Monday 19 November

Tuesday 20 November

Wednesday 21 November

Thursday 22 November

Friday 23 November

Saturday – Sunday, 24 – 25 November

 

Monday 19 November

• The West Australian
  
  
  • New drive for rural teachers (page 5)
    by Beatrice Thomas
    
    "The State Government has made a last-ditch attempt to overcome the chronic teacher shortage ahead of the next school year, launching a $230,000 advertising campaign in a bid to lure teaching graduates to the country.

    "At the centre of the Statewide campaign, which aims to boost teacher numbers in country public secondary schools, is a recent pay deal that would increase graduate teachers' base pay and provide further incentives to those who take up jobs in rural and remote areas.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said the new advertising campaign was just one part of a comprehensive strategy to tackle teacher shortages.

    "Hew said teachers were particularly in demand in physics, chemistry, maths, English, home economics and design and technology.

    "From next year new graduates will earn a base rate of just over $50,000 a year, with those who work in remote areas able to earn more than $70,000.

    "Mr McGowan said the pay deal was the biggest in the State's history and included thousands of dollars in allowances. The campaign comes after a similar recruitment drive to attract interstate and overseas teachers to WA. That effort has resulted in 400 expressions of interest, despite the State's teachers' union warning Eastern States teachers of the pitfalls of teaching in WA, particularly in remote locations. [So far it reads a bit like a ministerial press release... Web]

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier described the latest advertising campaign as "cosmetic" compared with the fundamental issue that teaching was no longer seen as a viable career option.

    "The Government is not dealing with the most fundamental issue and that is looking after of accommodating the very real concerns of mainstream practising teachers," he said.

    "What's happed as a direct result of that is morale is low within the fraternity as a whole... and public perception of teaching, while it is positive for the profession itself, as a career option it's not."

    "Mr Collier said a significant pay rise for all teachers was the only way to make the profession more attractive. [emphasis added]

    "The State School Teachers Union's State Council yesterday endorsed its committee's decision to reject a State Government pay offer that would result in elite teachers earning more than $100,000 a year by 2011.

    "The union has refused to even put the offer to teachers because it left out pay increases to two-thirds of the teaching force until 2009.

    "Union president Mike Keely said while he welcomes any move to attract teachers to the country, the reality was most graduates would get the new base salary by opting to stay in the city.

    "He's given the rise to graduates, good move - now do something serious to keep experienced people who really know what they're doing and who can help train those young teachers," he said.

    "The school year started with a shortage of 264 teachers. The union claims the figure will be as high as 600 next year."

    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Editorial
    Falling teacher numbers suggest trouble ahead (page 20)
    
    "The declining number of graduates deciding on a career in teaching should be of great concern to the community. So far, there is no indication that recently announced inducements have encouraged more people to join the profession.

    "Attempts to recruit teachers from overseas and interstate have not eased current shortages and the future now looks bleak as well.

    "Fewer than half the number of applicants who sought a place in post-graduate teaching courses in 2002 have applied for next year. There are also fewer applications for 2008 undergraduate teaching courses.

    "The disenchantment with teaching as a career has been building for years, exacerbated by low pay in comparison with other professions, confusion over outcomes-based education, increasing workloads and poor student behaviour.

    "Competition from other employers, including the mining industry, is also having an effect.

    "It is estimated that a quarter of WA's teaching workforce will be eligible to retire in the next five years.

    "If even some teachers take that option and there is no rapid increase in teacher numbers, there is the real prospect of shortages having a significant impact on the quality of education in this State."

    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 23)
    

    • "Dr Simon Clarke (Cash, sweeteners fail to boost teacher intake, 16/11) puts part of the blame for the teacher shortage on the teaching profession suffering "constant bagging by the media". I cannot recall the media bagging teachers. Attacking our laughable OBE fiasco? Yes. Attacking our non-teaching ideologues in the Curriculum Council and DET? Yes. Attacking ministers who listen to advisers who have no idea about what is happening in the classroom? Yes. But attacking hard-working, underpaid, under-resourced classroom teachers? Definitely no."

      Patrick F. Whalen, Yokine
      
      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • Union: Teacher pay deal 'dead in the water'
    
    "The State School Teachers Union has rejected a $600 million pay offer.

    "One hundred and twenty members of the Union's Council yesterday endorsed an earlier decision by the Union's Executive to reject the proposal because the majority of teachers would not receive a pay rise until 2009.

    "The State Government's offer included $100,000 salaries for elite teachers and allowances for those working in remote areas.

    "The Union's President Mike Keely says the Education Minister, Mark McGowan, needs to come up with a new deal.

    "Well I think the current offer is dead in the water," he said.

    "There are aspects of it that we have reported and made clear are absolutely good moves, but as an offer, unless he is able to say to his experienced teachers we value you, we want to keep you, then our schools are going to be drastically short of teachers next year," he said.

    "Ten thousand, 12 thousand teachers, who have been working in this system, many of them for 25 years or more, can simply not accept an offer that gives them nothing for a year, for well over a year, at the same time as we have a teacher shortage."

    "The Minister for Education, Mark McGowan, says he will look at offering the majority of the state's public school teachers a pay rise from next year.

    "I'm prepared to talk to the school teachers union about this issue," he said.

    "But I just want everyone to know that West Australian teachers under our agreement, under our offer, will become the best paid in the country."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Editorial
    Channelling better television to children
    
    "In an impassioned speech to the annual conference of the Screen Producers Association of Australia last week, actor and former Play School host Noni Hazlehurst attacked the "cultural drought" in local television and the ubiquity of inappropriate programs that skewed children's view of the world and effectively forced them to grow up too soon. Hazlehurst has a valid point. It is a reflection of a fundamental change in children's viewing habits and their ability to tune in to quality programs made specifically for them.

    "Children's programs produced by the national broadcaster aside, federal guidelines require commercial television stations to produce 390 hours of children's programs each a year, including 32 hours of new local drama. This obligation is being met, with many award-winning shows being screened. But often they are being shown at the wrong times. Routines have changed and many children are committed to after-school care, sport or music lessons between 4pm and 6pm, the hours when children would have once watched television and when many programs are currently screened. But research shows that most children now watch television between 6pm and 8.30pm. Programming times are also inconsistent and promotion is poor and untimely.

    "Many of these problems would be resolved with the establishment of a dedicated children's channel, such as that proposed by the ABC and the Australian Children's Television Foundation. ABC3, as it would be known, would be a digital, free-to-air channel without commercials and that would transmit programs, at least half of which would be Australian-made, between 6am and 9pm daily. Such a channel would be able to introduce more diverse programming that better reflects the needs and interests of Australian children and would be a welcome supplement to existing programming.

    "The Coalition has promised to back the network with $82 million in funding over four years and it is a commitment worthy of bipartisan support. Australian children would be better for it."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Education is not about being a good or bad parent — it's about the children
    by Leslie Cannold and Jane Caro
    
    "Everyone's heard of the Mummy Wars. The debate that flies out of the box like a bat out of hell every time some dry academic study appears about centre-based child care.

    "Behind all the shouting about sample size, confidence levels and expert bias is a shrillness that can only come from women who feel accused of being "bad" mummies, or are defending their status as "good" mummies. We don't acknowledge it, but debates about education funding may be similar.

    "Seemingly about funding figures drawn from federal and state budget papers and high-minded disagreements about the role of the market in education or education in democracy, the real source of the heat and light is far more primal: our desperate desire to be seen as good parents.

    "The proof is in the irrationality, wrong-headedness or sheer martyred silliness of the responses made to educators, parents, scholars and politicians who speak about the undeniable — and worsening — funding inequities between public and private schools. Responses that demonise those who speak out as dishonest, envious or, our personal favourite, unethical. So, let's see how the facts stack up.

    "The most common response to complaints about the grossly unfair way the Federal Government funds schools is to insist that the public system is the responsibility of the states. But what has this to do with the moral problem that 70% of federal funds go to support the 32% of our children who attend private schools? After all, a wrong is a wrong, no matter what gets done afterwards to right it.

    "It is also unclear how adding in the state contribution undermines the fact that the public system is under-funded given that the result of such mathematics still leaves some private school students with 62% more resources devoted to their education than the average student in a public school — a financial advantage, it must be noted, that the Federal Government omits to take account of when it doles out funds to schools.

    "Questionable claims are also made by the "yes, but not us" brigade: various officialdom from the Catholic schools who — usually as warm-up for yet another round of successful federal alms-collecting — imply that their good work among the underprivileged entitles them to ever-larger shares of the federal and state funding pies. Well, maybe, but a new report by Barbara Preston has found that while 40% of students in government schools are from low-income families, this figure is only 25% in Catholic schools (a figure not dissimilar to the 22% of children from low-income families in other private schools). According to Preston, the difference is even greater for those students in very low-income families, roughly twice as many of whom can be found in government schools, as compared with Catholic or other private schools.

    "And we must not forget the "I-work-five-jobs-and-budget carefully-and-live-in-a-shoe-box-in-middle-of-the-road-while-cleaning-toilets" parental martyrs. Terrified of any changes to government policy that would increase fees, this group defends the existing carve-up of federal funds despite the fact that, were the public system funded properly, such extreme sacrifice would be unnecessary.

    "Worse, they ignore the fact that even if they are the winners in the "who is the best parent stakes", allowing this victory to compromise the quality of education available in public schools does nothing more than punish the most disadvantaged children for the supposed sins of their parents. We hope that the Australian debate about education funding has not yet reached the stage where any participant truly believes that only the children of "good" parents merit a decent education.

    "And last, but not least, is the nonsensical claim that parents who pull their children from the public system are doing it a favour, as taxpayers couldn't afford the price tag of quality education for all Australian kids. The reality is that no supporter of public education has ever wanted or asked for relief from the cost of providing a first-rate education for our young.

    "Frankly, we can't think of a better way to spend money. As well, we know that when the last middle-class family finally leaves the system, Australia will have become the first democracy to settle for a public education system that provides, in the words of Prime Minister John Howard, a "reasonable safety net" for the poor.

    "So where do we go from here? First we need to be frank about why the subject of school funding gets us so hot under the collar.

    "Perhaps just knowing that much of the passion, invective and downright nastiness around this debate is driven by our very human and understandable anxiety about what kind of parents we are will help us all to calm down. Maybe then we'll be in a position to have a reasoned and effective discussion about what — when it comes to education — is really best for all Australian children. Even those without perfect parents."

    Leslie Cannold is an author, ethicist and researcher and Jane Caro is the co-author (with Chris Bonnor) of The Stupid Country; How Australia is Dismantling Public Education (UNSW Press, 2007).
    
    From The Age at link
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Preventing abuse starts in schools

      "Maree Crabbe (Opinion, 7/11) is right to point out that the attitudes of young women and men reflect a culture where women are often devalued, degraded and seen as objects, and also that young people want to know about sex. In our work, we have learnt that young people also want to learn about relationships, their rights and what respect looks like in action. As adults, we must remember that we have great influence over the culture and values that young people's beliefs and behaviours may reflect.

      "Young people will not be able to act on their education in an environment where inappropriate behaviours are not punished, where victims or survivors of sexual violence are not supported, or where respectful behaviours are not modelled or rewarded.

      "What is crucial to a school's capacity to prevent sexual assault is whether it is supported and funded to tackle these fundamental issues. In our work, it is evident that schools are not provided with resources, time, expertise or funding to adequately deal with sexual assault. We have lists of schools who are ready to take action but, without further funding, we simply cannot provide it.

      "As Crabbe suggests, we need to reclaim a sense of the preciousness of all people. We cannot expect young people to take up this task unless the adults in their lives do the same."

      Renee Imbesi, schools program co-ordinator, Centre Against Sexual Assault, Melbourne
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Computers don’t add up to education policy
      
      "Paul Kelly has put his finger on the gigantic confidence trick worked on the Australian people by Kevin Rudd (”The pitch”, Inquirer, 17-18/11). “Computers are an enabling force but they do not constitute an education policy.” Labor’s rhetoric throughout the campaign has abounded with cliches embodying the notion of future, but specifying only one tangible avenue of progress - the computer.

      "On his election as ALP leader a year ago, Rudd expressed a welcome concern about “the hollowing out of Australian manufacturing industry”. Alongside the crippling effects of measures to address climate change, his only positive solution has been to promise “world class high speed broadband” ad nauseam.

      "This may be attractive to the 25 per cent of 18 to 20-year-olds in neither study nor work who, according to a Monash University study, spend their days playing online games, but is no answer to our industrial decline."
      
      J. Morrissey, Hawthorn, Vic
      
      

    • "I recently drove through Labor-run NSW. Every public school in every city, suburb, and country hamlet displayed an anti-Howard billboard. No wonder Kevin Rudd wants to pour $200 million into public education. I’ve taught for 10 years in a Queensland government school. Of the 70 or so teachers there, only four were unashamed Liberal voters. Many more were even further left than Labor. In public education, teacher training, school curriculum, text books and department administrators are often unequivocally socialist. More and more parents are choosing non-government schools. They don’t want their children politically indoctrinated. What’s more, in government education, academic and discipline standards are seriously declining as they slip ever further into a morass of secular progressivism. Public education is free (paid for now by the Howard-implemented GST). But the educational establishment, to consolidate its power over juvenile minds, begrudges every tax dollar that goes to children in private schools.

      "It is this rotting edifice of government education that Rudd wants not to change but shore up with millions upon millions of more public money. He calls his proposed expenditure an educational revolution. The only revolution that comes even remotely to mind in this connection is a red one."
      
      Lloyd Williams, Caloundra, Qld
      
      

    • First Byte
      
      "Kevin Rudd’s unclarified education revolution will be incomplete without the study of grammar. But who will teach the students since the most recent crop of teachers were themselves never taught grammar?"
      
      Hamish Murray, Glenelg East, SA
      
      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • All children are entitled to a quality education

      "Tim Hawkes in his article "Funds squabble impoverishes schools" (November 17-18), like most other commentators on the issue, neglects the central players in the school funding debate - the children. According to him, the only protagonists (at least, the only ones mentioned in his article) are independent schools, public schools, governments and parents. The consumers of education - the children - don't get a mention.

      "Unfortunately, the new economics principle of "consumer pays" breaks down spectacularly in this situation. Because no child can pay for his or her education, some other "payer" has to be found, and it is either the parent through the private school system, or the state by way of public schools. Whoever pays, children are all equally entitled to the same quality of education - a criterion spectacularly missing from our present system of fund allocation. Dr Hawkes notes that "much more money needs to be poured into education", which is indisputable, but only after all Australian children have been granted equal educational opportunity."

      John Forrest, Annandale
      
      

    • "Can you explain to me, Dr Hawkes, how you think that any reduction of funds to independent schools (for example, yours) is an "unacceptable erosion of entitlement"?

      "Why should your school obtain any funding when it charges fees from $17,000 to $20,000 a child annually? Why should my family then subsidise the education of your "Kingsmen"? What else does your school need that you require extra funding from government sources? Another pool? You already have two. Or maybe a new underground car park, like Trinity Grammar?

      "Pouring in more money will not solve "our" educational problems, as you say, but reducing the funding to schools such as yours is a good start."

      Sharon McGuinness, Thirroul
      
      

    • "Tim Hawkes says school funding boils down to the basis of need and/or the basis of entitlement. Well, King's obviously doesn't "need" the funding, so that leaves entitlement. If you "choose" to go private, then you forfeit the "entitlement". Pretty simple really."

      Justin Sayers, Erskineville
      
      

    • "Dr Tim Hawkes advances the notion of entitlement to defend public money subsidising elitist private education. The sense of entitlement that he justifies can go both ways. The facilities of King's and private schools in receipt of public funds should be open for the public schools to access. Two days a week, the sporting grounds and computer/science labs, rifle ranges, pools and other facilities should be open to public school students. If they don't wish to indulge the sense of entitlement public funding generates and share with the hoi polloi, they are free to stand alone."

      Jason Leske, Pomona (Qld)
      
      

    • "In supporting needs funding for schools Tim Hawkes avoids critical questions. Should we allow combinations of public and private funding to increase the gaps between children, between schools and between communities? Should public funding be used to increase advantages for some children, ultimately at the expense of others? Why has Australia allowed public funding to increase educational, social and economic divides? What are the long-term implications? Along with Dr Hawkes, the Government and the ALP have worked hard to avoid the questions that will not go away. Dr Hawkes needs to prove he can be part of solutions, not ever-increasing problems."

      Chris Bonnor, Cherrybrook

Tuesday 20 November

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Parents angry at OBE test failure (page 14)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "A prestigious Perth school has formally complained to the Curriculum Council that a TEE exam in a new outcomes-based education course failed to reflect the content students studied in class.

    "Guildford Grammar School acting headmaster Kevin Lange yesterday confirmed that he had written to Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood to advise him of concerns from irate parents that the Engineering Studies exam had disadvantaged their sons.

    "Parents and teachers have complained that the paper contained questions that had not appeared in sample exams provided by the council or in the course syllabus.

    "Mr Lange said parents believed their sons had been so demoralised by their experience in the exam, which students sat last Tuesday, that it could have affected their performance in subsequent exams.

    "The letter called for an explanation from the council about how the situation arose - "and what steps or measure they might be taking to address the impact on individual examination scores," Mr Lange said.

    "This year was the first that Year 12s did the new Engineering Studies course.

    "The exam was split into common sections that all engineering students sat and schools chose to specialise in one of three types of engineering in the second section.

    "Half the Guildford class of 15 walked out of the exam early in despair over their inability to answer questions in the mechanical engineering section.

    "Parent Michael Tuckey said his son, who dreamt of a career in engineering, had achieved the highest class mark in the mock TEE engineering exam so he had not expected to be floored by the final exam.

    "My son relied on engineering to be a major part of his TEE score," he said. "There is a possibility that because someone stuffed up an engineering exam, his entire university career will be put on hold."

    "Mr Tuckey said the council should set a supplementary exam to give students another chance.

    "Parent Jenny Palmer said the exam was unfair because it asked questions in areas about which students had no knowledge, such as Physics. Students who had studied Physics or advanced Maths had an advantage over those who had not.

    "It's alright to say we'll scale up or scale down, but it's just devastated the boys," she said. "They've studied for two years and when they sit the exam it's like looking at another language."

    "The Curriculum Council has said it would statistically adjust the engineering exam results. Chief executive David Wood said the 2006 top raw exam mark in Aviation - a new OBE course examined for the first time last year - was 55 but that was scaled up to 72.

    "These same statistical procedures will be applied this year in all subjects and will ensure a level playing field for all students," he said.

    "Complaints about the Engineering exam come after criticism of the OBE English and Media exams. "

    From The West Australian
    

    
    
    
  • Schools bulging with transportable classrooms (page 14)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "More evidence that the State Government's capital works programme for schools is failing to keep up with demand has emerged with revelations that the number of transportable classrooms in State schools has increased by 25 per cent in the past 7 years.

    "The Department of Education and Training said in response to parliamentary questions that the number of transportables used in schools had leapt from 1759 in 2000 to 2196 this year.

    "The State's main parent group, the WA Council of State School Organisations, has demanded that the department set a limit on transportables allowed on a school site.

    "The parents are bitterly opposed to overloading schools with transportables," president Rob Fry said yesterday.

    "There's got to be a balance between an established school and a portable component of the school."

    "Mr Fry said the jump in transportable use reflected the big rise in school enrolments caused by WA's booming economy.

    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said transportables should only be used in stopgap emergency circumstances.

    "While he acknowledged that transportables were more comfortable than they used to be, they were still temporary facilities.

    "This is a wealthy State and every parent wants every kid to be in a decent classroom where they've got facilities," he said. "I think the department and Government have fallen short if they're not providing the best quality school classrooms that they can."

    "Education Department acting infrastructure director Mal Parr said the use of air conditioned transportable classrooms allowed schools to respond to fluctuations in student enrolments.

    "The increase in transportable classrooms in the past 7 years can in part be attributed to the changes in the school leaving age, an initiative to reduce class sizes and the increase in demand for early childhood education," he said.

    "The department said transportable buildings also included science labs, pre primary and kindergarten classes, library resource centres, administration areas and toilets.

    "If all of those were included, transportables in use this year would number nearly 2700.

    "Mr Parr said the use of temporary buildings guarded against over provision of permanent facilities when enrolments declined as the population aged.

    "Transportables outnumber conventional classrooms at school in Currambine, Atwell, Landsdale and Middle Swan.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said many schools were "busting at the seams" or their buildings were so deficient they had to rely on prefabricated temporary classrooms."

    From The West Australian
    

    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • It's not enough
      
      "Education Minister Mark McGowan said in your newspaper (15/11) that "the Government is doing everything in its power to fix the shortage of teachers".

      "The State School Teachers Union, the WA College of Teachers, the Twomey report and the Chairman of the Business Council of Australia are all saying that teachers need a substantial, across-the-board increase in salary.

      "The Government has a massive surplus. Offering between 30 and 50 teachers, out of a workforce of nearly 30,000, a fancy $100,000 salary and leaving the rest in their current bereft state, is clearly a statement that the Government is "not doing everything in its power to fix the shortage of teachers".

      Greg Williams, president of PLATO, Bicton
      

      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Rudd throws atlas at Howard
    by Matthew Franklin, Chief political correspondent
    
    "Kevin Rudd has savaged the federal Government's level of education spending, revealing it is less than that of Tunisia, Cyprus, Estonia, Mexico and Croatia.

    "Declaring Saturday's election a referendum on education, the Labor leader also announced plans to use retired tradespeople as volunteer mentors in schools togive students the benefit of their experience and help them find jobs.

    "The next election will be a referendum on education - the future of education and whether we're going to have a world-class education system or one which continues to fall behind," he said in Melbourne yesterday.

    "The Opposition Leader has made the promise of an "education revolution" central to his bid for power and promised more funding for pre-school literacy and numeracy, new trades skill facilities in all schools and a computer on the desk of every student from years 9 to 12.

    "He has attacked John Howard as having no firm plan for education and yesterday used a globe as a prop as he pointed out nations that spent more than Australia as a proportion of their gross domestic product on education.

    "Mr Rudd said a Labor government would spend $5 million over four years on 25 mentoring programs with the aim of recruiting 750 retired tradespeople.

    "The volunteers would be trained before visiting secondary schools and TAFE colleges, where they would teach and provide advice based on their experience.

    "Mr Rudd said the mentors would act as bridges to the workforce, helping students secure good apprenticeships.

    "Retired tradespeople, in my experience, are usually the best linked to the real job opportunities and apprenticeship opportunities out there," Mr Rudd said.

    "Australia has an ageing workforce and increasing numbers of retiring professionals with the capacity and the desire to give something back.

    "A Rudd Labor government will close the skills gap - the gap between the demand and the supply of skilled workers."

    From The Australian at link
    
    Similar stories in today's Age and Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Rudd must stare down troglodytes
    by Malcolm Colless
    
    "Kevin Rudd is right: Australia's education system needs a major overhaul. But the education revolution he promises under a Labor government will be hollow unless he uncouples from it the dead hand of the teacher unions and the left-wing inspired political correctness, which combine to discourage the competitiveness we need in our school system.

    "We need a national education curriculum in our school system, one that is not politically driven. And we need to raise the education standards of the teachers who are charged with building the skills base that the country needs to survive in an increasingly competitive global market.

    "Student teachers used to be bonded until it was decided that this commitment involved too much stress for them. The federal government used to offer commonwealth university scholarships based on high school scholastic merit but these were scrapped because they discriminated against those students who failed to win one and because they were not means tested. And on top of this the public education system has been dumbed down so that everyone is a winner with the result that mediocrity has become the standard. And the education curriculums have been stretched like a rubber band to make sure that there is something for every student's taste no matter how irrelevant that subject is to a balanced and meaningful school education. [emphasis added]

    "Rudd's offer to fund computer access for all schoolchildren and provide a tax rebate for education expenses is a positive move, but stops short of addressing the fundamental shortcomings of our state-based education system. Students need to be taught subjects that are relevant to the competitive environment they will encounter when they leave school..." [The rest of the article deals with issues other than education. Web]
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Rudd to cut full-fee uni places in 09 [late update from 19 November]
    
    Kevin Rudd would, for the first two terms of a Labor government, allow students who had failed to gain the required entrance marks to continue to pay for full-fee university degrees. But a decade-long experiment with full-fee degrees, which has delivered millions of dollars in revenue to universities, would be abolished for students starting as undergraduates in 2009.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Give money to state schools and democracy wins

      "Leslie Cannold and Jane Caro (Opinion, 19/11) are right to draw attention to the inequality that will result from our system of school funding. Australia is the only OECD country to fund exclusive private schools. However, most OECD countries do fund non-government schools. In the Netherlands, most schools are non-government (religious) and in the US charter schools are an alternative to state schools. These schools are given 100% equivalent government school funding, on two conditions. They cannot charge any significant additional fees and the school must accept all comers. Now, that is real choice for parents.

      "In Australia, because private schools can exclude students as they see fit and still receive government funding the choice is exercised by the school. The result is to residualise state education and structurally weaken our democracy, which is why no other country does it."

      Paul Kennelly, Caulfield North
      
      

    • Investment, not a cost

      "I can attest to the career and life opportunities created by a properly funded public education system. I attended Sandringham Technical School in the 1960s. I received a teaching studentship that paid me while I studied science at RMIT. After two years' paid industrial experience, I did my teacher training in 1970. I was posted to Mildura and had to complete three years teaching.

      What followed was a rewarding and secure career in government schools. I also received a paid year off in the early 1980s to complete a graduate diploma. Plus an industry release year in 2000 — again on full pay.

      It seems to me we now treat education as another commodity to be charged at whatever the market will bear, instead of an investment in our human capital. Whoever wins this Saturday should be mindful of the adage: education is an investment and not a cost.

      Peter John Bainbridge, Maiden Gully
      
      

    • How the dollars add up

      "Leslie Cannold and Jane Caro failed to show how the facts stack up on government funding for education. My children attend a private school. Commonwealth funding is $2303 per child and state funding is $615, a total of $2918 per child. This is just under half of what the Government would spend if they attended the local primary school, about $7000 each. As I have three children, their education costs the Government $8754, instead of about $21,000. If I moved them to the local primary school, the extra money to educate them would come from the overall education budget, leaving less money for those already in the public system. If you want to argue that governments should increase funding to public schools go ahead, but don't begrudge my children the funding they receive.

      Maree Forte, Wheelers Hill
      
      

    • Look after the teachers

      "Nearly all of Flemington Primary School's teachers will be on strike tomorrow. Like Premier John Brumby, I am a former school teacher and union member and we both know teachers don't go on strike lightly. These teachers would not give ammunition to the Coalition's election campaign and I doubt they would support funding private schools ahead of government schools. So why is there a strike tomorrow, when my wife and I have to work — and removing our children from school is impossible?

      I don't blame the teachers or the union. The State Government is repeating one of the mistakes of a previous state Labor government: believing a fight with a conservative union will win political points. Premier Brumby, these teachers are the central nervous system of the education revolution we agree that we need. Protect and nurture them. The Government needs to settle this dispute, not exacerbate it.

      David Langsam, Flemington

      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • High school accused of elitism
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Entry to Sydney's Conservatorium [government] High School has been restricted to half the usual intake of year 7 students, all of whom will have to learn Chinese.
    
    "A group of parents is planning a crisis meeting next week to discuss concerns about limited subject choices and growing elitism, resulting in alleged belittling of students in the classroom.

    "Parents who contacted the Herald complained that their children were given no choice other than to study maths in year 11 next year.

    "Only 13 children have been selected for entry into year 7 next year, a considerable drop from previous intakes of 20 or more.

    "The NSW Department of Education's regional director for Sydney, Phil Lambert, confirmed Mandarin would replace Latin as the compulsory language for year 7 at the school.

    "In a letter to parents, Dr Lambert said next year's smaller intake was "commensurate with studying at the state's premier music school".

    "In a letter to parents, the principal, Robert Curry, said offering modern history would be a higher priority than offering ancient history because Beethoven and the key of E-flat "means nothing if you don't know about Napoleon Bonaparte and the ideals of the French Revolution".

    "However, the modern history syllabus for years 11 and 12 students covers 19th- and 20th-century events and does not generally include the Napoleonic wars and the 18th-century French Revolution.

    "While he recognised Latin was "a wonderful subject", Dr Curry said, the number of times a student of the school sang in Latin could be counted on one hand. It was also crucial for young musicians to learn the language of the country that would be a dominant player in the region. "It is my strongly held belief that the study of Mandarin should replace Latin in years 7 and 8 as the mandatory language."

    "Dr Lambert was forced to defend Dr Curry's credentials, which include masters' degrees in arts and music, a PhD in medieval studies and a graduate diploma in education, gained in another state.

    "Parents raised concerns that Dr Curry, who transferred to NSW from Western Australia early this year, was not yet officially registered to teach in NSW.

    "An Education Department spokeswoman said legislation allowed a full-time teacher to take three years to complete their professional accreditation.

    "Pieter Oomens, of the school's parents and citizens group, said the school was going through a period of change that would result in it being strengthened."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Some things you just can't learn from an interactive screen
      
      "I am a high school teacher and was invited the other day to attend a presentation on interactive whiteboards for use in the classroom. Since then I've been thinking that given how little opportunity we have to truly interact with people around us in all the frictional and pleasurable ways that are available if we're tuned in (as opposed to plugged in), I find myself increasingly reluctant to take up the types of mediated communication that instruments such as interactive whiteboards, computers and data projectors facilitate.

      "I am not particularly interested in feeding my students' desires (some would feel it as a need) to be entertained - which is how these tools are marketed to us. I believe education should be about enlivening imaginations, not simply providing people with a stock of commercially generated images and sensations that they can scroll through in their minds when the situation requires them to be thoughtful. I think the idea of teacher-as home-entertainment-system is to be discouraged at all costs. What happens to the sensual, the tactile, the real experiences that are so fundamental to our understanding of who we are and how we are in the world?

      "I have a word for the belief that the televisual is as valuable as getting out and about and moving in, smelling, touching, tasting, looking at and listening to what's going on around us. It's "lumbyism", after Catharine Lumby, who bangs on about how it is fine to sit your kids in front of the TV and how all these studies (from which she doesn't offer any concrete examples) have shown that it's fine and indeed educational. She seems to be forgetting that she and her husband are extremely well-educated, upper-middle class parents who probably interact with their children intelligently about what they're viewing. What about the others? The increasing numbers of people who are plugging their children in and opting out of the difficult and exciting work and play of being parents?

      "I am certain that at her own institution she is seeing the effects that this preoccupation with so-called "visual culture" is having: students struggling to express their ideas in writing because they have limited vocabularies, and lack the fluency and facility that the majority of educated native speakers once had. Having taught in this area at university, I can refute any claims that the majority of students are more "visually literate" than preceding generations. They lack the critical awareness and thoughtfulness to analyse visual texts until they are taught to.

      "While there is definitely a place in high school for beginning this valuable work, it should be a supplement to, not a substitute for, the skills that teachers of literature can provide."

      Jane Sloan, Potts Point

Wednesday 21 November

• The Age
  
  
  • School's out in protest over pay and conditions
    by Farrah Tomazin and Bridie Smith
    
    "About one in 10 Victorian schools will be shut down or severely disrupted when thousands of teachers walk off the job this morning over wages and working conditions.

    "Many parents have been forced to make other arrangements for their children because of the 24-hour protest, which is taking place three days before the federal election and on a day when more than 4000 students are to sit their VCE exams.

    "The stopwork is the first industrial showdown between Premier John Brumby, a former teacher, and the 33,000-strong education union of which he was once a member.

    "Victorian teachers, who argue they are the lowest paid in the country, have sought a 30% wage rise over three years, smaller class sizes and improved career pathways.

    "The government is offering a 3.25% increase each year, with anything above that to be met by "productivity trade-offs".

    "Mr Brumby said yesterday he was disappointed at the timing of the strike and was adamant the teachers' push for a 30% increase would not be met.

    "Victorian teachers already had small class sizes and could earn about $78,000 annually as a "leading teacher", a senior teacher with extra responsibilities.

    "The Victorian president of the Australian Education Union, Mary Bluett, said this role often took teachers away from the one place they were needed most — the classroom.

    "What we need is a career structure that provides incentives to stay in the profession, and, especially, to stay in the classroom," Ms Bluett said.

    "About 10,000 teachers are expected to join today's rally at Vodafone Arena before marching through the city to Parliament.

    "Schools have been warned to put plans in place to minimise the effect on students.

    "Those due to sit VCE exams in international studies, engineering, French, and industry and enterprise are not likely to be affected by the strike.

    "External assessors, not teachers, oversee the tests.

    "State Education Minister Bronwyn Pike said about 4000 students were sitting exams tomorrow as well and might not be able to get the last-minute help some might need.

    "Melbourne Girls' College principal Judy Crowe said there would be significant disruption at her school, with 48 of her 75 staff walking out and years 8 to 11 classes cancelled.

    "At McKinnon Secondary College, assistant principal Pitsa Binnion said the effect would be minimal, with 11 out of about 115 teachers planning to strike.

    "The timing of the strike has also allowed the federal Coalition to further criticise the unions and play on fears that union "militancy" could worsen under a Rudd Labor government.

    "Victorian teachers earn between $46,127 and $65,414 a year unless they are prepared to take on extra responsibilities beyond the classroom, such as curriculum or early years co-ordination.

    "In contrast, NSW teachers at the top of the classroom scale earn $72,454, while those in Western Australia earn $71,067.

    "Any deal struck between the teachers and the Government could have an effect on Catholic school teachers, who are also locked in wage talks with their employers."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Editorial
    Better pay for teachers is an investment in the future
    
    As Victoria's teachers strike for more pay, it is in the community's interest to give it to them.

    "Australia is in the happy throes of an economic boom and, as many economic commentators have enthusiastically noted, the prospects for continuing prosperity stretch far into the foreseeable future.

    "Governments, federal and state, are awash with money and some individual members of the community have also done well out of this country's economic good fortune. Consider the new survey from the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, released yesterday, which reveals that the CEOs of the top 100 companies have seen their fixed salaries double over the five years to 2006, four times faster than that of ordinary wage earners. A further gleam has been added to this sparkling bounty by the fact that their average annual bonuses have also doubled from $769,000 in 2001 to $1.66 million in 2006.

    "Without doubt, the fortunate beneficiaries of such boardroom and shareholder largesse have made a key contribution to the robust health of Australia's economy. But, then, so have this nation's teachers, and not by any standards could they be seen as having prospered in these exceptional economic times. Indeed, their salaries have failed to keep pace with general wages growth, never mind the stellar gains enjoyed by many chief executives. Yet, as Michael Chaney, the former president of the Business Council of Australia, and a contemporary of many of today's highly-paid CEOs, declared in his memorable valedictory speech last month, it is education that will drive this country's continuing economic and social prosperity.

    "This newspaper agrees. Clearly, the scales of value are disturbingly unbalanced. It is teachers who lay the groundwork for Australia's economic success by generating the intellectual capital and skills crucial for effective participation in the workforce. In short, they refine the fuel for the engine of growth. Yet, as a society, we place comparatively little value on their contribution, as their annual remuneration relative to many other professionals so clearly attests. In his speech, Mr Chaney asked his audience to imagine "a society where teachers are revered as the fundamental source of our ultimate prosperity". This is a laudable sentiment, and one, it must be hoped, that will be realised in the not-too-distant future. The first step (the second should be the overdue reform of the unsatisfactory and demoralising contract system) to according teachers the respect they deserve is for the State Government to significantly increase teachers' annual salaries. This would not only reflect the crucial role they play in building this nation but go a long way to helping attract, and retain, the brightest possible candidates who otherwise might not be drawn to a profession where the top annual salary is $65,414, or who would prefer to work in other states where they would be better paid, or who could reject teaching in favour of jobs where the financial rewards are greater. Attracting the best people to the profession — and providing them with incentives to stay in the classroom — is fundamental to the success of the education system, to skills development and to Australia's international competitiveness and economic wellbeing. Research consistently shows that the quality of an education system reflects the quality of its teachers: the better the teachers, the better the students, the better the workers. Teachers mould tomorrow's society and tomorrow's workforce; they are the source from which our wealth flows. This should be at the forefront of the community's mind as Victoria's 33,000 teachers take strike action today to press their claim for a 30 per cent wage rise over three years.

    "During this federal election campaign, the Coalition and the Labor Party have earmarked several billion dollars for education programs, but they only tinker at the edges of reform. The Premier, John Brumby, has proclaimed that education is the Government's priority. If Victoria really aims to be the "smart state" it should seize the initiative and embark on a genuine education revolution by paying teachers what they so demonstrably deserve."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    

    • Salary equation goes back to square root of one
      by Farrah Tomazin
      
      "Three years ago, thousands of Victorian teachers walked off the job as they sought better pay and working conditions.

      "At the time, they argued they were underpaid, lodged an ambit claim for a 30% wage rise over three years, and ultimately brokered a State Government deal for increases of 12% to 21%.

      "Fast-forward to the present day, and the situation looks familiar. Victorian teachers at the top of the classroom scale are the lowest paid in the country. The union has launched another ambit claim for a 30% pay rise. And dozens of schools are set to be crippled this morning when teachers embark on a 24-hour strike in a bid to force the Government's hand.

      "The move comes after eight months of failed negotiations: while teachers want a better deal, Premier John Brumby and Education Minister Bronwyn Pike claim they've got one. The state's "leading teachers" earn about $78,000 a year, they say, and "are among the highest paid in country". This is true, but leading teachers are those who take on responsibilities beyond the classroom, such as a curriculum co-ordinator or early years development.

      "Classroom teachers, however, start on an annual salary of $46,127 in Victoria, compared with $49,050 in NSW and $49,605 in South Australia.

      "At the top of the classroom scale, the situation is even more pronounced: $65,414 a year for Victorian teachers, compared with $72,454 in NSW; about $70,000 in the Northern Territory; and more than $68,000 in SA and Tasmania.

      "Even if the union accepted the Government's offer of a 3.25% wage rise each year for the life of the next certified agreement, the starting salary for Victorian teachers would rise to $47,626 — still less than their NSW or SA counterparts."
      
      From The Age at link
      
      

  • Out of classroom, family feels blow
    
    "Teachers are starting to put themselves up on pedestals and it's about time they were knocked down again," [a parent] said.
    
    
    
    
• Letters to the Editor
  
  
  • Lost to teaching

    "I am not a teacher any more. I transferred those skills a long time ago after deciding that teaching was more demanding, underpaid and unappreciated than it should be for such an important job. As for the furphy of 10 weeks holidays? Puleeease. I do not know a single teacher who isn't writing reports or back at school days before each term begins.

    "I now have a job that is not as crucial to the future of this state or country. But I get paid a lot more, make a coffee or go to the toilet when I want and work in a comfortable, air-conditioned and peaceful office. Teachers deserve higher esteem from the government and the community and to be paid much more for their commitment to such an essential vocation."

    Colleen Coghlan, Prahran
    
    

  • Remember this

    "While the teacher union leaders have discounted the effect of today's industrial action by state school teachers on the federal ALP's chances of electoral success, the reality is that industrial action by teachers should not have occurred. All other states have settled claims by their teachers long ago. Victoria has prevaricated and procrastinated.

    "With a $1.3 billion surplus, the Brumby Government is crying poor over bringing Victorian teachers up to the pay levels of their NSW counterparts. The difference at the top of the salary scale is $7000; by early next year it will be $10,000. All John Brumby can offer is a measly three months overdue 3.35%. The union leaders are right — we can't confuse state and federal issues, but Victorian teachers should not forget the parsimonious and contemptible Brumby at the next state election."

    David E. Spratt, Burwood
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Campaign a victory of spin over substance (page 21)
    by Tony Rutherford
    
    "... Mr Rudd has talked incessantly about a revolution in Australian education. Talk of a revolution involves new and lively ideas. That is precisely what Mr Rudd’s revolution lacks. It is trite and scarcely to be distinguished from the Government’s own policies. It is entirely typical that it should involve giving each Australian child a computer. Computers are, still, just flash and visible. They are not what Australian education needs.
    
    "Mr Rudd’s plans will do nothing whatsoever to free Australia’s dysfunctional public education systems from the dead hand of the State bureaucracies curiously intent on killing them. [emphasis added] And, in passing, it is to be noted that Mr Rudd — publicly at least — plans no cuts in the private sector: if Labor won’t stand up for public school students, who will? It is also interesting that Australia’s universities come a poor last in his plans, which are very much pitched at the parents of school-age children. But if you repeat the phrase “revolution in education” often enough, most people will eventually believe it. Repetition is a key part of spin..."
    
    "On present indications we may reasonably expect a [Labor] government consumed with message and spin. The language will always exceed the reality. Indeed, Mr Rudd on education already uncannily recalls Tony Blair’s “education, education, education” mantra. What makes this more likely is the way in which Mr Rudd’s State Labor colleagues already run extensive spin operations..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • Still no job
      
      "It amazes me that the Education Department is offering incentives to attract new teachers while not doing enough to keep those it already has.

      "I am one of a group of fixed-term teachers at a secondary school in Perth. As yet, I have not heard from the department about my placement for 2008. I hope the timing of this advice is a significant improvement on the advice I received for me placement this year.

      "Because I had not been advised of my placement school by the first pupil-free day in January, I phoned the Education Department early in the morning. I was advised my school choices were too selective and no school was available.

      "That afternoon, the department phoned and offered me placement at three of the schools I chose on my nomination form. I am not surprised that many teachers are leaving the public school system when we are treated with this type of disdain."

      Name and address supplied
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
• Little scope for detailed analysis
  by Brendan O'Keefe
  
  "Three days out from the federal election, policy detail from the main parties remains thin on the ground.

  "Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop last week left the door open for further policy initiatives when she told the HES: "There are 11 days to go and I'm not going to pre-empt John Howard on anything."

  "The door was still ajar yesterday. Ms Bishop said: "There are a few days to go and I'm not going to pre-empt John Howard on anything."

  "Australian Democrats education spokeswoman Natasha Stott Despoja called on Labor to reveal more detail about its education policy. "We have had the Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd talking all year about an education revolution, but so far it has been more sizzle than steak," she said.

  "Labor education spokesman Stephen Smith on Sunday gave some idea of the party's plans for abolishing domestic undergraduate fee-paying places. But this, too, left unanswered questions.

  "Asked on the Ten Network's Meet the Press if Labor would scrap voluntary student unionism, Mr Smith said: "No, we won't. We will allow students to voluntarily organise themselves.

  "The key thing is making sure the services that have traditionally been sustained by the student groups are there for all students to enjoy into the future ... childcare, sport and rec facilities and the like.

  "Those services are withering and dwindling on the vine."

  "Paying for services and compensating universities for lost fees would cost Labor about $560million, Senator Stott Despoja said.

  "Have Labor even factored these into their election promises?" she said.

  "The Democrats said they would review the Government's policy on science and innovation (scrapping the research quality framework), provide more funding for basic research and more money for research staff salaries.

  "A new amalgamated scheme could finance as many as 300 Federation fellows, the party said."

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
  
• Questions over Labor's fee rollback
  by Bernard Lane
  
  "The fate of extra student places in high-demand areas including medicine has emerged as a vital election issue following the release of Labor's timetable for doing away with full fees for local undergraduates.

  "The big missing point in the whole discussion is not the compensation (for universities losing full-fee revenue) but what is going to happen to those places," higher education commentator Andrew Norton said. "That is a vital detail which we've heard nothing about."

  "He said that if Labor in power did not swap those full-fee places with HECS places, skills shortages could worsen and universities left with spare capacity would try to recruit foreign students. These would be strange outcomes for a Labor policy advanced on equity grounds.

  "Mr Norton was commenting as a research fellow for the Centre for Independent Studies, although he also works as an adviser at the University of Melbourne, a leader in developing the local full-fee market.

  "On Sunday, Labor's education spokesman Stephen Smith added two details to the party's longstanding policy to abolish full fees for locals: from 2009 no new undergraduates would be allowed to take up such places and the compensation bill for universities could range from $300 million to $400 million.

  "Before the campaign is out we will indicate how those arrangements will be costed and funded," Mr Smith told Channel 10's Meet the Press program.

  "Yesterday the HES put a series of questions to Mr Smith's office, including what would happen to the extra places underwritten by full fees, but his spokesman said it was premature to answer.

  "Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop said universities had told her the Labor veto on this revenue source could leave them with a "black hole" costing $500 million to $700 million.

  "Stephen Smith has been pressed since January and Labor still hasn't said how they will make that up to the universities," Ms Bishop said.

  "The other point is that the small number of full-fee places we've got are in the areas of skills shortage, in medicine and dentistry, and it's illogical to strip universities and students of the opportunity to take up full-fee places in skills shortage areas.

  "It smacks of a blind ideological agenda."

  "Commentator Simon Marginson said Mr Smith's compensation estimate showed Labor did not regard the loss of this revenue as "a big problem" for the sector. Marginson, professor of higher education at Melbourne, said the loss could be closer to $1billion although he said there were too many unknowns to be precise.

  "Monash University vice-chancellor Richard Larkins said a straight swap of HECS places for full-fee places would leave institutions out of pocket.

  "Expanding the number of commonwealth-supported places to compensate would be logical, but the income from these full-fee places is significantly more per place per student," Professor Larkins said..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Op Ed
  If government changes, so does nation
  by Paul Kelly
  
  "... The fourth area where Rudd promises to change the nation is his education revolution. In the campaign his passion has not been backed by dollars. But Rudd repeats the revolutionary goal: to make Australia's the best educated and skilled workforce in the world. It demands a huge financial reallocation through time, combined with better policy, notably towards universities. So far there is little evidence of any policy innovation.

  On education, Howard warns that a nationwide Labor supremacy cannot deliver because Labor remains culturally and organisationally tied to the progressive Left, whose power base is the producer side of the education system. It is one of Howard's deepest articles of faith. And its validity will be tested by any Rudd government.

  Howard sees election 2007 as a contest between values. His disappointment, surely, must be that this alleged contest of values has not won prominence. This is because Rudd denied it as a tactic and as a policy. Rudd decided he would not be wedged by Howard on cultural issues. On education, Rudd presents as a practical realist seeking better investments tied to better outcomes..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link

  
  

• Conference flags fall in participation
  
  Higher education participation growth in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations is increasingly driven by government policies designed to produce a culture of aspiration that fosters a more talented and entrepreneurial population irrespective of long-term labour market needs, an international higher education conference has heard.
  
  
  
  
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Teachers 'ashamed' of child abuse gag
    AAP
    
    Hundreds of NSW public school principals are "ashamed" of their education department for trying to gag them from speaking out on child abuse, their spokeswoman says.
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Sounds like rubbish

      "How elitist and fatuous can one get? To imply that Beethoven's Eroica Symphony means nothing without a background of 18th-century history is plain ridiculous ("High school accused of elitism", November 20).

      "The implication is that classical music must be kept, shining and polished, on a high shelf beyond the reach of ordinary mortals. For some people, increased knowledge of the minutiae of contemporary history (what Bach had for breakfast, who was Chopin's piano tuner) might help them gain more pleasure from listening, but we of the masses can still love our music in our own way."

      H.B. Vallance, Darling Point
      
      

    • Teaching us a lesson

      "I feel so stupid. Up until now I thought parents sent their children to private schools to network and make use of the tennis courts and swimming pools.

      But now, thanks to Geoff Hawke, I realise that parents really sent their children to private schools to save taxpayers money (Letters, November 20). How thoughtful."

      Chris Lawley, Cooma
      
      

    • "Geoff Hawke, what is wrong in "billions of dollars a year" of my taxes going into funding a public education system? As a single person with no children I would be happier that my taxes went there, rather than to the rich elitist schools you favour.

      "Quality education should be available to all Australian students. Or perhaps the elites in Mosman fear an educated, thinking "proletariat"? How dreadful, those people getting above their station."

      JohnPaul Cenzato, Leura
      
      

    • "Geoff Hawke, I had a private school education. In retrospect, the good aspects outweighed the bad. But I never kidded myself that by paying to send me there, my parents were "saving the entire education system in this country".

      Lloyd Swanton, Wentworth Falls

Thursday 22 November

 Happy Thanksgiving Day, Pat, Steve and any American visitors

• The Australian
  
  
  • Feature
    No substitute for teachers
    by Justine Ferrari
    
    "Does every student really need their own pencil? Surely one pencil between two is enough. It sounds an absurd proposition today, but the debate over the use of computers and digital technology in schools mirrors the debate over the introduction of pencils in the classroom a couple of generations ago.
    
    "Greg Whitby, who oversees the Catholic school network in western Sydney, makes the point that the digital divide discussed today repeats the arguments of the carbon divide or, more correctly, the lead divide.

    "We had great argument when pencils were introduced. They were new technology and we even had the discussion: Should every student have a pencil?" he told the conference Our Schools ... Our Future, hosted last week by The Australian and the Melbourne Institute.

    "Arthur Phillip High School in western Sydney already uses computers extensively in its classes, has a wireless network and introduced a program this year giving every Year 7 student a laptop.

    "Principal Lynne Goodwin says teachers wanting to use laptops have to demonstrate through a research project how they will integrate them into their lessons. The danger is that computers can become electronic textbooks rather than adding an extra dimension to the lesson and "bringing the world inside the classroom".

    "We had a similar debate about calculators when they replaced log tables and slide rules," Goodwin says.

    "It's just another teaching tool. It won't fundamentally change what we are teaching but it's a way of getting kids really engaged."

    "Technology is a tool. By itself it won't revolutionise a student's education. Its worth lies in the skill of the teacher. An education revolution must address the quality of teaching, and both the Coalition and the ALP are silent on the issue.

    "Technology is the centrepiece of Labor's self-styled education revolution. Labor is promising $1 billion to provide every student in years 9 to 12 with access to a computer, high-speed broadband for every school and a 50 per cent tax rebate for parents, on a means-tested basis, to subsidise home computers.

    "The Coalition's main funding commitment is also an education rebate but spread more widely. All parents, regardless of income, will receive a 40 per cent rebate on all education expenses, from school fees and uniforms to excursions and after-school dance classes.

    "The rebates offer an insight into the central belief that underpins the education policies of John Howard and Kevin Rudd.

    "Howard's mantra is the Coalition's commitment to parental choice in education. He has put billions into parents' pockets and his Government has increased its funding for non-government schools much faster than for government schools.

    "As a result the number of students attending non-government schools has increased significantly and the number of private schools has grown, particularly low-fee schools.

    "In line with Rudd's belief that education is the key to economic prosperity, Labor's policy recognises research showing $1 spent on a child before they start school saves $7 in welfare, lost tax revenue and productivity from being unemployed or involved in crime.

    "The ALP has policies that extend from birth through to tertiary qualifications. The Coalition's policy on early childhood education is largely restricted to subsidising parents' costs and seems to still view it as basically babysitting on a large scale.

    "But the ALP is guaranteeing 15 hours a week of preschool, with a qualified teacher for every four-year-old, and early intervention programs with the Brotherhood of St Laurence for children in disadvantaged communities to provide resources including books and tutors to ensure children are ready to start school. It will also roll out nationally the Australian Early Development Index in all primary schools to assess how children are developing when they start school.

    "The education revolution was among the first policies outlined by Rudd after assuming the Labor leadership in December. The first chapter announced $111 million over four years to encourage the study of maths and science by offering HECS relief, with further subsidies for those taking up a profession in the sciences, particularly teaching.

    "The Coalition argues the level of HECS paid has no bearing on students' decision to attend university or the course they choose.

    "The second chapter of Labor's education revolution outlined a plan for a national school curriculum from the first year of school to Year 12 under the auspices of a national curriculum board, an idea proposed by the Coalition a year previously.

    "The Coalition was the first to participate in the debate over the quality of school education, traditionally a policy strength of Labor.

    "It picked up on parent and community concerns about the rigour of curriculum and teaching in schools and put in place conditions to make the system more accountable. It changed the way schools reported to parents and the community, and has pushed through uniform national tests starting next year in literacy and numeracy for years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

    "But the Coalition's lead has been whittled away by Rudd with Labor's early childhood and preschool policies and its statement about lifting school standards last weekend.

    "In defiance of teacher unions, Labor is committed to publishing the annual results of every school from the national tests, data the states have refused to hand over.

    "But there is a gaping hole in the education policies of both parties: the teacher. [emphasis added]

    "The biggest variable in a student's performance is the teacher standing in front of the class. A good teacher can overcome social disadvantage. And an education system is only as good as its teachers.

    "Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop first raised the idea of paying teachers based on merit rather than length of service more than a year ago. The Government made merit-based pay a condition of federal schools funding to the states in the budget and has commissioned a pilot study of different models.

    "Bishop envisages a system that pays teachers based on their students' improvement or how much they have "value-added". Labor's education spokesman Stephen Smith supports a system that pays teachers for specific skills such as maths and science, extra qualifications and working in disadvantaged or rural schools.

    "The Coalition points to its summer school program for teachers, announced in the budget, as improving teacher standards. The program pays teachers $5000 to attend courses in English, literacy and numeracy, science, maths, Australian history and one announced last week in disabilities. The schools cater for only a little more than 1000 teachers, but Bishop says there will be a ripple effect as those teachers return to school and share what they have learned.

    "Still, with only 0.5 per cent of the nation's teachers attending these schools every year, it will have to be one hell of a ripple to flow through the system.

    "Labor's only addition to improving teacher quality came at the weekend, saying it would work with the universities to ensure trainee teachers could not graduate without meeting literacy and numeracy standards and that all teaching students would be trained in different strategies for teaching literacy and numeracy.

    "Labor has ditched a policy aimed at improving teacher quality formulated under Kim Beazley's leadership that would have paid $10,000 to each teacher recognised as outstanding under a process set by federal, state and territory governments.

    "But the challenge is to improve the academic calibre of students choosing teaching as a career. It's poorly paid in comparison to other professions; it has a short career path, with teachers reaching their highest pay level within about eight years; and it is held in low esteem by the wider community.

    "Scores to enter teaching at university are based on demand rather than academic ability, so teaching has one of the lowest entrance scores of any degree. Students with high tertiary entrance marks feel it's a waste choosing a teaching degree.

    "A study by economists Andrew Leigh and Chris Ryan from the Australian National University shows teachers come from the lowest achieving students rather than the top performers they were 20 years ago. [emphasis added]

    "In Britain, a government-led campaign marketing teaching as a profession coupled with better pay made it one of the top three career choices within about five years.

    "Finland, which consistently tops the world in international tests, runs a stringent selection program that accepts teaching students only from the top 10 per cent of university graduates. All teachers have masters degrees and it is a highly sought-after and respected career, despite not being one of the best paid.

    "A truly national approach to the training of teachers in Australia is made difficult by the split between commonwealth and state responsibilities. The states run schools and hire most teachers; the commonwealth controls the supply and quality of teachers through its funding of universities. Australia has an oversupply of teachers in some areas, such as primary, and a shortage in other areas, such as maths and science. Still, universities churn out thousands of primary school teachers every year, paid for by the commonwealth.

    "An education revolution would commit itself to ensuring every student, no matter what their family background, has the opportunity to a good quality education. Unfortunately, in Australia, what school you attend and the area it is in does matter.

    "Some students are more difficult and therefore more expensive to teach. They may have learning difficulties, speak English as a second language, or come from dysfunctional or poor families and conditions that interfere with their attendance at school.

    "These students require extra assistance to learn at the rate of their peers and match their results. Their schools need extra resources, whether it's individual tutoring, counsellors or resources such as books and computers that more affluent children take for granted. These students are overwhelmingly in the public system. A taskforce established by the federal, state and territory governments has estimated public schools need $2.4 billion a year if allstudents are to meet the national goals ofschooling.

    "The Coalition and the ALP are offering tax cuts in another guise through their education rebates instead of injecting money where it counts: into teachers and schools."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Choose the lesser of two evils
    Lucas Walsh eyes his options, a policy without a future or one with no vision
    
    "As an academic research fellow whose main area of interest is the use of technology in education, I have two reasons for unease after watching Kevin Rudd's campaign launch last week.
    
    "First, his promise to provide a computer to every school student will provide some great educational benefits; however, what is lacking is a broader and longer-term vision of how the provision of such technology will benefit the educational and societal development of Australia.

    "Technology is too often presented as a panacea and as any educator experienced in e-learning (computer-assisted learning) will tell you, the use of computers in the classroom is only as good as the teaching and learning strategies underpinning their use. This means that the value of computers in our classrooms depends on equipping teaching and support staff with the skills and resources to be able to fully exploit the educational benefits of such technology.

    "It means developing the necessary digital literacies in our young. It depends on having a coherent and long-term vision of where our students are going as active participants in the Australian economy and lifelong learners.

    "Finally, it also depends on having the necessary infrastructure in place to enable Australia to bloom as a knowledge economy. [emphasis added]

    "Rudd rightly acknowledges the importance of fast broadband, an area in which Australia has fallen way behind other nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

    "The Howard Government, by comparison, offers no alternative, neither educationally nor in dealing with its own conflicts with Australia's main telecommunications provider, Telstra. If nothing else, we need to be cautious of the seductive power of short-term technological solutions when it is fashionable to use buzz words, "e-this" and "e-that".

    "Regarding my research, I would like to see more direct engagement with the wonderful opportunities that recent technological developments have given us in collaborative learning, simulations and social networking. In failing to address the many wonderful opportunities to enhance the use of technology in Australian schools, the Australian Labor Party's policy is more "me too" rather than Web 2.0.

    "My second reason for unease is that Rudd's announcement on funding changes to higher education is welcome but not persuasive, particularly for researchers such as me. With the election rapidly approaching, I find myself at a crossroads..."
    
    Lucas Walsh is a research fellow at Deakin University.
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Coalition seizes on strike to teach voters a lesson
    by Ewin Hannan
    
    "The federal Coalition last night tried to capitalise on a rally by 10,000 striking Victorian teachers, claiming "parents and children" would incur more industrial strife and inconvenience if Kevin Rudd won power on Saturday.

    "Just three days from the federal election, the Australian Education Union tried to maximise pressure on the state Labor Government by claiming there had been an unprecedented turnout by rank-and-file teachers in support of the union's bid for a 30 per cent pay rise over three years.

    "Thousands of teachers vowed to hold another 24-hour strike in February, followed by rolling four-hour stoppages unless the Government negotiated an acceptable deal for better pay and conditions.

    "But Premier John Brumby, who has offered a 3.25 per cent annual wage increase, stared down the union, declaring the Government would not agree to the union's "irresponsible" claim..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • University promises contracts in bid to snare $3.6m grant
    
    A Victorian university has won a $3.6 million grant from the Howard Government by promising to put a quarter of its staff on AWAs.
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Union criticises plan to address WA teacher shortage [21 November]
    
    "The Western Australian State School Teachers' Union says teachers and students are going to suffer as a result of a state Education Department plan to move some staff from District Offices back into classrooms next year to address the teacher shortage.

    "The Department sent a memo out on Friday warning that contracts for District Office staff may not be extended next year.

    "The union predicts the state will be six-hundred teachers short at the start of the year and has accused the Department of failing to plan for the crisis.

    "The president of the State School Teachers' Union, Mike Keely, says if District Office staff are forced back into classrooms the professional development and support they provide for teachers will not be available.

    "There will be no support for teachers and there will be no support for the graduates that the Government is bringing on and that in itself is another part of this tragedy. It's very very desperate times and it's not the way we want to run it," he said.

    "It's [like] trying to run you car with very little petrol."

    "The Education Department's Director General, Sharyn O'Neill, says the department's priority is to ensure schools are adequately staffed so they can provide quality education programs to students."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • We'll strike again, teachers vow in wage push
    by Farrah Tomazin and Bridie Smith (with Paul Austin)
    
    "Thousands of striking teachers have vowed to shut down schools again early next year, warning the State Government to prepare for a long and bitter fight over wages and conditions.

    "Hundreds of public schools were brought to a standstill yesterday — the second last day of VCE exams — when about 20,000 teachers walked off the job in a bid for a 30% pay rise, smaller classes and less contract employment.

    "More than 10,000 teachers dressed in red union ponchos marched to the steps of Parliament after voting for another 24-hour strike on February 14.

    "They have also vowed to conduct four-hour rolling stoppages throughout the first term next year. The strike was the first industrial showdown between Premier John Brumby, a former teacher, and the education union of which he was once a member.

    "Mr Brumby said yesterday that giving teachers a 10% pay rise for the next three years — well above the Government's 3.25% public sector wage policy — would be irresponsible.

    "He declined to directly answer a question as to whether he would be satisfied with his annual salary if he had remained a teacher, instead pointing to the state's record low primary school class sizes, strong retention rates and staffing ratios. [emphasis added]

    "The Government says meeting the union's demands would cost $8 billion over the next four years.

    "Victorian teachers are the lowest paid in the country, receiving $65,414 a year at the top of the classroom scale, compared with $72,454 in NSW and more than $68,000 in South Australia and Tasmania.

    "Australian Education Union branch president Mary Bluett said the state would continue losing teachers to other states unless the problem was fixed.

    "Ms Bluett said Government MPs were no longer welcome in state schools.

    "It is important that the Government acknowledges the teacher shortage and comes to the negotiating table in good faith … if that doesn't happen during December and January, then they will take unprecedented action," she said.

    "A handful of the 10,000 who attended yesterday's mass meeting opposed the resolution backing a further strike.

    "Among them was maths and science teacher Cameron Pallot from Horsham College. Mr Pallot said little would be gained from a further stopwork.

    "Yesterday's strike forced dozens of schools to close or operate with a skeleton staff, but it did not directly disrupt the 4500 students taking VCE exams because external assessors, not teachers, oversaw the tests.

    "Some parents were forced to leave their children at home or take them to work with them because of the industrial turmoil.

    "Mr Brumby said any wage rise above the Government's 3.25% level would need to have a range of productivity trade-offs to ensure that schools were more efficient.

    "But while wages remain a key sticking point, so too does the number of teachers on contracts, currently about 19.6%.

    "Ringwood North chemistry and maths teacher Roy Nedumannil — one of a dozen teachers from Healesville High School who went out on strike yesterday — said he had been on four contracts in four years.

    "Teachers are left with the feeling that all their hard work and extra hours doesn't count for anything," he said. "Reapplying for jobs in term four means teachers are distracted from their work in the classroom and feel insecure."

    "Karingal Secondary College principal Rob Casemento told the rally his school in Frankston had lost five teachers in two years to the private sector, which could offer teachers an average of $10,000 a year more.

    "Ringwood Secondary College teacher Ben Moody, 29, did not strike yesterday, although he said he supported the push for better pay and conditions.

    "The year 7 co-ordinator, who teaches music, English and legal studies, said planned scholarship auditions for performing arts could not be rescheduled.

    "Opposition education spokesman Martin Dixon questioned why Victorian teachers were paid less than their interstate counterparts when the Government's revenue had jumped from $19 billion to $34 billion."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Analysis
    'Education' Premier in quandary of his own making
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "When John Brumby took over the state's top job four months ago, he hung his hat on becoming Victoria's education Premier.

    "By declaring education would be his "No.1 priority," Brumby won widespread support among teachers and parents.

    "But on the flipside, he raised expectations, and now the education community will hold him to them.

    "The industrial stand-off between Brumby, a former teacher, and the powerful education union of which he was once a member, is a case in point.

    "Victorian teachers are the lowest-paid in the country. At the top of the scale, they receive an annual salary of $65,414, compared with $72,454 in NSW and more than $68,000 in South Australia and Tasmania.

    "Yet as Brumby and Education Minister Bronwyn Pike often point out, Victoria has the lowest primary school class sizes, record high retention rates, and is performing at or above several national benchmarks in literacy and numeracy.

    "Education union chief Mary Bluett argues that teachers contribute to some of those achievements, and so her message is simple: pay them more.

    "If the increasingly bitter dispute with teachers is not settled soon, the ramifications are plenty.

    "Firstly, teachers will campaign to try to force the Government's hand, starting with another 24-hour strike shortly after school begins next year, and rolling stoppages throughout the rest of term one.

    "Secondly, public schools could continue to lose talented staff to private schools, the private sector, or higher-paying states.

    "And thirdly, the Ted Baillieu-led Opposition will use this dispute to give credence to their claim that Brumby, unlike his predecessor Steve Bracks, is aggressive and confrontational.

    "The teacher union knows it will have to soften its claim for a 10% wage rise every year for the next three years — a claim that the Government estimates would cost taxpayers $8 billion.

    "But Brumby — who has so far offered 3.25% a year, while sitting on a surplus of $1.4 billion — will also have to give ground, or risk being seen as the so-called education Premier whose actions didn't live up to the hype.."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    

    • Great pay equals great teachers
      
      "Listen up, all Victorian parents complaining about the inconvenience of the teachers' strike. Our children's schools are not child-minding facilities! They are the place where we send our precious children to learn and grow. The most valuable resource of our school system is not the buildings or the grounds or the children, it is the teachers themselves, because without them the schools are nothing! And that is the point that teachers seek to make by taking the difficult decision to strike.

      "They should have great pay and conditions, because then our schools will be great places for our children to learn and develop. And if good pay and conditions are not going to be given to them by our State Government, then they should strike in order to try to get them, and we parents should support them, because it benefits us and our children in the long run."

      Meredith Gunn, West Brunswick
      
      

    • Would you swap places?
      
      "Karon Baker (The Age, 21/11) thinks it's about time teachers were knocked down again. Karon espouses a view of rigorous expectations for teacher performance, and simultaneously expects that these same teachers endure low pay and conditions in respect to their colleagues in other states. Would she change places with the teachers she so readily condemns? Karon will get the education system she deserves and the struggle to maintain teacher numbers will continue. Does she realise how many young teachers drift out of teaching within the first five years?

      "I fail to see the pedestal that Karon claims teachers are standing on. I believe that we need to invest in education in a manner that rewards teachers for their contributions. That will indicate that we, as a society, truly value education. We need to attract and retain the brightest minds to nurture and develop our children. It won't happen if Karon Baker's attitude to paying teachers is a prevailing one."

      Alan Wright, Mornington
      
      

    • Inspiration? Go to school
      
      "I often listen to the Classic FM interviews and whenever a guest is asked who was the person to most influence them in their life, the response is never a politician or the PM, it's always a teacher — a teacher who motivated and inspired them to strive for and achieve whatever it is they are being interviewed about. It's always a teacher who said something that made them aim for their dream and contribute to our society.

    
    "The quality of our teachers are the quality of a future Australia. We must look after our teachers as well as we look after our other highly paid individuals. Teachers work exceptionally hard and the workload has increased and changed over the past 15 years.

    "Too many good teachers are walking away from the profession due to stress, low pay, etc. The ones who stay need greater support and recognition for the valuable contribution they make. A good education is vital for a vibrant future, and a good education is achieved through well-supported, committed teachers."

    Jennifer Le Messurier, Armadale
    
    

    • Beware union muscle
      
      "The unions are already flexing their muscles and the election has not yet been won by the ALP. After 11 years of industrial peace in which strikes were rare, they are now breaking out all over the country — the latest being the strike action by the teachers' union in Victoria.

      "This union has absolutely no regard for the cost and inconvenience their actions cause. These "fat cats" in the Victorian public service are demanding a 30% increase in their salaries over three years at a time when most workers are lucky to get one quarter of this over the same period. Voters should think very carefully indeed about what sort of a country they want in future before casting their vote this Saturday."

      Michael J. Gamble, Belmont

      
      

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Schoolboy whiz helps draft Labor cyber policy
    by Asher Moses
    
    "Tom Wood, the 16-year-old schoolboy who circumvented the Government's $84 million internet filter scheme, has been enlisted by Labor to draft a sizeable chunk of its cyber safety policy.

    "And in the process he has been drawn into a vicious mud-slinging match between the Labor and Liberal parties.

    "The Communications Minister, Helen Coonan, continues to deny Tom "hacked" the software filters, saying he bypassed them by gaining access to the administrator account on his computer.

    "Senator Coonan then sought to discredit Tom, who lives with his parents in Melbourne, saying he "continued to seek notoriety using any means possible".

    "Labor's communications spokesman, Stephen Conroy, shot back yesterday accusing Senator Coonan of over-stepping the mark by attacking a 16-year-old schoolboy "who only wants to make the internet safer".

    "Well I feel quite offended by Senator Coonan actually," Tom said in an email interview last night.

    "I think it's quite low that Senator Coonan would attack my credibility - as with my experiences, I have been pushing hard for this year to do whatever I can do, whether that be by exposing inadequacies, or pushing for improvements on cyber-safety - with a common aim of improving it."

    "After receiving widespread international media attention for exposing how it was possible to bypass the Government's internet filters within minutes, Tom was invited to speak about internet safety at a range of conferences including the National Cyberian Embassy and National Coalition Against Bullying conferences in Victoria, and - via weblink - the NetSafe conference in New Zealand..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

Friday 23 November

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • OBE Failure

      "It was with a sad sense of vindication that I read your report about the apparent failure of the OBE mechanical engineering test (Parents angry at OBE test failure, 20/11).

      "In 2006 I attended the Catholic Education Office's "Why we support OBE" night. During the course of that discussion mechanical engineering was held up as example of the levels system. As I recall, it was stated that a student could do the course with a lot of maths (in the highest levels) or no maths (in the lower levels). Being an electronic engineer, I queried how this could be the case as mathematics was a requirement in all levels and fields of engineering.

      "The example given was that the lower levels may be restricted to actions such as understanding the components, assembly and disassembly of an engine. When I went to school, that person was called a motor mechanic.

      "In my opinion it is highly misleading to advertise any engineering course that does no require a thorough understanding of mathematics, and, in some engineering fields, physics. Your report said "students who had studied physics or advanced maths had an advantage over those who had not". If this is the case, simply scaling the course would be disastrous for those students who failed. This would give them a false sense of achievement which would ultimately and tragically hit them if they tried to complete a university based engineering course.

      "If OBE course planners believe they can "dumb down" the basis of skills required to complete a university engineering course, simply to attract more students, they are setting them up to fail."

      Luigi Lemi, Thornlie
      
      

    • "I am staunchly anti OBE so it is difficult for me to say this but the Curriculum Council is not at fault in the OBE engineering exam.

      "Contrary to my fears of the exam being too easy and laughable, it actually seems to somewhat reflect what these kids will end up studying at university.

      "As a mechanical engineering student I can verify that "advanced maths and physics" are essential to engineering study at university and any student entering an engineering course without them will have difficult times ahead as they struggle to keep up with their peers.

      "The physics covered at university assumes knowledge of basic high school physics and maths is used in every single technical unit to at least TEE calculus level. It is natural that the kids who study "advanced maths" have an advantage because that is exactly what is required for university study."

      Joseph Wetton, Greenmount
      

      
      
      
• ABC News
  
  
  • 'Politicians ignoring' uni cost blow-out
    by economics correspondent Stephen Long
    
    "Amid all the election talk about education, the details of a big decline in public funding have been all but lost.

    "In the space of a quarter of a century Australia has moved from a system of free tertiary education, to one of the most expensive university systems in the developed world.

    "The share of public funding for schools is also low. Even in the United States, public money funds a higher share of the cost of schooling.

    "And Australia ranks at the bottom of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for public funding of preschool education.

    "Experts say that as the cost of education grows, more and more people are choosing not to go to university or get formal trade skills.

    "They say neither side of politics is doing enough to address the problem.

    "Gough Whitlam campaigned on government-funded education in his 'It's Time' campaign speech in November 1972.

    "Sure we can have education on the cheap, but our children will pay for it for the rest of their lives," he said.

    "Thirty-five years on, his words have a certain resonance.

    "We will abolish fees at universities and colleges of advanced education," he said in the speech.

    "It's time to strike a blow for the idea that education should be free."

    "Mr Whitlam did bring in free university education, but times have changed. After the mid-1980s, the Whitlam government reforms were well and truly swept aside.

    "Professor Simon Marginson holds the chair of higher education at Melbourne University, and has been studying the impact.

    "To the individuals and families it's been really quite tough," he said.

    "They've gone from a free education regime to a substantial private cost regime in a generation."

    Unis among world's most expensive

    "In the space of a generation, the once-free universities have become among the most expensive in the world, charging the third-highest tuition fees in the OECD.

    "And while fees have soared, the share of public funding has dwindled.

    "Universities now rely on private money for more than half their budgets.

    "Between 1995 and 2004, public funding per student in our universities fell by 27 per cent.

    "Professor Marginson says that is compromising the quality of research and teaching.

    "Our basic research system in the sciences is under tremendous pressure and it's likely to weaken Australia's standing overall in research performance in the next decade or so," he said.

    "The effects on teaching quality are more immediate. We've seen the average student staff ratio almost double since the mid-1980s, up from about 11:1 in the mid 1980s to about 21:1 now.

    "So we've got much larger classes, much less contact between students and their teachers and less education going on."

    "Students are voting with their feet, with many deciding they simply cannot afford to learn.

    "The level of student financial support, that is student living allowances, is at its lowest level since the 1960s and so it's become not only expensive in terms of tuition, it's become expensive in terms of living costs," he said.

    "So it's not a wonder that many prospective students are finding it less attractive than they used to."

    "Professor Marginson says the consequence is that Australia is one of the few countries in the world where participation rates in higher education are falling.

    "No-one's been talking about this but we are seeing a depression in our rate of participation in tertiary education," he said.

    "I mean China's increased its level of entry into university by four times between 1998 and 2004, which in a country that size is absolutely astonishing and I can't think of another single OECD country, where participation is trended on a plateau or going downwards the way it is now in Australia."

    Shortage of graduates

    "Australia is failing to produce enough graduates to meet demand.

    "Chandra Shah is a senior research fellow with the Centre for the Economics of Education and Training at Monash University.

    "According to his research, on present trends, Victoria alone will be short nearly 50,000 graduates over the next 15 years, with severe shortages in science and engineering.

    "In vocational education and training the picture is even worse.

    "A study Dr Shah co-authored for the Council of Australian Governments estimates that by 2016, there will be a shortfall of about 240,000 people with vocational training qualifications.

    "Dr Shah does not think the Coalition's plan to fund 100 new technical colleges in competition with the states is the answer.

    "This is duplicating bureaucracy-run vocational education and training, and a lot of the money and the resources will be just eaten up by bureaucracy rather than actually having outcomes," he said.

    "He is also critical of Opposition Leader Rudd's plan to fund vocational education in every school, saying it's poorly targeted.

    "You might want to ask the question how many students going to, say, Scots College would want to do an apprenticeship and would they need a technical wing there?" he said.

    "Professor Marginson says Labor's education funding commitments are very modest and far from the revolution Mr Rudd claims them to be.

    "I think that's the electoral reality, that the Prime Minister has presided over a policy which has depressed tertiary funding, so all the Opposition Leader's got to do really to garner support on this issue is to say, 'I will do better,'" he said.

    "Mr Howard bristles at claims that his Government has underfunded education.

    "He points out that the OECD figures drawn upon only go up to 2004.

    "But it is hard not to view big funding commitments since then as catch-up for past cuts: a partial reversal of an education revolution that cut public spending in the name of a 'user pays' model."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • HECS offer to plug uni fee black hole
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Universities offering full-fee degrees face a budget black hole under Labor's policy to abolish the system.

    "But thousands of new student places will be created to ensure the overall number of places at university is not reduced.

    "Labor leader Kevin Rudd confirmed last night that, if elected, he would offer universities 11,000 HECS places instead of guaranteed financial compensation for the abolition of full-fee degrees.

    "Universities that do not want to offer the HECS places will be forced to negotiate with a Rudd government for compensation for the abolition of the full-fee degrees, which can cost students more than $200,000 for prestige courses such as medicine.

    "By comparison, universities could expect to secure no more than $25,000 a year for a HECS place when student fees and taxpayer-funded contributions are combined.

    "A spokesman for education spokesman Stephen Smith said last night that Labor would offer universities some flexibility for compensation. For example, universities could ask for extra funding for their existing student load as compensation, without offering more HECS places..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    Related story in The Age
    
    
    

  • Left in lurch on funding as both sides squib central problem
    by Catherine Armitage, Higher education editor
    
    "Universities began the election campaign knowing they would be lucky to get a look-in, and so it has proved.

    "The Howard Government has successfully construed statements of fact about the importance of university education and research for global competitiveness as just more whingeing from a bunch of elitist ne'er-do-wells.

    "As for Kevin Rudd and his education spokesman Stephen Smith, they have stayed short on policy detail and long on vague unfunded pledges..."
    
    "Both the Government and the Opposition have squibbed the central problem. Neither has shown readiness either to fund universities properly or allow them to fund themselves.

    "Both sides say that universities should be allowed to pursue diverse missions and specialise. But neither will give institutions real freedom to supply the courses they do best according to student demand.

    "There is no serious threat to the central planning system characterised by economist Max Corden as "Moscow on the Molonglo".

    "Starting with Rudd's education revolution speech in January, Labor has spent the year raising expectations.

    "Smith has said three things consistently: Australia must line up its education spending against the rest of the world; the commitment needs to be long term because the damage done in the past decade cannot quickly be repaired; and Labor will announce "big ticket items" only "at a time of its choosing".

    "This, together with Rudd's claim that his revolution has been 10 years in the making, added up to multi-billion-dollar hopes from the election campaign.

    "So while computers for students, an education tax rebate, 450,000 new training places and Labor's campaign centrepiece - a doubling of scholarships at a cost of just over $200 million - have been welcomed by universities, Labor left itself open to the cutting line from Bishop: "If that is 10 years of policy development, heaven help us."

    "Whoever wins, a long, hard look at the university sector is long overdue."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • School happens on model for indigenous learning
    by Joel Gibson, Indigenous Affairs Reporter
    
    "A Sydney private school believes it has struck pedagogical gold with an innovative solution to educating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

    "Gawura, a small, indigenous primary school within a school at St Andrew's Cathedral School, has had stunning success in its first six months, with two students scoring 100 per cent in their end of year maths examinations and results for all students improving by at least 30 per cent, the headmaster, Philip Heath, says.

    "The foundation class of seven has ballooned to 21, with a full class of 25 enrolled for next year.

    "Gawura students study a tailor-made syllabus in a dedicated room on the ninth floor of the Anglican school in the centre of the city, joining mainstream students for afternoon classes, breaks, sport, chapel and other activities.

    "They learn Aboriginal languages and culture and do intensive maths and English lessons to counter worrying statistics that put numeracy rates among indigenous children in year 7 at 30 per cent below the NSW average, and reading rates at 17 per cent below the average.

    "Parents pay $250 a term and the remainder of the five-figure fee is sponsored on a deductible gift recipient basis by private and corporate donors such as the Fairfax Foundation, which recently tipped in $300,000 over three years.

    "Mr Heath had the idea for a World Vision-style school in the Redfern-Waterloo area, but was forced to set it up on the main campus after unsuccessfully exploring a dozen sites and facing opposition from community groups, which objected to the separation of Aboriginal students, the selective nature of admissions and the religious component of the syllabus.

    "Yesterday he said it had worked out for the best.

    "We didn't expect it to work this fast. To be candid, I was tentative about the whole thing because of the difficult circumstances of the birth.

    "But we have stumbled, by accident, upon a very powerful model. The school within a school really works … the kids are highly engaged, they feel buoyant and their morale is good, so they don't miss school. And the size has a lot to do with it."

    "Two other leading private schools were looking at replicating the model and a second campus would be opened if St Andrew's could raise the funds, he said.

    "The journalist George Negus, who has a son in year 12 at St Andrew's, said Gawura had taught the mainstream students about indigenous Australia and vice versa."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Top music centre rocked by staff revolt
    
    The principal of Sydney's Conservatorium high school is facing a mutiny from staff and parents who are angry at his management style and changes to the curriculum.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Failing teachers

      "What an appalling, but unfortunately typical comment by parent Karon Baker (The Age, 21/11) in response to Wednesday's teachers' strike. Baker's concluding quote in relation to teachers is most revealing: "It's about time they were knocked down again." Why is it that so many non-teachers are at pains to put down teachers, and oppose attempts to improve the quality of their own children's education? Is their hatred of teachers so strong that they would have their own kids suffer rather than support improvements to classroom conditions and teacher morale?

      "As a teacher of mathematics and physics, I have been forced to accept a pay cut of 60% to continue to do the job at the high level I desire. I have elected to work two days a week but actually work virtually full-time. How can I afford to do this? I have worked two jobs for many years (writing textbooks as well as teaching) and can live off royalties for the moment. How many other talented teachers are able to do likewise? Not many (if any).

      "It seems unless the public rise to support their dedicated teachers, they will get the education system they deserve."

      Geoff Phillips, Croydon

Saturday – Sunday, 24 – 25 November

Federal Election Day: Not much education news

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Year 12 Exam Complaints (page 29)
    by Paul Lampathakis

    "There have been at least 20 complaints about the Year 12 exams - just two days after they ended.

    "On Friday, Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood confirmed most complaints were about the new outcomes-based education engineering studies, and media production and analysis courses.

    "But Mr. Wood said: "As with all courses being examined for the first time, it is natural there is a degree of anxiety from teachers, who work very hard to prepare their students for the exam. And students, who are seeking places in university courses.

    "(But) a routine statistical analysis is conducted to assess the quality of exam questions. Where necessary, marks are adjusted to ensure no student is disadvantaged."

    "Reports on exams would also be presented and discussed at teacher-examiner meetings in early 2008. "
    
    From The Sunday Times

     

  • Global Education
    New School for Mobile Families (page 82)
    by Denice Rice

    "WA is learning to be a global business centre.

    "The opening of a City Beach school that operates on a northern-hemisphere timetable now gives overseas workers the opportunity to bring their families to Perth without interrupting their children's education.

    "The International School of Western Australia, which was formally opened by Premier Alan Carpenter this month, is a not-for-profit organisation providing schooling from years 1 to 12, using an international curriculum and following the northern hemisphere academic schedule.

    "Mr Carpenter said the school was an important element in attracting internationally mobile professionals required to work in WA's expanding resources, energy and new-technology industries.

    "The International School enjoys support from the oil and gas, resource and business sectors across the board and has the potential to increase its capacity in the future," he said.

    "The International School of WA is run by a board of management and supported by a range of international companies, with offices in Perth.

    "ASWA principal Ian Bayly thanked the State Government for its ongoing support, in particular the Department of Education and Training, which assisted in finding a permanent location for the school.
    
    "Companies that regularly move employers and their families to and from Australia need the specialised education service we can provide and this will become even more significant as WA continues to open up markets in China, the Middle East and America," Mr Bayly said."
    
    From The Sunday Times
    

    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Lesson for the school of hard Knox
    by Gerard Noonan, Social Issues Editor
    
    "It takes a lot of guts at the best of times to stand in front of 1350 fellow students, 150 teachers and 600 parents in the school assembly hall and tell it as it is.

    "But when it involves accusing some of your year 12 classmates of being cheats, and fingering influential parents for bullying the school authorities into giving prestigious positions to undeserving sons, the effect can be nothing short of sensational.

    "Especially when the school is the well-respected North Shore institution Knox Grammar, which counts among its alumni the veteran broadcaster John Laws, Macquarie Bank chairman David Clarke, former editor of the satirical Oz magazine Richard Neville, Hugh Jackman and ethicist Simon Longstaff.

    "The 20-minute speech by the Knox 2007 school captain, Mitchell Donaldson, was delivered to a packed "Leavers Assembly" - an occasion intended to celebrate the departure of this year's 230 final-year students. Mitchell told the hushed hall: "Teenage boys have been forced to face up to the pressures of power-hungry parents.

    "Those hypocrites who have slung the most mud do so because of a deep-seated sense of paranoia, inferiority and the unquenchable desire to social-climb. There have been people in our year group who have stolen, who have belittled, and who have cheated their way through the past six years. It is well known, as a year group, we have arguably lost more people to expulsions than any other.

    "Sitting to my left will be people who have done the school, their families and themselves a tremendous disservice. Even so, these people will have, by and large, escaped official sanction - feeding off the mercy of the people in charge, exploiting the school's insistence on their own protection."

    "When Mitchell finished the speech, the hall rose to its feet. "Every boy, every teacher, every parent gave him a standing ovation: it was spine tingling," Knox's principal, John Weeks, told the Herald yesterday.

    "It is almost two months since that speech was delivered, but it still resonates. The principal, who closed the ceremony after the school captain's electrifying address, described it as "the most powerful, passionate and impressive address by any 17-year-old I've heard in my life".

    "Since then, copies of the speech have circulated among the school community, on the internet, and at least three other private schools have asked to use it to show senior students just what the word 'integrity' means.

    "Mr Weeks proudly proclaims the school motto Virile Agitur - or "do the manly thing". He describes his young charge as "courageously forthright".

    "He's an idealistic 17-year-old - one of my themes is growing and developing your character and being responsible for how you are. You know how much superficiality there is in the world today in relationships. We want and celebrate honesty, and sometimes you have to take risks."

    "Described as affecting a small minority of students and parents, the issue at Knox was a familiar one for many elite schools: well-connected parents, used to getting their own way in business, pushing their sons into prestigious positions in the First 15 rugby team, the First 11 cricket team, as school prefects, army cadet corps officers and, in the case of Knox, into its well-regarded pipe band.

    "Of the departing year 12 cohort, five boys had been expelled over recent years for failing to toe the line at the school.

    "In his address, Mitchell reached into J.K. Rowling's latest, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, quoting the fictional school principal Dumbledore's thoughts on leadership and how those who never seek leadership are often best suited to power.

    "There will always be those who cheat the system, particularly in a school like Knox. In such high stead is this place held that people seek power at all costs. I wish to make a statement which I know my year group supports - we have been affected by the politics of parents as few others have," Mitchell said.

    "Arguing that it did not matter who was their parent, or "who your father goes to the gym with", he challenged those who sat in front of him: "To those who have played the game, listen carefully. No matter what your efforts, you cannot and will not be able to coerce those things you truly desire. You cannot buy popularity, you cannot replicate success and you cannot invoke due respect.

    "There is a reason that those who cheat the system do not attempt to woo over the year group - they can't. They target teachers, because some will fall to their trap - weakening their stance just so that they might avoid drama. My position has allowed me to be privy to those who have folded and I find it deplorable. Be assured that the people of this school - and students in particular - can smell a fraud a mile away. The school council, the old boys' association, the senior staff and students are making sure that the minority is getting smaller."

    "Mitchell, one of three brothers, plans a gap year in Wales before going to university."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Independents set sights on young students
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Independent schools in Sydney are building their own child-care centres to help retain good teachers, improve revenue sources and smooth the transition into kindergarten for toddlers.

    "Saint Ignatius' College in Riverview has the latest proposal for a child-care centre - at its junior campus, in Riverview Street.

    "Plans go on exhibition today for a centre catering for 74 boys and girls younger than five. Each place will cost $75 to $80 a day, and staff will be given the option of paying with pre-tax dollars.

    "The centre will be open to children of staff and the community. Unlike centres in some schools, it won't provide an entry point into the college, which caters for boys from years five to 12.

    "The headmaster, Shane Hogan, said he hoped the new centre would help the college attract and retain good teachers.

    "It is not just a revenue spinner; it is extending a service to our staff at a reduced rate." ...
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Subsidy bid as food ban hits schools (page 18)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "The State Government’s ban on junk food in schools has wiped out profits at many canteens, with pressure building on Education Minister Mark McGowan to introduce a subsidy to stop them closing.

    "Some principals and parents and citizens groups have called on Mr McGowan to subsidise canteen operations at schools that have suffered a drop in profits because salads and sushi have replaced pies and chips.

    "This year, State schools introduced a “traffic light” food rating system under which most food sold in canteens must be in the green, or most nutritious, category. Amber food can be sold occasionally and red foods have been banned from sale in school canteens since April.

    "Lesmurdie Senior High School principal Keith Svendsen said even though he backed the junk food ban, it had come at a cost.

    “Some of those (healthy) foods are a little more costly to get in and secondly the preparation of some of the foods is a bit more extensive, which means you need greater labour costs,” he said.

    "Mr Svendsen said his school’s canteen profit margin was minimal but it had declined even more rapidly since it switched to the traffic light menu, so he would welcome a subsidy.

    “What we’ve found is that when the kids do actually make the purchases they enjoy what they’re eating and they continue then to buy it, but it’s getting them to do it in the first place,” he said.

    "A principal of a big metropolitan school who declined to be named said his P&C could no longer rely on the canteen to provide returns of about $15,000 a year to put towards resources such as books and computers. [It's a sad state of affairs that a big metro school has to depend on $15,000 a year from the canteen to buy essential supplies and equipment! Web]

    “The introduction of government policy in relation to canteens has affected significantly the profitability of existing arrangements and made it difficult to support wages where volunteers are not available,” he said.

    "Alan Dowsett, principal of Spencer Park Primary in Albany, said the new menu was welcome, but it was more time and labour intensive.

    "Spencer Park P&C put a motion to the WA Council of State School Organisation’s mid-year conference to call on Mr McGowan to subsidise the wages of canteen workers in the light of changes to canteen food policy. However, WACSSO did not adopt the motion as a conference resolution.

    "Mr McGowan refused to consider subsidising canteens and said some schools had reported an increase in profits since the policy was introduced.

    “Canteens can be profitable if they adopt the right business practices,” he said. “I make no apology for putting the health and wellbeing of children first.”

    "WA School Canteen Association executive officer Robin Bromley said sales at many schools had picked up after an initial downturn.

    “Unfortunately there are bound to be some casualties along the way but the majority of schools are just getting on with it and not really experiencing any great deal of difference in profitability,” she said.

    "WACSSO president Rob Fry said some schools had struggled at first but all they needed was extra guidance.

    "The Education Department said it was not aware of any schools which had closed canteens as a result of the traffic light system."

    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • 'No Child' Law May Slight The Gifted, Experts Say
    by Daniel de Vise
    
    "Some scholars are joining parent advocates in questioning whether the education law No Child Left Behind, with its goal of universal academic proficiency, has had the unintended consequence of diverting resources and attention from the gifted.

    "Proponents of gifted education have forever complained of institutional neglect. Public schools, they say, pitch lessons to the broad middle group of students at the expense of those working beyond their assigned grade. Now, under the federal mandate, schools are trained on an even narrower group: students on the "bubble" between success and failure on statewide tests.

    "Teachers struggling to meet the law's annual proficiency goals have little incentive, critics say, to teach students who will meet those goals however they are taught..."
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    
    
    
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Unions are being demonised
      
      "As a teacher and union member I have been disgusted by the promises for education made by the Coalition during this campaign as well as John Howard’s continued attempts to demonise union members.

      "I am a highly skilled professional doing a job that is vital to the economy and the future of this nation, yet I work upwards of 50-60 hours a week for a salary that, if it was paid on an hourly basis, equates to what I could earn stacking shelves in a supermarket.

      "I belong to a union that is mystifyingly referred to in the press as powerful, yet it is in a position where it has to fight to negotiate wages sufficient to keep teachers from leaving the profession.

      "I belong to a union because that’s the only way I can look after my interests as an employee. Apparently that makes me a union thug.
      
      "I don’t hold great hopes for any differences that a Labor victory will bring on the weekend, but I do know that a win for the Coalition will lead to further misery for workers of all stripes."
      
      Blair Mahoney, Brunswick West, Vic
      
      
      

• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • "Dean Jones (“Education must change”, November 22), if education is “union-dominated”, why have teachers suffered a $31,000 relative pay cut since 1975?

      "Why is the staffing of secondary schools much worse in 1981?

      "Why are teaching loads higher than they were throughout the 1980s and up to 1992?

      "Why are one in five teachers on short-term contracts?

      "And why should we give the unprofessional concept of performance pay a third trial when it has already been tried and abandoned as a failure in both the 1980s [sic: should read '1890s'] and the 1990s."

      Chris Curtis, Hurstbridge

      
      
      
• The Age
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Have my pedestal

      "Thanks for the lack of support shown by Karon Baker (The Age, 21/11) for her children's mentors and educators. I only hope that her daughter Heather, studying year 12 next year, is one of the lucky students who will have teachers who are able to teach in their area of expertise and give her daughter all the individual attention she needs to reach her full potential.

      "Karon may well feel differently next year if she has to pay $80-plus an hour for private tutoring to enable her daughter to pass her VCE because so many great teachers have quit the system and gone elsewhere; not just for the possibility of making far more money in other careers, but because of the increasing lack of respect and valuing of teachers' expertise and commitment to their charges. Still I may be wrong, Karon herself may be an expert in legal studies, specialist mathematics, physics, chemistry and be able to provide all the help her daughter needs. In that case she deserves to be on a pedestal."

      Liz Bailey, Coburg

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