Monday 17 September

Tuesday 18 September

Wednesday 19 September

Thursday 20 September

Friday 21 September

Saturday – Sunday, 22 – 23 September

 

Monday 17 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • OBE jury censored, say Liberals (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    Teachers' views modified to remove criticism of 'flawed' English course as Year 12 final exam looms
    
    "The Opposition has accused the Curriculum Council of censoring a public statement by teachers that the Year 12 outcomes-based education English course was flawed and in need of rewriting.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said the discrepancy between a statement issued by a group of teachers engaged by the State Government to assess the course and the public statement put out by the Curriculum Council was an attempt to disguise the seriousness to teachers' concerns.

    "English teachers who formed a so-called "teacher jury" issued a strongly worded statement about the course for which Year 12s will sit their final exam in a few weeks, saying they believe it was "flawed and that it must be reworked". They requested more time to work out how to fix it.

    "But the statement that appeared on the Curriculum Council's website dropped the word flawed and said that teachers had decided the new course "requires significant changes". Mr Collier said the distinction between what had been made public and what the jury actually said was profound.

    "It is quite evident that what has been published for public consumption has been censored," he said. "It is this lack of transparency which caused the debacle with the OBE implementation process last year - it would be completely foolhardy to revert to these tactics once again." [emphasis added]

    "The Curriculum Council said it would be inappropriate to comment until after the jury met again today. Premier Alan Carpenter and Education Minister Mark McGowan also refused to comment yesterday.

    "Christina Gillgren, an independent consultant from the Department of Premier and Cabinet who is co-ordinating the juries, said the English teachers' statement was only an interim recommendation but it would appear in the final report, which would be public.

    "She said she sent the jury's statement to the council, which then cleared its version with her. She believed there was little difference between each statement.

    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said the views of teachers on the jury had to be heard. Mr Keely said it was possible that concerns about the implementation of the new OBE English exam could lead to students' results being disputed by more parents than was usual. [emphasis added]

    "I think the only thing that will allay the fears of parents is when the results come out and we will see whether students have achieved the levels that teachers think they rightly achieve in the exams," he said.

    "WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said debate over the discrepancy in statements hinged on what was meant by "flawed". People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes acting president Greg Williams said he would wait for the jury's recommendations before commenting."

    From The West Australian
    
    

    • How The West Led The Debate
      
      
      • Anarchy in schools as teachers rebel [27 May 2006]
        
        
      • Ravlich backdown over OBE rollout [3 July 2006]
        
        
        
        
    • Also see the article on problems with English results in NSW in today's Sydney Morning Herald

  
  
  

  • Letters to the Editor (page 23)
    
    
    • In Short
      
      "How can teachers be blamed for student illiteracy when our former minister for education, Ms Ravlich, made a statement to the effect that in OBE English tests, "spelling, grammar and punctuation would not be a consideration". It's not teachers, it's they system and people who run it that are to blame."

      A. Empsall, Embleton

      
      "What a surprise! Using calculators in schools produces limited ability kids! Twenty years ago I had to teach my engineering students remedial maths in order that they could progress with studies. Perhaps another 20 years will lapse before calculators are banned altogether."

      Ged Blackall, Kalamunda
      

      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Teacher failures spell student trouble
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Young teenagers could be forgiven for misspelling words such as subterranean and miscellaneous, but what about the nation's primary school teachers?

    "A spelling test of about 40 Victorian teachers, conducted in April this year, provides no grounds for confidence. Not one of the teachers could correctly spell all 11 words, ranging in difficulty from substitute to adolescence.

    "The test was set at the level expected of 14-year-olds but the average score among the 39 teachers was just seven correctly spelled words.

    "Five teachers correctly spelled 10 words, putting their level at 13 years and nine months. One teacher was unable to spell any of the words while two teachers got only two of the words correct. Overall, 22 teachers misspelled subterranean, 17 couldn't manage embarrassing or miscellaneous and 16 had trouble with adolescence.

    "The test was held during a two-day course conducted by teacher Denyse Ritchie, who has run programs for the past 11 years giving primary school teachers the basic literacy skills to teach reading. Ms Ritchie, executive director and co-author of THRASS (Teaching Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills), used by thousands of schools around the nation, said the spelling results were typical of the standard she saw.

    "She said teachers trained over the past few decades had been influenced by the "whole language" method of teaching reading, in which the letter-sound relationship underpinning written language is only one strategy used to teach reading, and not necessarily the first.

    "Rather than teaching children the 26 sounds of the alphabet, they need to learn the 44 letter-sound combinations that comprise the English language."

    "Ms Ritchie said teaching children the letter 'c' only as the sound in cat made it impossible for them to work out how to read words like chair, chef and face.

    "With the sound 'f', students are taught that the letter f makes the sound but not that the letters 'ph' make the same sound.

    "Ms Ritchie said the biggest problem was that teachers were not taught how to break words into their composite sounds and so could not explain it to children.

    "Teachers are ignorant of the 44 sounds in English and all the spelling choices that make up those sounds; they have a very limited understanding of it.

    "You can learn to read without knowing phenomics (the sounds that make up words), but when you spell, you have to have a good phenomic understanding to help spell words like said. "Unless you're taught that 'ai' as well as 'e' can make an 'eh' sound in words like said and again, you will spell said as 'sed'.

    "But many teachers don't have that inherent knowledge,"

    "The teachers' phenomic knowledge was also tested. When asked to break words into the constituent sounds or phenomes - such as how many sounds in 'cat' (c-a-t) - the average score was 4.1 out of a possible 10 correct answers.

    "When asked to identify the third sound in a word like scrunch (r), the average score was 4.5 out of 10 and the average mark for breaking words into syllables was also 4.5 out of 10.

    "Ms Ritchie said teachers commonly answered that the word scrunch comprised two sounds (scr-unch) when it actually has six sounds (s-cr-u-n-ch).

    "Teachers and students need to know that letters don't have a sound," she said.

    "They need to know that letters are only symbols that are used continually in different combinations to represent sounds."
    In Britain, the Government has stipulated that from the beginning of this school year, reading will be taught using "first and fast" synthetic phonics, which teaches students the letter-sounds and how they are blended to form words.

    "But the British teachers association persists in arguing that teaching reading using an intensive phonics approach is inferior to an "inclusive reading program" that has children predict words based on the context of the sentence or the type of word it is.

    "In a position paper on reading and phonics released by the English Teachers Association of NSW in July, it suggests a child reading the sentence "The car drove along the s..... at high speed" could guess it says street because the word starts with s.

    "If the child said road, the paper says, the teacher will "have to weigh up whether to take the student back to the word" to read it correctly.

    "They may NOT because they recognise that meaning is most important, that we ALL make such mistakes EVERY time we read, and that this mistake shows that the child understands what they are reading," the paper says."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Learning to read a school's commitment [late pickup from 14 Sept]
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "When Maddison Holland was eight years old, her school decided she was unable to learn.

    "In Year 2 at an independent school on Sydney's north shore, Maddison's reading level was 18 months behind her classmates.

    "But after only one term of a remedial reading program based on teaching children the phonetic basics of language, her reading is only one year behind her peers. Maddison, now nine, has improved even more dramatically in spelling, which is only six months behind her peers.

    "The Senate report on academic standards of school education highlights the poor literacy skills of many students, often because of poor teaching in the early years. "A lay person is often struck by the fact that students may pass through six or even more years at school and remain functionally illiterate," the report says. "There is ample anecdotal evidence that such people have managed to make it through to higher education."

    "The report recommends a "more rigorous and evidence-based approach to the preparation of trainee teachers" in teaching reading and maths.

    "Specifically, the report talks of the need to train teachers in the letter-sound combinations underpinning English, known as phonemics. "It was also claimed that language teaching did not, in many institutions, include any systematic instruction in phonemic awareness ... as part of teaching children to read," it says.

    "Maddison's mother, Leeza, noticed her daughter was having trouble learning to read from the time she started school. She approached the school but the response was: "What are you doing about it?" The school later questioned whether her daughter was in fact able to be taught.

    "Over the next year, the Hollands took Maddison to a series of tests, after which she was diagnosed with dyslexia.

    "Maddison changed to a government school in Year 2, which Ms Holland said spent more time on literacy and referred them to the Multilit program, which can be accessed through some schools and also privately.

    "Designed by education researchers at Macquarie University, Multilit (Making Up Lost Time In Literacy) focuses on teaching children skills to decode words based on phonemics, sight word recognition and assisted reading to a tutor or parent.

    "For Ms Holland, the experience underlines the importance of good teaching of fundamental skills and having a school committed to teaching all students."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Editorial
    Time for training
    
    "There is nothing wrong with Labor's proposal to establish an independent advisory body to advise on the emerging skills crisis. The party's education spokesman, Stephen Smith, has warned that we face a shortage of 200,000 skilled workers, even though there are already 530,000 people between 16 and 24 who are neither working nor in full-time study.
    
    "The problem is, we have been here before. When Labor was last in power, there were as many training advisory committees as industries. But once the Liberals were elected, they wanted a strategy of their own, which did not amount to much. The independent technical colleges promised by the Howard Government in 2004 are yet to have an impact. Nor have the states done much with their TAFE systems.

    "The result is continuing shortages of skilled tradespeople. There is nothing especially exciting about trades training and the TAFEs are always outgunned for glamour by the universities. But if there is a core Labor objective, it is ensuring all young Australians have access to the opportunities education and training deliver. It's now up to Mr Smith to show us what else he has in mind."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Poor teachers blamed for low scores
    by Denise Ryan
    
    "Every parent fears that their child will get the school's dud teacher. Latest international research indicates that there is cause for concern.

    "While Australian students are in the top third of OECD nations for performance in reading and mathematics, Australia has one of the widest gaps between its top and bottom students.

    "Harvard University professor Richard Elmore, who has visited Victoria three times in recent years to evaluate the education system, attributes this difference primarily to a disparity in the quality of Australian teachers rather than factors such as a student's disadvantaged background.

    "In Victoria recently to work with the state education department to help improve teacher standards, Professor Elmore says the quality of the teacher is the most important factor in determining a child's success.

    "Your child's measured performance in reading and maths is influenced in the order of four to five times more by which teacher he or she gets than which school he or she goes to," he says.

    "This world expert on educational leadership puts paid to the notion that carefully selecting a child's school will ensure a good education.

    "Rather, he says, most of the variability in student performance arises from differences in the quality of teachers within schools.

    "He says the fact that the nation's 15-year-olds rank in the top third of students from 43 OECD nations that take part in the Program on International Student Achievement (PISA) study of performance in reading and maths conceals the "very large degree of variability" in student performance.

    "Only six countries show such variation. Professor Elmore says most of this variation stems from primary school.

    "The notoriously unequal secondary system in Australia is actually just reinforcing inequalities that pre-exist in the lower grades."

    "Countries that have disparities in performance tend to offer families little government support. "Australia actually looks relatively good on international measures of child welfare and income equality so there is a strong circumstantial case that the variability in student performance is being produced more by differences in the quality of teaching than by external social factors," he says.

    "He says student performance is influenced partly by socio-economic background. "But the evidence is that high quality instruction across classrooms can compensate for inequalities stemming from income and social class."

    "Victorian Education Union president Mary Bluett disagrees that differences in teacher performance is the main reason some students perform badly. She says OECD data shows that the socio-economic status of students is the most important influence on those performing in the bottom 20 per cent.

    "While she says there are variations in the quality of teachers, these have been addressed in Victorian schools in recent years by providing professional development rather than treating some teachers as "discipline issues".

    "Professor Elmore agrees Victoria has made great progress in improving teacher quality. Programs in leadership training are utilising the many excellent teachers in schools to lift the performance of others.

    "Darrell Fraser, of the education department's Office of School Education, acknowledges "a systematic under-investment" in teacher training over decades, which he says is being redressed in Victoria by investment over the past four years."

    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Most new teachers on short-term deals
    by Bridie Smith
    
    "More than three-quarters of Victoria's first-year teachers are employed on short-term contracts, a state survey has revealed, with concern the trend is contributing to the profession's attrition rate..."
    
    "Results of the annual survey also revealed a quarter of teachers said they had been asked to teach subjects outside their area of expertise, which Ms Bluett said increased teachers' workload considerably.

    "And while the majority saw themselves staying in the profession for more than a decade, just over a quarter of beginning teachers said they expected to teach for six-to-10 years and a similar number said they anticipated staying in the profession for no more than five years.

    "Of those intending to leave the public education system within a decade, the most common reason was related to low pay levels and high workloads. A lack of ongoing employment and issues regarding student discipline were also factors.

    "Mature age teachers also commented on frustrations at a salary aimed "at 22-to-25-year-olds, not mature adults with industry experience".

    "Of those who said they expected to leave the public system within a decade, most said they would work in another industry (37.7 per cent). A fifth said they would move into the private system, and almost 14 per cent anticipated they would take up a non-teaching position in the education system.

    "The remainder (28.6 per cent) named starting a family, higher education or retirement as their reasons for leaving the public system."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    

    • Hurdles just 'the nature of teaching'
      
  
  
  
  
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Students 'let down' by marking system
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "The Higher School Certificate marking system is cutting out too many high-level English students, say teachers.

    "The NSW Board of Studies said it will act on concerns the state's English teachers raised about last year's disappointing HSC results.

    "Students in the advanced English course achieved the lowest level of top results since the new HSC was introduced in 2000. Only 5 per cent of the 27,500 students enrolled in the advanced English course last year scored between 90 and 100 in the HSC.

    "That compared with 15 per cent of the 26,000 students who sat the same level of mathematics..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Aboriginal languages help more stay on [from 15 Sept]
    
    Learning an Aboriginal language - in addition to English - will become compulsory in schools with large indigenous populations under a State Government strategy to improve Aboriginal retention rates and literacy standards.
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Past not just the present dressed in funny clothes
    by Iain McCalman
    
    "I've had the 15 minutes of fame that Andy Warhol promised all moderns: it was in August 2001 aboard a replica of Captain James Cook's Endeavour, sailing in what he called "the insane labyrinth" of the Great Barrier Reef. I was engaged in a BBC television and Discovery Channel re-enactment of Cook's voyage up the east coast of Australia in 1770.

    "My high point consisted of a rant at the ship's First Officer for preventing us from drying our clothes on the rigging. My hissy fit was exactly the sort of material our hairy-chested director hoped to generate when he outlined his vision of a new genre of "extreme history" that we would pioneer. New or not, the formula was simple: assorted representatives of the 21st century pit themselves against some of the extreme physical and mental challenges of the past to entertain mass audiences. The latter are moved to laughter, awe or pity at our modern-day sufferings and failures. Some participants are ejected or fall by the wayside, the remainder join hands at the end to trill about how tough but rewarding it was to live in the past.

    "As the Canadian historiographer Mark Kolber Phillips argues, the key question for popular history as well as scholarly history has gradually become not so much what happened in the past as what it felt like to be there..."
    
    Iain McCalman is a professor of history and Federation Fellow at the University of Sydney. This is an edited extract from the History Council of NSW's annual history lecture, which was delivered on Friday.
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

Tuesday 18 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Half of teachers on OBE jury want old course back (page 6)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "A panel of teachers hired by the State Government to review the outcomes-based education English course confirmed last night that it believed it was "flawed" and that half voted for a return to the pre-OBE course.

    "Christina Gillgren, a consultant from the Department of Premier and Cabinet who is co-ordinating the juries, refused last night to release the recommendations of the so-called "teacher jury", saying her report would be available "in the next couple of days".

    "But Dr Gillgren confirmed that the 48-member panel had concluded that the OBE English course, for which Year 12 students are about to sit their final exams, was flawed and required significant changes, as revealed by The West Australian on Saturday.

    "The jury was split evenly on whether it should call for a return to the previous English course.

    "Dr Gillgren said the jury had detailed a raft of recommendations that took the best from the OBE course and from the former senior school English courses. "Basically what we've done is we've come up with the ingredients for a new course," she said.

    "The West Australian understands that teachers objections related to the enormous workload imposed by time-consuming assessment tasks, problems with comparability of marking between schools and the unpredictable nature of the new exam.

    "Many members of the jury, comprising teachers from State, Catholic and independent schools across the State, believed the exam that students were about to sit would not reflect the content of the work they had studied for two years. They said it was so open-ended that students could choose to answer the same question by writing a poem or an essay, making marking difficult.

    "Dr Gillgren confirmed the jury had called for the new course to have more explicit content. "Teachers need to be clear what content is examinable, exams will link to what is taught in class," the recommendation said.

    "The jury said interim changes had to be made next year, with the new course written in time to be tested in some schools in 2009 and rolled out to all schools by 2010.

    "The English Teachers Forum said the fact that a vote was even taken on whether schools should return to the former TEE course was a sign of how seriously the jury viewed the problems in the current course. An ETF spokesman said it was a shame the course had been allowed to go ahead without being tested in schools but welcomed the jury's verdict as "the beginning of the end".

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said he would wait until he had received the report from Dr Gillgren before commenting.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said whoever made the decision to push ahead with implementing OBE English last year despite clear evidence of the problems "should hang their heads in shame".
    
    From The West Australian

    
    
    
  • Classroom priority in head office crackdown (page 6)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "The Education Department has clamped down on staff movement from State schools into bureaucratic jobs as part of increasingly desperate measures to keep enough teachers in classrooms.

    "Education director general Sharyn O'Neill said the restrictions placed on filling vacancies meant that about 50 support positions had been left unfilled as the flow of teachers from schools into district or central offices had been reduced to almost nil.

    "She said she was trying everything to get more teachers into public schools. "The alternative, not trying everything, is a luxury we cannot afford in the midst of a nationwide teacher shortage," she said.

    "A recent call for bureaucrats from the department's central office, known as silver city, to volunteer to go out and plug gaps where schools were short of teachers resulted in about 25 positions being filled temporarily. Another 25 staff from district offices moved back into schools to fill longer term vacancies.

    "The department said that about 50 central office staff had volunteered to return to schools, out of a potential pool of about 200, but their backgrounds and subject expertise did not always match requirements of the vacancies.

    "Most positions held by teachers in central and district offices provide direct support to schools, so we also need to find a balance to ensure there is least impact on these programmes," Ms O'Neill said.

    "After starting 3rd term with a shortfall of 92 teachers, the department was still trying to fill more than 50 vacancies Statewide last week.

    "Another scheme to help short staffed country schools by enticing former teachers back from retirement has proved unsuccessful.

    "Just 3 retirees have taken up teaching jobs in the country under the State Government's incentive package, which promises salaries up to $76000 and gives them the option to put all their pay into superannuation. Teachers who go to isolated country schools could earn up to and extra $15000 in remote area allowances.

    "The department said it also had had 94 phone calls and 54 written expressions of interest in the package, which also includes flexible working hours.

    "This year, the department also had made early offers of school placements to teaching graduates and 12 had accepted offers so far."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • In Short
      
      "The juxtaposition of your two front page reports brought a smile to my face with my morning coffee. (Alarm bells ring over WA kids on Prozac and Year 12 English flawed: teachers, 15/9)

      "Maybe our students need four times as much anti depressant as students in other States because they realise their education is four times as dysfunctional. OBE has a lot to answer for when a key subject like English has been ruled so seriously flawed it needs a rewrite. This is something that PLATO and a majority of teachers have been warning for more than two years."

      Patrick F Whalen, Yokine
      
      
      

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Editorial
    We cannot fail the principles of education
    
    Excellence rewards excellence, and there is no more important place for this to be achieved than in the classroom.

    "The wellbeing of a society can be measured in several ways. There is the count-the-cranes-on-the-skyline method, the rates of inflation and unemployment, the sporting cups, and even the price of petrol or groceries.

    "However, there is another index. Its benchmarks are not so readily seen, yet it gives an indication of how much importance as a society we place on it. It is education. Two things should be manifestly self-evident in charting a society's regard for its citizenry: how it helps its sick and how it educates its children. The first goes to common humanity, the second to common sense. As William Butler Yeats said, education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. We agree. Education may have the appearance of a factory line, producing a product that will pass the final exam, but it also carries a moral dimension to inform youthful vessels. To light that fire of learning, teachers must have the spark of state support in their career choice.

    "Excellence rewards excellence. This is also self-evident, yet here in Victoria if the state does not reward its teachers with pay comparable with those in the rest of Australia then the reward of achieving excellence in the classroom will quickly dissipate. Education is a noble profession, yet its practice and its practitioners are often caught in an ideological battle between warring political parties, and wedged against the bottom line on the accountancy ledger.

    "The Age yesterday published the results of a statewide survey on first-year teachers, which revealed that more than 75 per cent of those teachers were employed on short-term contracts. It also revealed that 60 per cent of teachers who had been working for three years were on contracts. The Age reported that one teacher had been on four contracts in her first two years. This lack of continuity of employment means teachers are taking on subjects that they are not qualified to do. This benefits no one. "You feel pressure to say yes because you don't want to look bad," the teacher said.

    "Short cuts in teaching do not lead to better results. Combining with the debate over short-term contracts, which a spokesman for Education Minister Bronwyn Pike blithely dismisses by turning the figure on its head ("More than 80 per cent of teachers are employed on an ongoing basis"), is the discrepancy in pay rates between Victorian teachers and those in other states, especially NSW. Victoria's teachers are among the lowest paid. Teachers are resources. If the state devalues their worth then the state will pay the consequences in turning out adults ill-equipped to contribute to society. Equally and lamentably so, too, will the students be the victims in not having their potential tapped.

    "A Senate committee report on teachers, tabled in Federal Parliament last week, highlighted the vicious cycle that had to be broken. At present, several teacher training programs at universities, including the University of Victoria it said, were accepting people with a tertiary entrance rank of 50. Attracting academically high achievers required providing greater incentives to students so they could see that becoming a teacher was worthwhile monetarily. The ripple effect of this can also be seen from the report's finding that some students are leaving high school functionally illiterate.

    "The degradation of a teacher's standing in the community is appalling. The profession now no longer attracts the "clever young people" it did 40 years ago, and now new teachers, the report said, "do not know enough history, have limited appreciation of literature through not reading enough of it and are ignorant, and frightened of mathematics and science". None of this should surprise. Forty reports in the past 10 years have recorded the plight of teaching the teachers.

    "In the end it comes down to political will. A nation is only as healthy — academically and culturally — as its next generation. We neglect the classroom at our peril."
    

    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    The not-so-clever country
    
    It was one of those numbers that looked wrong. "In May 2007, 526,000 young Australians aged 15 to 24 years were neither in full-time work nor full-time study," it read. No way, I thought. Dear reader, I was wrong.
    
    
    
    
  • The "Monday Education Section" has been updated and contains nine articles, including:
    
    
    • Teachers told to take control
      by Denise Ryan
      
      "Australian teachers have low professional standing because they don't behave like other professionals and demand high standards of practice, according to a US education expert.

      "Harvard University professor Richard Elmore says educators do not exercise serious control over the terms and conditions of who gets to practise, they do not have a clear body of knowledge and they have not risen to the challenge of policing the competence of their own colleagues.

      "This weak professional culture, he says, coupled with a strong residual belief by teachers and the community that teaching is low-skilled work, have prevented change.

      "On a recent visit, in which he spoke to about 700 Victorian educators, Professor Elmore urged them to embrace professional development programs being offered by the State Government.

      "Professor Elmore has worked closely with the deputy secretary of the department's Office of School Education, Darryl Fraser, to devise ways to improve educational leadership in schools to help senior staff raise the standard of teaching.

      "He says he enjoys working in Victoria because he regards it as "the acid test" for knowledge about how to improve big education systems.

      "He says he is impressed by the calibre of educators here, their determination and the magnitude of the challenges they face. "Victoria is the place where we are learning most about the nature of the work of large-scale improvement."

      "Professor Elmore has witnessed improvements in the quality of teaching during his visits over the past four years and expects to see more. To achieve this, he says, every school must have a professional development plan for its teachers and every teacher should have a development plan that is consistent with the school's plan. Continuous mastery of new knowledge must be a condition of practice.

      "He says many of his students are refugees from "real" professions such as law and medicine where they received continuing training. "These people all say that they are aghast at how weak the professional development and employee support systems are in education, and how difficult it has been for them to adjust to being put in a situation where they are expected to learn how to do a job but are not given the opportunities to learn."

      "Teachers, he says, must also be less passive. "Right now, educators are people to whom things are done; they are generally not people who actively seek to control the conditions of their own practice.

      "It is a political reality of post-industrial societies that occupations that have high social authority are those that take it; they don't stand around, first on one foot and then on the other, asking for people to acknowledge that they are important." ...
      
      Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
      
      
      

    • Op Ed
      Show respect, don't demand it
      by Geoff Crawford, head of house at St Patrick's College, Ballarat
      
      "Apparently, today's students aren't going to take it any more. Apparently, times have changed. Apparently, they refuse to accept that teachers deserve automatic respect. Apparently a teaching diploma no longer cuts it. What's going on?

      "Surely teachers have the right to expect that their knowledge and dedication are respected. Where do children get off thinking we have to prove anything to them?

      "While we're at it - when are parents going to start showing some respect? Who are they are to question what we teach and our methods? As for the media, when are they going to get off our backs and show some respect for the important work we do?

      "Hands up all those teachers who've had enough. Hands up all those who want to get out and find a job that pays a decent wage. Hands up all those who think teaching is untenable and would rather be doing anything other than standing in front of 25 urban terrorists hell-bent on bringing down Western civilisation as we know it.

      "It's a tough gig for sure, but we can make it easier on ourselves and we don't need to heed recent calls for a return to the dark old days of corporal punishment. What we need to do is understand one simple truth - if we're not getting respect it's because we don't deserve it. It's our own fault.

      "I'm hearing the howls of protest already, but stick with me. Times have changed. Once, respect for teachers was automatic. Children might not have liked us but they knew not to mess with us. We had authority to do just about whatever we liked to them. Even parents supported teachers being in control.

      "Society's expectations were different. Some schools catered for the academically inclined and others provided trade-oriented courses. It wasn't expected that every student would complete year 12.

      "Classes were streamed according to ability. There wasn't the huge range of abilities within each classroom that we have today. Teachers didn't need to cater for students with physical, social or learning difficulties. The majority of students were from white Anglo-Saxon backgrounds.

      "The range of subjects taught was narrower. Teachers were expected to know their subject and how to convey the information to the class. They didn't have to concern themselves with peripheral issues such as adolescent obesity and emotional wellbeing. That was the domain of parents. At the end of the school day, students went to a home where two parents lived and only one worked. Things have changed and we need to change with them.

      "Today we live in an information-rich world where teachers aren't the sole source of knowledge and instruction. Virtually any topic can be found on Google in seconds. If we are going to hold students' attention, we need to provide relevant, engaging lessons that encourage students to appreciate learning as a life-skill as well as for its intrinsic value..."
      
      Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
      
      
      

  • Funds shift a 'rip-off': principals
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "The Brumby Government is facing a growing backlash over its contentious new schools funding model, with some principals warning programs may be cut as hundreds of students are forced to get by on less money.

    "Under changes to be introduced next year, year 2 students and those in years 9 to 12 will get less state funding, while those in the early years of primary school and students between years 5 and 8 will get more.

    "The move is part of a push to redirect more money to the critical early schooling years — prep and year 1 — and to students making the transition from primary to secondary school.

    "But some senior secondary colleges feel they are being ripped off by the changes, and have raised concerns that they may be forced to cut back on key vocational subjects, camps or school sports in a bid to make ends meet.

    "Mildura Senior College principal Mark Tracy said his school, which caters for about 800 students, was expecting to get "thousands of dollars less" under the new funding model — which could affect the school's ability to subsidise camps, travel costs for city-based sporting events, and the special "pathways" program for students.

    "We would have liked our school to be given greater consideration. We've done the number crunching and we think we're going to be thousands of dollars out by the changes, and that would have a fairly significant impact on our programs," Mr Tracy said..."

    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Literacy program a dismal failure
    by Tony Koch
    
    "A program to lift Aboriginal literacy, school attendance and achievement has been a dismal failure and may even have made things worse.

    "An evaluation of the Partners for Success program, introduced in Queensland in 2003, found the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous achievement had widened in six of the nine benchmarks.

    "The confidential Education Queensland evaluation found the worst result was in Year 5 writing, where the gap widened by 10.8 per cent in 2005.

    "There is too much backward-sliding in most of the benchmarks, and too little progress in the remaining benchmarks to give heart," the education department report says.

    "Gains need to be materially significant to draw any lessons or heart from. Losses, even if slight, give rise to discouragement.

    "The scale of these discouraging education gaps varies in the classrooms across Queensland."

    "Indigenous students from far north Queensland consistently scored the lowest in the state across reading, writing and numeracy benchmarks, while those from Brisbane and the Mackay/Whitsunday region outperformed all other regions.

    "This gives rise to the sliding door scenario - the likelihood of the indigenous student's success is apparently contingent upon the lucky chance of either being in the right school or having the right teacher or both," the report says. "Academic ability is an insufficient ingredient for educational success."

    "The report also concludes that turning the situation around would involve tackling the causes of poverty and associated disadvantages - such as poor nutrition and fatigue, loss of hope and an absence of aspiration for a better life..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Support Grows for Teacher Bonuses
    by Michael Alison Chandler
    
    More Schools Offer Performance Pay as House Debates Issue
    
    "A movement gaining momentum in Congress and some school systems in the Washington region and beyond would boost pay for exceptional teachers in high-poverty schools, a departure from salary schedules based on seniority and professional degrees that have kept pay in lockstep for decades.

    "Lawmakers are debating this month whether to authorize federal grants through a revision of the No Child Left Behind law for bonuses of as much as $12,500 a year for outstanding teachers in schools that serve low-income areas.

    "National teachers unions denounce the proposal for "performance pay," saying it would undermine their ability to negotiate contracts and would be based in part on what they consider an unfair and unreliable measure: student test scores.

    "Debate over the proposal has exposed unusual fissures between the influential unions and longtime Democratic allies. Some education experts say the unions are out of step with parents and voters who support the business-oriented idea of providing financial incentives for excellent work..."

    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • School attendance to determine 'quarantining' of welfare payments
    
    "The Federal Government is considering quarantining 100 per cent of the welfare payments of Aboriginal parents who do not send their children to school.

    "Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has released more details about the Government's next phase of its intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

    "It includes a requirement for the Territory Government to provide all the resources for children to be educated including teachers, classrooms and books.

    "Mr Brough says the aim is for all children to be enrolled and to attend school regularly.

    "That is the only chance they have of having good English, numeracy, literacy and a real chance of a job," he said.

    "People who do not fulfil their obligations as parents and carers [will] have not just 50 per cent of their welfare payments quarantined, but potentially up to 100 per cent."

    "Northern Territory Justice Minister Syd Stirling says if quarantining welfare payments leads to many more children attending school, the Territory will fund their education.

    "Mr Stirling says the Territory will not have any trouble finding the necessary teachers to deal with the increase.

    "That's the job of the Government to be prepared for that, depending on the numbers and where they come into the system," he said.

    "I would imagine there will be some disruptions in some schools as we get infrastructure and teachers in place."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Gap year sends uni students to top of class
    by Mark Davis and Harriet Alexander
    
    "School-leavers are often encouraged to spend a year working or backpacking before starting university on the grounds they will benefit from extra experience, maturity and independence.

    "Now economists have demonstrated that taking a "gap year" translates into better marks at university. A study by two economists at the University of Western Australia, Elisa Birch and Paul Miller, found students who took time out scored an average first-year university mark 2.3 per cent higher than those coming straight from school.

    "The study found the positive effect of a gap year on academic performance was strongest for males who were underachievers: these students scored 3.7 per cent more if they took a gap year..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

  
  
  

Wednesday 19 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • In Short

      "It is no surprise to many in the real world of education (teachers) that the English jury has delivered such a damning indictment of yet another upper school course. If members of the public are still wondering why these problems continue they need look no further than some of the many recent indicators. One example is the early release of information from the ministerial task force pointing the finger at an out of touch bureaucracy that is more intent on control, manipulation and bullying. All we need now is for the ABC TV, radio and online news to spread the next conspiracy theory that PLATO has taken control of the jury process so that they can trot out the ever reliable Keely and Fry in another effort to con the public with spin and rhetoric."

      Evan Thompson, Northcliffe
      

      
      
      
  • TAFE walkout over 'unsafe' classes (page 15)
    by Kim MacDonald
    
    "More than 50 TAFE lecturers at the Midland campus walked off the job yesterday afternoon and their peers at other campuses will today consider joining an industrial campaign in protest over big class sizes.

    "Midland TAFE lecturers will meet this morning to discuss their industrial protest over the size of some student workshops, which the State School Teachers Union claimed were unsafe for both teachers and students.

    "SSTU president Mike Keely said the teachers were angry that a lecturer was stood down without pay after he refused to conduct a metal workshop for 17 students because he did not believe it was safe. Mr Keely said the lecturer had offered to replace the practical lesson with a theory session. He had also offered to run the workshop for 15 students and offer theory to the other two.

    "Mr Keely said TAFE had been deliberately provocative bt standing him down because the union and Swan TAFE were staging talks in the WA Industrial Relations Commission over the same problem."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Education Ministers in dispute over teacher shortage
    
    "The West Australian Government has intensified its attack on the Commonwealth for failing to provide tax relief to help address a critical shortage of teachers.

    "The state Minister for Education, Mark McGowan, says he is unable to wipe off the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) debts of teachers who work in regional and remote locations without being charged a fringe benefits tax of 87 per cent.

    "Mr McGowan says the Federal Minister for Education, Julie Bishop, is refusing to provide any concessions.

    "She could help by waiving the HECS bills. Now the State Government can't pay the HECS bills because we would have to pay twice because fringe benefits tax would be applied. So I don't want Peter Costello to get 10-thousand dollars of state money to pay off a five thousand dollar debt," he said.

    "The best way of getting a graduate teacher to the country is to waive their HECS debt if they're prepared to go. We can't pay it because we have to pay Fringe Benefits Tax. The easiest way for the Commonwealth to help is to realise this is a problem and to wave the HECS debt.

    "Ms Bishop says even if the tax were waived, paying students HECS debts would not ease the teacher shortage.

    "The teacher shortage in Western Australia has nothing to do with HECS. There are plenty of teaching graduates who are not in teaching because the employer, the state government, doesn't pay the teachers well enough and doesn't provide sufficient incentives for them," she said.

    "All the experts, all the research, all the surveys show that HECS is not a factor in career choice. Teachers want what Mark McGowan refuses to give them; better pay and conditions, reward for effort and job security."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Aussie students left behind
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Australian school students spend half the time learning reading, writing, maths and science that their counterparts in other industrialised nations do.

    "Australian curriculums devote the least amount of time of the 30 leading industrialised nations to teaching core subjects for 9- to 11-year-olds and for 12- to 14-year-olds, says the OECD report on education released last night.

    "Education at a Glance 2007 says Australia is the only member of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development to decrease public investment in tertiary education, by 4 per cent, compared with an average 49 per cent increase in the 29 other nations.

    "While public spending on education at all levels is below the OECD average, the level of private spending at the school and university level is among the highest.

    "The report also notes the lack of financial incentive for experienced teachers, with 31 per cent of wage rises in the past decade going to beginners and only 3per cent to those with more than 15 years on the job.

    "Education Minister Julie Bishop and Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith said the core subjects of reading, writing, maths and science were vital and the OECD results reflected why it was necessary to introduce a rigorous national curriculum in such subjects.

    "Ms Bishop said the report echoed recent concerns made by the Australian Primary School Principals Association that the curriculum was too cluttered and that core skills were suffering as a result.

    "Mr Smith said the core subjects were at the heart of a quality education and fundamental to other learning.

    "But association president Leonie Trimper disputed the figures, saying Australian primary schools spent about 30 per cent of the week on reading and writing and 20 per cent on maths.

    "The OECD reports that the intended instruction time for the compulsory curriculum in Australia is 13 per cent in reading, writing and literature for primary school students compared with 23 per cent in the OECD, and 9 per cent for 12- to 14-year-olds, compared with 15 per cent.

    "Maths accounts for 9 per cent of instruction time in primary schools compared with the OECD average of 16 per cent, and 9 per cent in high schools, compared with the average of 13 per cent.

    "Primary school science accounts for 2 per cent and a foreign language 1 per cent of teaching time compared with the averages of 8 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.

    "The report notes that Australia has a much lower proportion, 41 per cent compared with the OECD average of 92 per cent, of compulsory core curriculum, or the minimum required time devoted to core subjects common to all students.

    "The majority of the compulsory Australian curriculum is flexible, allowing schools or students to choose where to spend the rest of their time.

    "This indicator captures intended instruction time ... it does not show the actual number of hours of instruction received by students," the report says.

    "It nevertheless provides an indication of how much formal instruction time is considered necessary in order for students to achieve the desired educational goals."

    "In assessing education funding, the report says that based on 2005 figures, public funding of all levels of education in Australia is 4.3 per cent of GDP, compared with an OECD average of 5 per cent while private spending is 1.6 per cent of GDP, more than double the OECD average of 0.7 per cent, and the third-highest level behind the US and Korea.

    "Public funding of tertiary education institutions fell by 4 per cent compared with an average increase in the OECD of 49 per cent. Half of all tertiary spending is now from private funds. [emphasis added]

    "Mr Smith said the investment Australia made in education compared with other countries was the crucial factor.

    "The report finds that there has been a significant decline in public investment across all levels of education in Australia under the Howard Government," he said.

    "Ms Bishop said the OECD's analysis was flawed, and was based on a different definition of tertiary institution than used in Australia.

    "Ms Bishop also said it failed to include large public funding increases since 2004, including the $5 billion Higher Education Endowment Fund.

    "However, she said the report provided further support for the Government's push to introduce performance-based pay for teachers. "The lack of incentive and career prospects is one reason why 40 per cent of teaching graduates do not go into teaching and 25 per cent of new teachers leave the profession within five years," she said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    Related stories in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Melbourne Age
    
    
    

  • Op Ed / Blog
    No place for ideological agendas in our classrooms
    by Janet Albrechtsen
    
    "In the gentle, uplit sunlands of Kevindom, our public schools will be places of particular virtue. Happy, peaceful places ensuring equality of opportunity, producing clever students and driving national productivity. This will be Labor’s education revolution. So we’re told.

    "Sadly, the available evidence is to the contrary. Indeed, so confident are they that victory is theirs, teachers unions are dropping any veneer of respectability and giving us a frightening insight into a public education system run by teachers unions. Lost amid the Liberal Party leadership mayhem last week, Education Minister Julie Bishop rose in parliament and waved an anti-Howard Government pamphlet distributed by the NSW Teachers Federation. Teachers were handing out blatant election material to young schoolchildren.

    "The highly inaccurate leaflet accuses the Howard Government of trying to foment political revolution by stating that “public schools teach 67 per cent of kids but now receive 35 per cent of the money the federal Government spends on schools”. It fails to mention that public school funding is primarily a state responsibility and that nearly all state funding on schools goes to public schools. It does not mention that in 2004-05, total taxpayer funds to public school students averaged $10,715 while private school students received on average $6054.

    "The NSW Labor Government made half-hearted attempts to tell the teachers to stop proselytising in the schoolyard, but the union told the Iemma Government to go soak its head. So it did. It knows who’s boss.

    "Bishop pointed out that the acting deputy principal at Cherrybrook Public School forced a six-year-old girl in Year 1 to take the anti-Howard Government leaflet home to her parents. At Normanhurst Public School, children were apparently told to boo at any mention of John Howard or the Government. Similar indoctrination is happening across NSW. Bishop listed Oak Hill Primary School, Cobbity Primary School, Maxwell Primary School, Braddock Primary School and Hornsby Heights Primary School.

    "This is neither accidental nor local. National teachers unions have pursued an Australia-wide policy of thuggish indoctrination. The roll call of those peddling politics in the classroom is all too familiar. Remember Pat Byrne, the Australian Education Union federal president, bragging about progressive educators who “had succeeded in influencing curriculum development in schools, education departments and universities”? According to Byrne, those “conservatives ... have a lot of work to undo the progressive curriculum”. The Howard Government has taken on that progressive curriculum. But will a Rudd government?

    "Recall the brazen political plea from Wayne Sawyer, a former chairman of the NSW Board of Studies English curriculum committee. He verbally spanked teachers after the last federal election for failing to produce a more “questioning, critical generation” of students because they had voted for a Howard Government. Will a Rudd government ensure that teachers do not politicise the classroom in the way Sawyer wants?

    "The scale of the ALP’s bald-faced hypocrisy is the first thing to strike home. The first to complain about the politicisation of the public service, the ALP appears content to sit back and watch public schools become propaganda arms for Labor. The ALP says it stands for a free, secular school system that respects diversity and abhors discrimination on the basis of political or religious beliefs. With one caveat, perhaps? Provided your beliefs coincide with the militantly left-wing teachers unions.

    "Whoa, hold up, you might say. Cautious Kevin won’t let that happen. Rudd and his education spokesman Stephen Smith are sensible centrists on matters education. They have a national action plan on literacy and numeracy, they promise to set up a national curriculum board and have even flagged rewarding teacher performance.

    "But do they have the appetite to take on the teachers unions, which are at this very moment acting as their propaganda agents in public schools? If the NSW Government, which most directly controls NSW teachers, cannot stop them forcing political material on six-year-olds, what hope do Kevin or Stephen have? With the shadow cabinet already dominated by union heavies and their lawyers, and with Greg Combet, Bill Shorten and Doug Cameron knocking on a Labor cabinet’s door, will Kevin and Stephen be able to take on the teachers unions?

    "The tragedy of all this is, of course, that children will suffer. And underprivileged children, those with no chance of escaping the public school system, will suffer most of all. Consider the damage inflicted on school children over the past 30 years as progressive teachers have pursued the disastrous whole-word method of teaching children to read. On Monday, The Australian revealed that in a study of Victorian teachers many cannot spell words set at a level for 14-year-old students. These teachers were taught reading using the whole-word method, instead of learning the different sound combinations that make up words. Not a single teacher could correctly spell all 11 words in the test.

    "Whole language still prevails in many schools because if teachers don’t understand a phonetically based method of reading, how can their students?

    "It defies belief that the teaching of reading became drenched in progressive politics. And yet that is precisely what happened, with our leading educators openly describing the whole-word method as a highly politicised tool. Academic Brian Cambourne, the international poster boy for the whole-word movement, admits this teaching philosophy is about “literacy for social equity and social justice”. It is infused with politics: “Most of the work I do is based on the political prejudices I have and these must of course impact on what I research, and how and why I teach the way I do,” he says.

    "The result is that those children whose parents can afford it have fled the public education system in droves. Enrolments in private schools have increased by more than 20 per cent over the past decade. Those trapped inside public schools have been condemned to semi-literacy. So much for equality of opportunity.

    "The test is whether Labor will take on the teachers unions, which have been the single biggest hurdle to education reform in Australia. That they are handing out shameless election material to children suggests they are looking forward to flexing their muscle even further under a Rudd government. Welcome to Kevindom. Even Kevin won’t like it. But he won’t have a choice. He won’t be in charge."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • From pedagogues to demigods
    by Bernard Lane
    
    "The academic standards of teachers need to be lifted so that educators can recover their position in society as intellectuals and inspire students, a leading academic says.

    "(When I was at school) some of our teachers were like gods," said Kevin Wheldall, director of Macquarie University's Special Education Centre.

    "They inspired you: you wanted to become like them. They were very well rounded intellectually. We just don't seem to see that these days."

    "Professor Wheldall was commenting on a report from a Senate committee critical of academic standards in teacher training.

    "The Government majority on the Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee admitted the evidence was patchy but said there was enough concern about the weak disciplinary basis of the typical bachelor of education degree to warrant "a change in the culture of teacher training".

    "Secondary teachers should begin with a general degree -- in maths, science or English, for example -- and study education as post-graduates, the majority said.

    "The committee believes that studies in pedagogy and teaching theory are likely to be more effective for students with a solid grounding in their teaching discipline, if only by virtue of their increased maturity," the report said.

    "Education Minister Julie Bishop welcomed the report and singled out its criticism of education faculties for their "constructivist" philosophy and the content of their programs.

    "I take that criticism very seriously," she said. "I will most certainly be taking it up with the education faculties." This could be done through national accreditation of teacher training programs.

    "The idea of a generalist degree and then a specialised teaching qualification is well worth pursuing," Ms Bishop said. However, she wanted to see "a strong vocational component" within universities' preparation of teachers.

    "Professor Wheldall agreed that the change in training urged by the Senate committee could lift academic standards.

    "Derrick Armstrong, deputy provost at the University of Sydney, which has a popular master of teaching program, said having students choose education later could produce better teachers.

    "But Terry Lovat, pro vice-chancellor at Newcastle University and a past president of the education deans, dismissed the report as "based on some very tired ideas" and at odds with 20 years of research.

    "The best teachers are those who learn to master their discipline, and the pedagogy around their discipline, at the same time," Professor Lovat said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Degree pedal to the metal
    
    Murdoch University has accelerated its engineering degree to help feed the seemingly insatiable resources boom.
    
    See similar story in last Friday's The West Australian
    
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Don't blame uni debt for HECS on fertility
    
    The view that university graduates delay having children or limit how many they have because of their higher education debts is unfounded, research shows.
    
    
    
  • School boards expected to sign a statement of faith
    
    Members of the governing boards and councils of schools, university colleges and preschools run by the Sydney Anglican Church will be expected to sign a statement of faith, committing themselves to Jesus as the "one way to God" and the Bible as the supreme authority in life.

Thursday 20 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • In Short
      
      "A course which, according to the experts – the English teachers – is flawed and must be reworked can nevertheless demonstrate the superiority and brilliance of OBE.

      "How? Quite simple: just set the assessment criteria accordingly and everything will be fine. At least this has been working well in primary schools for years, hasn't it?"

      Christa Pohlenz, Rockingham
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Not money alone
    

    Funding without reform will not improve education.

    "Not one to let the facts get in the way of a campaign opportunity, Kevin Rudd seized upon the release of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report on education yesterday to attack the federal Government, claiming that the OECD figures showed that Australia was failing to spend enough on education and that only Mr Rudd could reverse this situation.

    "While it is true that if elected prime minister, Mr Rudd, at the behest of the Australian Education Union, promises to spend more on education, it is doubtful that there would be a corresponding increase in educational standards. This is because the union has stood in the way of essential reforms.

    "Mr Rudd and his union cheer squad would do well to listen to Harvard University's Richard Elmore, an expert on educational leadership who is evaluating the Victorian education system. According to Professor Elmore, teacher quality is most important in determining a child's success. The most obvious way to improve standards is to reward teachers for raising their standards with performance-based pay, something to which the union is implacably opposed.

    "There has been little support either for curriculum reform. A large volume of evidence-based research shows that instruction in phonics is the best way to teach reading but unions in Australia obstinately ignore the empirical evidence and barrack for the whole-language approach, which has shown particularly poor results for children experiencing reading difficulties.

    "The ALP and the union are horrified that the results of the OECD survey show there has been a fall in public expenditure and an increase in private expenditure on education in Australia. They assume this means there has been a corresponding fall in educational standards, wailing that Australia is "the third-worst of all OECD countries -- ahead of only Korea and the United States". In fact, in a study produced in 2005 ranking student performance across a range of international tests over eight years, Korea came third in maths, fourth in science and tied fourth in literacy. Australia came third in literacy, 11th in science and 12th in maths, well above the average for the OECD.

    "The OECD report acknowledges that financing the expansion of higher education is an issue for many countries and that innovative financing and student support policies that mobilise extra public and private funding are part of the answer. Australia is leading the way in this area. Far from damaging Australia's educational standards or limiting access to tertiary education, Australia is a leader in the OECD with 32 per cent of Australians over 25 with a degree compared with the OECD average of 26 per cent.

    "There is of course much to be done to raise educational standards in Australia. We should aspire as we do in sport, to come first in the world in literacy, maths and science skills -- but without breaking the stranglehold of unions on education in this country, more money won't help and the prospects of going for gold are dim."
    

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Call to ease HECS burden on students
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "John Howard is being urged by government MPs to reduce HECS fees amid warnings Labor has stolen a march on education.

    "Breaking ranks to describe student debt levels as "too high", Liberal MPs have proposed a flat reduction in HECS fees or programs to reduce debt for students who undertake volunteer work.

    "Coalition MPs have also warned that students in rural areas are struggling with the cost of living when they travel to study in the cities, suggesting scholarships or a living allowance to ease the financial pressure.

    "Their disquiet underlines fears within the Coalition that Education Minister Julie Bishop is failing to gain traction in her attacks on the ALP, which plans to offer targeted HECS relief.

    "West Australian Liberal MP Mal Washer yesterday called for HECS relief.

    "The reason for HECS originally was this assumption that people with university degrees have higher incomes," Dr Washer said. "With the construction and mining boom, that is no longer the case. We should reduce it, we need to pull it back."

    "Dr Washer said he was concerned that HECS fees discouraged some students from attending university.

    "I think HECS is a disincentive," he said. "We have young people saying they are being discriminated against - we have such a booming economy, why do they have to have so much debt?"

    "During a marathon partyroom meeting on Tuesday, Coalition MPs raised their concerns over education policy with the Prime Minister and suggestions for change.

    "South Australian senator Cory Bernardi said one option was to allow a reduction in HECS for students who undertook volunteer work in the community.

    "Students face HECS fee increases of up to $1239 a year for accounting, administration, economics and commerce degrees under university reforms in this year's budget.

    "Rural MPs also raised concerns about the cost of obtaining a university degree for students who had to travel to the cities.

    "Nationals Senate leader Ron Boswell said yesterday MPs were "dead right" over concern in the community. "It is a problem and people are feeling it," he said. Senator Boswell said his concern was not about HECS fees, but the cost of rent and travel for rural students attending university."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • OECD report card on our education inaccurate, insists PM
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "John Howard has savaged claims Australia has failed to invest in education, arguing a damning report has not considered new investment in universities and vocational training.

    "Defending the Government's education record, the Prime Minister yesterday said the OECD report was misleading and relied on out-of-datefigures.

    "As Kevin Rudd warned that the Government had received a report card of "fail, fail, fail", Mr Howard stood firm. "The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) report is based on old data and therefore is wrong," he told parliament. "The new data shows the very healthy financial position of the university sector.

    "The OECD analysis excludes HECS and other Australian government public subsidies to students.

    "The report leaves out 75 per cent of our vocational education expenditure, it leaves out our childcare subsidies, which support early childhood education, and it also leaves outall new education expenditure since 2004."

    "Mr Howard said "these facts would have been available to the Leader of the Opposition".

    "He either knew this when he asked the question and was nonetheless prepared to mislead the parliament and the Australian people or, alternatively, he was not adequately briefed by his staff before he raised the matter," he said.

    "According to the report, Australia is the only member of the OECD to decrease public investment in tertiary education. The report found that Australia was spending 4.3 per cent of gross domestic product on all levels of public education, compared with the average of 5per cent among similar nations.

    "It also found Australian school students spent 50 per cent less time learning reading, writing, maths and science than their counterparts in other industrialised nations.

    "Mr Rudd said the report had delivered the Howard Government a fail mark on education, particularly early childhood education. "Fail, fail, fail, fail in terms of our national government's performance on education," he said.

    "Our vision for the nation is to turn this country into the best-educated country in the world."

    "However, Education Minister Julie Bishop said the report also showed Australia was a leader in terms of tertiary access, with 32 per cent of Australians above 25 years of age having a degree compared with the OECD average of 26 per cent."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Howard spends up on bus seatbelts
    
    John Howard has again intervened in an area of state government responsibility, unveiling plans to spend $40 million to fit seatbelts in school buses in rural and regional areas.
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Union power is exaggerated
      
      "Janet Albrechtsen ("No place for ideological agendas in our classrooms”, 20/9) [sic]) again trots out the claim, beloved of conservative commentators, that Australia’s teacher unions are immensely powerful.

      "I’m a member of one of those unions and, if Albrechtsen is correct, I’m puzzled why my union doesn’t use some of that power to force my employer to improve salaries and working conditions to the level where many of us would reconsider plans to leave the profession or retire early.

      "In commenting on the teaching of reading in the same piece, Albrechtsen seems to imply that teachers in private schools are trained in different universities from those which produce state school teachers. I wonder how she dreamed that fiction up?"

      Garry Collins, Stafford Heights, Qld

 

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • School sex attacks soar
    by Peter Ker and Bridie Smith
    
    "Reports of sexual assaults, vandalism and personal injuries in Victoria's public schools have soared, statistics show.

    "The sharp rises come as the Brumby Government prepares to issue all state schools with a new advisory manual in a bid to improve handling of sexual assault claims.

    "The statistics, released by Education Minister Bronwyn Pike yesterday, show a large increase in reports of sexual assaults on school grounds between 2004 and 2006.

    "An average of nine sexual assaults each month were reported to the department in 2006, up from an average of two a month in 2004. A total of 81 were reported in the first nine months of 2006.

    "Reports of sexual assaults outside school grounds in 2006 are also set to double the 2004 statistics.

    "The statistics include complaints from students, teachers and all other people involved with schools, where the incidents were linked to their involvement with the school..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • Unis urged to fight back
    by Adam Morton, Higher Education Reporter
    
    "Australian universities get $2.5 billion a year less in government funding than they might have had if Whitlam-era levels had been maintained, Melbourne University vice-chancellor Glyn Davis says.

    "Last night, Professor Davis urged universities to fight their way back on to the political agenda through a long campaign to convince the public of their importance.

    "His speech followed an OECD report this week that said Australia was the only developed nation to cut public spending on tertiary education between 1995 and 2004.

    "Professor Davis said successive governments had learned they could cut funding and lift student costs with little political consequence.

    "He said universities would get $9 billion a year — compared with the $6.5 billion they get now — if the student funding levels of 1975-76 had been maintained.

    "The sector brings in another $2 billion a year through student tuition fees, mostly through HECS.

    "He called on universities to argue the case that increasing higher education funding would improve performance in areas such as the economy, health and the environment.

    "Meanwhile, higher education analysts have challenged Education Minister Julie Bishop's claim that an OECD report arguing Australia trailed the developed world in maintaining university funding was flawed.

    "Barry McGaw, a former OECD education director and now head of the Melbourne Education Research Institute, said most vocational education was considered high school equivalent, and counted in the analysis of upper secondary, and not tertiary, funding.

    "Analysts said the under-estimate of government funding would be minor."
    
    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    

    • Op Ed
      Unis must win votes too
      
      The past two decades have seen great change, but not in our higher education policy, writes Professor Glyn Davis.
      
      "Thirty-five years ago, in the western suburbs of Sydney, Gough Whitlam told the Labor faithful at his 1972 campaign launch that education "should be the great instrument for the promotion of equality". Among his promises was one to abolish fees at universities, colleges of advanced education and technical colleges.

      "Last weekend, also in the western suburbs of Sydney, Kevin Rudd launched Labor's campaign for the 2007 election. Again, education was a prominent theme. But this time, for universities, the promises were more modest. Not free education for all, but half-price HECS for those choosing to enrol in maths and science. This difference is a reminder of the way Australia has changed.

      "It is dangerous for a vice-chancellor, on the eve of an election, to offer comment on national politics. So I will express no view about the party political battle about to begin. My task is to argue that universities must fight their way back onto the political agenda. If we want to be part of the national discussion, the onus is on universities — and those who support higher education — to make the case..."
      
      Professor Glyn Davis is vice-chancellor of Melbourne University. This is an edited version of a speech given last night to alumni of the university.
      
      Full story in The Melbourne Age at link

      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • High fees for schools deterring migrants
    
    The skills shortage in NSW could be alleviated if the State Government stopped charging temporary residents $5000 for each child they enrolled in a public school, employer groups claim.
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Private education, government ignorance
      
      "University funding among lowest in OECD" (September 19) paints a gloomy picture of the future of Australian universities if the Howard Government's policies continue. Universities now need international student fees just to survive. At the same time, the shortfall in government funding is so great that standards are declining. Because of these declining standards, universities cannot attract the overseas students they need to make up for their missing revenue. If Australia is to have the universities we deserve, we either need a radical policy shift from the Federal Government (of which there's been no sign) or a change of government."

      Guy Curtis, Wentworthville

      
      "In the debate on funding education, OECD figures are about as objective as we can get. Strip away the spin, selectivity and blame-shifting and you cannot fail to arrive at an appalling situation. We stand at the top of GDP percentages for funding largely unaccountable private institutions at all levels and at the bottom of the table in providing funds for public education. Is there any need for further proof that education has become a consumer good and what does it say about a society which stupidly allowed this to happen?"

      Gus Plater, Saratoga

Friday 21 September

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Maths cut back as OBE overload erodes core subjects (page 9)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "The necessity to cram in more school subjects under the controversial outcomes-based education system has pushed some high schools to downgrade maths lessons to as little as three hours a week, prompting experts to warn of the "severe disadvantage" to students when they reach Year 11.

    "WAs main principals group said many State schools changed their lower secondary timetables to cut time allocated to core subjects to distribute it more evenly across eight learning areas when the OBE curriculum framework was introduced.

    "With the broadening of offerings at TEE level, we felt it was appropriate to ensure that students had proper preparation across all learning areas," WA Secondary School Executives Association president Alison Woodman said.

    "But Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute executive officer and former maths teacher Jan Thomas said students who studied maths for fewer than five sessions a week lacked the background they needed to study advanced maths or physical sciences in Years 11 and 12.

    "She said moves to place more emphasis on other subjects had suited State education departments because they did not have enough maths teachers anyway.

    "It has not been made for any good curriculum reasons and a lot of it has severely disadvantaged students because they stopped getting five periods a week in maths and English, which are the two core subjects," she said. "School timetables are just nonsense compared to what goes on in the rest of the world."

    "The Mathematical Association of WA said it wanted more time allocated to learning maths. "Members have expressed concern that with less time to cover more concepts they find it very difficult to help individual students develop their skills and understandings to the necessary depth," association president Michelle Ostberg said.

    "Education Department curriculum standards acting executive director Chris Cook said there was no recommended time allocation for maths in Years 8 to 10 but new guidelines were being considered. "Schools are required to provide a balanced curriculum that maximises learning for all students," she said.

    "The Catholic Education Office said it did not recommend any minimum time allocation for maths. Some Catholic schools offer just three maths classes a week to Year 10s."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Use it or lose it
      
      "What has happened to the teaching of literacy and numeracy in the past 20 years? Why are they in such a parlous state? Is it because the old methods of learning were abandoned as being boring and irrelevant?

      "It is no coincidence that the older generation can still spell and construct logical sentences as well as recall multiplication tables instantly and do mental arithmetic. We practised these things daily in primary school and they stuck.

      "What is the point of trying to write a story if there is no background of grammatical construction and no correction in case the writer feels slighted? How can children do even the most basic arithmetic when it is compulsory to have calculators?

      "Children are being told virtually to educate themselves. With no guidelines for anything, no wonder they are feeling frustrated and angry. Adults everywhere are meant to join in the education for life of every child. But how can they when they themselves are uneducated?

      "We oldies are constantly told that our brain is like a muscle and that if we don't use it, we lose it. What about children whose brains have never been flexed?"

      Josephine Kempton, Castletown
      

      
      
    • In short
      
      "If teachers spent more time teaching kids instead of arguing about what and how to teach them, there'd be a low fewer illiterate and innumerate kids floating around."
      
      Rod Rogers, Balga
      
      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Battler kids less likely to go to uni
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Students from low-income families are almost three times less likely to study at university than students from high-income families, and the proportion has not changed over the past 15 years.

    "Research by Richard James of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education said students from low-income families had comprised only about 14.5 per cent of university students since 1991, despite representing 25 per cent of the population.

    "While universities have experienced record growth in the number of local students over the past decade, the proportion of students from low-income areas has not altered.

    "In a paper, given earlier this week as part of the faculty of education dean's lecture series at Melbourne University, Professor James said people from high or medium socio-economic groups were twice as likely to go to university as those from low socio-economic backgrounds, while people from high-income families were almost three times as likely to go to university.

    "He said students from medium-income backgrounds were also modestly under-represented in higher education, being half as likely to attend university as students from high-income families. "That these imbalances have remained virtually unchanged ... during a period of significant expansion in the number of domestic students in Australian higher education is amazing," he said. "It is tempting to conclude that university admissions/selections processes are quite resilient in reproducing a certain social order."

    "Professor James based his study on three socio-economic groups using income data by postcode as recorded in the census. Low socio-economic students were those whose permanent home was in the bottom 25 per cent of postcodes, with medium socio-economic status representing 50 per cent and high socio-economic status the top 25 per cent of postcodes.

    "The latest OECD report on education released on Tuesday, Education at a Glance, says Australia has one of the highest graduation rates from university, at more than 40 per cent.

    "The proportion of Australians entering tertiary education, university or vocational training increased by more than 10 percentage points between 2000 and 2005 and the OECD report says HECS has not discouraged students from entering. But Professor James's study shows that it has not altered the demographic of university students, which has barely changed since the Whitlam government era when university was free.

    "Professor James said students from low-income backgrounds were under-represented in the courses of highest demand such as law and medicine, and in the nation's eight leading universities, known as the Group of Eight, where they represented only 11 per cent of students.

    "Students from high-income backgrounds comprised more than half the students in all masters degrees and doctorates, while students from low-income backgrounds were enrolled in greater numbers in teaching and agriculture.

    "Professor James said the proportion of students from low-income backgrounds attending a so-called "sandstone" university, or one of the top eight, had fallen since 2001. The University of NSW was the only campus to increase its share of students from low-income backgrounds, from 5.1 per cent to 5.5 per cent."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    

    • Federal help required to end two tiers
      by Milanda Rout
      
      "Universities should get funding to recruit poor students from struggling schools, according to Professor Richard James of Melbourne University's Centre for the Study of Higher Education.

      "The federal Government should finance a scheme, which would specifically target the sandstone universities, where the proportion of students enrolled from disadvantaged backgrounds is falling.

      "Professor James called for urgent bold steps to address educational disadvantage in the nation's universities in a speech last night..."
      
      Full story in The Australian at link
      
      

    • Rent relief for 11,000 mature-age students
      by Brendan O'Keefe
      
      "Thousands of university students can breathe a little easier after a bill passed through the Senate yesterday that allows them to receive rent assistance on top of an Austudy allowance.

      "The passage of the Social Security Amendment (2007 Budget Measure for Students) Bill means students aged over 25 are eligible for rent relief.

      "Previously, only students under 25 on Youth Allowance had been eligible for the assistance. Typically, it will put about $105 extra a fortnight in the pockets of eligible students.

      "Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja, who has campaigned for the increase since 2004, said it was welcome but long overdue.

      "I am glad the Government has finally resolved this bizarre anomaly, where older students were assumed to have lower costs than students under 25."

      "About 11,000 mature-age students stood to benefit from the 2007 Budget measure. In 2005-06, 50,389 students received Austudy and 435,661 received Youth Allowance.

      "Extending Austudy to eligible masters or equivalent students, and expanding eligibility to rent assistance for Austudy students, is a good start to improving the stressful financial situation many of our university students find themselves in," said Universities Australia spokesman Alan Robson."

      From The Australian at link
      
      
      
    • Single mum learns hard way
      by Milanda Rout
      
      "After spending the last three years juggling university study with raising a child, Rebekah Ozanne is about to throw in the towel.
      
      "The 38-year-old single mum of a six-year-old is facing the prospect of being unable to complete her final year because she no longer is entitled to childcare assistance from the federal Government. Changes to childcare subsidies mean full-time students are only entitled to the benefit for one year, regardless of the duration of their course. So Ms Ozanne is now facing childcare bills of $80 a session compared with the $5 she paid previously..."
      
      Full story in The Australian at link
      
      
      
      
• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Editorial
    OECD blows the whistle on Australia's neglect of education
    
    "The OECD report Education at a Glance this week confirmed Australia's higher education sector has real cause for complaint about its funding. In the decade to 2004, Australia was the only one of 34 OECD nations to cut public spending on tertiary education, even as student numbers rose. The average increase across the OECD was 49 per cent. By 2004, the Government provided 47.2 per cent of higher education revenue (down from 57 per cent in 1996), while the OECD average was 75.4 per cent. Only six nations put less public money as a proportion of GDP into higher education. Australia was also below average for all spending, public and private, on education.

    "Education Minister Julie Bishop struggled to defend this record. Funding has improved since 2004, as she said, but that is the case across the OECD. As for her complaint that the OECD calculations excluded HECS and full-fee loans, students must repay the loans and hence these are a private liability — the small minority of HECS loans that won't be repaid have only a marginal impact. Her bid to include vocational funding ignores the fact that most of this falls into the category of upper secondary education. Ms Bishop's most audacious funding claim was her inclusion of $6 billion in capital in the new Higher Education Endowment Fund. Universities will not receive the first earnings from this, about $400 million, until 2008-09. Even if one accepts her estimate, surely the highest possible, that federal funding to universities has risen 26 per cent since 1996 (the year that the Government cut funding by $1.8 billion), that is still only half of the OECD increase to 2004.

    "Important gains have been made in universities' private funding — foreign student fees provide 15 per cent of revenue — and in their flexibility in response to a more competitive tertiary market. Such reforms aside, it is telling that universities were genuinely shocked that their needs finally rated as a priority in this year's budget. Submissions to a Senate inquiry into the endowment fund made clear the impact of past neglect as public funding per student fell 30 per cent in real terms from 1995 to 2003. The ratio of students to staff has increased 50 per cent. A $2 billion backlog in maintenance work has built up. A decade ago about two-thirds of university business was basic research; today that is down to about half. Last month, a position paper by the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations warned that the Howard Government's legacy had "significantly weakened the long-term prospects for the Australian higher education sector".

    "This election year began with Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd announcing an "education revolution". Labor sources suggested up to $5 billion more would be put into all levels of education. One key policy, the scrapping of full fees for local students, could consume about $500 million of that. But the economics of equity is on the rise, based on the idea that education should not be seen as a cost but as an investment in prosperity. This is the rationale for HSBC chief economist John Edwards' opposition to full-fee places, "a particularly pernicious example of stinginess … This is just government-encouraged queue jumping." He notes that 90 per cent of Australia's output is not in mining or agriculture, but in services, where future prosperity largely depends on fostering the higher-level skills and talents of the entire workforce. The jobs of 2020 and beyond, most yet to be created, will depend on the development of technology, innovation and ideas, with universities driving these processes.

    "Once accused by former education minister Brendan Nelson of being obsessed with higher education, Labor has been vindicated by the spending surge in rival "knowledge economies" and the Government's belated response. Both sides of politics have presided over a three-decade decline in public funding, so neither is blameless for the current state of affairs. It is the Howard Government, though, that even now has yet to grasp the importance of equitable public education for Australia's future."
    

    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • Experts back claims on low uni funding
    by Adam Morton
    
    "Education experts have backed an international report that claims Canberra has failed to invest in universities, contradicting Government claims it is wildly inaccurate.

    "The consensus was that the OECD may have underestimated Australia's public funding of universities — but the difference was not enough to close the gap with other developed countries.

    "Prime Minister John Howard told Parliament the Education at a Glance report was wrong and out of date. He said it excluded 75 per cent of vocational education funding, public subsidies including deferred HECS loans, and spending increases since 2004.

    "According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development analysis, Australian Government tertiary education funding was cut by 4 per cent over the decade measured, compared with an average developed world rise of 49 per cent.

    "Andrew Norton, of the Centre for Independent Studies, said tertiary funding had returned to 1995 levels by 2006. Investment rose again in this year's budget.

    "Melbourne University higher education professor Simon Marginson and Barry McGaw, a former OECD education director, said the report was reasonably accurate.

    "They agreed Australia's tertiary figure should include HECS loans that would never be repaid. But all government loans worldwide are counted as private spending, not public.

    "They also said most vocational funding was included in the OECD report. It was counted as school-equivalent education funding, not tertiary."
    
    From The Melbourne Age at link

Saturday – Sunday, 22 – 23 September

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Flunk TEE, then teach (page 20)
    by Anthony DeCeglie
    
    Less capable students will drag other students down
    
    "WA students can flunk their looming TEE exams and still become teachers.

    "Those who score an average of 46 per cent can get into teaching courses at Murdoch and Edith Cowan universities.

    "Entry into the state's universities is so easy that students who average just 39 per cent across four TEE exams can study for degrees in subjects such as Applied Chemistry, Computer Technology and Social Sciences at Edith Cowan.

    "On Friday, WA Education Minister Mark McGowan slammed the Federal Government for letting failed students become teachers.

    "They have dropped the ball in this area for the past 10 years,'' he said. "The Howard Government needs to focus on their own areas rather than coming out with wacky and dippy ideas about what state governments should be doing.''

    "Mr McGowan demanded Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop adopt a national approach to raise the status of teaching as a career.

    "But Ms Bishop said each university set its own benchmarks for prospective students.

    "The Australian Government does not set entrance requirements for university courses,'' she said.

    "Entrance scores vary according to the level of demand, however, universities have a responsibility to ensure any student accepted into a course of study has a reasonable prospect of successfully completing that course.''

    "Despite teaching courses becoming easier to enrol in, the number of applicants has dropped 30 per cent in three years.

    "Ms Bishop said it was up to the state governments to make teaching more attractive by embracing changes such as performance-based pay.

    "Students cite the lack of career paths and incentives in the current salary structures as a disincentive to become teachers,'' she said.

    "Earlier this year, I asked state government education ministers, including Minister McGowan, to participate in a trial of innovative salary arrangements that offered greater incentives and rewards for teachers.

    "The WA minister acknowledged the problem, but refused to even consider such a potential solution.''

    "Getting into university should become even easier next year, with the number of enrolments predicted to drop as students opt to learn trades.

    "This year, Murdoch University accepted students who averaged 46 per cent in their exams while Curtin University accepted students who averaged 50 per cent.

    "The University of Western Australia was the hardest to get into -- it required that students averaged 57 per cent.

    "Curtin University's director of student services John Rowe said students allowed into university with poor TEE results were unlikely to succeed.

    "There is a danger that those individuals would not be able to cope with the demands of studying at university,'' he said.

    "It is a very different environment from high school, a lot more independent, and those students may not be able to handle it.

    "There is also the concern that less capable students will drag other students down because of the demands and restrictions they put on teachers.''

    "But ECU's director of student services Glenda Jackson said the university was not ashamed that many of its courses accepted students who had failed their TEE.

    "Ms Jackson said ECU led the way in giving students alternative pathways into university.

    "TEE is not the be all and end all,'' she said. ``We take into account a lot more when we are deciding who gets to take our courses.

    "We provide a portfolio pathway, which takes into account students' grades, leadership skills, letters of recommendation and an interview process. We find one of the most important qualities are a student's desire to take a course.''

    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
    
  • Safety at risk over shortage (page 20)
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "Students are being put at risk because some teachers are operating dangerous machinery such as lathes and welding tools without suitable qualifications, it was claimed yesterday.
    
    "Science teacher Marko Vojkovic said unqualified teachers were running some design and technology classes to cover shortages.
    
    "Mr Vojkovic, who is a State School Teachers Union presidential candidate and former president of the People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes group, said there was potentially lethal equipment in the classes that taught metalwork and woodwork.
    
    "It's dangerous where you have potentially lethal equipment such as saws, lathes and welding machines," he said.
    
    "And this is widespread, and is in both country and city schools."
    
    "Private schools also had problems with teachers teaching subjects they weren't qualified for, also because of the shortage.
    
    "Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier said design and technology classes were worst-hit in remote areas, where many students chose vocational studies.
    
    "The State Government needs to act on this (situation) before there is an accident," he said.
    
    "Acting deputy director-general of Schools Keith Newton said he was unaware of any teachers who did not have expertise in design and technology teaching such subjects in public schools. [And on which planet has Mr Newton been residing? Web]
    
    "Last week The Sunday Times revealed that teachers were teaching outside their expertise to cover staff shortages in subjects, including drama, art and media."
    
    From The Sunday Times
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Education in dunce's corner (page 86)
    by Matt Price
    
    Whoever wins the looming election should give top priority to drastically improving education.
    
    "Mostly, the Howard Government loves the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development.

    "Since the Coalition won office, the OECD has been handing out regular plaudits to the Government like a principal lavishing praise on the high school dux.

    "The OECD comprises 30 relatively high-income nations that agree to compare key policy areas against fellow members.

    "During a decade or more of boom conditions in Australia, the organisation has had plenty of nice things to say about the Coalition's economic performance.

    "Here's Peter Costello a few years ago: "Compared to the United States, compared to the United Kingdom, compared to Japan, compared to France and Germany, the other developed economies of the world, Australia leads the pack, and the OECD said that yesterday.

    "In fact, the OECD, which is the Paris-based organisation that surveys all the advanced economies of the world, recommends Australia as a role model for other economies."

    "All true: pat yourself on the back, Treasurer.

    "Inconveniently for the Government, the OECD issued another comparison last week. It was titled Education at a Glance 2007 Report and the Coalition copped a savaging.

    "When it comes to spending on education by the Federal Government, Australia is close to being dunce of the OECD.

    "We're third-bottom for the percentage of taxpayer money spent on education.

    "Since 1995, Australians have been compelled to spend an increasing amount of their own money on all forms of education.

    "Spending on pre-school education is bottom of the list. Appallingly, Government investment in tertiary education declined by 4 per cent between 1995-2004.

    "The average across all countries was an increase of 49 per cent.

    "Remember, this singular decline occurred as the economic boom triggered record revenue flows.

    "Did John Howard and Education Minister Julie Bishop admonish their performance and promise to do better? Don't be silly. They did what any self-respecting desperate Government entering an election campaign behind its opponent would do – they traduced the uncomplimentary report.

    "Apparently, we can trust the OECD when it praises the Coalition, but must dismiss any criticism as wrong-headed and confused.

    "Howard and Bishop derided the education report as misguided and out of date. It's true the OECD report had not taken into account spending increases since 2004.

    "But all countries were compared over the same period and Australia was found seriously wanting. No amount of spin can alter this fact.

    "The most significant rise in tertiary spending came in the May Budget, after Kevin Rudd emerged as Opposition Leader and promised an "education revolution" if the ALP won office.

    "It's about time Labor got its act together on education. Kim Beazley made a hash of education in the 2001 election as Labor spent months pumping up its Knowledge Nation policy, only to have it torpedoed on release when author Barry Jones insisted on running with the famously confused Noodle Nation diagram.

    "In 2004, Mark Latham went to the election vowing to reduce funding to 67 wealthy private schools and to freeze subsidies to 111 others.

    "Latham was proud of his "hit list" and never bothered to compile a list of more than 9000 schools set to receive more money under Labor's policy.

    "Quite rightly, voters feared Latham was less interested in lifting education standards than engaging in class warfare.

    "Since December, Rudd and his cautious, hard-working frontbencher Stephen Smith have played Labor back into the education game.

    "Costello's 11th Budget, which contained significant increases for universities, acknowledged the political pressure applied by Rudd's determined focus on education. When the Treasurer was anointed co-leader last week as Howard flagged retirement, Costello's first item on his agenda for the future was boosting education spending and improving Australia's universities.

    "Not before time – it's disgraceful our tertiary students have been forced to pay more for degrees during bountiful economic times.

    "Whoever wins the looming election should give top priority to drastically improving education."

    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
    
• The Northern Territory News
  
  
  • NT teachers reject pay offer
    by Kasey Brunt
    
    "The Territory's education boss and the Commissioner for Public Employment are disappointed teachers have rejected their new pay offer.

    "Commissioner for Public Employment Ken Simpson and Education Department chief executive Margaret Banks have said the offer of a 10 per cent pay rise over three years was more than fair.

    "But the Northern Territory branch of the education union has turned down the offer, saying the wage increase is not high enough.

    "Branch president Nadine Williams also said the offer did not take into account class sizes and student-to-teacher ratios.

    "Mr Simpson said the offer would mean Northern Territory teachers were the third-highest paid in the country.

    "In our view it is a good offer," he said.

    "So we are a little bit disappointed."

    "But the Territory opposition has also slammed the offer, saying teachers did the right thing in knocking it back.

    "The Territory teachers' rejection of the offer is perfectly justifiable," Opposition Education Spokesman Terry Mills said.

    "It is teachers who have the greatest bearing on a student's academic achievement."

    "The CLP called the NT Government's pay offer a "slap in the face".

    "Mr Mills said the pay offer equates to a 3.3 per cent annual pay rise when inflation is running at 4.6 per cent per annum.

    "Federal Member Dave Tollner said the pay offer was destroying the morale of Territory teachers."
    
    From The Northern Territory News at link
    
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • $3000 apprenticeships at 'free' technical colleges (page 58)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Students at a technical college set up by the Federal Government will be slugged more than $3000 to complete a school-based apprenticeship despite John Howard promising they would be free, WA Education Minister Mark McGowan says..."

    Full story in The West Australian
    

    • Mark McGowan's Media Statement
      
      
      
      
• The Sunday Age
  
  
  • Free kids' TV channel is as easy as ABC3
    by Jason Koutsoukis
    
    "Australian children are set to have their own free-to-air television channel next year, regardless of who wins the federal election.

    "The Sunday Age has learned that Prime Minister John Howard would announce the creation of the new children's channel in the coming election campaign.

    "With Labor already backing the children's channel, the idea will get the go-ahead whichever party wins government.

    "The channel would be owned by the ABC, available as a separate digital service known as ABC3, and targeted at the 2.5 million families with children under 15.

    "Communications Minister Helen Coonan, who has been a strong supporter of the idea, met ABC managing director Mark Scott last week to hammer out the details.

    "The children's channel will operate from 6am to 9pm daily, with programs including drama, comedy, animation, music, talk and information, and incorporating viewer-generated content, interactivity and on-demand digital services.

    "It is believed the station will operate on a budget of close to $50 million a year and will be available to anyone who can receive a digital signal on their television set.

    "Australian Children's Television Foundation chief executive Jenny Buckland, who also met Senator Coonan last week, said many other countries, including Britain, Norway, Germany, Sweden and the United States, had channels dedicated to children's programs.

    "We are proposing that the station would have 50 per cent Australian content, with the rest sourced from around the world," Ms Buckland told The Sunday Age. She said that because the Federal Government already subsidised children's television programming, it made sense to try to get a station that was just for kids.

    "In the past 15 years, Australians have spent $260 million creating hundreds of hours of children's television content that has often only been seen once or twice but could now appeal to a new generation of children.

    "We've got a really positive hearing from the Government and the Opposition," she said.

    "In a submission to the Australian Communications and Media Authority Children's Television Standards Review, the ABC argued future generations of children risked missing out on quality Australian content if it was not provided in the places and at the times they wanted.

    "The key issue is to ensure that audiences and quality Australian content connect," said the ABC's director of television, Kim Dalton.

    "ABC TV offers the pre-eminent children's service in Australia, yet it is increasingly finding its audience moving to subscription television children's channels, which predominantly carry overseas programming.

    "If Australian children and parents are to have access to Australian programs in the digital environment, ABC TV believes a dedicated, commercial-free Australian children's channel is an integral part of the solution."

    "Labor communications spokesman Stephen Conroy said a lack of support for a kids' television channel by Prime Minister Howard showed the Government's complacency towards the transition to digital television and the ABC itself.

    "Labor will be announcing its policy in these areas during the election campaign," Senator Conroy said.

    From The Sunday Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • In defence of Steiner

      "Having my two children going through Steiner education from kindergarten to year 12, my son finishing at the end of this year, I find the concerns and fears voiced in the article "Steiner a potential handicap" (16/9), without foundation. On top of the list of these fears seems to be that Steiner education could handicap children already at risk of not learning to read. I grew up in Switzerland and was educated through the state school system, starting primary school at age seven like in most other European countries. This would then mean that most European children would be at risk of not learning to read. Just because we don't quite understand something doesn't mean it is wrong. The home environment is just as important in a child's education as is going to school. Education doesn't stop outside the school gate, no matter what school they're going to. Steiner education encourages the creation of an environment at home which supports the love for learning and play appropriate to their age. It would be great if people like Ms Cashen and the writer of this article, Deborah Gough, took the time to find out what Steiner education is about. The public has the right to be given factual information about anything written about in the media. A lot of what has been said in this article is based on a lack of knowledge and understanding of Steiner education. I encourage anybody to find out for themselves what the fuss is all about; the internet makes this easy. I hope the state school system doesn't stop giving parents this choice, which I assume is more affordable than sending their children to an independent Steiner school.

      "Ms Cashen said the two cornerstones of public education were being free and secular. From my understanding there is now only one cornerstone left — secular. Free education is a thing of the past, or are those reports about parents refusing to pay "fees" in state schools all wrong?"

      Ignaz Amrein, Healesville
      
      

    • How patronising

      "With regard to Steiner schools, to imply that people from a low socio-economic background don't regard their children's eduction with the utmost importance is nothing more than an insult. I am a young single mother from Footscray, therefore my child is exactly who Jacinta Cashen would define as disadvantaged. He has been Steiner-educated since prep and has an excellent record of academic achievement. He started the Harry Potter series of his own accord as a nine-year-old and achieved well above average results in the AIMS test in Year 3. Why shouldn't people of a low socio-economic background be given the choice in how to educate their children? It is patronising of Jacinta Cashen to assume economically disadvantaged families can't offer their children the "protecting factors" of the middle class and to try and control how these families educate their children."

      Fiona Morgan, Footscray
      
      

    • Against the stream

      "As an employee in the state education system, I have problems with the Steiner stream. There is minimal academic content. It is driven by fantasy, goblins and gods. They pray daily that spirits inhabit their souls. Children have no intellectual resistance, and monotheistic induction is a form of mental child abuse.

      "Steiner semantics have hijacked the principles of secular education and cultivated serious divisions within the Footscray community. The Department of Education is giving preference and support that promotes the Steiner doctrines."

      Name and address supplied
      
      
      

• The Melbourne Age [Saturday]
  
  
  • Foreign students take on state over discrimination
    by Adam Morton
    
    "The [Victoria] State Government has been criticised by the chief of its equal opportunity commission after introducing legislation to quash a racial discrimination case.

    "Overseas students have taken the state to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, arguing laws denying them public transport concessions are discriminatory.

    "Represented by the Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria, they claim 100,000 international students bring about $3 billion a year to the economy but are treated as second-class citizens, banned from concession rates on trams, trains and buses.

    "When conciliation failed, the council was preparing to take the case to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Are you using all your apostrophe's?
      
      "After all these years I've finally worked it out. There are some who believe that we're given a collection of apostrophes at birth. These are to be used randomly alongside an "s". These moments are called epiphany's."

      Joan Kunze, Penrith
      
      
      

• The Brisbane Courier-Mail
  
  
  • High-rise high school
    
    Australia's first highrise school is to be built . . . where else but on the Gold Coast?
    
    
    
    
• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Attack ups security at college
    
    Teachers at a regional school are using walkie-talkies after staff were attacked by three former students.
    
    
    
    
• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Editorial
    The wisdom of having three universities
    
    Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop was blunt: "South Australian universities must decide whether they are sustainable as three public, high education providers."

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All media quotations, photographs and cartoons © their respective publishers

This page last updated 13 August, 2008 0:41 AM