Monday 15 October

Tuesday 16 October

Wednesday 17 October

Thursday 18 October

Friday 19 October

Saturday – Sunday, 20 – 21 October

 

Monday 15 October

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers vote on future of OBE (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    Curriculum Council needs 75 per cent approval for Year 11 and 12 courses altered after teacher juries panned them
    
    "High school teachers will today vote on the readiness of many new outcomes-based courses in a crucial poll which will decide whether the introduction of the controversial courses could be delayed for the third time in as many years.

    "The Curriculum Council needs hundreds of teachers to give their final stamp of approval to new Year 11 and 12 courses at special consultation sessions across the State. About 1700 teachers of 12 courses, including literature, biological science, music, geography and accounting and finance, will be asked to vote on whether the new syllabuses are workable.

    "It is understood that the council will consider the courses ready if 75 per cent of teachers approve them. A big "no" vote could push the courses' scheduled 2009 implementation back to 2010. [emphasis added]

    "Curriculum Council acting chief executive Steve Donatti said the courses, which were re-written after they were rejected by so-called "teacher juries" five months ago, required backing from "a large majority" of teachers so they could be accredited by the end of the year.

    "If the course does not have majority support further work will be undertaken and council may review the implementation timeline," he said.

    "Questions have been raised about today's process because many teachers will have to sign off on the new courses after seeing them only briefly. And some courses do not yet have sample exams, only sample questions or general "design briefs", which means teachers will not know exact details when they cast their ballot.

    "Teachers will be told what changes have been made on the advice of teacher juries and will then be asked to outline any further revisions they consider necessary and to record a yes or no vote on the question "is this a workable syllabus for you?"

    "One teacher employed to help run the consultation said the council was "desperate for a green light from teachers" but it was unfair that they would have to absorb reams of material within a few hours.

    "It seems unreasonable for teachers to have to sit down on the day they get those booklets and then say yes or no," he said. "And it does seem equally unreasonable to ask teachers to judge whether the course is workable without a sample exam." [emphasis added]

    "Another facilitator said that while she was pleased the council had listened to the juries, she was concerned that teachers had such a short time to make critical decisions about the revised courses. "You are making decisions with a lot of information not available to you," she said.

    "Education Minister mark McGowan wiped out much opposition to OBE courses earlier this year by dumping assessment using wordy "outcome descriptors" in eight levels of achievement and replacing them with traditional marks and grades.

    "Many of the OBE courses were due to be introduced to Year 11s this year but were delayed to 2008 after teachers threatened to boycott them. They were postponed again until 2009 after the juries set up by the State Government ruled they would not be ready.

    "Today's meeting comes just weeks after a panel of teachers set up to assess the OBE English course, for which Year 12s will soon sit their final exams, found the course needed substantial rewriting."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Council awaits teacher feedback on OBE
    
    "Teachers across the state are meeting to discuss the introduction of the new Outcomes Based Education courses but the result of the talks may not be known until next month.

    "About 1700 teachers will consider whether or not the new courses will be ready to be implemented in 2009.

    "Any changes to the timetable will be discussed at the next Curriculum Council meeting at the end of the month.

    "The council's Chief Executive Officer, David Wood, says the feedback of teachers is crucial.

    "We are hoping that we will be able to take the feedback back to the council meeting and then council will determine whether they'll go ahead," he said.

    "I can't envisage there will be an problems."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Schools warned: no guns on guards
    
    [Victorian] public schools have been warned against hiring gun-wielding security guards and using guard dogs to control unruly Year 12 students celebrating their final days of school.
    
    
    
    
  • Unis must be up-front about study costs
    
    Universities have been urged to be more up-front about the cost of living and studying in Australia after a survey found international students suffered a hip-pocket shock on arrival.
    
    
    
    
  • Nurses threaten to strike
    
    [Victorian] nurses are threatening industrial action, which would include bed closures, unless the Brumby Government improves its pay offer by tomorrow.
    
    Teachers next?  Web
    
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Teachers hear the call of the west
    by Elisabeth Tarica
    
    "Western Australia's push to poach Victoria's best and brightest teachers has attracted a modest return so far - 17 inquiries in three days.

    "The West Australian Education Minister, Mark McGowan, was in Melbourne last week - as enterprise bargaining talks continued between the Australian Education Union and the Brumby Government - to launch a campaign to lure Victorian teachers west with the promise of better pay and conditions.

    "Mr McGowan's spokeswoman, Kim Coolhaas, says the Victorian inquiries were encouraging as formal application dates had not been set.

    "The national advertising campaign is aimed at teachers from Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland, which all pay their graduate teachers less than Western Australia.

    "Under the scheme, graduates are being offered annual salaries of more than $50,000, about $3900 more than they would earn in Victoria.

    "Teachers who choose to work at selected country and remote schools will earn an extra $19,800 in location allowances and have their moving costs met.

    "While initiatives to woo teachers with bigger salaries are not new, there is concern this latest campaign could have implications for Victoria, particularly in rural areas.

    "Annette Gough, head of RMIT's school of education, says any loss will worsen the shortage of teachers in Victoria.

    "She is also concerned that the West Australian Government is concentrating on teachers in subjects already suffering."

    "That is a huge concern for Victoria because we are already struggling with science and maths, information technology, physical education and languages other than English teachers at secondary level, especially in hardto- staff regions. It's a real problem," she says.

    "Professor Gough, who is also the chair of the Australian Council of Deans of Education, says many rural secondary schools are struggling to attract teachers."

    "Poaching is nothing new, but the fact they are targeting areas where we have shortages is the greatest concern."

    "The Education Union's Victorian branch president, Mary Bluett, says the shortage, combined with an ageing workforce and the number of teachers leaving the profession, leaves Victoria vulnerable."

    "The more teachers we continue to lose, the more class sizes go up, which consequently affects the learning opportunities and outcomes available to students," she says."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Review of staff ratios in preschool
    
    Staff-to-child ratios in child-care centres and preschools could be improved under a State Government overhaul.
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • School plan is unfair and biased

      "I am outraged by the Government's impending decision to introduce a written application and interview as a means of entering select-entry high schools. I am also disappointed by a policy that limits the number of students entering these schools ("Cap on elite state schools under fire", The Age, 11/10).

      "I am a secondary school student and I believe this is a discriminatory way to select students for high schools such as MacRobertson Girls and Melbourne high. A written application and an interview are not sufficient information on which to rate a student's ability. The three-hour entrance exam is better as it is a direct channel for the school to understand a student's capabilities. [emphasis added]

      "The fact that a State Government policy imposes a cap of 3 per cent of students arriving from each individual school is appalling and unfair. A student has every right to study in an environment where other students are on the same intellectual plane."

      Jasmine Liu, Year 7, Melbourne Girls College, Toorak
      
      
      
      

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Heckler
    Convict life is textbook stuff - at least, a few years' worth
    by Elizabeth Clark [Year 10 student]
    
    "So our Coalition Government would make it compulsory for all year 9 and 10 students to learn Australian history. I am a year 10 student in NSW, and have spent the last two years doing just that, and have become increasingly tired of it.

    "Admittedly, Australia's history isn't that dry, but with only 219 years of written history, things tend to be repeated. We were bound to learn something new about convicts the sixth time around.

    "We heard how, after finally casting off the shackles of convict life, Australia decided to break from the mother country and become a federation; how New Zealand was asked to join us; and to our immense surprise, that it declined, giving up the chance to create the world's best (or, on recent form, worst) rugby team.

    "After toiling through 13 years of being our own nation, we reached 1914 and World War I. This was a new topic for us, having been considered too distressing in previous years, with teachers choosing instead to teach us about the slaughter of indigenous people at the hands of European settlers. I looked forward to learning about the Somme and battles on the Western Front. I forgot one important fact. We were learning about World War I from the Australian perspective. So instead I learnt how cruelly Mel Gibson was treated by the British, and how Gallipoli was a great moment in our history, never mind our attempting to invade another country. (This seemed slightly contradictory when we moved onto World War II and learnt how evil the Japanese were by trying to invade us). From what I learnt, it would seem the battles at Gallipoli were the key issue in determining the war's outcome (even if we lost those battles). I was left unsure what Britain was doing in the war - it seems Australia had it all under control.

    "There are schools in NSW (not mine) which offer elective history; topics include the slave trade and other events in world history. However, this is not part of the statewide curriculum, meaning that I am stuck with Cook, Parkes and Menzies as my only guides through life.

    "Next year, I start the HSC syllabus - and modern history, with topics including the French and Russian revolutions and the rise of communism. Though, after the past two years, I suspect my final essay topic may be "Describe in detail the impact of the French Revolution on convict life in Australia".

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
  • This rather succinctly summarises several hundred thousands words from several dozen election articles, opinion pieces and editorials:
    
    

© The Sydney Morning Herald

 

• HSC vocational courses soar in popularity
  
  As many as one in three Higher School Certificate students are now studying vocational courses such as hospitality and business studies. The number is expected to rise again next year.
  
  
  
  
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Blurring Lines Among Both Students and Subjects
    by Jay Mathews
    
    First in an occasional series on innovation in the classroom
    
    "... In three classrooms along a short corridor at Blue Ridge Middle School in Loudoun County, there were several scenes last week of educational convention turned upside down. Lemmert and colleagues Alisa Gladstone and Amy Wood decided last year to experiment with placing honors, regular and special education students in the same rooms, offering a course that unified social studies and English, and encouraging every child to reach higher than before.

    "Such innovations are uncommon in U.S. public schools, given the old pressure to conform to tradition and the new one to raise standardized test scores. But plenty of teachers still find that if they are seized by an idea, as Lemmert, Wood and Gladstone were, and can convey that passion to supervisors, they have a chance to see what happens when they go in a different direction..."
    
    "Putting students of different achievement levels in the same rooms would, the school's administrators thought, help slower-developing students see new possibilities. "Many of those kids think, 'I can do it,' and they do," [Assistant Principal Bonnie] Soto said..."
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link

Tuesday 16 October

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers fail at least one "flawed" OBE course (page 13)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "The Curriculum Council is keeping secret the results of yesterday's teacher vote on the readiness of many new OBE courses, but it emerged last night that at least one course was rejected.

    "About 1700 teachers were urged to give their final stamp of approval to the new Year 11 and 12 courses that had been altered after so called teacher juries rejected them this year.

    "Teachers of 12 subjects due to be introduced to Year 11 in 2009 were asked to vote on whether they believed the new syllabuses were workable, on the proviso that the Curriculum Council would fix problems that teachers identified yesterday.

    "The council required 75 per cent of teachers at special consultation sessions around the State to approve each course so they could be accredited by the end of this year, allowing them to go ahead in 2009. A big "no" vote was likely to push course implementation back to 2010.

    "Asked whether the results of the vote would be revealed yesterday, David Wood said they would be presented to the next council meeting on 31 Oct.

    "But the West Australian has learnt that at least one course, Accounting and Finance, was supported by only 46 per cent of teachers yesterday. An accounting teacher and TEE marker who was at the session said the course had obvious flaws.

    "Teachers lacked faith that the council would make the changes they called for. "They were angry that they were asked only if the syllabus was workable, not whether it was better than the current course or if it was in the best interests of students," the teacher said.

    "It is understood that questions were also raised over a new course called children, family and community, with teachers giving the council a week to make some changes and communicate them via email.

    "But the Music course had a resounding vote of 85 per cent in favour after much of the original OBE course was scrapped and the CC reversed a decision to make reading traditional music notation optional in the new course.

    "Geographical Association of WA president Mike Fazio said Geography teachers had voted 70 per cent in favour.

    "I guess people probably believed that although changes are still required, what we have is a structure with which we can work," he said.

    "It is understood that biological sciences and literature attracted majority votes, though final tallies were not revealed.

    "Some literature teachers scarred by their experience with the OBE English course said they were reluctant to approve the literature course before seeing the final version.

    "A biology teacher said the decision to scrap the contentious OBE assessment in 8 levels of achievement had swung most teachers in favour of the new course. Food science and technology was also approved."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Editorial
    Political class should learn its history too
    
    "Many people would agree with John Howard that Australians should know their history. So, like most of the Prime Minister's interventions in debates on values and culture, his plan to make Australian history compulsory in years 9 and 10 appears to have commonsense popular appeal. The plan is derived from a working group of experts appointed after last year's national history summit, who produced a model for a course in the essentials of Australian history. So far, so good.
    
    "If that were to be the basis for the states, which are constitutionally responsible for schools, to draw on in developing a consensus about the desirable goal of a nationally consistent curriculum, there could be few objections.

    "Instead, Mr Howard has imposed the plan on the states, as a condition of $42 billion in federal funding. The Government also increased the list of 30 "milestones" that the working group recommended should be studied to more than 70. Labor leader Kevin Rudd has not objected. Yet to have political leaders determine classroom content in such detail is more commonly a feature of totalitarian nationalist states than democracies.

    "The plan also presents practical problems. The History Teachers Association of Australia obviously wants the subject accorded a higher status, but warns of the time and resources this plan requires. It estimates 10,000 extra specialist teachers would have to be trained as history goes from a fringe subject to one taught over a mandated 150 hours to every student. To put that in perspective, most VCE units — a semester of work at year 11 or 12 standard — require 54 to 72 hours' classroom study, depending on the subject.

    "Schools and students already complain of overcrowded timetables, so the history course will be at the expense of teaching time in other subjects. What happened to the Coalition belief in choice in education? Would Headmaster Howard care to advise students on which subjects they discard? Foreign languages maybe? Geography? Perhaps politics? If nothing else, attempts to impose tight central government control on the school curriculum show that politicians themselves fail to heed history's lessons."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • The Monday Education Section has now been updated and contains 13 articles, including:
    
    
    
    • The death of imagination
      by Alexandra Adornetto, a year 10 student at a Melbourne school. Her first book, The Shadow Thief, was recently published by HarperCollins.
      
      A key contributor in the death of imagination is indisputably the rise of the digital age. Although technology has enhanced our lives in many ways, it has also ensured the erosion of imagination.
      
      
      
    • Charting a new course through schools red tape
      
      The state school system in Victoria has gone further towards empowering individual schools and enabling parental choice than any other state or territory in Australia. Victorian schools have local selection of teaching staff, enrolment zones have been abolished, and funding is pretty close to a student-based model. So what happens when a lot of parents make the same choice, with the result that some schools have more kids than they can handle and others have empty classrooms? The answer depends on whether schools have the capacity and inclination to adapt to their circumstances.
      
      
      
    • Give schools more support . . .
      
      But keep local autonomy where it's working, educators tell Margaret Cook.
      
      
      
    • Testing times
      
      The new Education Minister is taking a long, hard look at the school system, starting with principals, writes Farrah Tomazin.
      
      
      
    • Small's best - tale from the Bronx
      
      In the school size debate, the New York model is instructive, writes John Crace [of The Guardian]
      
      
      
    • New start for 'failed' school
      
      Caroline Milburn reports on a bold plan for an unpopular college.
      
      
      
      
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • It's a new history

      "The Government's edict that more than 70 milestones of Australian history must be taught at years 9 and 10 ignores many realities about learning history and its relevance today.

      "These days, the focus is less on students learning so-called facts and more on evaluating those facts, thus operating at a higher level of intellectual activity than a generation ago. There is nothing to fear from this level of inquiry, and much to gain. Asking why something happened, and considering different viewpoints, is more interesting, challenging and valuable.

      "Over 40 years as a teacher of history, I have seen learning progress from a single-text narrative study of Australian history — with one paragraph given to pre-European Aboriginal history — to an absorbing investigation of some of the key questions that are central to our sense of who we are. These advances should not be swept away by a Government edict of questionable motivation and insight."

      Brian Henderson, Balnarring Beach
      
      
      

• The San Francisco Chronicle
  
  
  • High-quality standards, a curriculum based on critical thinking can enlighten our students [14 October]
    by Linda Darling-Hammond
    
    "One of the central lessons of No Child Left Behind is that if school sanctions are tied to test scores, the testing tail can wag the schooling dog. And a key problem for the United States is that most of our tests aren't measuring the kinds of 21st century skills we need students to acquire and that are at the core of curriculum and assessment in high-achieving countries.

    "While a debate rages about whether our tests should be created at the national or state level, this argument is focused on the wrong issue.

    "We need to focus on the quality of our standards and assessments rather than fighting over who administers them. Unless we change the way we think about learning and testing, it won't matter who makes the tests. They will still be a major part of the problem of American education, rather than the solution.

    "The plain truth is that the United States is falling far behind other nations on every measure of educational achievement. In the latest international assessments, the United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in math - on par with Latvia - 20th in science, and 19th in reading, even further behind than a few years ago. In addition, these other countries surpass us in graduation rates and, over the last decade, in higher education participation as well.

    "Although 60 percent of our high school graduates go off to college, only half of these are well-enough prepared to graduate with a degree - far too few for the knowledge economy we now operate. So, while our own youth are often unprepared for modern employment, Silicon Valley lobbies for more H-1B visas to bring in skilled workers to fill high-tech jobs.

    "Among the highest-achieving countries, some - including Japan and Singapore - have national standards and tests. Others - such as China (where Hong Kong and Macao score well), Australia and Canada - have state-level standards and tests. Top-scoring Finland focuses primarily on local assessment. While these countries manage their systems differently, they have in common a curriculum focused on critical thinking, problem solving and examinations that require students to solve complex real-world problems and defend their ideas orally and in writing.

    "In most cases, their assessment systems combine centralized (state or national) assessments that use mostly open-ended and essay questions with local assessments given by teachers, which are factored into the final examination scores. These local assessments - which include research projects, science investigations, mathematical and computer models and other products - are mapped to the syllabus and the standards for the subject and are selected because they represent critical skills, topics and concepts. They are generally designed, administered and scored locally.

    "By contrast, our multiple-choice tests - which focus the curriculum on low-level skills - are helping us to fall further and further behind. Another part of the problem is that the standards used to guide teaching in many states are a mile wide and an inch deep: Most high-achieving countries teach (and test) fewer topics each year and teach them more thoroughly so students build a stronger foundation for their learning.

    "Whereas students in most parts of the United States are typically asked simply to recognize a single fact they have memorized from a list of answers, students in high-achieving countries are asked to apply their knowledge in the ways that writers, mathematicians, historians and scientists do.

    "In the United States, a typical item on the 12th grade National Assessment of Educational Progress, for example, asks students which two elements from a multiple choice list are found in the Earth's atmosphere. An item from the Victoria, Australia, high school biology test (which resembles those in Hong Kong and Singapore) describes how a particular virus works, asks students to design a drug to kill the virus and explain how the drug operates (complete with diagrams), and then to design and describe an experiment to test the drug - asking students to think and act like scientists.

    "Locally, students in other countries also complete required assessments like lab experiments and research papers that help evaluate student learning in the classroom. These assessments, which together count at least half the total examination score, allow the testing of complex skills that cannot be measured in a two-hour test on a single day. They ensure that students receive stronger learning opportunities. And they give teachers timely information they need to help students improve - something that standardized tests that produce scores several months later cannot do.

    "These assessments in other nations are not used to rank or punish schools, or to deny promotion or graduation to students. (In fact, several countries have explicit proscriptions against such practices.) They are used to evaluate curricula and guide professional learning - in short, to help schools improve.

    "By asking students to show what they know through real-world applications of knowledge, these other nations' assessment systems promote serious intellectual work that is discouraged in U.S. schools by the tests many states have adopted under No Child Left Behind. Although some states, such as high-scoring Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and Nebraska, have created assessments that resemble those in other countries, the requirements and costs of No Child have led an increasing number of states to abandon their challenging performance assessments for more simplistic machine-scored tests.

    "A growing body of research has shown that as more stakes become attached to such tests, teachers feel pressured to teach a multiple-choice curriculum that does not produce skills as they are used in the real world. Fully 85 percent of teachers in a recent poll said they feel the tests encourage them to teach in ways that are counterproductive.

    "As one teacher put it: "I have seen more students who can pass the (state test) but cannot apply those skills to anything if it's not in the test format.

    "I have students who can do the test but can't look up words in a dictionary and understand the different meanings. ... As for higher-quality teaching, I'm not sure I would call it that. Because of the pressure for passing scores, more and more time is spent practicing the test and putting everything in test format."

    "Studies confirm that as teaching looks more like testing, U.S. students are doing less writing, less science, less history, reading fewer books, and even using computers less in states that will not allow their use on standardized tests.

    "Indeed, as state test scores have gone up under No Child Left Behind, scores on other tests measuring broader skills have not. Data on the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that the rate of improvement in math achievement has slowed considerably since No Child was passed in 2002, and reading achievement has completely stalled, with declines at the eighth-grade level. This is likely because a test prep curriculum in the early grades does not provide the foundation that students need to do higher-level work later on.

    "We need to encourage our schools to teach and evaluate the higher-order thinking and performance skills that leading nations emphasize in their systems, and this requires major changes in No Child Left Behind.

    "The draft House bill for reauthorizing No Child, under the leadership of the chairman, Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, would begin to rectify this situation by permitting states to use a broader set of assessments and encouraging the development and use of performance assessments, like those used abroad.

    "These changes, though not yet as far-reaching as they ultimately need to be, are a necessary step in the direction needed to create a globally competitive curriculum in U.S. schools.

    "As the House bill is revised and the Senate bill is drafted in the coming weeks, creating the incentives for a 21st century education system - rather than one pointed at the factory model of the past - should be a leading priority."

    Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun professor of education at Stanford University, where she has created the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute and the School Redesign Network.

    From The San Francisco Chronicle at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Children's magazines thick with junk food ads, study finds
    
    While the eyes of the regulators and public health officials are fixed squarely on television, the power of children's magazines to market junk food has remained under the radar. Until now.

Wednesday 17 October

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Funding crisis has schools 'on the edge' (page 13)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "The quality of Australian Primary school education is at risk and many schools are failing to meet the expectations of parents and governments because of a severe lack of funding, a new report has revealed.

    "Australian Primary Principals Association president Leonie Trimper said the report showed that many primary schools were seriously close to the edge as they struggled to cope with more disruptive children, an overcrowded curriculum, teacher shortages and lack of funding.

    "The report found that many State, independent and Catholic primary schools did not have sufficient resources to achieve the goals set by governments. "In many of the schools serving low socioeconomic communities, the shortage is acute," it said.

    "It also found that the proportion of children with disabilities had more than doubled since 1995, putting extra pressure on primary schools because most were now included in regular classrooms.

    "More than 405 of primary school principals surveyed by researchers from Edith Cowan University and the Australian Council for Educational Research said that recruiting and keeping good teachers was one of their biggest challenges.

    "Ms Trimper said the report provided evidence that primary schools had been neglected for a long time. "There are some children with absolutely severe behaviour problems who don't get labelled as having a disability and schools don't get any support," she said. "They can almost hold some schools at ransom if you've got a number of them."

    "She said the report also showed that it was impossible for many primary schools to fit everything into the school week while still achieving high standards in literacy and numeracy.

    "The report recommends a big increase in funding to schools in low socioeconomic areas, more resources to deal with disruptive or disabled students and trials of new syllabuses before introduction. But the association was disappointed with Julie Bishop's response when she released the report. She called on States to reveal how much money they gave schools. "There can be no rational debate about schools funding until State governments reveal the funding provided to individual schools and the reasons why some schools are neglected while others receive significant resources," she said.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said the State government had invested record amounts in education since 2001. He said funding to public schools was based on factors, including the number of students, socioeconomic profile, number of indigenous students and number of students with learning difficulties."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    Similar story in today's The Australian
    
    
    
    
  • First-years could face less choice as UWA reviews hundreds of courses (page 13)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Hundreds of courses at the University of WA could be rolled into just two undergraduate degrees under a radical proposal aimed at providing graduates with more general knowledge instead of specialising too early..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    For details, see the article already transcribed, in today's The Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • UWA to streamline courses
    by Guy Healy
    
    "A single US-style bachelor of arts and science undergraduate offering, a four-year honours degree as standard, and a common first semester or some common generalist subjects across all first degrees are among the highlights of the University of Western Australia's rethink of courses.

    "Vice-chancellor Alan Robson has said UWA was considering course structures "much more radical than even the Melbourne model", under which six broad undergraduate programs are followed by a professional graduate degree, research higher degree or a job.

    "UWA deputy vice-chancellor Don Markwell told the HES that UWA had "pressed the refresh button" on thinking about courses.

    "The review had been triggered by strong economic and demographic pressures on the university, as well as a desire to prepare students for an increasingly uncertain future, he said.

    "Many leading universities overseas and in Australia are reviewing their programs in the light of the change and increase in knowledge, the need to prepare students for a world of rapid change and global forces, the interconnectedness of fields of study, and the challenge and opportunities of increased mobility of students and graduates," Professor Markwell said.

    "UWA's 62-page Courses for Tomorrow's World options paper says: "Major problems facing people in the 21st century are spread across several areas of their lives and can hardly be understood -- let alone solved -- without some initiation into different methods of intellectual inquiry."

    "Obvious examples include climate change, population health, cultural conflict, international security and ethical aspects of biomedical advances, according to the paper.

    "It says UWA is simultaneously under increasing pressure to produce graduates with strong generic or transferable skills, deal with the shift from young students to older students, and deal with the maturation of traditional source markets for overseas students.

    "To this end one solution would be to situate more generalist courses in degrees while offering more postgraduate specialisation, it says.

    "Professor Markwell said the paper described seven options from the modest to the far-reaching. But common to each of the options was the necessity to embed graduate attributes in all degrees and to place greater emphasis on teaching undergraduate students the good research skills necessary for lifelong learning.

    "Among the most interesting options are increasing the length of a standard three-year degree by one year to make an honours degree the standard length, with some shared general units, a significant piece of research, and some study abroad.

    "Professor Markwell said the most radical option involved a radical simplification of the plethora of undergraduate degrees to just one comprehensive undergraduate degree called a bachelor of arts and science.

    "Under this model students would take any combination of one or two majors from across the university, but with some common general units, with exceptional students also able to take a bachelor of philosophy.

    "He said the options paper was up for consultation for the next three months and that "staff had no reason for anxiety over jobs at all".

    • Sidebar: The number of students putting University of Melbourne courses as their first preference has dropped, Milanda Rout reports.

      "Early applications for the institution for 2008 through the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre declined by 6per cent on the previous year. But the university is happy with the results, saying it expected a more significant drop in preferences with the introduction of the Melbourne model degrees.

      "The figures show significant interest in the Melbourne model degrees, which was expected, given the university has reduced its course offerings for next year from 96 to 28.

      "The university says more students are applying for the Melbourne model degrees -- arts, commerce, science, environment and biomedicine -- than for older undergraduate degrees, but admits the comparison is not exact.

      "Vice-chancellor Glyn Davis said he was delighted with the increased demand for the Melbourne model."
      
      See today's Age for a more detailed story on Melbourne University's slump in demand

  From The Australian at link
  
  

  • Primary schools starved of funds
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Australian primary schools have insufficient funds to fulfil the goals required of them, regardless of whether they are government, Catholic or independent, according to a report jointly commissioned by the federal Education Department.

    "Government policies intended to support schools in disadvantaged areas were also found to be failing. Schools in the poorest areas receive only $220 more to spend per student than those in the most affluent areas, yet require twice as much to educate children to meet national benchmarks in literacy and numeracy.

    "Australian primary schools do not have sufficient resources to achieve fully the goals set for them by governments; in many of the schools serving low socio-economic communities, the shortage is acute," it says.

    "But assessing whether the schools with the greatest need receive the most support is difficult because of the complex funding system between levels of government.

    "Because of the political sensitivity of school funding issues, education authorities do not disclose the total amounts of income and expenditure for individual schools in their jurisdiction," says the report, which was also jointly commissioned with the Australian Primary Principals Association.

    "Any member of the public should be able to retrieve from a national database the income and expenditure per student for a particular school for a recent financial year and compare it with like schools."

    "The study, based on an analysis of 160 primary schools in every state and territory, is the first to calculate the income available to schools, including all government funding and private sources such as school fees and fundraising. It found the money spent on the poorest third of students was $7609 per student, compared with $7386 spent on the richest third.

    "But another report, commissioned by federal, state and territory education ministers last year, found the funding required to bring up to standard students failing literacy and numeracy benchmarks was an extra 90 per cent, or about $6000 per student.

    "The APPA report, called In The Balance: The Future of Australian Primary Schools, conducted by researchers from Edith Cowan University and the Australian Council for Educational Research, says schools servicing low socio-economic areas have more students who are difficult to teach, struggling, or have disruptive behaviour and require more intervention or extra support to reach the same standard as students in affluent areas.

    "While governments give schools in disadvantaged areas more funding, worth about $900 a student, the greater wealth of the school community washes away this difference. "If government funding policies worked as intended, then schools with the greatest need would have access to the most resources. Such a pattern was not evident," the study says.

    "Releasing the report, Education Minister Julie Bishop called on state governments to reveal the level of funding provided to government schools. "There can be no rational debate about schools funding until state Labor governments reveal the level of funding provided to individual schools and the reasons why some schools are neglected while others receive significant resources," she said.

    "ALP education spokesman Stephen Smith accused Ms Bishop of focusing on short-term politics rather than understanding the importance of primary schools."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    

  • Either way, 'no revolution'
    by Bernard Lane
    
    "University chiefs are relying on Labor to promise a historic boost to funding per student in the election campaign but they lack confidence that either party will launch a true education revolution and expect little new from the Coalition.

    “There will be disappointment if the (Labor funding) rhetoric doesn't lead to action,” said Alan Robson, vice chancellor at the University of Western Australia and chair of the group of eight institutions.

    "Labor's education spokesman Stephen Smith has chastised the Government for a decade of financial neglect of the sector and made much of OECD figures showing a sharp decline in public funding per student for universities.

    "Charles Sturt University vice-chancellor Ian Goulter said: “Given that Labor has committed to more funding, we'd like to see how much it is and how it promotes diversity.”

    "Yesterday Mr Smith would not be drawn on any funding target but said: “This is about a long-term, enduring commitment to adequately fund higher education. That doesn't happen in one budget, in one year.”

    "Education Minister Julie Bishop said there would be more announcements on higher education during the campaign. However, she played down expectations, saying this had been “a stellar year” for the sector.

    "There is a sharper focus on Labor because of this rhetoric, the party's lead in the polls, the wait for an education policy statement, and the sense that the Coalition has largely showed its hand in the last budget.

    "But nine months after Kevin Rudd promised an education revolution, leading commentators felt the big issues facing the sector had yet to be confronted by either party.

    "University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis said there needed to be a “first principles review of the whole post-school education sector”.

    "Among the questions would be the fit between private and public sector and between vocational training and university; differential funding rates per student; and a choice between a market-like or government-directed sector.

    "Professor Davis said everyone agreed the Dawkins era was over “but we haven't had a full glimpse of what follows.” ...
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Students fail to cope with hard knocks
    by Milanda Rout
    
    "One-third of Australian students are stressed and struggling to cope with the pressures of school, the menace of bullying and of having to live up to parental expectations.

    "Two out of 10 primary and secondary school students said they had felt depressed and so hopeless that they had stopped doing their schoolwork, seeing friends or competing in sport.

    "The findings come from a four-year study of 10,000 students and their teachers at 81 schools across the country.

    "The research, conducted by the University of Melbourne and the Australian Council for Educational Research, found a third of students interviewed revealed they lost their temper frequently and sometimes bullied others, while 40 per cent said they had difficulty calming down.

    "Commissioned by the Australian Scholarships Group, the study found 60 per cent of students felt their schoolwork was not up to scratch. Fifty per cent of pupils - from Prep to Year 12 - reported not learning how to cope with stress; 40 per cent admitted not being taught how to make friends or solve personal problems..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    

  • More students cross state borders
    
    The number of students moving interstate to start university has jumped by more than 6 per cent, with larger numbers of school-leavers heading to Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia.
    
    
    
  • $31m VSU funding
    
    Regional universities have been compensated for the effects of voluntary student unionism with $31 million in grants to upgrade mainly sporting and recreational facilities. Education minister Julie Bishop said 34 projects had been funded by the federal Government to assist universities – especially those in rural and regional areas - with the transition to VSU.
    
    
    
  • Dutch invasion in the offing
    
    An influx of Dutch students to Australia is expected after The Netherlands Government approved funding for students to enrol at overseas universities. Dutch students will be able to claim up to $28,000 a year in grants and loans to study internationally and thousands are predicted to flock to this country.
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Learning from history
      
      "The study of history teaches us that it is a dangerous process to allow political leaders of a country to construct, authorise and mandate a national history curriculum for schools.

      "Such a curriculum, which includes the content, resources and assessment, can be perceived as selective, manipulated and distorted to suit the political and ideological purposes of the governing party. These criticisms are compounded when the curriculum is to be implemented with threats of loss of funding.

      "Internationally, such processes have been condemned, and the current example in Japan is a caution to us not to accept excessive government regulation of the teaching of Australia’s history to our secondary school students. Our Prime Minister should focus on learning from history rather than trying to teach it."
      
      Dr Stephanie Burley, Senior lecturer in history curriculumand methodology, School of Education, University of Adelaide

      
      
      
• The Age
  
  
  • God beats science in schools: study
    by Anna Patty
    
    "Australian primary school students spend more time in school assemblies and religious education than they do studying science, a national study shows.

    "The Federal Government-commissioned study of 160 public and private primary schools found that teachers spent more than half (56 per cent) of their time teaching English and maths.

    "They spent 4 per cent on school assemblies and 4 per cent on religious education, but 3 per cent on teaching science. Physical education received 11 per cent of teaching time.

    "Primary schools reported they were finding it virtually impossible to spend enough time on core subjects because their curriculums had become cluttered with an overwhelming number of life-skill subjects including manners and nutrition. This confirmed findings of a survey of 30 primary schools released by the Australian Primary Principals Association earlier this month.

    "The study released yesterday, In the Balance: The Future of Australia's Primary Schools, was conducted by academics from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia and the Australian Council of Educational Research.

    "It found primary school teachers, trained as generalists, were expected to teach languages and music, which required specialist skills.

    "Only 1 per cent of the teachers surveyed said they had the expertise needed to teach art and 4 per cent said they could teach languages. By comparison, 39 per cent said they were equipped to teach English, 35 per cent to teach maths and 18 per cent to teach science.

    "Close to a third of principals said recruitment of suitable teachers was one of their biggest challenges and almost a fifth admitted they had hired a teacher who was less than satisfactory but the best available candidate.

    "Lead author Max Angus, professor of education at Edith Cowan University, said an increasing number of children with learning disabilities were attending primary schools and were concentrated in some disadvantaged areas.

    "But despite their greater need for resources, schools in disadvantaged areas received little more funding than those in wealthy areas.

    "Schools in poor areas received $7609 a student compared to $7352 a student in well-off areas. Private contributions from parents were $1170 in wealthy areas and $425 in disadvantaged areas.

    "Our research shows that the additional support required by schools serving disadvantaged communities isn't nearly enough for their students to achieve the national goals of schooling," Professor Angus said.

    "The president of the Australian Primary Principals Association, Leonie Trimper, said a third of primary schools were struggling with the overcrowded curriculum and a doubling in the number of students with behavioural and learning disabilities."

    From The Age at link [a virtually identical story, by the same author, is in today's Sydney Morning Herald]
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Inspectors slam failing schools
    Press Association
    
    "Half of England's secondary schools do not give pupils a good education, Ofsted has warned.

    "One in 10 secondaries inspected in the past year was judged "inadequate" inspectors said.

    "Despite improvements in the last 12 months, Chief Inspector Christine Gilbert said she was still concerned at the high numbers of failing schools.

    "In her annual report, Ms Gilbert highlighted a series of shortcomings in the education system - from poor behaviour to pupils' ignorance of what "Britishness" meant.

    "I make no apology for emphasising our ambition and our sense of urgency," she said. "I see no reason why every school should not now aspire to be a good school.

    "The proportion of inadequate secondary schools has fallen from 13% in 2005-06 to 10% this year, but the figure is still too high and is a cause for significant concern."

    "The annual report found there were improvements in school standards over the past year, with 14% of schools overall judged to be "outstanding", up from 11% last year.

    "Primary and nursery schools were among the best.

    "However, Ofsted expressed concern over behaviour, which was "just satisfactory" in 29% of secondary schools. Problems were fuelled in part by dull lessons that turn pupils off.

    "The report said the best way to improve behaviour was through good teaching."
    

    Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2007, All Rights Reserved.

    From The Guardian at link
    
    
    • Teachers attack Ofsted over inspections
      
      
    • Ofsted annual report 2007: the main points

Thursday 18 October

• The West Australian
  
  
  • BMW-driving teacher ad under attack (page 11)
    
    "Education Minister Mark McGowan has defended a recent advertisement aimed at luring Eastern States teachers to WA with the promise of fat pay packets after the Opposition revealed that a teacher posing in the glossy flyer next to a BMW sports car actually made his money as a robotics engineer in Ireland.

    "The advertisement, featuring Leonora deputy principal Linden Hoyle, recently ran in Eastern States media as Mr. McGowan travelled east to woo teachers to WA.

    "Liberal MP John Day told State Parliament yesterday that Mr. Hoyle did not buy the car with teaching earnings. "It's a teacher leaning on a $130, 000 BMW convertible car. Could the minister explain why he has authorised this disingenuous depiction of a teacher's life in WA?" he said.

    "But Mr. McGowan said he was proud of the ad campaign.

    "Do you think I go out there and select a teacher and put a car next to him?" he said. If we use as part of that campaign people who…agree to have their car photographed with them, so what? This is an interesting person with a great life story apparently who's out there teaching in WA and I'm proud of our teaching workforce. It's quite unprecedented for an Education Minister to… be able to advertise better pay rates in other States for teachers who are prepared to come here."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    New chapter: the class revolution
    by Miranda Devine
    
    "It is a conservative criticism of John Howard that, while he has been in power for 11 years, he has not managed to win the culture wars.

    "And nowhere is the battle more entrenched than in school education.

    "Education unions and left-wing education academics cling to proven failures in education theory, despite years of evidence demonstrating the errors of their thinking. They reject, for instance, the research-based evidence showing that "whole language" dominated reading programs do not work for a large proportion of children.

    "The power of sensible thinking by political leaders in holding off barbarian ideologues can be seen in the influence of the former NSW premier Bob Carr, who saved NSW from the worst educational excesses suffered elsewhere, particularly in Western Australia, where a decade-long experiment in outcomes-based education has just been abandoned.

    "But while governments control the purse strings they have little effect on deep-rooted cultural prejudices in organisations such as the ABC and teacher unions. In the battles for hearts and minds, they are outclassed by ideological guerillas, who can only be vanquished from within. At last, however, there are encouraging signs from teachers that the civil war may have begun.

    "Take the English Teachers Association, which claims to speak for all English teachers. Its most honoured operative is former president Wayne Sawyer, an associate professor at the University of Western Sydney, who has helped develop the NSW English curriculum and is editor of the journal English in Australia. It was his editorial that blamed the Howard Government's 2004 re-election on the failure of English teachers to properly educate their charges in critical theory.

    "And in the last edition of the International Journal of Progressive Education, Sawyer tackled the discredited "whole language" theory of teaching reading in an article entitled Whole language and moral panic in Australia.

    "He claimed "moral panic" was behind a "media campaign … to demonise whole-language methods" of teaching reading, despite the fact the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (which I served on) spent a year examining the worldwide evidence about the best way to teach children reading and came down on the side of systematic, direct instruction in phonics.

    "If you ever wondered how the teaching of reading could be politicised, the journal is instructive, having devoted its entire June edition to whole language, including "the multilayered dimensions of social justice activism involved in whole language teaching".

    "The articles read like a long confession from the stubborn practitioners of a movement which has condemned so many underprivileged children to illiteracy, while professing to care about injustice.

    "In an article about teaching sixth graders in Grover Cleveland Middle School, New Jersey, the authors "search for ways to disrupt the pre-service [trainee] teachers' traditional notions of teaching, learning, and curriculum … We strive to help our pre-service teachers understand that their roles as teachers include a political dimension …

    "Too often," they complain, the teachers "fall back into the direct instruction model with which they feel comfortable."

    "Naughty teachers, trying to teach rather than indoctrinate their students. But Sawyer and his acolytes at the association have so provoked those they purport to represent they have sparked a grassroots protest movement of teachers across the country.

    "In Western Australia, one group of teachers became so fed up at having to implement outcomes-based education, a favourite of the English Teachers Association, that they managed to have it overturned this year. Their lobby group PLATO, People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes, persuaded the West Australian Government to reinstate the traditional syllabus, concentrating on literacy and numeracy.

    "Now a group of secondary English teachers from Catholic, government and independent schools in Western Australia have formed the English Teachers Forum, the ETFWA, in direct opposition to the English Teachers Association, because they are "concerned about the misrepresentation of English teachers and their views regarding the implementation and the efficacy of the English Course of Study".

    "In a letter to the association, the breakaway group wrote: "The ETAWA must realise that the collective voice of the majority of English teachers simply cannot be ignored any longer. It is not just a matter of numbers. It is also a matter of fairness."

    "The English Teachers Forum has also managed to have Western Australia's year 11 and 12 curriculum reviewed by a "jury" of impartial classroom teachers, with the result the West Australian Government agreed to rewrite the courses by 2010. [emphasis added]

    "In NSW, there is similar grassroots unhappiness with the English Teachers Association, judging by a letter I have received from an anonymous secondary English teacher of 30 years.

    "The problem in NSW English teaching is not the syllabus. It is the way the syllabus has been interpreted by the English Teachers Association of NSW and its transformation from a wonderfully principled, supportive professional association to a site of left-wing political activism and ideological posturing ..

    "My dismay comes from a jettisoning of our literary heritage for an obsession with critical literacy and an approach to English based on overt critical theory…

    "I look through my past issues of [the association's journal mETAphor] and ask myself what has happened to the aim of fostering a love of literature in our children? What has happened to the great works of literature?"

    "That journal is full of articles about postmodernism and such literary gems as: "Power Struggles in the Big Brother House" and "Earnestly Queer: Responding to Oscar Wilde's The Importance of being Earnest Through the Critical Lens of Queer Theory" by Mark Howie, the president of the English Teachers Association.

    "It is no good for Australian students that a body promoting extremist ideology should have come to represent their English teachers. But it seems their teachers have finally had enough. Hoorah for them."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    Printer-friendly version of this article [2 page .pdf file]
    
    
    
  • Students face more tests to get into uni
    by Harriet Alexander and Anna Patty
    
    "A growing number of universities are playing down the Higher School Certificate in favour of their own admission tests for prospective students.

    "A record 67,189 students will begin sitting their first HSC exams today as the ink dries on a Federal Government contract for a new aptitude test for school leavers.

    "The Australian Council for Educational Research signed the contract this week to pilot the test, the results of which will be considered by select universities in conjunction with students' HSC results.

    "The council's general manager of higher education, Marita MacMahon Ball, said the test, known as uniTEST, was not designed to replace the HSC.

    "It's not to have aptitude testing on its own but to look at aptitude testing alongside academic results," Ms MacMahon Ball said.

    "Macquarie University and the Australian National University have already signed up to run uniTEST and others are expected to follow.

    "Some Victorian universities will try out a new General Achievement Test to complement students' entry scores if they have missed out on university places on their HSC marks alone.

    "The five technology universities have also offered prospective engineering students the option of sitting a supplementary test that will assess their ability to think scientifically, display personal skills and analyse problems.

    "Industry had been calling on the technology universities to produce candidates with better communication and interpersonal skills, the lack of which had forced companies to recruit from overseas, said Vicki Thomson, director of the Australian Technology Network.

    "There was this belief out there that unless you were in the top of maths, science, physics, you didn't stand a chance of getting into engineering," Ms Thomson said. "This aptitude test [will] see if we can get a different type of student doing engineering."

    "The University of Technology, Sydney, has made the test voluntary for prospective engineering students next year, but it has used alternative admissions criteria for several years, including bonus points for those who performed well in relevant subjects and a questionnaire testing students' motivation and reasoning skills.

    "David Lowe, an associate dean in engineering, said testing by the faculty had revealed that students who had scored extremely high in their HSC usually performed well at university too, but it was much more difficult to predict whether those who had qualified for the course by a smaller margin would be brilliant or poor university scholars. The alternative entry schemes were designed to pick out the best.

    "Rather than using just the HSC, which is often criticised for measuring your ability to get a good mark in the HSC and not much else, we decided to use a broad scope," Professor Lowe said.

    "Today's HSC exams include industrial technology and languages."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • NSW students offered a balanced curriculum

      "Again, a national report on curriculum fails to reflect the very high standards being set in NSW schools ("More study time in religion than science", October 17). The Board of Studies NSW, which sets the mandatory curriculum, recommends primary school teachers spend 25 to 35 per cent of classroom time on English, 20 per cent on mathematics, and allocate between 6 and 10 per cent of time (1½ to 2½ hours a week) on the other four key learning areas: science and technology; human society and its environment; creative arts and personal development, and health and physical education.

      "This means NSW primary students spend at least twice the reported national average time on science and technology education, and possibly more than three times in the later years of primary school.

      "The board's mandatory curriculum is designed to occupy about 80 per cent of the school week. Other programs, such as religious education, assemblies and school sport, can be included in the remaining 20 per cent of the week. NSW parents can be assured their children are offered a balanced curriculum."

      Dr John Bennett, Office of the Board of Studies, NSW

  
  
  
  
  
• The Hobart Mercury
  
  
  • Teacher strike to hit schools
    by David Killick
    
    "Tasmanian public school teachers will begin strikes across the state from next week.

    "The decision to start industrial action was announced by the Australian Education Union yesterday after a warning by Education Minister David Bartlett that such a move would have dire consequences.

    "AEU state president Jean Walker said union members were unhappy with the Government's final pay and conditions offer and had voted to begin industrial action from Monday.

    "It would be in the form of rolling strikes in groups of schools each morning," she said.

    "The school would be closed until half past ten and lessons would start at eleven and one school would be out each fortnight."

    "Teachers want more money, better resources for special-needs students, behaviour management and smaller class sizes. The Government wants teachers to give up one to three student-free days a year.

    "In parliament yesterday, Mr Bartlett said teachers should accept the Government's offer or risk losing their pay nexus with their interstate counterparts, whereby teachers' annual pay increases reflect the average of those interstate.

    "I do not believe that any industrial action in schools is in the best interests of teachers," Mr Bartlett said.

    "I do not think it is in the best interests of Tasmanian families and I certainly do not believe it is in the best interests of Tasmanian children.

    "I do not want to see the AEU executive -- which is up for re-election in a month's time, it should be noted -- lead Tasmanian teachers down a rabbit hole that sees Tasmanian teachers lose the salary nexus for all time.

    "What needs to be made very clear today at the eleventh hour is that if teachers, through the AEU executive, reject the nexus offer that is on the table then that offer will no longer be on the table once industrial action has been taken.

    "They will have rejected that offer and we will be back to square one in negotiations."

    "Liberal education spokeswoman Sue Napier said Mr Bartlett was behaving "like a bully" and needed to "take a cold shower".

    "If Mr Bartlett cannot commit to these fundamentals, then he will be shown to be completely insincere about improving the educational needs of students," Mrs Napier said.

    "The shine has come off Mr Bartlett as he has pursued his 'Bartlett knows best' policies, dictating reforms he wants yet failing to listen to the genuine concerns of teachers and parents when it comes to the provision of basic resources."

    "Greens education spokesman Nick McKim accused Mr Bartlett of unnecessary brinkmanship and showing disrespect to teachers.

    "Mr Bartlett should put away the big stick and constructively engage with teachers to achieve the best outcome possible," he said." [emphasis added]

    From The Hobart Mercury at link
    
    
    
    
• Mark McGowan media statement
  
  
  • Next stop for WA’s teacher recruitment campaign: United Kingdom

    The State Government will today embark on an ambitious teacher recruitment and advertising campaign in the United Kingdom to attract more teachers to country Western Australia.

    Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan said two Department of Education and Training (DET) representatives would leave this weekend to participate in immigration expos in London and Manchester, and conduct information sessions with graduate teachers from Leeds University.

    The DET would also advertise for teaching staff at an immigration expo in Ireland and target 700 potential teachers in Scotland, who may be unemployed due to Government cut-backs from next year.

    “The campaign is being supported by a $95,000 media advertising blitz starting today in a series of British newspapers,” Mr McGowan said.

    “In addition, a new DVD and promotional booklet has been developed featuring teachers from overseas currently teaching in rural public schools and promoting WA’s lifestyle and employment opportunities.”

    Allan Blagaich, an experienced school principal and WA Principal of the Year in 2006 when he was at Melville Senior High School, is representing the DET.

    The Minister said the latest overseas recruitment campaign followed a successful UK campaign earlier this year and a recent interstate campaign in Victoria and Tasmania.

    “We have 27 teachers who came from overseas during the year, many with their families, who are now teaching in country schools,” he said.

    “They have been joined by 19 teachers who began at the beginning of Term 4 in rural towns such as Narrogin, Collie, Newman, Esperance, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton, Carnarvon, Kambalda and Southern Cross.

    “The recruitment will focus particularly on secondary school vacancies in mathematics, physics and chemistry, English and literature, design and technology, home economics and languages other than English.”

    Mr McGowan said the overseas and interstate recruitment were two examples of a comprehensive strategy by the State Government to boost teaching numbers in WA’s public schools.

    “We are doing everything possible to increase the State’s teaching workforce,” he said.

    “Teachers from the UK are highly qualified, from a similar cultural background and very interested in visiting and working in country WA, which is why we are keen to continue with this recruitment method.

    “WA has a relaxed lifestyle, good climate and a booming economy, with jobs not only for teachers, but for partners or spouses and for other family members.”

    Detailed information about teaching in WA public schools is available at Teaching WA, a new teacher recruitment website launched last week which can be accessed through the department’s main website at http://www.det.wa.edu.au
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Spend wealth surge on health and education
    by Mike Steketee, National affairs editor
    
    "... Surely Labor has higher priorities than giving higher-income earners yet more tax relief. It could use the savings to give larger cuts further down the income scale, both on grounds of fairness and because they would encourage more people into work.

    "Alternatively, it could allocate the money to its own priorities, such as education and health. This would strike a blow for product differentiation and target areas where the Government is vulnerable on many counts. Figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show the commonwealth's share of hospital funding falling from 45 per cent to 41per cent in the 10 years to 2005-06..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • The SES funding model
      
      "It's concerning that a senior academic such as Robyn Zevenbergen ("Funding, IR laws lose Robyn’s vote’’, Higher Education, 17/10) could claim to have exposure to a broad cross section of schools and still have such a poor understanding of how the funding of schools really works.

      "Firstly, the socio-economic-status (SES) model for funding schools has nothing to do with the resourcing of government schools and buildings. Parents who choose non-government schools in fact save state and territory governments over $7 billion annually which could be usefully directed towards improving the resourcing of government schools, but is not.

      "Secondly, wealthy non-government schools do not qualify for funding assistance from any governments for infrastructure costs, let alone for rowing sheds. Parents pick up that cost. Thirdly, government schools receive about $257 million from the federal government annually towards capital infrastructure costs, while non-government schools receive about $105 million. The SES funding model is the most equitable schools funding model yet developed in Australia and criticisms put forward by people such as Professor Zevenbergen are mostly ill-informed and driven by ideology, not reason, regardless of how they might try to portray themselves."
      
      Ian Dalton, Executive Director, Australian Parents Council

Friday 19 October

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Reject OBE courses recycled (page 12)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Controversial OBE courses rejected by most teachers in a crucial poll could still be implemented, it emerged yesterday.

    "More than 1700 teachers were asked to approve 12 new senior school courses that had been altered significantly after being criticised by so called "teacher juries" this year.

    "The teachers voted this week on whether they believed the new syllabuses would work after the Curriculum Council promised to fix any problems identified during the professional sessions on Monday.
    
    "Council staff told teachers the courses would be ready for introduction to Year 11 in 2009 if they received majority support from 75% of teachers in each subject.

    "It said the courses required "a large majority" so they could be accredited by the end of this year. It also said a failure to gain a majority could lead to a delay in implementation.

    "Answers to parliamentary questions from shadow minister Peter Collier have now confirmed that 4 of the 12 courses under review - geography, biological sciences, accounting and finance, and children, family and community - failed to gain a 75% majority. Geography and biological sciences scraped about 70% backing but the other two courses obtained barely 50%. More than 80% supported the other 8 courses.

    "Mr Collier also asked whether those courses that recorded a big "no" vote would be delayed until 2010.

    "Ljiljanna Ravlich, who was representing Eduction Minister Mark McGowan in the Upper House, said they would not be delayed. [emphasis added]

    "Over the next 2 weeks suggested changes will be made to all 12 courses and the new versions will be sent to teachers who attended the professional development sessions with a further opportunity for them to provide comment and/or endorsement," she said. "Further half day consultative meetings may be held for teachers of two courses; namely, accounting and finance and children, family and community, if required."

    "Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood said last night he was not comfortable with the level of support for those two courses and would discuss the "next steps" with teachers of those subjects.

    "PLATO president Greg Williams said it appeared the goalposts were being shifted again. "It's almost become acceptable behaviour from the Curriculum Council," he said. "The question they should be asking teachers is whether this course is superior to the one they are currently doing".

    "Mr Collier said the courses should go ahead only if they had overwhelming support. [emphasis added]

    "The Institute of Chartered Accountant in Australia and Certified Practising Accountants Australia recently withdrew from the course reference group because it feared it would not give the grounding needed to study business at university."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Go West goes hellishly wrong for young family (page 12)
    by Ben Spencer
    
    "Jason and his partner Sam thought they were being promised the world when the State Government’s Go West recruitment drive to lure skilled workers across the Nullarbor first caught their eye.
    
    "Now, having endured nine hellish months in remote communities, the couple — who do not want their surname revealed for fear of Jason losing his teaching job — believe they must have forgotten to read the fine print.
    
    “The teachers out here more or less have to put up with Third World conditions,” Sam said yesterday from their current home, the floor of a friend’s Warburton house.
    
    "The couple’s harrowing tale comes just weeks after Education Minister Mark McGowan launched an aggressive interstate recruitment drive in Victoria and Tasmania.
    
    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier described the family’s treatment as disgraceful and demanded Mr McGowan take responsibility.
    
    "The couple’s woes started in January when, with Sam in the early stages of pregnancy, they moved from Victoria to Warburton. They spent their first six weeks at the Warburton Roadhouse, the Department of Education and Training footing the bill as Jason started teaching at Warburton Remote Community School, before being offered alternative housing Sam described as “absolutely appalling”.
    
    "Last month, Jason was transferred to Wingellina in the Western Desert and things got worse. Sam said the Wingellina house was uninhabitable.
    
    “There was an open septic pit, no air-conditioning, severe structural concerns and generally unhygienic conditions, all of which directly contravened occupational health and safety standards,” she said.
    
    "The stress contributed, according to their doctor, to the premature birth of their son Jack late last month.
    
    "Mr McGowan told Parliament: “I am sorry about what has happened for that family.”
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    This same story appears in today's Melbourne Age [just so all the Vics know, too.]

   

  
  
  McGowan tells Vic teachers: Bring your BMW to Wingellina...
  Photo © The West Australian
  
  

• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • United Kingdom teachers sought for WA
    
    This is nothing more than McGowan's press release !!
    
    An abridged version of the same press release was carried on ABC News.







The Education Minister, off to the UK...


• The Australian
  
  
• Help with school maths adds up
  by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
  
  "A teaching program that helps students "trust their heads" to recall basic mathematical facts has turned students failing maths into some of the best performers.

  "The QuickSmart program, developed at the University of New England at Armidale in northern NSW, targets students failing national numeracy benchmarks who enter high school struggling with basic arithmetic and who often still count on their fingers.

  "John Pegg, who developed the program with Lorraine Graham, said QuickSmart was a last chance for students who needed to be proficient in basic maths before the end of primary school to develop the skills and proficiency required in high school.

  "These students use inefficient and error-prone approaches to learning and recalling information," he said.

  "Professor Pegg, director of the National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia, said students likened the improvement to "trusting their heads", meaning the answer to a sum like 7x5 came immediately.

  "The program received funding last week worth $200,000 from the federal Government and is being used with 800 students in 60 schools in NSW and the Northern Territory, including remote indigenous communities, where the rise in test scores is more than double the improvement in the average student.

  "At Orara High School in Coffs Harbour on the NSW north coast, about 70 students in Year 7, with about one in three having failed to meet minimal national numeracy benchmarks, were then taught using QuickSmart.

  "Learning support teacher Lyn Alder said the school had a large proportion of students from low socio-economic backgrounds and about 11 per cent were indigenous. When they sat the NSW numeracy test earlier this year, the improvement in their results had almost doubled compared with the rest of the state, while the indigenous students' marks more than doubled compared with other indigenous students.

  "Ms Alder said about 40 per cent of the students jumped two levels in the four-level assessment system, from low to proficient or elementary to high.

  "It's given students the confidence to put up their hands and answer questions in class," she said. "They may not always be correct but they're prepared to have a go, and when you're dealing with students in a low socio-economic school, that's not always the norm."

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
  
• Make religion 'the fourth R'
  by Jill Rowbotham, Religious affairs writer
  
  "Religion is here to stay so Australian society needs to become "religiate" in the same way it is literate and numerate, according to Phillip Aspinall, the head of the country's 3.7 million Anglicans.

  "We should be investing resources in educating people, but not with a view to converting them to one particular faith," the primate, who is Archbishop of Brisbane, said.

  "Our education system should aim to make people religiate, so they can understand and function in world of religion.

  "They need to know something about the variety of faiths they are likely to encounter when in the community around them." ...
  
  "He was non-prescriptive about whether this should be done through traditional religious education classes or in the mainstream curriculum, although he said there should be "higher quality" programs, including ones taught by volunteers..." [emphasis added]
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Coalition sees red over HSC question
  
  The NSW Government yesterday issued an extraordinary defence of a final-year school exam question about the effect of government laws on employees, saying Work Choices would be at the top of students' minds in answering.
  
  Similar story in today's Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  
  
• The Age
  
  
  • How the west was one disaster for Victorian couple
    by Ben Spencer, The West Australian
    
    "Jason and his partner, Sam, thought they were being promised the world when the West Australian Government's recruitment drive to lure skilled workers across the Nullarbor first caught their eye.

    "Now, after nine hellish months in two remote communities, the Victorian couple — not willing to divulge their surname for fear of Jason losing his teaching job — believe they must have forgotten to read the fine print.

    "Due to our experience this year we have been completely put off Western Australia," Sam said yesterday from their current home — the floor of a friend's Warburton house. "The teachers out here more or less have to put up with Third World conditions."

    "The couple's tale comes just weeks after WA's Education Minister, Mark McGowan, launched an aggressive drive to lure teachers from Victoria and Tasmania.

    "Jason and Sam's woes started in January when, with Sam in the early stages of pregnancy, they moved from Victoria to Warburton.

    "They spent their first six weeks at the Warburton Roadhouse. Jason started teaching at Warburton Remote Community School, and the couple were offered alternative housing Sam described as "absolutely appalling". Jason said: "You wouldn't see such conditions in a pig pen." Last month, when Jason was transferred to Wingellina, in the Western Desert, things got worse. Sam described the Wingellina house offered by the department as uninhabitable.

    "The overall condition of the house was atrocious," she said. "There was an open septic pit, no air conditioning, severe structural concerns and generally unhygienic conditions." According to the couple's doctor, the stress of it all contributed to the premature birth of their son, Jack, late last month.

    "While Jack is now healthy, the young family say they have effectively been left homeless after the department missed its deadline to have the house ready by October 15 and the couple refused an offer to move back into the Warburton Roadhouse. "It has not been easy," Sam said. "Jason has already been given a two-year rollover contract, and we were in discussions about whether or not we were actually going to accept that. People should not have to endure what we have endured."

    "WA's shadow education minister, Peter Collier, described the family's treatment as disgraceful, and demanded Mr McGowan take responsibility. Mr McGowan told Parliament that Wingellina was one of the most remote communities in the world. "I am sorry about what has happened for that family," he said.

    "He also defended a recent advertisement aimed at luring eastern states teachers to WA with the promise of fat pay packets after the Opposition revealed that a teacher posing in the glossy flyer next to a BMW sports car actually made his money as a robotics engineer in Ireland.

    "Do you think I go out there and select a teacher and put a car next to him?" Mr McGowan said. "If we use as part of that campaign people who agree to have their car photographed with them, so what? This is an interesting person with a great life story . . . and I'm quite proud of our teaching workforce."

    From The Age at link [Source: The West Australian]
    
    
    
    
  • Ban on student fees 'led to uni job cuts'
    
    The Federal Government's decision to ban compulsory student fees has resulted in job cuts at most Australian universities and has diminished student campus culture, according to a national survey.
    
    Similar story in today's Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
    
    
• Kevin Rudd / Wayne Swan / Stephen Smith media statement
  
  
  • A tax plan for Australia's future: Labor's $2.3 billion education tax refund

    A Rudd Labor Government’s Tax Plan for Australia’s Future will invest $2.3 billion in financial support to help working families meet the growing costs of educating their children.

    A Rudd Labor Government will provide a new 50% Education Tax Refund to help families of around 2.3 million school-age children meet the costs of education.

    Under Labor’s 50% Education Tax Refund, eligible parents will be able to claim:

    · A 50 per cent refund every year for up to $750 of education expenses for each child attending primary school (maximum $375 per child, per year).

    · A 50 per cent refund every year for up to $1,500 of education expenses for each child attending secondary school (maximum $750 per child, per year).

    · Therefore a typical family with a primary school aged child and a secondary school aged child would receive a tax refund of up to $1,125 per year.

    Together with Labor’s Tax Plan for Australia’s Future, Labor’s 50% Education Tax Refund will boost Australia’s productivity and ease cost of living pressures for working families.

    All families who receive Family Tax Benefit (Part A) will be eligible for Labor’s new 50% tax refund for eligible education expenses.

    Eligible expenses are for items that support a child during school and improve the quality of education a child receives. Eligible items will be defined as:

    · Laptops;

    · Home computer and associated costs;

    · Home internet connection;

    · Printers;

    · Education software; and

    · School text books.

    Labor’s new 50% Education Tax Refund will help ease the financial pressures faced by working families.

    This is the next chapter in Labor’s Education Revolution to make Australia the best educated country, with the most skilled and best trained workforce in the world. A Rudd Labor Government will revolutionise education investment, standards and outcomes.

    Parents understand the importance of their children’s education. That’s why Australian parents work so hard to give their children the best possible start in life. Parents make sacrifices so their children can succeed; they face a range of pressures, and are proud of how they juggle their many responsibilities.

    Federal Labor believes that Australian parents are doing a great job. But we also understand that parents appreciate a bit of extra help when it is available.

    The cost of equipping children for school is significant. Computers, internet connection, text books – these all add up. Families are already facing a range of cost pressures – mortgages, petrol prices and grocery bills, to name but a few. Add the costs of getting your kids ready for school, and then supporting them throughout the year, and it presents a real challenge for families.

    Research from the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs suggests that the costs of raising a child increase as children grow older.

    The costs for one child can increase from $8,300 a year for a six year old, to over $10,000 a year for a 14 year old. These are gross costs, before government payments and child care costs.

    Surveys show that parents of primary school children can expect to pay between $58 and $129 in books alone, and an average of over $1,300 for computer and Internet costs. For secondary school children it can cost parents from $148 to $619 for books, and an average of over $1,600 for computer and Internet costs. This survey is across government, Catholic and Independent schools.

    Investment in education is central to the next wave of economic reform that will position Australia as a competitive, prosperous, knowledge-based economy that can compete and win in global markets.

    If Australia is to continue to succeed economically it needs a highly skilled and productive workforce. The key to building such a workforce is ensuring that all kids get a world-class education.

    Education provides individuals with an opportunity for success. It can help change life circumstance and can be the foundation of an individual’s prosperity.

    The refund will be available to all families who receive Family Tax Benefit (Part A). Families with children at school receiving Youth Allowance will also be eligible for the credit. School fees will not be an eligible item of expenditure.

    With the new 50% Education Tax Refund, a family with three children, one in primary school and the other two in secondary school, will receive a benefit of up to $1,875 each year.

    Over the course of their children’s education, a family with three children will receive assistance of up to $21,375.
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Range of views welcome

      "Miranda Devine's attack on the English Teachers Association ("New chapter: the class revolution", October 18) is long on hysteria and short on substantiated facts.

      "The ETA is an association of teachers dedicated to their students and their own professional learning. Teachers from different "schools of thought" are able and encouraged to contribute to the association's activities.

      "Devine has not grasped that English teachers have been rigorously trained in the literary tradition. What they say they now need is to help their students understand the changes that are occurring in their world so they can put these in the context of this tradition. This gives their students a solid grounding in the past on which to build their future.

      "The English Teachers Association listens to and takes on board members' concerns, their criticisms and, as often happens, their congratulations. Of the 500 responses to a survey that has been distributed to attendees at recent statewide professional development seminars there has not been one comment suggesting we are "jettisoning" interest in our literary heritage."

      Eva Gold, Executive officer, English Teachers Association NSW, St Ives

Saturday – Sunday, 20 – 21 October

WACOT Bulletin 20 October 2007 PAYMENT OF FEES Consideration of the membership of those teachers who have not paid the $70 annual fee has been deferred to the 5th December Board meeting. In making this decision the Board took into consideration the following: 1. the need for the profession to be able to exercise its responsibility for self-regulation through a representative Board; 2. benefits to teachers of a rigorous registration process which gives assurance to the community of the standards set and maintained by the profession; 3. concerns that the actions of a minority group could result in considerable disruption to schools, classes and student learning; 4. concerns expressed by teachers about the unavoidable delay in electing ten teachers to the Board; 5. evidence that teachers do not understand the full implication of being deregistered and the impact that this will have on their future employment; 6. the responsibility of the College to provide leadership in difficult times and to work with teachers and the community to build the profession in the interests of a high standard of education for all students in Western Australia. ELECTORAL ROLL The electoral roll and nominations for the College Board election will close at 4.00 pm on Friday 26 October. WORLD TEACHERS' DAY An eight page lift-out celebrating the work of Western Australian teachers will be published in the Western Australian on 24 October. CHAIR OF THE BOARD At the Board meeting of 17 October 2007, Mr Brian Lindberg was elected Chair of the Board for the period September 2007 to September 2008. Ms Theresa Howe, whose term as Chair expired last month, remains on the Board. Ms Anne Tumak was re-elected Deputy Chair. Dr Suzanne Parry Director

 

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Abusive pupils "running amok' (page 2)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Principals have warned that WA teachers are so hamstrung by bureaucracy they are unable to suspend abusive State school children without first negotiating with parents.

    "Leaked Education Department documents also claim that disruptive and violent students are running amok in classrooms because of a "cultural change" which has created a generation of pupils who have no respect for authority.

    "A cultural change has occurred which has seen the disempowering of principals and schools in dealing with disruptive students." Como Secondary College principal Ross Sweeney stated in minutes leaked from a recent Canning education district meeting.

    "Sadly, school principals can no longer meet teacher expectations that appropriate support will be given to them to assist with managing students with behavioural difficulties.

    "It was shocking to recognise the disillusionment of staff with respect to the lack of effective systemic support with dealing with disruptive students. The public recognised this disempowerment of schools."

    "Mr. Sweeney told the meeting - attended by three district directors, local State school principals and senior staff - about the concept of "court schools", which are used in the US to discipline problem students.

    "The system had to get serious about achieving good order in classrooms and schools," he said.

    "Canning district resolved to survey local schools to find how many were paying expert consultants to manage uncontrollable students.

    "A principal who asked not to be named said there had been a gradual erosion of State schoolteachers' ability to deal with misbehaving students.

    "About five or six years ago if a student swore at a teacher we could suspend the kid and let the parents know," he said. "Now we have to ring the kid's parents and ask if it's OK for the child to be suspended."

    "WA Secondary School Executives Association president Alison Woodman said the attitudes of students and parents had changed. "It seems to me that there's crept into our society a lack of respect for authority figures and that there is less willingness to accept teachers as authority figures by both students and parents," she said.

    "Public schools were expected to discipline students the same as private schools but could not use the same types of penalties, such as expulsion.

    "Ms. Woodman said research showed mental health issues, learning disabilities and other difficulties had increased in recent years. Teacher had more children who displayed these problems in their classes.

    "Education Department guidelines state principals and teachers "are required tocontact a student's parents and engage in a consultation process when behaviour management issues are encountered".

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said teacher burnout was due to the relentless challenging behaviour of some children. "They believe that the school administration and the Education Department do not support them adequately and that is part of the reason why the job is more difficult than it should be," he said.

    "Mr. Collier said teachers felt powerless because there were no real consequences if students persistently ignored penalties. "The Government has got to empower schools to better deal with misbehaviour by students because ongoing policies are strangling schools' capacity to respond quickly," he said.

    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said some children were impossible to control in normal classrooms. "They make the environment unsafe for others and damage other students' educational prospects," he said.

    "Mr. Keely said new behaviour centres being set up by the Government was a good first step to help deal with severely disruptive students in high schools but primary schools also were crying out for help.

    "He said the Government needed to pay for more school psychologists and social workers. "The assumption that every school has all the skills it needs is obviously nonsense," he said.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan refused to comment." [emphasis added]
    
    ["Unavailable"... "Refused to comment"... again... still...  Web]
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • The vexed question of student harassment (page 20)
    The Moral Maze, by Hugh MacKay
    
    "My son is a high school teacher. A colleague of his, with 32 years experience, was recently informed that three Year 7 female students had complained that he touched them on the back and looked at their breasts. He was shocked, devastated and totally inconsolable. There have three similar complaints at that school this year, all found to be vexations.

    "Of course, it's absolutely necessary that the kids should have a means of reporting any sexual harassment. The trouble is they have no idea of the repercussions of their "getting back at a teacher" has on the morale of all concerned. This teacher is considering leaving teaching, yet one of the girls was chatting to him after the report as if nothing had happened.
    
    "This reader's email echoes a number of press reports of incidents where it appeared that complaints about harassment have themselves been a form of harassment. In one such case (disguised here to protect the innocent), a teenage boy complained of a teacher's inappropriate sexual behaviour towards him, but he dropped the charges before they could be tested in court, admitting he had made them up.

    "In that case, there was a suggestion that the teacher had rebuffed the pupil's sexual advances and his complaint was a form of revenge.

    "There's no easy answer to any of this since, as the reader of this column has written, "it's absolutely necessary that the kids should have a means of reporting any sexual harassment". But how are we to discourage the inevitable tendency for some young people, boys or girls, to use accusations of sexual impropriety as a weapon to be brandished against someone they don't like, or even as an attention seeking device?

    "Of course, such charges against a teacher, a priest or anyone in a position of authority over children and teenagers are about as disturbing as can be imagined. The idea that any teacher, for instance, would behave in a way that exploited not only the emerging sexuality but also the vulnerability of a school pupil is loathsome.

    "Yet so is the behaviour of a young person who wilfully sets out to destroy the reputation of a teacher who has not behaved inappropriately at all. In some cases, a teacher might be dislike (or even liked) with such passion that a young person, drenched with hormones that famously dull the capacity for rational thought, may convert such feelings into a startling accusation of impropriety. When two or three young people are involved, the dynamics of the group simply add momentum to the whole sorry process.

    "What's to be done, without diminishing the right of any school pupil to draw attention to any inappropriate behaviour of teachers? For a start, schools need to insist that, at the very first report of any wrongdoing - whether bullying, or sexual harassment - the complainants an the teacher are brought together with a mediator to examine the charges and to discuss their implications for all concerned.

    "This is delicate stuff. Such a meeting could easily intimidate a child with a legitimate grievance, but proper pastoral support should be able to avoid that. In cases of a vexatious or trivial complaint, such a meeting would at least give pupils an opportunity to examine their own consciences in the light of proper explanation of what the complaint could do to both parties. Schools are paying increased attention to the education of children about the moral and emotional dangers of bullying. Perhaps they need to offer specific instruction about the hazards of vexatious reporting of teachers."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Alston (page 20)
    
    Since a picture is worth a thousand [or more] words...
    
    


© The West Australian




• The Sunday Times
  
  
• Teachers get extension to pay fees (page 7)
  by Paul Lampathakis
  
  "Students facing crucial end-of-year exams have been saved at the 11th hour from a feared teacher strike over unpaid registration fees.

  "The WA College of Teaching will announce today that it has given the 1500 teachers who haven't paid the $70 fee until at least December 5 to do so.

  "This means the Education Department will have to hold off on threats to sack teachers for being deregistered.

  "WACOT had said previously that teachers had to pay the professional registration fees by this Friday, or they might be deregistered.

  "The threatened sackings had raised community concerns that there would be damaging industrial action during the TEE period.

  "But this week, WACOT board chairman Brian Lindberg said the position of people who hadn't paid the fees would be considered at the December board meeting.

  "We want to reassure the community that there's not going to be any disruption to the TEE, or to the school year,'' he said.

  "The board has been listening to the teachers who are currently registered, the teachers who feel disaffected because they feel they are being forced into the fees and those teachers who feel that they want full representation on the board.

  "We also listened to the community, who are very concerned that schools might close down, and to the employers.

  "And at the last board meeting on Wednesday ... we got a new timetable.''

  "Some teachers have argued that the fees shouldn't be paid because the college hadn't abided by its own Act and had board members elected by teachers.

  "Mr Lindberg said WACOT's latest decision would address that concern because such elections would almost be finished by the time of the December meeting _ with results likely by December 12.

  "But WACOT director Suzanne Parry said the board also wanted to reassure people that it would maintain standards by taking action against teachers who persisted in not paying.

  "(The board) is delaying dealing with this decision, until the children have safely finished their school year,'' Dr Parry said.

  "But then we will deal with it in a way that sets us up for having everybody who intends to teach at the commencement of the new school year, as a registered teacher.''

  "Teachers who hadn't paid the fee would still be eligible to vote.

  "Mr Lindberg said major professions were registered and teachers should also be, because registration, which would be linked nationally, would allow for collective standards and checks.

  "Parents can feel a lot more comfortable knowing that the person who is teaching their children is a registered teacher, who has been through the appropriate police clearances and qualifications checks,'' he said.

  "State School Teachers Union vice-president Anne Gisborne said WACOT's move was a sensible approach to the issue."

  From The Sunday Times at link [plus read / add Reader Comments at that link]
  
  
  
  
• $5m to retrain teachers (page 16)
  by Paul Lampathakis

  "The WA Government will spend an extra $4.8 million to combat the teacher shortages.

  "Education Minister Mark McGowan said that over the next four years the Government would offer 240 scholarships to teaching assistants and Aboriginal and Islander education officers so they could be retrained as early childhood or primary teachers.

  "We are offering a total of 120 conversion scholarships in 2008 - 60 for education assistants and 60 for Aboriginal and Islander education officers," he said.

  "These staff are already working in the classroom and have a passion for teaching. It makes sense to harness their potential and offer them the opportunity to improve their career options while also boosting the teaching workforce.

  "Importantly, it will also retain (education officers) in rural and remote communities, where it is most difficult to attract staff."

  "He said the courses, to be run by Curtin University, would allow the participants to remain in their communities while they studied.

  "The scholarships would give them income support for the duration.

  "This increases the likelihood of them staying after they finish," Mr. McGowan said. "They're already there and it's their home."

  "He said both courses were two years full-time and were available to staff who had worked for at least three years in the Department of Education and Training.

  "WA has 6565 education assistants and 579 Aboriginal education officers to draw on as potential teachers.

  "Curtin deputy vice-chancellor of strategy and planning Greg Craven said both courses would be delivered within the school and community where students lived, combined with four weeks each semester at Curtin's Bentley campus.

  "The courses were developed specifically so that AIEOs and education assistants can complete their Bachelor of Education with as little disruption as possible to their work and family life," he said.

  "Mr. McGowan said the latest initiative followed other multimillion-dollar Government strategies to address teacher shortages.
  
  "Applications for the latest scholarships close on November 16."
  
  From The Sunday Times
  
  
  

• WACOT Advertisement (page 16)
  [abridged from the WACOT Bulletin of 20 October]
  
  

  At its recent meeting, the Western Australian College of Teaching Board resolved that a decision about the membership of teachers who have not paid the $70 annual fee would be deferred to the December 5 Board meeting. In coming to this decision, the Board took into consideration the following; 1. concerns that the actions of a minority group could result in considerable disruption to schools, classes and student learning; 2. benefits to teachers of a rigorous registration process which gives assurance to the community of the standards set and maintained by the profession 3. the need for the profession to be able to exercise it responsibility for self-regulation through a representative of the board; 4. concerns expressed by teachers about the unavoidable delay in electing ten teachers to the Board; 5. evidence that teachers do not understand the full implication of being deregistered and the impact this will have on future employment; 6. the responsibility of the College to provide leadership in difficult times and to work with teachers and the community to build the profession in the interests of a hight standard of education for all students in Western Australia. Dr. Suzanne Parry Director

  
  
  
  
• Reader comments on UK recruitment campaign [worth a look]
  
  
  
• News review
  Teacher bid (page 54)

  "The State Government has started a recruitment campaign in Britain to attract more teachers to WA's rural areas. Education Minister Mark McGowan said two Department of Education and Training representatives would appear at immigration expos in London and Manchester, and conduct information sessions with graduate teachers from Leeds University. The campaign was being supported by a $95, 000 media advertising blitz in UK newspapers."
  
  From The Sunday Times
  
  
  

• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • ALP to help put 21st-century tools in reach
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Labor's offer to parents of a tax rebate for school equipment such as computers and textbooks was an important recognition of the role of education and the struggle many families have meeting the costs of educating their children.

    "Parent and teacher representatives yesterday commended Labor for recognising that not all families could afford the cost of what Mr Rudd described as "the 21st-century toolbox".

    "The national teachers union described the measure as socially progressive, while the Australian Council of State School Organisations, representing parents of government school students, said it placed education at the centre of the political agenda.

    "The proposal integrates education, tax policy and economic management," ACSSO executive director Terry Aulich said. "We don't want education to be isolated and simply seen as a cost; it's a total community investment which has huge returns.

    "It recognises that learning occurs both in the home and at school and that technology is the way to advance that."

    "Under the $2.3 billion plan for an education tax rebate outlined yesterday by the Opposition Leader and his Treasury spokesman, Wayne Swan, families eligible for the Family Tax Benefit (Part A) will receive a 50 per cent refund on education expenses up to $750 for primary students and $1500 for high school students.

    "For primary school students, the maximum claim each year will be $375 for each child, while the maximum annual claim per high school student will be $750. [emphasis added]

    "The equipment eligible for the rebate includes laptops and home computers, printers, internet connection, educational software and school textbooks but not expenses such as school fees and uniforms.

    "Mr Rudd said the measure would help the families of about 2.3 million schoolchildren. A family with one child in primary and one child in high school would receive $1125 a year under this plan.

    "Kids of the future are not going to have decent educational and employment opportunities unless this is available at home," he said.

    "Mr Rudd said that like children who grew up in a house full of books were fonder of reading, children brought up in a home where computers were normal would regard them as normal.

    "If you don't ... there is a real problem and that is creating a massive gap between the haves and the have-nots in this country into the future which I, as an alternative Labor prime minister of this country, am deeply passionate about," he said.

    "For Heather Eyles and her husband Steve Beer, of Brunswick East in Melbourne, Labor's announcement made the prospect of high school just a little less scary.

    "With six children aged 10, 9, 8, 7, 4 and 2, Ms Eyles and Mr Beer face having six children at school in the next three or four years, four of them in high school.

    "Ms Eyles confessed she was nervous about the prospect of affording it, having heard school textbooks alone were very expensive, so Labor's education rebate was very welcome.

    "For me, it's brilliant. We would not hesitate to buy another computer. Ours is five or six years old and while it still works, it's quite slow and doesn't run some things," she said.

    "And it would buy the parents some peace from sibling bickering over using the computer by giving them the chance to buy more than one.

    "President of the Australian Secondary Principals Association, representing public school principals, Andrew Blair, said the initiative was a very positive use of the taxation system to address a critical issue for many students.

    "It's a positive contribution to lifting educational outcomes for people in disadvantaged schools," he said.

    "Mr Blair's enthusiasm was echoed by the executive director of the Australian Parents Council, representing non-government school parents, Ian Dalton, who said recognising education in the tax system highlighted its importance to parents. But Mr Dalton said the council was disappointed that school fees and uniforms were not covered by the rebate.

    "The Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW and the Victorian Council of School Organisations said the money would be better invested in public education and disadvantaged schools.

    "Australian Education Union deputy national president Angelo Gavrietalos said the union representing public school teachers still awaited a commitment to greater funding for public education.

    "We don't see it as the end of announcements in education and we await a significant investment in education from the ALP," Mr Gavrietalos said."
    
    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    Similar stories in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
    

    • Flat out towards a fairer future
      [So-called "Feature" written by Craig Emerson, Labor's spokesman for the service economy, small business and independent contractors.]
      
      
    • Rudd / Swan / Smith media statement on the plan
  
  
  
  • Editorial
    Rudd's tax break
    
    Labor goes for an educated me-too on tax reform
    
    "What is clear from Labor's tax policy, announced yesterday, is that a Rudd government aims to be both aspirational and reform-minded in the mould of its Hawke and Keating predecessors. The Opposition Leader has rejected the utopian urges of his guilty upper-middle-class supporters and commentators who have argued tax cuts should be scrapped in favour of more spending on government services. To have been seduced down that road would have spelled electoral doom for Labor.
    
    "Instead, Mr Rudd has made a good fist of adopting the Government's tax-cut plans while spinning the debate back on to more familiar, and friendly, ground for Labor. Tax cuts for those earning more than $180,000 a year have been deferred and the money redirected towards helping low- and middle-income families with the cost of educating their children, bringing the tax debate back to Labor's broadband and education revolution..."
    
    "We welcome the fact that parents will be given discretion over how the sliding-scale rebate for the education costs of primary- and secondary-school-aged children is spent. If there is a downside for Labor in yesterday's announcement, it is that it has been forced to break cover on its showcase ideas so early in the campaign. Mr Rudd will well know that John Howard now has five weeks to generate an education revolution of his own."
    
    Full Editorial in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Challenger regains balance to hit back
    by Dennis Shanahan, Political editor
    
    "Knowing he couldn't go into the leaders' debate tomorrow night without a tax policy, the Labor leader rushed back to Canberra yesterday and started counter-punching.

    "Labor has essentially adopted the Coalition's tax policy, addressed public concerns about "spending on services" and tried to switch the focus from tax to education.

    "The Opposition Leader's tax policy unveiling looked more like an education campaign launch, which was the intention.

    "Trying to avoid the charge of "me-tooism" on tax, and attempting to turn the debate to his "strength", Rudd top-and-tailed the Howard-Costello tax package with an education flourish. But it's still substantially the Howard plan.."
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Copycats, of course, but with digital extras
    by Jennifer Hewett, National affairs correspondent
    
    "Kevin Rudd knew he had to match John Howard on tax quickly - but with an edge. That edge is the appeal to the future through the education rebate. The risk is the delay in reducing the top marginal rate of tax.

    "But in voter terms, it's not much of a risk to make people earning more than $180,000 a year wait for some of their extra money. It is, however, clever politics to promise the $2.3billion for education costs for "working families".

    "It means most people will get all the tax cuts promised by the Government -- plus the vision of Kevin Rudd waving around a laptop as the "toolbox of the 21st century".

    "Peter Costello looked indignant as he accused Labor of copying 91.5 per cent of the Liberals' tax policy. "Me too but ..." he called it dismissively.

    "Mr Rudd talks about education," he snorted. "If he'd brought his exam paper in after copying 91.5 per cent off the kid next to him, he would have got an F for fail." ...
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • First Byte
      
      "Labor has slaved for four days to come up with a "me-too’’ tax policy – just wonderful. But wait, that’s not all, they have found a real vote winner, offering school children laptops at half price so they can play Pac-Man at home. Roll on, election day."
      
      Simon Gamble, Noosa Heads, Qld
      
      
      
      
• The Age [Saturday]
  
  
  • Rudd pitches tax rebates for education
    
    
    • School costs keep adding up
      
      
    • Rudd tackles tax issue in me-too style
      
      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Rudd vows tax break to step up education
    
    
  • Editorial: Greed and fear get the show on the road
    
    
    • Me too, but with feeling
      
      
    • Policy an attempt to close digital divide
      
      
    • Op Ed: All in the family: superhighway for kids, porn pipe for dad
      
      
      
  • Op Ed
    In age of internet and texting, the ills of childhood linger
    by Adele Horin
    
    As Australia has grown richer, its gross domestic product larger, an odd thing has happened to many of our children. More of them, it seems, have problems.
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Age
  
  
  • Food fight: health push eats into school canteen profits
    by Reid Sexton
    
    "The State Government's new regulations aimed at tackling childhood obesity in Victoria's secondary schools have led to student truancy, clashes with parents and even "Coke deals" in the corridors.

    "Brian Burgess, president of the Victorian Association of Secondary School Principals, said the new rules, effectively banning the sale of fatty food in government school canteens, had also led to a massive drop in tuckshop turnover in some areas.

    "Mr Burgess said all of the 20 or so principals he had spoken to about the scheme had reported problems.

    "He said the profit from one school's canteen had dropped from $20,000 to nothing, while another's had been halved from $40,000.

    "Some schools have had the problems with students leaving the school grounds," he said. "There have been parents saying, 'How dare you deprive my child of lollies'.

    "All of them (the schools) have suffered some form of (financial) loss. None of them want to speak out because they don't want to be seen to be against healthy eating."

    "Mr Burgess said he had also heard reports of children selling Coca-Cola out of their lockers to other students. "We certainly encourage healthy eating, but I think the Government needs to respond to the (loss of revenue)," he said.

    "The scheme was introduced this year to tackle the growing crisis that has left almost a third of Australian children obese. Under the rules, soft drinks are banned and the sale of traditional tuckshop fare such as pies and hot-dogs has been limited to twice a term. A blanket ban on confectionery will be introduced in 2009..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Age at link
    
    
    

  • ET call earth, please. The hunt for life beyond the stars resumes
    
    The US Congress cut its funding 14 years ago. Ever since, it has limped by on private generosity, listening to the cosmos for signs of life when time and dollars have permitted. But now the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program is returning in a big way, with the opening of a powerful $A56 million radio telescope in California dedicated solely to listening for ET transmissions.

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

This page last updated 7 April, 2009 10:52 PM