using the diary entries of 3000 Australian parents to map the average four-year-old's day, the study found they watch more than two hours of television, spend the same time in free play, and nearly 2 1/2 hours in "achievement-related" activities such as being read to, drawing, or doing educational games.

  "The latter was critical to a child's intellectual, social and emotional development and better-educated parents tended to nurture it, said professor Alan Hayes, co-author with Jennifer Baxter of How Four Year-Olds Spend Their Days, published yesterday by the Australian Institute of Family Studies as part of its Family Matters series.

  "It's a really powerful variable that comes out. Some parents do place more priority on facilitating children's development, and this is an area that families can be supported in and educated about," Professor Hayes told The Weekend Australian.

  "But it may not be so surprising. Education levels may be something of a proxy for broader parental characteristics, the resources available to them, their opportunities in life, and even their values."

  "For Lily, the best of both worlds beckon in terms of her developmental path.

  "Both parents, Chris and Fiona Tait, from Brighton in Melbourne's southeast, are tertiary educated.

  "And Mrs Tait, 40, who has a science degree in biochemistry, has raised her four children as a stay-at-home mum, which ties into another of the study's findings, that non-working mothers spend longer on activities such as reading to children than working mums, even on weekends.

  "I'm certainly very conscious of the need to expose Lily to different experiences, things like letting her see how I cook, helping her with colouring in," Mrs Tait said.

  "And because I have three older children who can read, as well as us, there are a lot of avenues for her to grow. Group readings are big in our home."

  "She admits that by child number four, after Edward, 11, India, 9, and Jasmine, 7, it can be difficult to make the time for learning.

  "I think I was more focused with my first child on the need for education, but I'm relaxed because I know Lily gets so much out of time spent just playing with her siblings."

  "Professor Hayes said parents should not get too anxious about their level of education, because "there are many paths to healthy developmental outcomes" and spending any time with kids will be time spent beneficially.

  "Parents reading to children is important but so too is an opportunity to play with other children, either in the home, in the neighbourhood or the wider community," he said.

  "But he did warn about the perils of television.

  "There is clear evidence time spent watching television is inversely related to learning outcomes and social and emotional development," Professor Hayes said."

  From The Weekend Australian at link
  
  
  
• Letter to the Editor

Greg Melleuish replies

• History shown its place
  
  "In response to to Mervyn Bendle’s letter (29/6), recent experiences have led me to reflect on what should be the place of history, and specifically Australian history, in an Australian curriculum.

  "I came to the conclusion that the interests of Australian students in the 21st century are not best served by being forced to study Australian history for the following reasons:

  "Governments should only mandate the study of those subjects that will provide future citizens with the skills they need in our modern world.
  
  "These include language acquisition and mathematics and a knowledge of science. These skills are necessary to function in our society and are acquired later in life only with difficulty.

  "History, including Australian history, does not fall into this category. One can easily learn history at any stage in life. It is also an area of study that is best encouraged by interest rather than compulsion and so should be an option in schools.

  "From this point of view it would be far more beneficial for the study of a foreign language to be mandated in schools because, as I know from personal experience, these are difficult to learn as one ages. Such language acquisition would benefit both students and the wider society. It would even aid those wishing to study history.

  "My concern is that all parties have decided that Australian history should be compulsory without any real debate and without any sort of wider educational vision."
  
  Greg Melleuish, School of History and Politics, University of Wollongong, NSW
  
  
  

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Parents to get SMS on truants
    by Joe Spagnolo
    
    "Wagging school is about to get harder for WA's 252,000 government school students.
    
    "The State Government will arm its 770 schools with computer software that will automatically send text messages to parents' mobile phones demanding to know why their children are not at school.
    
    "The Government is set to sign a contract with South Australian company MGM Wireless to roll out the service, which more than 50 WA government and independent schools use already.

    "The Government is believed to be the first in Australia to install the system in all its schools.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said yesterday he was fed up with serial truants and their parents would be notified in minutes of them failing to attend classes.

    "About 19,000 WA students miss school every day and almost half those absences go unexplained.

    "Truancy is a major problem,'' Mr McGowan said. "Children who miss school get behind and because they fall behind they tend to miss more school and, sadly, education becomes irrelevant for them.

    "Virtually everyone these days owns a mobile phone and therefore the use of SMS technology is a good way of letting parents know their children aren't at school.

    "Some, of course, are away for legitimate reasons, but a handful of students aren't and this allows us to put resources into chronic truants who will be identified by this process.

    "It enables us to inform parents quickly on the day that their children aren't at school and gets them involved in helping to address the problem.''

    "The crackdown follows Government warnings that parents who allow their children to regularly miss school without a valid reason can be prosecuted and fined $1000.

    "It is illegal not to send children to school under the School Education Act 1999.

    "MGM executive chairman Mark Fortunatow said the company's SMS system was already used in about 300 schools throughout Australia, New Zealand and the US, and India would sign up soon.

    "He said the system tapped into attendance rolls and sent messages to parents in minutes.

    "Repeated messages were sent until a reply was received.
    
    "Mr Fortunatow said 47 WA government schools and six independent schools used the system, and their attendance rates had improved. "In every school where the system is used they have experienced, without exception, improvement in children's attendance,'' he said.
    
    "As a rule of thumb, our systems will improve daily student attendances between 30 and 80 per cent. And we have a number of examples where truancy has been eliminated altogether.
    
    "St Hilda's installed the system a few years ago, not to improve attendance, but to improve children's safety. If a student hasn't arrived at school without an explanation there is potentially a safety problem.''
    
    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    

• CNN
  
  
  • Study: Publicly funded tutoring under NCLB pays off
    
    Students who received the tutoring under the federal No Child Left Behind law improved on reading and math tests, according to the study conducted by independent researchers for the Department of Education and released Wednesday.
    
    
    
  • Report: States urged to improve teacher qualifications
    
    "For the most part the current system is a mix of broken, counterproductive and anachronistic policies in need of an overhaul," says the report, which summarizes each state's laws and regulations affecting teachers. The report is scheduled for release Wednesday.
    
    
    
    
    
• The Times
  
  
  • A levels 'are easier than 20 years ago'
    
    Government claims of improved examination performance are based on lower test standards, according to an end-of-term report on Tony Blair’s education record as Prime Minister.
    
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Coup for 'elitist' rival to A-levels
    
    One of the country's top performing comprehensive schools is backing a new alternative to A-levels which would turn back the clock to more traditional teaching methods.
    
    
    
    
• Shakespeare in peril as Oxford rethinks English syllabus
  
  The role of Shakespeare in the teaching of English at Oxford University may be downgraded as part of a proposal that has provoked outrage among scholars and thespians.
  
  
  
  
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Way children enter select schools under review
    
    The way students apply for the elite, select-entry state schools is under Government review before the arrival of two select-entry schools in Melbourne's inner north and outer east by 2010.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Here be monsters: keeping teenagers safe online
    
    How does a parent balance their rights to set boundaries and shield their child from harm against a teenager's increasing right to privacy as they progress through adolescence? With considerable delicacy, according to Louise Newman, professor of psychiatry at the University of Newcastle, and hopefully with much more help from government and the law than is currently on offer.
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Teacher videos hit net
    
    Teachers are being secretly filmed in class, with students posting the clips on the internet. The worldwide trend has alarmed Victorian educators worried about invasion of privacy.

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This page last updated 13 August, 2008 0:39 AM