Monday 29 October

Tuesday 30 October

Wednesday 31 October

Thursday 1 November

Friday 2 November

Saturday – Sunday, 3 – 4 November

 

Monday 29 October

• The Age
  
  
  • Hundreds of teachers being lured to the west
    by Bridie Smith
    
    "A recruitment drive to West Australian schools could cost Victoria more than 100 teachers.

    "Figures compiled for The Age by Western Australia's education department show that almost 320 expressions of interest were lodged during a three-week recruiting campaign, with 170 of them coming from Victoria. [Glad The Age trusts DET's figures... few others do.  Web]

    "The high-profile campaign to lure teachers to the boom state ends today. It targeted new and experienced teachers from Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland, which pay their graduate teachers less than Western Australia does. Graduates were being offered annual salaries of more than $50,000, about $3900 more than they would earn in Victoria.

    "The data shows that most teachers considering moving west were women — 105 compared with 65 men. Eighty-seven were secondary and 83 primary teachers. Most were willing to work in areas around the Kimberley, Goldfields and Pilbara.

    "The figures will put pressure on the Brumby Government, which is locked in enterprise bargaining talks with the Australian Education Union, with a series of proposed strike days expected to spill into next year.

    "AEU Victorian branch president Mary Bluett said the poaching of Victorian teachers had serious implications for the state.

    "Not only are schools left with shortage areas to cover but it means these teachers are being cherry-picked out of the state system," she said. "Ultimately there will be an impact on the quality of learning if you're constantly robbing the system of your best teachers."

    "She said state school teachers were also being poached by non-government schools, which could offer between $15,000 and $20,000 more.

    "They have a much greater capacity to offer teachers more attractive packages, including access to professional development and smaller class sizes," Ms Bluett said. "It's very urgent that we resolve this as soon as possible, but sadly all the indications from the Government are that this is not going to be over very quickly."

    "The union and the Government have been negotiating since March on pay, workload and contract employment levels. The previous enterprise agreement expired in August.

    "The union is seeking a 30 per cent wage rise over three years. The Government says its offer of 3.25 per cent a year strikes a balance between a pay increase and funding other improvements to the education system."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    • One principal feels the pinch
      
      Kambrya College principal Ian McKenzie has had 11 of his teachers poached by private schools and another two by interstate schools in the past two years. Most were maths, science or language teachers, all recognised areas of national shortage and positions Mr McKenzie has struggled to fill.
      
      
      
      
  • Students get less value for fees: unis
    by Bridie Smith
    
    "Students' financial contributions to their degrees have doubled in the past decade but they are getting less for their money, Australia's leading universities say.

    "The Group of Eight, representing eight of the nation's top research universities including Melbourne and Monash, yesterday released an election statement that called for a radical overhaul of higher education funding to redress the imbalance between public and private funding.

    "The group's executive director, Michael Gallagher, said that over the past decade, federal funding had declined by close to 20 per cent, compromising quality and causing student-staff ratios to increase from 14.1 to 1 in 1986 to 19.1 to 1 in 2006.

    "Students are being asked to pay more but they get nothing for it and there's no increase in access either. Meanwhile, contemporary graduates are coming out with about three times the debt of people a decade ago because the price is being shifted onto them," Mr Gallagher said.

    "Last month an OECD report found that Australia was the only developed nation to cut public spending on tertiary education between 1995 and 2004, a finding the Government disputed.

    "Mr Gallagher said he expected students would continue to pay more, but government funding should also increase.

    "The group said that without an overhaul, Australia's universities would fall behind their international peers and fail to attract or retain the best students. "The price has gone up but students are not getting a better quality product," he said. "And in a global knowledge economy where there is real competition for intellectual talent, Australian needs to stay competitive."

    "The Group of Eight called for the Productivity Commission to undertake a year-long survey of course costs in universities. The data could be used when funding universities, making sure that allocations were transparent and that potential students could make informed decisions about where they enrolled.

    "If the Productivity Commission said this is what it costs to provide an engineering course and a university decided to set a fee that was 10 times higher than that, everybody would know," he said. "But at the moment you don't know if you are getting value for money. We think you should have a market where students can shop around."

    "Federal Labor yesterday accused the Government of deliberately underfunding and under-resourcing the higher education system.

    "Education spokesman Stephen Smith said the growing student-staff ratios were "leading to a deterioration in the position of Australia's higher education sector against our international competitors".

    "Education Minister Julie Bishop said universities were in a stronger financial position than ever before.

    "There has been huge growth in the cost of university administration and, given their strong financial position, the challenge for university management is to ensure their institutions are operating more efficiently and to invest more in teaching and research," Ms Bishop said."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    Similar story in today's Australian
    
    
    

  • The Monday Education Section has seven articles and [at least] one Letter today, including:
    
    
    • School in 'standover' claim
      
      Melbourne High School alleges coercive tactics have been used against students, writes Caroline Milburn.
      
      
      
    • Letter to the Editor
      
      
      • "The reason that teachers suffer poor conditions is that they are not nurses. Nurses fight for their profession. They even take on the evil IR laws under which they have been docked four hours’ pay even though they were at work for the four hours. By contrast, teachers keep agreeing to poor conditions deals and then whinge.

        "The pre-1992 maximum secondary teaching load of 18 hours a week is now 20 hours, the pre-1992 time allowance pool of at least 90 minutes per teacher is now zero and the pre-1992 standard of ongoing employment has become a raffle with one in six teachers on short-term contracts.

        "Consequently secondary schools struggle with almost 2,000 fewer teachers than would be provided by the staffing ratio a much poorer Victoria could afford more than a quarter of a century ago.

        "Teachers will not reverse the dramatic long-term decline in pay and conditions unless they regain the professional solidarity to stop voting for deals that make their working lives worse."

        Chris Curtis, Hurstbridge

        
        
        
  • Op Ed
    State schools should reject dubious religious programs
    by Chris Fotinopoulos
    
    Some aspects of religious meddling seem to have escaped public scrutiny.

    "Last time I was in church I overhead a friend advising his 12-year-old son that churches are not such bad places to retreat to when life becomes too overwhelming. He explained that most churches are open to everyone, and no person in need of spiritual help would be turned away. I remember thinking, why would any religious organisation struggling for relevancy in an increasingly secular society shut its doors on anyone, let alone impressionable children?

    "A school welfare counsellor, who happens to be a devout Christian, recently told me that teenagers experiencing social, emotional or psychological problems are reluctant to go to church on the grounds that they're perceived as intimidating and archaic. He seemed to be suggesting that since most children do not go to church, then perhaps the church should come to their school.

    "When I discuss the ethics of abortion, voluntary euthanasia, genetic engineering, and same-sex marriage with my senior philosophy students, the words sin, evil, god, miracle, damnation, abomination, heaven and hell are rarely used. These terms do not dominate the student lexicon because religion does not dominate their thinking.

    "Given that Australian society has become increasingly secularised, it is no surprise to hear students broaching moral issues in terms of the democratic principles of justice, individual freedom, fairness and social equity — not religious doctrine.

    "There is no doubt that organised religion is at least partly responsible for laws restricting physician-assisted suicide, same-sex marriages, and women's reproductive rights. An aspect of religious meddling that seems to have escaped public scrutiny relates to government outsourcing of crucial social services to religious organisations.

    "Church-led social services in the areas of employment, aged care, health and school welfare remind me of a scene from George Orwell's Down and out in Paris and London that has a bunch of tramps entering a church not for spiritual nourishment, but as a means of getting food in their bellies.

    "The Federal Government's school chaplaincy program resembles this. Like Orwell's tramps, government schools are impelled to accept $20,000 a year for the implementation of a chaplaincy program not because they see a need for religious observance in schools, but rather as a means of securing desperately needed welfare assistance for students at risk.

    "There is no doubt that mental illness places a strain on already stretched school welfare resources. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2004-05, 7 per cent of children aged under 15 years were reported to have some form of mental or behavioural problem as a long-term health condition, with rates rising from very low levels among children aged under five years to 10 per cent of children aged 10-14 years.

    "Considering these statistics, no school could be blamed for accepting federal funding for welfare assistance, but the Government does deserve criticism for attaching desperately needed funds to a church-led school welfare program.

    "The central issue regarding the chaplaincy-in-school program relates to the question of whether organised religion is best suited to provide welfare support to all students.

    "A study published in the Australian e-journal for the Advancement of Mental Health in 2005 found that secondary school students regard friends as the preferred source of help, followed by family, with professional sources much less preferred. Government school students seeking help were more likely to endorse a GP than a religious leader.

    "From an economic perspective, the implementation of a school chaplaincy program that most government students would not even use points to an inefficient use of public funds. From a social equity perspective, a government-funded, faith-based welfare program discriminates against students who need help but are unable to obtain it on account of their religious or non-religious affiliation.

    "This is not to decry discussion of religion. I am confident that most teachers are keen to acquaint students with diverse religious and cultural traditions as a means of stimulating a deeper and broader understanding of spiritualty and the cultural significance of religious belief.

    "A school curriculum that explores social connectedness and spirituality in various cultures, including ours, through subjects such as history and philosophy will assist in the emotional, psychological and philosophical development of most students. It most probably will help students who struggle to find meaning and spiritual fulfilment in an increasingly individualistic and materialistic society.

    "A child experiencing mental illness or emotional turmoil requires proper professional help, not metaphysical balms or spiritual snake oil supplied by religious representatives in the guise of welfare professionals.

    "As an educator, I am open to pedagogical methods and approaches that stimulate thought on a diverse range of subjects and topics, including religious and spiritual matters. But schools should not be regarded as recruiting grounds for churches.

    "Many children find churches intimidating, archaic and irrelevant, but that doesn't mean secular schools should open their doors to religious organisations on the pretext of welfare guidance. It is for this reason that all government schools should reject religious programs as part of a broader welfare strategy."

    Chris Fotinopoulos teaches in a government school.
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Top unis attack Coalition over cuts
    by Milanda Rout
    
    "Australia's leading universities have attacked the Howard Government, saying a decline in tertiary funding has left students the biggest losers.

    "The Group of Eight universities say commonwealth funding of HECS places has dropped almost 20 per cent since 1996 at the expense of quality teaching and student experience.

    "But the Labor Party does not escape criticism either, with the powerful lobby group saying that the previous Labor governments also cut public funding to university students.

    "The timed election hit describes the last decade of federal government funding to universities as "insufficient" and says it is "putting intolerable pressure" on students and staff at the nation's tertiary institutions.

    "The Go8, consisting of research-intensive institutions such as Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland universities, reiterated its call for a major rethink of the way universities are funded or Australia would fall "further behind" the world's leaders in education.

    "The group analysed university funding data since 1986 and argues that although statistics show federal funding of students had "marginally" increased over the past decade, that rise has been fuelled mostly by increased student HECS fees.

    "Public funding per commonwealth-supported university place has declined by close to 20 per cent in real terms in the last decade," said Alan Robson, chairman of the Go8.

    "With the rising costs of university teaching and research, insufficient government funding is causing student/staff ratios to blow out, putting intolerable pressure on the quality of the student learning experience as well as on staff.

    "The student/staff ratio has risen from 14.1-to-1 in 1986 to 19.1-to-1 in 2006, well above that of our main international competitors. The world's leading universities typically have a ratio of less than 10-to-1."

    "Professor Robson said students were the ones missing out. "Students are paying more ... but not benefiting as they should."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Vic teachers keen on WA (page 4)
    
    See more detailed story in today's Age
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • In Short
      
      "So Education Minister Mark McGowan chastises the teachers' union for warning their Eastern States counterparts about the shortfalls of teaching in WA.

      "I'll wager that his "advertising campaign" featured glossy pamphlets with pictures showing stunning beaches, smiling teachers with money falling out of their pockets, teaching at idyllic "leafy green" northern metropolitan campuses.

      "Any mention of the substandard housing, unaffordable housing and postings to the not so glamorous regional schools and the associated major difficulties this entails? In the fine print, perhaps.

      "I had to laugh at his statement: "Eastern States union colleagues will say, 'look at this, don't go to WA, there are all these problems over in WA'." What's your point, Minister?"
      
      John Bowles, Carine

Tuesday 30 October

• The Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    PC warriors serve up a slanted education
    by Mark Lopez
    
    "In her address to her union's conference in 2005 the Australian Education Union president Pat Byrne openly acknowledged the ideological bias that dominates the school system. As she put it: "We have succeeded in influencing curriculum development in schools, education departments and universities. The conservatives have a lot of work to do to undo the progressive curriculum."

    "This bias is the consequence of historical factors originating in the politics of the 1960s that led to a domination of school curriculums by the ideology of the politically correct Left. Correspondingly, the majority of high school teachers appear to have many values compatible or consistent with this ideology. This ideological hegemony is one of the salient features of "progressive" education. This means that for the numerous students with non-Left views, the education system presents additional challenges.

    "Although many teachers are likeable people who generate a pleasant atmosphere in their classrooms, what pervades in the school system is a way of looking at the world characterised by the Left, an outlook presented not as ideological but as normal, correct, legitimate and just. More importantly, in terms of assessment, what also exists is a subtle un-stated pressure to ideologically conform if students want to succeed academically.

    "It should be noted that most of the teachers exerting this pressure would probably be unaware that they are doing so because they would be unaware of the bias affecting their assessment. From the teachers' perspective, they are simply sharing their enthusiasms with their classes and responding positively to what they prefer to see in students' work. Meanwhile, the politically incorrect arguments presented by some students in their essays would be assessed more severely because, from the teachers' perspective, they are genuinely seen to be flawed.

    "As a private tutor, what I have noticed by closely observing patterns of ticks and comments made in the assessment of students' papers, is that when students clearly indicate in the introduction of their essay that they share their teacher's politically correct beliefs, the teacher automatically clicks into what I describe as a non-critical frame of mind.

    "Consequently, the teacher is less inclined to notice mistakes in grammar, argument or in the presentation of evidence. Meanwhile, if students cross the teacher's bias, the opposite happens. The teacher clicks into a critical frame of mind, finding every justification in the essay to deduct grades.

    "Due to the psychological subtlety of this behaviour, it is highly likely that the teachers displaying their bias would not recognise it as such, but rather see the grade solely as the product of their professional judgment. It is human nature to display an affinity for those who appear to be like-minded, and to favour them, and this is as true for the assessment of essays as it is in most human interactions. However, because so many teachers share an ideological disposition, the aggregate effect of this tendency is a politically correct bias that appears to be both systematic and widespread.

    "In addition, this bias is so prevalent and so deep-seated that it has achieved a degree of normalcy or a taken-for-granted quality, thereby being virtually invisible to many involved with the system. This is much like the way we become more aware of the constant hum of an air conditioner when it is suddenly switched off than when it is running.

    "Consequently, if greater intellectual diversity was introduced into the education system, for example, to reflect the degree of diversity in the mainstream community, it would probably initially appear strange to many people, especially to many of those working in it.

    "Unfortunately, some teachers are not subtle in expressing their Left-wing bias, being quite militant in the expression of their views and intolerant of dissent. Although evidence of commendable attempts at broad-mindedness and fairness among teachers can be found, evidence of blatant bias is far from rare in the school system.

    "For example, a student came to me late in his Year 11 to receive early preparations for Year 12. Soon after I commenced helping him in English, he reported to me a recent incident when he suspected that he had experienced ideological bias in the assessment of an essay. He had written an informative piece that appeared to be broadly appreciative of the US in its victory in the Cold War, which the teacher had severely criticised. Concerned, he made an appointment to see his teacher to discuss the matter.

    "Unfortunately, what resulted was a severe haranguing, with the teacher yielding no quarter and even boasting to the student that she was anti-American. To many of the politically correct, the US is perceived as an international villain for being a militaristic capitalist superpower.

    "When the student renewed his attempt to put his case, her convoluted and uncompromising argument worked its way towards a reference to Pearl Harbor. Initially stunned by this irrelevancy, the student soon realised that this was a cruel dig at his Japanese heritage. It did the trick. The student ceased putting his complaint. Coming to the teacher with what he felt was a legitimate grievance, he left feeling that his efforts were futile. He also found the experience somewhat humiliating.

    "Teachers responsible for scenes like this are probably likely to forget them minutes later. Unfortunately, the students involved are likely to remember them long afterwards.

    "It is also highly likely that these teachers would not remotely see themselves as politically or ideologically oppressive, or as part of a system that creates an environment where free thought and expression can be compromised.

    "The idea that the beliefs of the politically correct, which are seen by them as so noble and emancipating, especially when they were touted by radical students in the '60s, could have become a means for compromising the intellectual freedom of the young in the 21st century would be unimaginable to them.

    "As for the student who expressed those moderate pro-American views, upon appreciating the realities of the school system, he produced politically correct essays, perfectly tuned into his teachers' biases, to receive A grades that were (thank goodness) hassle-free.

    "Like the characters Winston Smith and Julia in George Orwell's classic anti-totalitarian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, students with non-Left views need to learn to outwardly conform to inwardly remain free.

    "Prevailing educational practices suggest that the custodians of the education system, like the teachers' unions, have not realised that they are on the wrong side of a growing desire among Australians for greater intellectual diversity and freedom.

    "There is a need for an education system that would better serve the young in terms of their need for knowledge and acceptance. However, as the president of the Australian Education Union recognised regarding the process of reform, there will be a lot of work to do."

    Mark Lopez is an educational consultant who was a participant in the Howard Government's History Summit in August 2006.

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • $2bn to revive technical colleges
    
    John Howard has promised to spend $2.1 billion building 100 new technical and trades-training colleges, sharpening his re-election pitch by linking the training to his pursuit of a 3 per cent unemployment rate.
    
    Similar story in today's Age and The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Big fine if no peanut allergy plan
    
    Schools and kindergartens will be forced to have detailed emergency plans in place to deal with peanut allergies or face fines under a national first being introduced in Victoria.
    
    
    
    
  • Red tape pushes up uni staff costs
    
    Universities had increased administrative staff numbers by nearly 300 per cent in 10 years because the federal Government had swathed them in red tape, a sector union said yesterday.
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • PM targets jobless rate with $2.1b on colleges (page 9)
    
    See very similar articles in today's Australian and Age
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (page 23)
    
    
    • Please explain

      "Teachers' union life member Brian Lindberg (Letters, 27/10), while defending the union's action on alerting interstate teachers on the pitfalls of moving to WA, says "the major role of the union is to protect teachers". If only it were true.

      "Sure, they are protecting interstate teachers, but what about their own members? We have seen this teachers' union being complicit with the disastrous OBE fiasco. We have seen it agree to the department's "local selection" policy, which is damaging education in rural WA. Teachers are refusing to go to the country because they know they can't get back to the city.

      "Of course, we have also seen it silent on the myriad WACOT blunders, but then again, the same Brian Lindberg is the chairman of that organisation."

      Patrick F. Whalen, Yokine
      

      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Give the university students a break - and a chance to live
      
      "Well done and three cheers for Dale Spender ("Just plain bad manners", October 29). In a world where higher education is massified, marketised and vocationalised, plagiarism is yet another blunt instrument to punish the so-called generation Y.

      "As young people clamber to get positional advantage by attending university, they are confronted with substantial fees, usually taking the form of prolonged debt, increasing class sizes, decreasing contact hours and reduced support services. They are probably also holding down multiple, poorly paid jobs, at a time when life ought to be a little more for living.

      "As an academic, I get sick of endless debates about plagiarism and falling academic standards. All too often the bemoaning of low academic skills in the massified university fails to recognise that in the 1960s there were also fewer academics - who presumably also had higher standards.

      "However, in a system where the status of teaching is a poor relation to research, there seems to be too much worrying about "breaking the rules" and not enough worrying about the struggle that many students undertake, while being given consistently low grades which demoralise and confuse them.

      "Most so-called plagiarism, in my experience, is about students trying to keep their heads above water. If we had a mentality of taking people from where they were at on a learning journey of developing critical thought (as well as vocational qualifications) then the university might return to the rich experience that I had, for nothing, in the 1970s. And people would understand that things such as referencing your work are about communicating ideas, not justifying whether or not you are cheating.

      "The obsession with the knowledge economy, which seems to have become little more than reductionist commodification of education, has given us a parlous higher education system, entirely at the service of micro-economic reform. We are obsessed with policing and surveillance, masquerading as "quality". For those whose main contribution to education reform is to rewrite the history syllabus, they should start with the history of higher education in the last three decades."

      Mick Houlbrook, Marrickville
      
      
      

Wednesday 31 October

• The West Australian
  
  
  • OBE critics take control of State teachers' union (page 4)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "The teachers' union committee is set to be heavily dominated by disciples of one of WA's most ardent OBE critics after its members voted yesterday for a widespread changing of the guard.

    "In a move that could lead to an increase in hostility between the State Government and teachers, 12 of the 14 committee posts are expected to be filled by representatives of the Members First group led by Marko Vojkovic, who has also led the teachers' anti OBE lobby group PLATO.

    "Mr Vojkovic lost his bid to be elected president of the SSTUWA with that position going to the current vice-president Anne Gisborne.

    "But Members First representative Patricia Burke was elected senior vice president while current president Mike Keely will be junior vice president after deciding not to run for the top post.

    "The West Australian understands that by the close of counting last night, the remaining 11 positions would be filled by Members First representatives, meaning Ms Gisborne could be outvoted on key issues debated by the union's committee.

    "Mr Vojkovic said it seemed that members voted for the Members First policies but not for the team's executives and it was unfortunate that teachers now had a divided executive at such a crucial time in education. "I don't believe that it's a good result for anybody," he said.

    "Mr Gisborne said the vote had been "all over the place" and she believed results were still unclear. But if the Members First team was successful she would work with them.

    "Ms Gisborne led a rival ticket known as the Unity team, which also included Mr Keely and other existing committee members. This faction has dominated the union committee since the mid 1990s.

    "I think there is no doubt that the Unity team has been a whipping boy for some of the major issues that have confronted education in recent years, such as the teacher shortage," she said. [I can think of other reasons, Anne. Web]

    "She hoped the new team would still put the best interests of teachers first. [How utterly patronising! Web] "The future of the teaching profession is going to be fraught," she said. "We are in the middle of two EBAs, one for teachers and one for TAFE, and the teacher shortage."

    "Under Mr Keely's leadership, the union was seen by many teachers to have been too soft on the Government over its disastrous OBE plan.

    "Mr Keely later stepped up his criticism, but many saw his actions as too little, too late and blamed him for the union been seen as a secondary voice to PLATO on the issue." [emphasis added]
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Lesson for today: grammar is back
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Grammar will return to Queensland classrooms in Years 11 and 12 under a revised English syllabus requiring that students be taught grammar, spelling and punctuation.

    "The Queensland Studies Authority, which is responsible for school curriculums, says a new senior English syllabus to be taught from 2009 will remove the "over-emphasis on critical literacy" used to analyse literature.

    "Critical literacy is a theory used to analyse texts which holds that language is never neutral and should be dissected to reveal how the writer is manipulating the reader.

    "The changes are based on a report by the executive dean of arts at the University of Queensland, Richard Fotheringham, which recommends the syllabus be more specific about the novels, plays and poems that students should study.

    "The report was commissioned last year by Queensland Education Minister Rod Welford, who has called for "plain English guidelines" and criticised the "post-modern mumbo jumbo" in the state's English syllabus.

    "In an article in the QSA journal, director Kim Bannikoff said the revised syllabus would encourage teachers to use a range of approaches to texts.

    "The narrow focus on 'socio-critical elements' will be reframed so students are assessed on their evaluative thinking skills and decision-making in the reading and writing of texts," he says.

    "Mr Bannikoff refused to elaborate, but a QSA spokesman said socio-critical elements were what developed students' ability to critique texts.

    "The narrow focus in the past refers to the over-emphasis on critical literacy," the spokesman said.

    "Mr Bannikoff said the syllabus would ensure students studied a range of classic and contemporary novels, poems, plays, films and other works. Teachers can expect more specific advice about what to study and assess.

    "The QSA spokesman said the syllabus would specify the range and balance of texts to be studied rather than setting mandatory reading lists.

    "The changes were greeted with suspicion by the English Teachers Association of Queensland, whose president, Gary Collins, said teachers would resist plans to remove critical literacy from the syllabus.

    "We certainly believe a critical literacy approach shouldn't dominate all teaching and assessment tasks," Mr Collins said. "But it would be a decidedly retrograde step if it were to be removed entirely."

    "A spokeswoman for Mr Welford said the minister was considering the report."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Finetune the test pattern
    
    As we move towards a national curriculum, we must reshape our examination structure, writes Kevin Donnelly
    
    "Last week's release of a University of Canberra study, arguing that Year 12 external, competitive examinations do not guarantee superior academic performance at the tertiary level compared with school-based assessment, is a welcome addition to the debate about the best way to structure Year 12 curriculum and assessment and to decide tertiary entry.

    "At the federal level, both the ALP and the Coalition Government are in favour of a national curriculum. While its final form has yet to be decided, there is a consensus, drawing on the Australian Council for Educational Research report Australian Certificate of Education: Exploring a Way Forward, that Australia will eventually have a single national senior school certificate.

    "In moving from nine different certificates to a single national Year 12 certificate, the ACER report recommends a national standards body be established to identify curriculum essentials -- core knowledge and skills -- and achievement standards, defined as a nationally consistent framework of levels (A to E) against which student performance would be reported.

    "The University of Canberra study, while restricted to evaluating the performance of first-year business students at that university, is also welcome given, as noted by the report's authors, the dearth of Australian research evaluating the relationship between different types of assessment systems and academic performance.

    "Such research is especially vital given recent moves to decide tertiary entry by using a range of assessment tools, including aptitude tests, interviews and measuring employability skills, in addition to the more traditional tertiary entrance rank or equivalent national tertiary entrance rank. Given the competitive and high stakes nature of tertiary selection, especially with courses such as medicine and law, and the profound impact undertaking a degree has on a student's personal development and career prospects, one would like to think that whatever method of selection employed is fair, rigorous and educationally sound.

    "While Australian research is almost nonexistent, a number of overseas studies stress the value of competitive, external examinations at the secondary level. Such examinations provide strong incentives for students to do well. Teachers and schools are publicly accountable for performance, the results students achieve are comparable and, if structured properly, such examinations foster strong academic knowledge.

    "On analysing the characteristics of those countries that achieve the best results in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study tests, German academic Ludger Woessmann argues that centralised examinations and standardised tests are associated with higher academic standards.

    "In Kiel Working Paper No983, published in 2000, Woessmann states: "Students in countries with centralised examinations scored 16.1 points higher in mathematics and 10.7 points higher in science than students in countries without centralised examinations".

    "In a conference paper delivered at Harvard University in June 2002, Woessmann makes the same point when he argues: "Student performance in math and science is substantially higher in school systems with central exams than without central exams, and this is true for students from all performance quartiles and family backgrounds."

    "US academic John Bishop also argues particular countries achieve high standards in international tests because of the presence of what he terms curriculum-based external exit examinations. In a 2001 paper for the Hoover Institution, Bishop states: "Students from countries with medium and high-stakes exit examination systems outperform students from other countries at a comparable level of economic development."

    "In opposition to the US-style SAT, formerly the Scholastic Aptitude Test, and what he terms minimum competency tests, where students are tested in terms of reasoning ability or generic skills, Bishop also argues that to be successful, examinations must be discipline-based, externally assessed, rank students in terms of multiple levels of achievement and be high stakes in terms of consequences.

    "Doubts about the usefulness of intelligence tests such as the SAT are echoed by Harvard University's dean of admissions, William Fitzsimmons, when he argues "subject tests were the best predictor of good grades at Harvard, high school grade point average was second and the SAT was third".

    "It makes sense, as argued by a number of university submissions to the ACER's investigation into an Australian Certificate of Education, that students in the final years of secondary schooling are given a solid and substantial initiation into the relevant academic disciplines before beginning tertiary study.

    "While the University of Canberra report focuses on the success or otherwise of external versus school-based assessment as measured by academic performance in first year business studies, equally as important is how reliable, fair and transparent Year 12 assessment is when deciding tertiary selection.

    "As noted by a 1992 report evaluating the introduction of the Victorian Certificate of Education, an over-reliance on school-based assessment leads to a situation where teachers are overwhelmed with record keeping and the need to authenticate students' work. It is also difficult and costly to ensure comparability of grades across schools and to stop students from abusing the system.

    "New Zealand's senior school National Certificate of Educational Achievement has also been criticised because of an over-reliance on school-based assessment. As noted in a 2007 policy paper by the Auckland-based Maxim Institute, school-based moderation has been attacked by teachers as unreliable and time-consuming and students, on being surveyed, commented on the strengths of external examinations.

    "Drawing on the study The Impact of NCEA on Student Motivation, the Maxim paper states: "Many pupils also recognised that external exams were important indicators of quality and consistency across schools and that the information provided by an external exam is useful to employers and for university entrance."

    "An added advantage of external examinations is that they are impersonal and objective and students are not penalised because of their personality or background. As illustrated by the public debate in Adelaide in 2004 over the perception that private school students, especially those with doctors as parents, are discriminated against on entry to medicine, using instruments such as interviews can undermine public trust.

    "Of interest is that the same debate is current in Britain, where the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service is investigating a range of factors for possible use in deciding tertiary entry, including whether parents have degrees, a candidate's socio-economic, cultural background and the class size and truancy rates of the school attended.

    "To argue a case for external, competitive examinations does not mean there is no place for school-based assessment.

    "Since the early 1970s, all states and territories have significantly reshaped senior school certificates and they no longer rely solely on end of year, one-off examinations.

    "While Queensland and the ACT are alone in having 100 per cent of Year 12 assessment school-based, all other states and territories make use of both external examinations and school-based assessment to varying degrees, ranging from 50-50 in NSW to 80-20 in other states.

    "As noted in the Senate report Quality of School Education, there is a good deal of debate surrounding the issue of Year 12 standards and how successful schools are in preparing students for tertiary study, especially in Western Australia and South Australia. Given the likelihood that we will soon have a national Year 12 certificate no matter who wins the federal election, such debates will and should continue."

    Kevin Donnelly was a member of the steering group for the ACER Year12 report and a past member of the Victorian Board of Studies and the Victorian Year 12 English Panel of Examiners.

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • The Wednesday Higher Education Supplement has 15 articles today, including:
    
    
    • Clusters the key to better teaching
      
      A handful of teaching champions in key disciplines would work from inside university faculties to improve university teaching under a groundbreaking proposal from the Carrick Institute.
      
      
      
    • Fast degrees to solve crisis
      
      Universities are shortening undergraduate degrees, splitting degrees between campuses and workplaces and bringing in short masters conversion courses to get students into skill-starved industries faster.
      
      
      
    • Op Ed
      Vocationally a clear-cut choice
      by Gavin Moodie
      
      The electorate has a clear choice between the Coalition and Labor's starkly different policies for increasing secondary level vocational education... the big difference is between the Coalition's policy to stream students from Year 10 and Labor's plan to support a broadened but integrated education system until the end of Year 12.
      
      
      
    • Demand for places still down
      
      Demand for university places in Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia has softened since last year, although it is a little stronger in NSW.
      
      
      
      
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • A repetitive mantra
      
      "Mark Lopez ("PC warriors serve up a slanted education”, Opinion, 30/10) raises the boogie-man once again to explain the ills of the education system: that is, it has been taken over by the Left.

      "This claim raises some interesting questions, such as where have the conservatives gone? Or, why do conservatives not enter the teaching profession? Is Lopez claiming they are somehow vetted by a secret cabal of the politically-correct Left that vets teacher applications for right-wing bias?

      "If conservatives want to influence the education system, they are more than welcome to become a teacher in the public system, stay in the profession (not a likely scenario given how many leave now, even from the Left), join the union and climb the ladder to administration. The same could be done in the education faculties at our universities.

      "Although I share Lopez’s sentiments, I am bored with the repetitive mantra that it is all the Left’s fault. If conservatives want to influence education, then they should teach."
      
      John Daicopoulos, Rosslea, Qld

Thursday 1 November

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers get final say on OBE revamps (page 4)
    by Daniel Emerson

    "Curriculum Council chairman [sic] David Wood has promised four reworked OBE courses which failed to get approval from most teachers would not be implemented in 2009 unless the same teachers agreed to new changes.

    "More than 1700 teachers were asked to approve 12 new senior school courses which were altered significantly after criticism from teacher juries.

    "Although four subjects did not receive the required 75 per cent majority support from teachers to constitute approval, Mr Wood said he hoped they would still be ready for introduction in 2009. Two of the subjects, Geography and Biological Sciences, scraped about 70 per cent backing but another two, Accounting and Finance, and Children, Family and Community, received approval ratings of barely 50 per cent.

    "Speaking after the council's monthly board of management meeting, Mr Wood said yesterday teachers would get another chance to give feedback on the reworked course but it would be too expensive to get them all together for another vote.

    "Feedback from Geography and Biological Sciences teachers at the professional development day is being incorporated unto these courses and the revised courses will be circulated to all teachers who attended," Mr Wood said.

    "Accounting and Finance, and Children, Family and Community require more work and meetings are scheduled for teachers in those courses. We are getting feedback from the teachers and we are asking them to respond back to us but I'm not going to convene another Statewide meeting because it costs 10 squillion dollars. I will not proceed with implementation of the courses unless the vast majority of teachers are happy with it."

    "He said the Accounting and Finance, and Children, Family and Community courses would be delayed until 2010 if teachers were not happy with them.

    "People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes president Greg Williams said the old syllabus committees were a perfectly sensible means of ensuring that courses were suitable for modern students. "People are saying the Physics and Chemistry courses are almost back to where they were before this whole nonsense started, and so we have spent all these millions of dollars getting back to where we started," he said.

    "Shadow minister Peter Collier said it was very important that teachers were given the chance to comment fully on all changes to the courses." [emphasis added]
    
    From The West Australian

     

• The Australian
  
  
  • Most teachers need 'more study'
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "School teachers are experts in educational theory and psychology but know little about the subject they are teaching, neglecting to update their knowledge and skills.

    "University of Queensland executive dean of arts Richard Fotheringham yesterday said few teachers undertook postgraduate studies in their discipline, and those who did pursue further study focused on educational theories and failed to keep abreast of developments in their field.

    "We have a teaching workforce that's pretty well trained in terms of educational psychology and methodology and those areas but actually not knowing anything about the discipline they're teaching," he said.

    "Their discipline is education rather than science, English, history or whatever. They haven't done any studies in the actual matter they're teaching since they were themselves at university and that could be up to 20, 30 or 40 years ago."

    "Professor Fotheringham, a former head of the Queensland Board of Senior Secondary School Studies that oversaw the curriculum for years 11 and 12, said the lack of contact teachers had with current thinking in their discipline was responsible for fads such as whole language and critical literacy taking hold in Australian schools.

    "He recently chaired a review of the senior English syllabus in Queensland, which recommends a return to the straight-forward teaching of English with an emphasis on teaching basics such as grammar and advising teachers on the novels, plays and poems students should study.

    "Professor Fotheringham said there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the state's existing English syllabus for focusing too heavily on critical literacy, a theory of analysing literature that holds language is never neutral and should be dissected to reveal how the writer is manipulating the reader.

    "The current Queensland syllabus also prescribes students be taught functional grammar, a non-standard form of analysing language that Professor Fotheringham said was prominent only in Australia.

    "It led teachers very quickly into some very difficult concepts. Really, teachers don't understand enough about it and indeed the text books they're using are radically simplified forms of what's a difficult area of linguistics," he said.

    "They're really trying to run before they can walk. The students come to university unable to name the major parts of speech; they don't understand how sentences are put together and they're trying to do such sophisticated analysis.

    "It's time to go back to a straight-forward introduction to the things you can do with language using standard terms and concepts."

    "Professor Fotheringham, a world-renowned expert in Shakespeare, said the study of literature should be separated in schools from the study of other forms of communication such as advertising, film and websites, where critical literacy was a useful tool in understanding the rhetoric. [emphasis added]

    "If looking at media texts on their own terms, or advertisements, then critical literacy is a way of examining the rhetorical approaches," he said.

    "But it's not necessarily the best way to approach an exciting novel. It seems to me running before walking. We don't want university post-graduate study being the core of what's done in primary and secondary schools."

    "Professor Fotheringham said the first step was to interest students in the story, as in earlier years when primary school students were introduced to Shakespeare by first reading Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare.

    "One thing that worried me was the number of students not enjoying their English studies," he said. "If reading a novel or play or poem isn't pleasurable, we've lost the battle."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • First five years shapes kids' future
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "By the age of four, most children can name five colours and identify numbers, shapes and an average of eight letters of the alphabet, a study of about 10,000 children has shown.

    "The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, released yesterday by the National Centre for Education Statistics in the US, shows a range of skills and abilities among four-year-old children.

    "About 64 per cent could identify the colours blue, yellow, orange, black and brown, while 65 per cent were proficient in naming numbers and shapes.

    "One in three children recognised a sample of letters from the alphabet, and when asked to draw horizontal and vertical lines, a circle, triangle, square, cross and asterisk, the average child could draw three or four of these.

    "The dominance in literacy by girls seen in later years is evident before children start school. Girls scored higher than boys in overall literacy, including recognising letters, sounds and simple words.

    "Higher performance by children from affluent families is evident in the early years. Children from two-parent families have better literacy skills than those in single-parent families, which is a strong predictor of social disadvantage. Children from low-income families scored lower on all measures.

    "The director of the Centre for Community Child Health at Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital, Frank Oberklaid, said the results showed the importance of good education and childcare in the first five years of life.

    "The real issue is what happens to children before they get to school - there's such a social gradient," Professor Oberklaid said.

    "Some children start school able to recite the alphabet, count to 10 and write their name, but a significant proportion of children cannot.

    "On the one hand are kids who grow up in a rich language environment, are read to, have books at home and might have two years in an early learning centre like preschool before they start school," Professor Oberklaid said.

    "On the other hand are those kids in poor-quality childcare who aren't read to, have no books at home and, if they're lucky, have a few hours a week of variable-quality preschool.

    "If you want to improve education and schools, the real investment needed is in the early years before children start school."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • 25 teachers ousted for child sex crimes
    
    Dozens of teachers have been banned from working in schools over the past five years because of sexual offences involving children.
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • HELP, I'm deep in student debt

      "I am a 26-year-old with a bachelor of arts degree. Since graduating five years ago, I have been employed as a public servant with a good salary. I have been repaying my university debt through the HELP scheme. And yet, five years later, after paying several thousands of dollars, my debt is only $90 less than it was the day I graduated. This is due to the 3.4 per cent indexation I pay.

      "I understand that this is a difficult thing for politicians to grasp — most of them didn't have to pay for their university degrees. But this kind of debt (mine is $18,000) is preventing young people from saving, buying property and starting families. Surely that can only have an increasingly negative effect on our economy.

      "You want to give us an education revolution, Mr Howard and Mr Rudd? In an ideal world, we wouldn't be paying for our education in the first place. But given that this world is far from ideal, here is the least you can do: get rid of the indexation on HELP debts. Make repayments tax deductible. HELP us to get on with our lives."

      Lili Wilkinson, Fitzroy North
      
      

    • Love, not snake oil
      
      "Chris Fotinopoulos' article on school chaplains (Opinion, 29/10) touched on the role Christian organisations play in providing employment, health, aged care and welfare services. By drawing a parallel with the tramps in George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, Chris suggests that the Christian welfare organisations that keep Australia ticking are offering spiritual snake oil to those we serve. I recommend Chris spend some time in one of the services he views with such suspicion. He should talk to some of the hundreds of thousands of Australians whom Christian welfare charities help each year and ask whether they receive metaphysical balms or practical assistance.

      "Perhaps he should also encourage his students to imagine an Australia without Mission Australia, the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, Anglicare, Uniting Care and Centrecare providing assistance to people in need. The fact is, most Australians realise the contribution these Christian organisations make to our society and that they do so motivated by Christian love, not by getting bums on seats at church on Sunday."

      Toby Hall, chief executive officer, Mission Australia

Friday 2 November

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Drift from State to private schools shows in TEE enrolments (page 14)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "The drift away from State schools was highlighted yesterday by the growing gap in the number of private school students sitting the TEE compared with public school students.

    "Curriculum Council figures show that 6938 private school students are enrolled to sit at least one TEE subject, 453 more than the 6485 State school students.
    
    "Last year was the first time private school students outnumbered those from State schools sitting the TEE, with 49 per cent enrolled in one exam compared with 47 per cent from public schools, or a gap of 173 pupils.
    
    "Just 47 per cent of this year’s TEE students are from State schools, compared with 50 per cent from private schools — even though 55 per cent of all Year 12s are enrolled at State schools. Overseas students make up the other 3 per cent.
    
    "The gap is even wider between students who are sitting at least four exams, with 53 per cent of private school pupils enrolled compared with 43 per cent from State schools. [emphasis added]
    
    "Association of Independent Schools of WA executive director Audrey Jackson said the trend debunked the myth that private schools discouraged poorly performing students from sitting the TEE.
    
    “There have been views that independent schools constantly counsel students out of sitting TEE subjects to look better in the league tables,” she said. “I don’t believe all of (the increase) can be accounted for by growth in Year 11 and 12 within the (private) sector.”
    
    "Curriculum Council chairman Bill Louden said the trend was part of the general drift of students from State to private schools that had been going on for a decade. “Children from families who are choosing to go to nongovernment schools are more likely to do a full TEE load,” he said.
    
    "Nearly 14,000 students will sit at least one TEE subject this year, a 9 per cent jump from last year, which Professor Louden attributed to the fact overall Year 12 enrolments had increased by more than 1000.
    
    "Education Department curriculum standards acting executive director Chris Cook said the total of State school students sitting one or more TEE subjects had also increased.
    
    "State School Teachers Union vice president Anne Gisborne said a greater proportion of State school students chose vocational training because it offered good career options.
    
    "Geography students breathed a sigh of relief after they finished the first TEE paper yesterday.
    
    "Shenton College Year 12s Sean Nicholson and Miranda Humphries, both 17, said the exam was more difficult than they expected but they were reasonably confident. “It’s hard to tell, I can never judge how it goes — but it seemed OK,” Miranda said."
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • $30m fund to benefit indigenous students
    
    Hundreds of [NSW] Aboriginal students, from primary school age to postgraduate, are set to benefit from a perpetual scholarship.
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • The true tragedy of ‘critlit’
      
      "What I found particularly refreshing about Professor Richard Fotheringham’s criticism of the critical literacy approach to English teaching currently in favour in most Australian states ("Most teachers need more study”, 1/11) was that he precisely pinpointed the true tragedy of the approach.

      "This approach, routinely and sadly, turns students off English. He confirmed this when he stated that what worried him was the number of students not enjoying their English studies. As a practising English teacher in NSW, I totally agree. Students would be more engaged in English if they did not have to analyse every text with endless modish references to critical literacy which they mostly don’t even understand.

      "Let them approach a novel, play, poem, film or song through its language and intrinsic meaning. Can I even suggest they use those suspect terms “plot, character and theme” to understand literature? Maybe then English teachers might be able to convince students that English can be interesting and enlightening. At the moment, we are only overloading them with critical literacy and leaving them switched off."
      
      Jem Stewart, Newcastle, NSW

      
      
      
• The Age
  
  
  • Unis count cost of lost union fees
    
    More than 1000 jobs have been slashed at universities, hundreds of student services have shut down and sporting club membership has dropped by almost 20 per cent following the Federal Government's ban on compulsory union fees.
    
    Related stories in yesterday's Australian and today's Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday – Sunday, 3 – 4 November

• ABC News
  
  
  • Mixed response to rich teacher salaries
    
    "Western Australia's Council of State School Organisations has welcomed the Carpenter Government's $600 million salary package for teachers.

    "In announcing the initiative yesterday, Education Minister Mark McGowan said it would help retain and attract teachers to the profession by paying elite teachers up to $100,000 a year.

    "But the State Opposition and the State School Teacher's Union rejected this, saying only a small number of teachers would benefit from the scheme.

    "Council president Robert Fry says the package, which also provides allowances for teachers in remote areas, is very generous.

    "That is one of the biggest problems we have when there is a teacher shortage," he said.

    "There has got to be adequate allowances and support to teachers that want to, or are prepared to, move into the rural or remote areas so we see that as a very positive step."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Teachers to reject pay offer (page 15)
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    Union says too little

    "Teacher shortages look set to deepen, with the WA Government's pay offer set for failure.

    "WA State School Teachers Union vice-president Anne Gisborne said teachers were unlikely to go for the pay deal because many wouldn't get any extra cash before 2009, other than an already-agreed raise in February.

    "She was reacting to Education Minister Mark McGowan's offer on Friday, which included paying "executive" teachers more than $100, 000 by 2011.

    "The deal would also see teachers in "tougher" country, remote and city schools getting $2000 to $4000 extra in allowances from next January and the number of such beneficiary schools increasing from 191 to 251.

    "But what we still have here are about 10, 000 teachers in the system who will effectively not receive a salary increase till 2009 under the proposed new agreement," she said.

    "My gut feeling at this point of time , purely on the salary matter, is that the (union) executive would find it difficult to recommend this (deal) to the membership and the membership will look a it with disdain.

    "Given that salary is the No. 1 item that teachers are interested in , given that salary is the No. 1 item identified by the Twomey taskforce, I would have thought that there (was) a significant message for the minister…that there is a need to provide an immediate salary increase above the existing agreement.

    "What he has effectively done is increase the salary of new entrants to the system next year by about 7 per cent - a positive move.

    "But he's left people currently in the system without anything extra 'til 2009.

    "These are the people who have been working 10 or 20 years and even those in their second year of teaching, people (who are) doing the hard yards, in terms of curriculum and workload, without any extra money."

    "Ms Gisborne said Mr. McGowan wanted to retain experienced teachers in the system, many of whom could retire soon.

    "But I think this response by the Government will indicate to them, 'You're not valuing us, you're not listening to us, why would we bother to stay?'", she said.

    "But Mr. McGowan said the Government had increased rates significantly for all teachers - which would make some the best paid in Australia at their level.

    "He said pay, allowances and incentives for teachers in difficult schools had also been increased.

    "Those in that group in remote areas would also get an extra flight to Perth each year and the installation of a satellite dish "so they can subscribe to pay-TV."

    "We're spending more than $600 million on this offer," he said.

    "Mr. McGowan said WA was still about 60 teachers short."
    

    From The Sunday Times
    
    
    
  • Schools fight uni exams (page 32)
    by Paul Lampathakis

    "Principals are fighting to stop the WA Government from forcing exams on senior students who don't want university entrance.

    "The principals say Education Minister Mark McGowan's edict - which as of 2009 makes exams compulsory for all Year 12 students, except those doing trade certificates - "belongs in the last century".

    "WA Secondary School Executives Association president Alison Woodman said exams for all would deter students who didn't want to go to university from studying academic subjects, thus limiting their options.

    "I don't object to students doing exams if they want to go to an academic stream," Ms Woodman said this week, as the TEE exams started.

    "What I am averse to is everybody having to do exams…whether or not they go to university.

    "The consequences for many such students would be that their final results would be judged on the exams when their heart isn't in it, when they're not suited for exams.

    "So their selection (for other paths) may well be affected."

    "This discourages kids who might just want to broaden their horizons…from doing anything academic, which would be such a pity."

    "Ms Woodman said forcing most students into exams, when only a small proportion chose the university stream, did not make sense.

    "She said Mr. McGowan's system was a "one size fits all" approach, driven by the perception that when exams wee involved in education, there was some sort of rigour.

    "But she said this was a short-sighted view because while exams had a place, students might do well because they had crammed and then forget what they had learnt.

    "She said laws to keep children in school, training or approved employment until they were 16 - rising to 17 next year - meant a very different group of students with different needs now continued schooling.

    "Mr. McGowan said on Friday: "I made my position plain in January, that I was a supporter of exams as a good way of ensuring high standards of education. I still hold that view."

    "Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood said having Year 12 exams in all 52 courses instead of the "limited group of 29 TEE subjects" meant all courses studied by young people would be "equally valued".
    

    From The Sunday Times
    
    
    
  • Student smoko (page 12)
    

    "A year 10 student in Canberra has been given permission to smoke at school because her doctor says she is clinically addicted to nicotine.

    "Tara Lewis, 16, who smokes up to a packet a day, is allowed to take cigarette breaks between classes at Stromlo High School. She said smoking helped to calm her down.

    "Her mother, Patrece, said, "We were worried that she wasn't going to finish Year 10 if she couldn't smoke."

    "Tara said that under the special rule, she can smoke in school grounds near the staff car park."
    

    From The Sunday Times
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • New plan to pay teachers $100,000 [Front Page Headline]
    Exclusive by Robert Taylor, State Political Editor

    "Elite teachers will earn more than $100,000 a year under a radical plan by the Carpenter Government to tackle the teacher shortage in the public school system.
    
    "Education Minister Mark McGowan will this morning reveal an executive teacher rate as part of a $600 million four-year Enterprise Bargaining Agreement approved by Cabinet on Monday and presented to the State School Teachers Union on Monday.

    "As well as the $100,000 carrot for elite teachers, WA will have Australia's highest paid graduates and senior grade-two teachers, of whom there are about 5000 in the public school system, if the offer is accepted.

    "Mr. McGowan also claimed the pay of teachers at the highest level of automatic progression would be second only to their counterparts in the ACT under the Government's offer by the end of the agreement in 2011.

    "Remote and hardship allowances will also be boosted across the board by $4000, while teachers in metropolitan and country schools identified as disadvantaged will also get allowance boosts of $2000 - $3000 and an extra 60 schools will qualify for them.

    "We've tried to reward teachers who do the toughest jobs so we're expanding what we call the remote teaching service, country teaching program and metropolitan teaching program, which are schools with a higher degree of (teaching) difficulty," Mr. McGowan said.

    "Principals will also be offered significant wage increases with the highest grade of principals, now earning about $115,000, to get a $20,000 pay rise.

    "But while Mr McGowan was keen yesterday to promote the package as an act of good faith by the Government towards the State's 16,000 teachers, union president Mike Keely said the real test would be whether the package was enough to retain thousands of teachers who were approaching retirement age.

    "Between country and city, in that area we think it's between 5000 an 6000 people who, given the difficulties we've had with curriculum change and everything else, are seriously looking at whether they want to keep going and we believe that's an area where the Minister is going to have to look very carefully," he said.

    "Mr. Keely said the executive would compare the Government's offer over the next week to its log of claims before entering into negotiations with the Education Department. But he gave encouragement by saying the rises in remote and disadvantaged schools allowances appeared to meet expectations.

    "Chief executive of the Independent Schools Association, Audrey Jackson, last night warned that higher private school fees would inevitably flow from the Government's move at the elite level.

    "If we're in the same market place for teachers and if in certain areas in particular but in general they're a diminishing resource, yes it puts pressure on," she said. "While some of this will be reflected in per capita grants, that makes up a small proportion of a school's income so it's going to put pressure on fees."

    "The Government intends promoting 50 classroom teachers a year from the current highest level-three pool of around 500 teachers to the executive group. [emphasis added]

    "Level three teachers currently earn around $75, 000 a year but those chosen for the executive rate will earn more than $100,000 by the time the EBA expires in 2011.

    "The executive rate will apply to both primary and secondary teachers who are promoted through a peer review process judged on extra qualifications and professional development.

    "Executive teachers will be expected to mentor other teachers."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    

    • ABC News
      
      
      • Rich pay deals to attract teachers to WA
        
        The Western Australian Government plans to spend $600 million over four years on a new pay deal to address teacher shortages in the state's education system.

        "The offer will see elite teachers earn more than $100,000 per year.

        "Under the plan, new graduates in WA will be the highest paid in the country and there will be increased allowances for teachers who take up postings in remote areas.

        "Education Minister Mark McGowan hopes the deal will help retain and attract teachers to public schools.

        "Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier has welcomed the pay increases, but says they do not look after all teachers.

        "These teachers, these so-called elite teachers number less than 500 out of 20,000 in the system," he said. [emphasis added]

        "Now to attract and retain teachers, it is absolutely imperative that there be a substantial increase across the board for practicing classroom teachers."

        From ABC News at link
        
        
        
    • The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
      
      
    • WA teachers get pay offer [2 November]
      by Paul Lampathakis
      
      "WA Education Minister Mark McGowan today made a desperate pay offer to teachers, in a move to try to combat staff shortages.

      "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said the Minister promised to get teacher salaries to "above NSW-levels in two or three years''.

      But Mr Keely said teachers needed to get to such levels now.

      "Later this month, NSW will pay $75,352 for classroom teachers who have reached the top of the classroom teachers' scale,'' he said.

      "The equivalent in Western Australia is on $67,446, that's a big gap, as you can see.

      "By February 2008 we'll be on $69,132 and that's our final increase on our current agreement, and that is still a gap of $6000.

      "What he (Mr McGowan) is saying is that he will get our senior teachers to ... above NSW in two or three years.''

      "Mr Keely said the union executive and its members were likely "to have problems'' with such a deal.

      "What we think he needs to do in order to solve the teacher shortage over here, is to get us to NSW levels very, very early in the agreement,'' he said.

      "And that's what our members will want.

      "What this means in practical terms, is to have a top of the classroom, ordinary increment scale well into the seventy thousands, which is what NSW has now.

      "But (the offer) has got some things in it that respond to our log of claims in terms of substantially increased allowances, particularly in the country and difficult city schools.

      "But we have to have a careful look, because we don't think it's actually going to respond really well to the need to get teachers to a higher salary quickly.''

      "Mr McGowan couldn't be contacted for comment.

      "But PerthNow understands that he wanted to broker a pay deal before the union changed hands in January to a committee dominated by the People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes group.

      "PLATO had been extremely outspoken against the State Government's implementation and content of, its new OBE courses, and was pivotal in achieving a governmental backdown on the courses. [emphasis added]

      "Mr McGowan is expected to announce details of the pay deal at a media conference tomorrow."

      From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link [plus reader comments on the story]
      
      
      
      

  • Sex assault team for schoolies' week (page 19)
    by Ronan O'Connell

    "Police will have a specialist sex assault team at schoolies' week in Dunsborough for the first time this year following several attacks on young women during the 2006 leavers' celebrations.

    "Det-Insp. Tom Clay, of the police sex crime division, said three officers from the newly formed sex assault squad would be in the town to handle rape and indecent assault cases and provide specialist care for any victims.

    "Schoolies' celebrations were a particularly dangerous environment for young women, who needed to exercise caution, he said. There were several cases of secual assault and indecent assault in the Dunsborough and Rottnest last year.

    "Schoolies is an at-risk environment in regards to sexual assaults because there is a lot of alcohol being drunk, people are more vulnerable an some people try to take advantage of that," Det-Insp. Clay said.

    "The officers will also carry out normal policing duties. If the trial is successful, it could become a regular part of the police handling of the end-of-school-year celebrations."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Daily Mail [UK]
  
  
  • Outclassed! The Mail investigates a Polish student's claims: are we really so far behind? [2 November]
    
    Can standards really be so much higher in the East? The Mail went to Poland to discover the shocking truth.
    
    Well worth a read.  Web
    
    

Nothing of interest in The Weekend Australian, The Age or The Sydney Morning Herald.

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This page last updated 13 August, 2008 0:42 AM