Monday 3 December

Tuesday 4 December

Wednesday 5 December

Thursday 6 December

Friday 7 December

Saturday – Sunday, 8 – 9 December

 

Monday 3 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Office staff ordered back to classrooms [Front Page]
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Senior education bureaucrats have been ordered back into schools as part of increasingly desperate measures to keep teachers in classrooms.

    "Education director-general Sharyn O'Neill is cancelling secondments from schools to other agencies, such as the Curriculum Council, and telling those working in central and district offices whose contracts have expired that they must return to schools.

    "In July, the Department of Education and Training called for volunteers from its central East Perth office, dubbed Silver City, to return to schools to ease the shortage. About 25 returned to schools temporarily.

    "But now the bureaucrats are not getting a choice in the matter. Ms O'Neill said last week that about 50 people from district offices would be returning to schools and "quite a number" from central office.

    "I want teachers teaching," she said. "My focus is on having teaching expertise in the classroom."

    "State schools are about 50 teachers short, with the teachers' union predicting a deficit of about 600 at the start of next school year.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said it was another band aid solution to the teacher shortage to push teachers who may not have taught for a decade and who may have failed to keep pace with curriculum changes back into classrooms just to make numbers look better for the Government.

    "He said the Government had to tackle the fundamental reasons for the teacher shortage, including low salaries, the need for better career opportunities, poor student behaviour and the disconnect between teachers and the department. [emphasis added]

    "Education minister Mark McGowan said last night that he wanted teachers to leave office jobs and go back into the classroom.

    "This is a sensible and long term approach to workforce issues and I'm shocked that Peter Collier would criticise this strategy," he said. "Does he want out teachers to be in offices or the classroom?"

    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said it was unfair that staff in district offices were only now being informed they would be teaching next year, giving them no opportunity to apply for jobs in the schools where they might prefer to work.

    "They weren't given this advice earlier when they could have had an opportunity to seek a transfer back to a school of their choice, to seek a promotion, anything like that," he said. "

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Interim board wants to sack unlicensed teachers (page 7)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "The teachers' professional registration body is not likely to wait until after the election of its new board before it strips members of their licence to teach, despite calls from the teachers' union and Opposition.

    "WA College of Teaching chairman Brian Lindberg said the Government appointed interim board was reluctant to hand over power on when to cancel the membership of hundreds of teachers for failing to pay their $70 professional registration fee to the new and "inexperienced" board.

    "Mr Lindberg said the ruling should be made before the election results were announced to allow the new board to start with a clean slate.

    "This current board set in place the whole process for 2007 and I believe the board want to see that through," he said. "With a new board, you may have a number of inexperienced people. The last thing you want is when they arrive for their first meeting, the first thin on the agenda is deregistration, when they haven't had the history of it."

    "WACOT director Suzanne Parry added that it would be too difficult to notify teachers of membership cancellation before the start of their holidays if the decision was delayed until after the new board was able to meet.

    "But shadow education minister Peter Collier said any decisions on teacher deregistration should be made by the newly elected board. He said it would be absurd for the interim board, which had no credibility with the teaching fraternity, to deregister teachers. He said it was patronising to suggest that new board members lacked experience, because most of those running for election had years of classroom experience.

    "The whole point of this board was to give teachers a voice," he said. "What they're doing with this action is denying them, yet again, a voice." [emphasis added]

    "The board will meet on Wednesday to decide the fate of about 1500 teachers who still have not paid their registration fee, which was due in April. WACOT registration is essential to be allowed to teach in WA schools.

    "WACOT was forced to change the date on which it would consider deregistering thousands of teachers for failing to pay their fee from October 26 to December 5 to avoid mass walk outs by teachers or school closures during Year 12 final exams.

    "Many teachers refused to pay their fees until an election was held for 10 teacher representatives on the WACOT board. The results of the election will be announced on December 11.

    "An Education Department warning in September requiring principals to make contingency plans for teacher shortages resulting from its plan to sack teachers who refused to pay their fee on time caused widespread outrage among teachers.

    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said WACOT should delay deregistering teachers until after the election. Education minister Mark McGowan, who had previously refused to concede there was a serious risk that teachers would sacrifice their jobs for the sake of $70, is now urging the college to avoid any moves that could exacerbate the teacher shortage. He said yesterday he was writing to WACOT to remind it that it was set up as a "professional and criminal screening body". [emphasis added]

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Don't ignore us in pay talks, say principals (page 7)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Principals and school administrators are being ignored amid negotiations for higher wages for teachers, a new principals' group claimed yesterday.

    "The WA Principals' Federation, which was formed earlier this year and already has more than 600 members, has applied to be recognised as a union to provide an alternative voice for administrators disenchanted with the State School Teachers Union

    "Speaking publicly for the first time yesterday, federation president Noel Strickland said the recent enterprise bargaining agreement offer put to teachers, contained no mention of improved salaries and conditions for principals.

    "That offer, which included a pledge to create a new class of "executive teachers" who would be paid $100,000 a year by 2011, was rejected by the teachers' union.

    "We're concerned that we're going to have executive teachers getting paid more than principals," he said.

    "Mr Strickland said members feared they would be the losers in any pay deal hatched between the State Government and the SSTUWA.

    "We have a number of issues that we would like put on the table and we don't even know whether they've been taken to the table," he said.

    "Federation members believed that the Education Department had deliberately concealed any reference to improved pay for principals in the first EBA so that it left negotiators room to move. A second offer is expected soon.

    "We're concerned that where there's a limited amount of money, and there's been an offer made to teachers, and nothing's been said about us, that if they have to up the teachers' offer - where are they going to take it from?" he said.

    "Mr Strickland said principals were retiring in increasing numbers and new principals needed more support because they lacked training previously provided by the Education Department.

    "They were also losing support provided by district offices because bureaucrats with teaching backgrounds were being sent back into schools.

    "As the teacher shortage gets worse, principals and deputies will have to carry an even greater load as ultimately they are responsible to ensure that all children have a teacher in front of their class every day," he said.

    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said the attempt to set up an alternative union would divide educators and weaken their ability to defend their profession and industrial rights.

    "It will weaken the whole education union movement," he said. "From a government's point of view it's probably quite a good thing because it's divide and conquer. We think it's a very bad proposition."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Look at the evidence, Mr Rudd (page 21)
    by Brian Toohey
    
    "It’s good to hear Kevin Rudd say he wants to implement “evidence-based” policies now that he’s Prime Minister. The only pity is that he did not pay more attention to the evidence before announcing several bad policies before the election..."
    
    "Unfortunately, he looks like continuing in full campaign mode between now and the 2010 election. He should forget about stunts like last week’s edict for Labor parliamentarians to look at the needs of two schools and one homeless shelter in their electorates. If he wants to fulfil his promise to govern for all Australians, a comprehensive professional survey is needed in every electorate, not just Labor ones..."
    
    "A policy based on the evidence about the state of tertiary education requires Mr Rudd to rectify the glaring defect in his campaign launch in which universities missed out on a commitment to any real increase in funding. This was despite his constant complaint that university funding is 48 per cent below the average in advanced countries.
    
    "Many private school principals agree that the current funding system for their students is riddled with anomalies. Yet Mr Rudd intends using this flawed model for a new round of funding from July 2008 until 2012. No one accuses him of indolence. He has the time and energy to put a better system in place long before 2012..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • "What a surprise. Our society is illiterate. Given a couple of decades of first steps, whole language and OBE, where reading is learned by osmosis, it's little wonder no one can read."
      
      Greg Williams, Bicton
      
      
      
      
• ABC News
  
  
  • McGowan moves to stop teachers being sacked
    
    "The Education Minister Mark McGowan will intervene to prevent hundreds of teachers who have refused to pay their annual registration fees being sacked this week.

    "The West Australian College of Teaching (WACOT) will decide on Wednesday whether it will deregister about one thousand people who have not payed a $70 registration fee.

    "About 350 of those are classroom teachers.

    "Mr McGowan says he is concerned the move will exacerbate the teacher shortage, and he will contact the college today to urge the board not to deregister the teachers before the end of the year.

    "I'm going to suggest to WACOTT today that when the 5th of December rolls around [they] do not deregister teachers," he said.

    "I will be contacting the college of teaching today, formally, to suggest to them that to deregister teachers before the end of the school year is not a good idea."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
  • Union: Bureaucrats ordered back to teaching may quit
    
    "The State School Teachers Union says it is concerned that a plan to order about 50 education bureaucrats back into schools could force some to leave the profession altogether. [If they'd rather quit than teach, how big a loss?  Web]

    "The Education Department will move some staff from district offices whose contracts are due to expire back into the classroom as part of efforts to solve the teacher shortage.

    "The union says it recognises that reducing the shortage is the priority but it is concerned that staff have been given no opportunity to apply for jobs in the schools they prefer.

    "The union's president Mike Keely says teachers are being punished because of the failure of consecutive Governments to address the shortage.

    "I've got no doubt that some teachers will say sorry I can't do that, you've deprived me of reasonable benefits that I expect, I'll go get a job elsewhere, you can't treat me like this, I'm gone," he said."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
  • Teacher Of The Year awarded $100,000
    
    The Teacher Of The Year in Western Australia has been awarded $100,000 in prize money.
    
    See also: Carpenter and McGowan media statement
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Teachers facing sack over fees [Lead education story]
    by Janine MacDonald
    
    "The school year in Western Australia may end in chaos as hundreds of teachers face deregistration in the second last week of term for not paying their registration fees.

    "In the middle of a continuing critical shortage of teachers in the state, Education Minister Mark McGowan has intervened to caution the teachers' registration body against making rash decisions about teachers who have not paid the $70 annual fee.

    "Despite his recent claim that teachers would pay the fee rather than face deregistration, Mr McGowan is now warning the board of the West Australian College of Teaching that it was "not there to exacerbate any teacher shortage".

    "The relationship between the WACOT board and the Government that set it up has deteriorated sharply amid rumours the Government plans to downgrade its role.

    "Teachers who have refused to pay the fees are angry because promised elections to choose 10 teacher representatives took three years to organise.

    "Official figures put the statewide teacher shortage at 52, but the deregistration proceedings could stop hundreds more from teaching.

    "The board's chairman, Brian Lindberg, yesterday accused Mr McGowan of wanting to "protect his back" and said the board would consider the issue on Wednesday, despite the fact the ballot to elect teacher representatives closes on December 10.

    "The Government needs to have a good hard look at itself because they did not get the legislation right and that has caused these sorts of problems," Mr Lindberg said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Gillard wants history taken back to basics
    by Justine Ferrari and Lauren Wilson
    
    "Incoming education minister Julia Gillard yesterday backed the traditional interpretation of the nation's history, saying she believed Australia was "settled", rather than "invaded".

    "In a sign that she will adopt an orthodox approach to overseeing Labor's education policies, including the creation of a national schools curriculum, Ms Gillard supported students being exposed to different interpretations of Australian history and reaching their own conclusions.

    "She also reiterated that Labor would focus very strongly on the basic skills of maths, reading and writing in the development of the curriculum.

    "Asked yesterday if Australia was settled or invaded, Ms Gillard said it depended on one's perspective.

    "I would say Australia was settled," she told the Ten Network's Meet the Press program. "I can understand that many indigenous Australians would say that it was invaded and I think for senior students who study history in our secondary schools, one of the things they would consider is the conflict of views."

    "Ms Gillard's comments were interpreted as a clear message to the Left, and the teachers unions, that she would not support the opening of a new front in the culture wars, specifically not in the areas of educational theory or Australian history. "We need to make sure that kids end up with all of the basic skills," she said. "You've got to be able to read, you've got to be able to write, you've got to be able to do maths. Unless you have those basic skills, you can't unlock the door to wider learning. Our focus will be on literacy and numeracy."

    "Describing herself as an "educational traditionalist", Ms Gillard referred to a story in The Weekend Australian that revealed maths skills among Year 7 students last year fell to their lowest level in the five years of testing. "We can't let that happen. They're never going to cope with wider curricula if they don't have those enabling skills of reading, writing and doing numbers." [emphasis added]

    "Ms Gillard's comments on European settlement of Australia similarly align her with a conservative view of the history wars, one shared by new prime minister Kevin Rudd, who was accused in the 1990s of reinstating a Eurocentric view of Australian history in Queensland school texts.

    "Writing in The Weekend Australian, indigenous leader Noel Pearson referred to Mr Rudd's role, while working for the Goss government in Queensland, when a primary school book drafted by the state Education Department pushed the idea that Australia was "invaded".

    "The resource for teachers said terms such as settlement, explorer or pioneer were not acceptable and the preferred term was invasion. After intervention by then premier Wayne Goss, the cabinet office, of which Mr Rudd was then head, produced a replacement book, which said many Aborigines interpreted the First Fleet's arrival as invasion but "colonisation" or "settlement" also accurately described the same event.

    "Mr Pearson said the incident demonstrated that Mr Rudd was loath to take up the fight for the Left in the culture wars and would need a political strategy to move the debate beyond polarity.

    "A spokeswoman for Ms Gillard later confirmed that she believed people could form their own views about the interpretation of Australia's history and those discussions should be part of learning history at school.

    "John Maynard, chair of Aboriginal Studies at the University of Newcastle, said Ms Gillard's response to the settlement/invasion question was "disappointing" but "not unexpected".

    "It is a great shame that this new government missed an opportunity to settle some of the disputes of recent years and set us on a new course," Professor Maynard said yesterday.

    "The indigenous historian remains sceptical Australia can move beyond the culture wars under a Rudd government. "I had hoped he'd matured and come a lot further, but the warning bells were there, so to speak," he said, referring to Mr Rudd's past involvement in the Queensland school curriculum. "I think they'll be quite conservative and not much will change. I lived in hope last week but this is not unexpected."

    "Chris Sarra, head of the Indigenous Education Leadership Institute, said he was surprised by Ms Gillard's comments, given she was from the Left. "But there's a truth that exists, whether or not people want to acknowledge it. I think all of us know what that truth is regardless of how we euphemise it and at some stage we have to have the courage to face up to the reality of the past," he said.

    "But right-wing historian Keith Windschuttle endorsed Ms Gillard's opinion. While he would not be drawn on the politics, he said: "I certainly agree Australia was settled rather than invaded. Except for the cases of Queensland and Tasmania, most people on the Left of politics accept this."

    "Australian Education Union acting federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said Ms Gillard's comments were perfectly reasonable and measured. "Of course we want kids to have the best possible grasp of literacy and numeracy and as they get older to be able to challenge and delve more deeply into areas of Australian history, literature and politics," he said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Editorial
    Gillard hot seat on history, work
    
    "Deputy prime minister-elect Julia Gillard has made a welcome promise to put basic skills at the centre of a national curriculum and for Labor to take its time reimposing unfair dismissal laws on small business. Both issues are likely to provoke strong reactions and demonstrate the heavy workload Ms Gillard has accepted by taking responsibility for both industrial relations and education. With cabinet not yet sworn in, the potential is already there for Ms Gillard to get bogged down fighting demands that Labor abandon moderate positions put forward during the election campaign in favour of more extreme policies. On education, Ms Gillard has been quick to highlight the importance of basic numeracy and literacy skills and keeping social agendas out of the teaching of history. Ms Gillard mirror's Kevin Rudd's stand on these issues, but faces the potential of deep conflict with elements of the state teachers' unions over development of a national curriculum..."
    
    Full Editorial in The Australian at link [the rest deals with IR, not education]
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Fears school plan may spark suits
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "A plan by governments to provide more information on how schools perform could open the floodgates for "endless litigation" by families who believe their school has failed their child, parents have warned.

    "The Rudd Government and the states are committed to giving parents more information on academic results.

    "The push for better reporting will begin next year, when the first national literacy and numeracy tests are introduced for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9, giving parents data on how their children fare against their peers, and on national benchmarks in literacy and numeracy across the four year levels.

    "Schools may also be judged against "like schools" — those with students of a similar social background — and parents will get more information on their child's strengths and weaknesses, and commitments on how schools could help them.

    "But the Australian Parents Council, which represents the parents of children in private schools, has warned that families could sue schools for not delivering on commitments.

    "While laudable in its intent, a written undertaking to provide a comprehensive commitment to parents and the community may pave the way to endless litigation by parents perceiving that schools have failed their child in any of the commitments listed," Australian Parents Council executive director Ian Dalton writes in the latest edition of the group's newsletter.

    "A safer and more productive way may be to ensure that all schools engage parents in their children's learning through meaningful family/school partnerships."

    "The plan to give parents more information is outlined in a policy paper, The Future of Schooling, produced by the Council for the Australian Federation.

    "The council is made up of leaders from every state and territory government, and when the report was released — almost three months before the election — it was endorsed by federal Labor and its then education spokesman Stephen Smith.

    "But the way the Rudd Government works with the states to implement the plan could prove politically sensitive: while all agree that parents should get more information, the way in which such data should be presented is unclear.

    "The acting federal president of the Australian Education Union, Angelo Gavrielatos, said teachers would oppose any plan to create "league tables" comparing school results — an initiative Mr Smith appeared to support earlier this year.

    "We believe parents have a right to additional information about the performance of their children, but we do not support the concept of league tables as they serve no educational benefit and result in the naming and shaming of schools," Mr Gavrielatos said.

    "Victorian Government spokesman Tim Pigot said the states and territories would discuss the report with the Rudd Government at the next education ministers' meeting early next year, and would work with the new federal Education Minister Julia Gillard.

    "While we do not favour ranking schools, we do favour providing parents with more information," Mr Pigot said."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Catholic teachers on verge of face-off with church
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Catholic school teachers are preparing for an industrial showdown with the church in a bid for better wages and working conditions.

    "Less than two weeks after 20,000 public school teachers walked off the job as they pushed for more money from the Brumby Government, the Catholic teachers' union is considering a similar campaign, as they attempt to broker a wage deal and lower class sizes.

    "A union survey, to be released today, found that seven out of 10 primary and secondary Catholic teachers were prepared to take industrial action if talks with Melbourne's Catholic education chiefs did not progress well.

    "It would be fair to say we want to prepare our members for the possibility of an industrial campaign," said Victorian Independent Education Union general secretary Deb James.

    "It's too early to say exactly what form that will take, but our members have shown that they're prepared to fight for a reasonable outcome."

    "About 180,000 children in Victoria attend Catholic schools. According to the union survey, 85% of their teachers said they wanted a wage rise beyond 3.25%, while 82% of teachers said it was important that their 10 weeks of school holidays were protected.

    "Class sizes are a particular problem because Catholic school employers have not been able to invest as much money into reducing class sizes as the State Government has in public schools. This year, average class sizes in public schools hit a record low of 20.7 students in prep to grade two. But in Catholic schools, classes have an average of 22.4 students.

    "Teachers want class sizes capped at a maximum of 23 students in years prep to two; 26 students in years three to six and 24 students in VCE. The union negotiating with the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria.

    "Acting chief executive Dr Teresa Angelico said "amicable discussions" were continuing. But she added that the push for better wages would depend on the outcome of negotiations between the Government and public school teachers."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Election promises to go before cabinet soon: Gillard
    by Mark Metherell
    
    "Labor's Julia Gillard has pledged rapid action in both of her mega-portfolios, education and workplace relations.

    "The Labor government's $1 billion plan to supply computers to high school students will go before federal cabinet before Christmas, she said. Another of Labor's big-ticket policies, trades training at all secondary schools, will also go to cabinet this month, as will plans for transitional legislation to axe Work Choices laws.

    "Ms Gillard yesterday deflected questions on which portfolio would get priority, saying "these things can be done together … I will be working with a first-class team."

    "She told Channel 10's Meet The Press the two portfolios were "all of a piece". To fix its woeful productivity performance, Australia needed a better industrial relations system and better training and education.

    "As well as reporting back on computers, MPs who visited schools last week had reinforced the need for an overall look at other areas including electrical systems, air-conditioning and space."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
  • Fury over plan to overhaul TAFEs
    
    Within days of Kevin Rudd's federal election win on the promise of an education revolution, the NSW Government has launched plans to restructure the TAFE system and slash key services.
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Librarians key to this plan

      "As a teacher librarian, I was pleased to see Kevin Rudd launch his "education revolution" in a school library last week. However, I would have been more impressed had he mentioned why he chose a school library.

      "Would it be that he recognises the important role a school library and its teacher librarian plays in the education of our children?

      "While there has been much focus on Labor's desire to improve student access to computer technology, there has been no mention of how students will gain the skills to navigate their way through myriad information confronting them. This is a specialist skill of a teacher librarian.

      "Research here and overseas has shown a direct correlation between students' literacy levels, a well-resourced school library and a qualified teacher librarian.

      "On Thursday, public librarians marched on the NSW Parliament House to focus attention on decreasing government funding to council libraries. We are facing a shortage of qualified teacher librarians in NSW, while in Victoria many positions are being slashed."

      Sharon McGuinness, Thirroul
      
      
      

• The Washington Post
  
  
  • 'Checkbook Math' Increasingly Rare [late update from 2 December]
    by Daniel de Vise
    
    "In her final year at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, Amber Rountree chose to take consumer math, a course designed to teach students how to balance a checkbook and shop for a home loan. She rates it the easiest math class she has taken in high school but also the most useful.

    "Once a common course offering, consumer math is being phased out as school systems raise their expectations of how much math students should know when they graduate. Twenty or 30 years ago, Algebra I might have sufficed. Today, that course is regarded as an absolute minimum, a gateway to Advanced Placement study and college. Students routinely take it in middle school.

    "That leaves consumer math and other "checkbook math" classes relegated to a handful of schools, mostly in poor communities. College-bound students generally avoid the class, reasoning that it would look bad on a transcript..."

    "The gradual elimination of the course from high schools comes as lawmakers, corporate leaders and many parents are decrying the financial illiteracy of the young. Fourteen states, including Virginia, have created new mandates for personal finance education since 1998, bringing the number of states with such requirements to 28, according to the National Council on Economic Education..."
    
    "Over the course of the year, the students will learn how to shop for a loan, pay their taxes and negotiate for an hourly wage..."
    
    "The financial literacy objectives adopted by the Virginia school board last year fill 20 pages. Essential skills include learning the benefits and risks of an ATM card and how to contest an errant bill. The state board lists several courses in which each skill might be taught..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    
    

• Media Statement from Alan Carpenter and Mark McGowan
  
  
  • Teacher of the Year prize money quadruples to $100,000
    
    Premier Alan Carpenter has today announced that the Teacher of the Year prize money has been quadrupled to $100,000.

    The Premier announced the massive funding boost at the 2007 Teacher of the Year award ceremony this morning, as he presented winner Ray Roberts from Ballajura Community College with his award.

    Prize money for the highly commended award winners has also increased from $5,000 to $25,000 each.

    Mr Carpenter said the significant increase in prize money for this year’s awards was in recognition of the work done by the State’s top performing teachers.

    “Teaching is one of the most important professions there is - the quality of a child’s teacher can determine their chances of success in later life,” he said.

    “That is why it is so important that the best among the profession are recognised and rewarded.”

    The Premier said this year’s winner, Ray Roberts, was the brainchild behind the award-winning Access Program for students at educational risk.

    The program, which now involved seven classes across Years 10, 11 and 12, had been adopted by several other schools.

    Mr Roberts’ innovative program had transformed the lives of his school’s most challenging students.

    “Through his extraordinary dedication, initiative and belief, Mr Roberts has demonstrated that even the most challenging students are capable of high achievement,” Mr Carpenter said.

    “The students on the Access Program face a range of difficulties including language barriers, physical disabilities and extreme academic, social and behavioural problems.

    “Mr Roberts establishes a positive rapport with the students and devises teaching programs and workplace learning opportunities to meet their individual needs, making them feel valued and supported.

    “The program’s results are truly remarkable with 100 per cent of students achieving graduation in 2005 and 2006, and many embarking on promising careers that seemed unlikely just a few years ago.

    “This is really an outstanding achievement.”

    Among Mr Roberts’ many other commitments to the wider community is a leadership role with the WA Police Rangers, which he integrates into the educational programs of his students.

    Mr Roberts was selected from 323 public school teachers and TAFE lecturers from across the State nominated by students, parents, colleagues, businesses and industries.

    The Premier also congratulated highly commended award winners Ken Gwyer from Challenger TAFE Peel Campus and Gail Linton from Mount Lockyer Primary School in Albany, both of whom will receive $25,000.

    The schools and colleges of the overall and highly commended award winners will receive a $5,000 prize to be spent on teaching and training resources, courtesy of award sponsor ExxonMobil.

    Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan congratulated the 120 finalists and said they epitomised the outstanding quality of Western Australia’s teaching and lecturing workforce.

    “Teachers and lecturers are the unsung heroes of our community who play a pivotal role in the development of our future citizens,” Mr McGowan said.

    “Many go beyond the call of duty by organising programs and activities outside normal classroom hours which make a real difference to their students’ lives.”

    Now in its fourth year, the award recognises the outstanding skills and excellence of teachers and lecturers in public schools and TAFE colleges across WA.

    Winners are selected by a panel of high profile community and Government representatives based on nomination statements, which demonstrate their innovation, commitment and collaborative approach to teaching and lecturing.

    2007 Premier’s Teacher of the Year: Ray Roberts, Ballajura Community College
    Ray’s award-winning Access Program has been widely adopted by schools which share his commitment to the needs of students at educational risk. As a foundation member of the college, Ray has made a significant contribution to its ethos, culture and successful educational outcomes. A mentor and motivator, he engages colleagues and students in exciting community activities from environment studies on Rottnest Island to experiencing the Bibbulmun Track. He is acknowledged as a driving force behind the WA Police Rangers. Ray was nominated by a colleague.

    Highly Commended: Gail Linton, Mount Lockyer Primary School, Albany
    For more than 20 years, Gail has been a role model and mentor, regarded as the quintessential professional teacher. Her commitment is to all students and their families, but she is best known for her work with children with special needs. A philosophy of tolerance and understanding underpins Gail’s curriculum, especially in relation to Aboriginal studies. Her expert knowledge is recognised State-wide, with a number of her lessons being published on the Aboriginal Perspectives Across the Curriculum website. Gail was nominated by a colleague.

    Ken Gwyer, Challenger TAFE, Peel Campus
    Ken Gwyer is a dedicated lecturer and driving force behind the outstanding success of a partnership with Winjan Aboriginal Corporation. His teaching initiatives have inspired students to showcase their considerable talents and share their local knowledge, language and traditional culture with the wider community, including thousands of school students. Ken liaises with local government and industry to form sustainable partnerships to ensure positive outcomes and career prospects for his students. Students blossom under his guidance, especially as artists and eco-tourism guides. Ken was nominated by a colleague.

Tuesday 4 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers' board averts final week school chaos (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Schools are expected to be spared a crippling teacher shortage in the last week of the school year, with the industry registration body set to provide a last minute reprieve for teachers who have not paid their compulsory professional fees.

    "After furious last minute lobbying by education minister Mark McGowan, the WA College of Teaching is expected to delay until next year the deregistration of teachers who have not paid their $70 annual fee by Friday's deadline. [Bethany advises that is incorrect due to a sub-editor's mistake: it should read "to delay until after school breaks up"... Web]

    "Mr McGowan told WACOT yesterday that any decision to deregister teachers by Friday would be rash and cause "significant disruption".

    "Four months after Mr McGowan tried to hose down the prospect that hundreds of teachers could disappear from schools because they had not paid the fee, he has intervened to stave off the prospect of a chaotic end to the school year.

    "I am exercising my right to provide the WACOT board with advice that may be relevant to its deliberations," he said in a letter, which was sent to the board yesterday and has been obtained by the West Australian.

    "The board will decide tomorrow whether to deregister more than 1000 teachers who still have not paid. WACOT director Suzanne Parry said that only about 350 of those were current classroom teachers and many would pay their fees at the last minute.

    "Mr McGowan urged the board to reconsider its proposal to cancel teachers' membership at its meeting tomorrow, with that deregistration taking effect from Friday.

    "This would have required unregistered teachers to cease teaching in schools from that date," he said. "In my view, any decision to deregister teachers during the transition phase of WACOT's establishment would be rash and cause significant disruption to government, Catholic and independent school sectors."

    "He called on the board to recognise the "significant challenges" the education system had faced to keep enough teachers in classrooms and urged it to bear in mind the potential disruption to schools in determining when deregistration should occur.

    "Under the WACOT Act, the board must give "due regard" to any advice from the Education Minister about how it uses its powers.

    "Board chairman Brian Lindberg said that did not mean the board had to do what Mr McGowan asked. "As it was set up, it was always meant to be in independent body," he said.

    "But Mr Lindberg said that while he could not pre-empt the board's decision, it was likely that it would rule that deregistration should not take effect until after the last day of school, which is December 13.

    "Many teachers had refused to pay their fee until an election was held to 10 teacher representatives on the WACOT board. The results of the postal election should be known by next Tuesday. "

    From The West Australian

    Mark McGowan's letter to WACOT and Brian Lindberg's reply
    
    
    

  • Top teacher inspired by the needs of his students (page 14)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Teacher Ray Roberts will not have to wait 4 years to get the $100,000 salary the State Government has promised elite teachers - he received a cheque for the entire amount yesterday.

    "As WA's teacher of the year, the Ballajura Community College teacher was the surprised beneficiary of Alan Carpenter's decision to quadruple the annual $25,000 prize for his efforts to help students who might otherwise fall through the educational cracks.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan recently pledged to create a new class of "executive teachers" who would be paid up to $100,000 a year by 2011, but the teachers' union rejected that pay offer because it offered no pay rise to the majority of teachers until 2009.
    
    "Mr Roberts will have to pay tax on his winnings, which he plans to put towards finished a house he is building.

    "A primary school teacher who entered the profession in 1979, Mr Roberts started teaching Year 7s at Ballajura in 1995.

    "Three years later there was a group of students that no one wanted to teach, thrown in a class together," he said. "Every teacher who went in was basically eaten alive and I said 'we can't keep doing this, we've got to try a better way'."

    "That group inspired Mr Roberts to design his access programme for students at risk of dropping out of school because of academic, social or behavioural problems.

    "Under the access programme, the students are taught all subjects in the one class so "that teachers can spend more time with them. "We can look at their strengths and build on them and if they have any weaknesses we can work on them across the learning areas, just like in primary school," Mr Roberts said. "By building a strong relationship with these kids you can find what they're good at and help them improve."

    "The programme now extends to seven classes across years 10, 11 and 12 at Ballajura. Other schools have also adopted the programme.

    "Mr Roberts said he knew he had been successful when students walked across the stage at the end of Year 12 to accept their graduation certificates with pride.

    "The Premier said the significant increase in prize money for this year's awards was recognition of the importance of the work of WA's top teachers.

    "Teaching is one of the most important professions there is - the quality of a child's teacher can determine their chances of success in later life," Mr Carpenter said.

    "Highly commended teachers Gail Linton, of Mt Lockyer Primary school, Albany, and Ken Gwyer, of Challenger TAFE Peel campus, each received $25,000."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • Failing our teachers

      "I am disenchanted and discouraged by the lack of support for the teachers who work so hard to educate often reluctant students.

      "My friend who teaches at a notoriously difficult to staff school, and who has done so for several years, has many issues to contend with.

      "She is a temporary teacher whose job is subject to change every year, she sees new graduates who have achieved permanency, before actually teaching, because of good academic grades. They are awarded positions before she is.

      "Despite loving her job, and being very effective in it, her working conditions are often miserable - the least of which is no air conditioning. Teachers are leaving en masse which adds further strain to those who remain.

      "She is abused and threatened daily - by both students and parents who are not prepared to abide by schools rules.

      "Attempting to enforce schools rules, such as students not being allowed to talk on mobile phones during class, has led to verbal abuse from child and parent, as well as threats of physical abuse and a lock down of the school grounds.

      "The child was not suspended, or apparently punished in any way, and continues to flout the rules and be abusive.

      "Other students see this and believe that it is their right to behave in the same manner. We wonder what sort of world is being created when there seemingly are not consequences for wrong actions.

      "The principal of this school has failed in his duty to make learning safe for everyone and seems to have abrogated any responsibility for his staff.

      "What is WACOT's stance on this matter? How does it propose to raise the status of teachers when they are faced with obstacles such as this? What is the department's reaction? How does Occupational Health and Safety respond? What will the teachers' union do? How will broadband availability to all students help?

      "Paying "top teachers" and new graduates extra money is a slap in the face to those who have persevered through changes of policy and curriculum.

      "And for those who believe that "long holidays" are not earned, maybe they can step into the classroom and see what is really happening. Perhaps school administrators could return to the class for a term. I'd like to see that.

      "To protect the identity of my friend please do not publish my name.

      Name and address supplied

      
      

    • More support

      "A teaching colleague of mine was in a supermarket on election day and overheard two women with trolleys discussing their vote.

      "They were enthusiastic about voting for Kevin Rudd because he was going to "give all our kids laptops". The contents of the trolleys included a big number of desserts and confectionary items, no doubt intended to keep their children happy, an apt metaphor for their focus on the "goodies" in Labor's election promise. I hope the promise amounts to more than a sweetener for the electorate.

      "I have a pessimistic view of schools in 3 or 4 years time full of broken down and obsolete computers taking up more space than they are worth and destined for landfill sites around the country.

      "Computers, properly deployed in schools, integrated into a variety of learning programmes are a very valuable resource. Unfortunately, it is not simply a matter of getting a laptop in front of the bum on the seat. Computers require technical support and regular upgrades to remain effective.

      "They also need teaches with relevant skills to incorporate them into their own programmes.

      "Unfortunately, in my experience in schools in WA the level of technical support and teacher training is inadequate.

      "Before new laptops arrive in schools, the issue of funding for support and maintenance, including regular upgrading, must be addressed. As I said, the level of technical support is inadequate.

      "The Department of Education and Training does not provide the remuneration necessary to attract and hold technicians with the skills and experience we require.

      "Most teachers, even those who are computer literate, cannot make effective use of computers in the classroom without good technical support.

      "I would like to suggest that the roll out of computers is linked to a requirement for adequate funding by State governments, which will provide enough fully qualified technicians to support them in every public school."

      Stephen Faulds, Lynwood

      
      

  • And will this be the next "solution" to the teacher shortage ?
    
    Five-year-old chimp beats college kids in computer game (page 28)
    
    Japanese researchers pitted young chimps against human adults in two tests of short-term memory, and overall, the chimps won.
    
    [No chimpanzee shall go without a laptop... Web]
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Gillard connects dots with productivity push
    by Mark Davis, Political Correspondent
    
    ... "My portfolios cover a wide range of policy areas, and some have suggested they are a slightly unusual combination," [Gillard] told an Australian Industry Group conference in Canberra.

    "But the reason why they have all been joined together is simple. In today's world the areas covered by my portfolios - early childhood education and child care, schooling, training, universities, social inclusion, employment participation and workplace co-operation - are all ultimately about the same thing: productivity.

    "So while my portfolios can be a mouthful, I'll be happy to be referred to simply as the Minister for Productivity." ...
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    See the Letter in today's Australian on this very topic
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • TAFE students miss out on the 'education revolution'

      "I have read the document discussed in "Fury over plan to overhaul TAFEs" (December 3). It is called Doing Business because that is precisely what it is about: business.

      "Nowhere does it mention students or education. When TAFE was an acronym and not a word, the E stood for education. It would seem that Marie Persson and Michael Coutts-Trotter have forgotten this.

      "Marie Persson says students don't want to come to TAFE on Thursday nights. Where is her evidence for this?

      "As a TAFE teacher, this semester I have been running an online group of units to enable students to finish their certificates more quickly. While some students have taken advantage of this, many have chosen to come back next year to a face-to-face class.

      "How will flexibility and relevance be increased by getting rid of curriculum centres and equity units?

      "It would appear that the push to increase workplace and online learning is from those employers who don't want to release their workers to study and policymakers who think it will reduce cost. I can't help but think this restructure is about cost-cutting and not improving educational delivery."

      Annette Bonnici, Warriewood
      
      

    • "The Rudd Labor Government has just come to power federally with the welcome promise of an "education revolution". Yet it seems its state counterparts have not yet heard about it.

      "Instead, a largely back-to-the-past vision of doing more with less, including the carving up of TAFE's open learning network, has just been released. The consequences of the short-sighted policymaking flagged in the discussion paper TAFE NSW, Doing Business In The 21st Century will mean the needs of many TAFE students are sacrificed. Among those most likely to be adversely affected are the 38,000 enrolled through the open learning network, with its focus on a wide range of innovative and specialised skills training and equity programs."

      Dr Frank Hutchinson, Annandale
      
      

    • "Don't even think about it, John Della Bosca. Why would a Labor Government propose cuts to services that support students with a disability in TAFE?

      "My deaf son availed himself of the support services at Meadowbank TAFE to get the HSC and, with the help he received from a dedicated support teacher, entered the University of NSW, and graduated in social work. He is now co-ordinating support services to deaf students in a TAFE college where others will become useful and productive members of society. Without support, their futures are grim. What do you plan for the deaf, a life on welfare?"

      Leone Healy, Pennant Hills
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Howard's legacy lives on in new era
    by Kevin Donnelly
    
    "If one wants evidence of the power and longevity of John Howard's influence on Australian politics, then look no further than Julia Gillard's comments on Sunday about teaching Australian history and the need for a back-to-basics approach to curriculum.

    "Sounding like the conservatives so despised by the cultural Left, Labor's deputy leader said on the Ten Network's Meet the Press that she preferred the term settlement, as opposed to invasion, when describing European colonisation.

    "Mirroring concerns raised on these pages during the past 12 months or so about educational standards, Gillard said: "We need to make sure that kids end up with all the basic skills. You've got to be able to read, you've got to be able to write, you've got to be able to do maths. Unless you have those basic skills, you can't unlock the door to wider learning. Our focus will be on literacy and numeracy."

    "That the Rudd Government's new-found cultural conservatism represents a sea change to past Labor policy is even more obvious on reading speeches on the culture wars given by Gillard when in Opposition.

    "In a speech to the Sydney Institute in 2003, which she described "as a call to arms to the Centre and the Left", Gillard bemoaned the Howard government's ascendancy in the culture wars, which she portrayed as "fuelled by bile and venom" and orchestrated by journals such as Quadrant and so-called neo-conservative commentators associated with The Australian.

    "Immediately before last month's election, Gillard refused to accept that terms such as Left and Right had any political currency. Not so in her Sydney Institute speech. Not only did Gillard describe the Australian Left as including those from "liberal Left to radical Left", she also argued that Labor and the Australian Left must combine "for the hard task of winning the culture war and creating a new vision for this nation".

    "Gillard's 2006 speech to the NSW Fabian Society, once again, concluded that a significant reason for Howard's electoral success was his pursuit of the culture wars, described as based on "fear and division", and that the ALP and progressive forces must not resile from fighting the good fight: "To end the Howard government, we have to understand the reasons for its success to date and the underlying attitudes of our community. Then we have to stand and fight for our values. We cannot shy away from the so-called culture wars out of fear of being wedged by right-wing caricatures of Labor values. While fighting for our values, we have to expose the true values of the Howard government."

    "The ALP's education policy paper, dated November 18, for which Gillard as Education Minister will be responsible for implementing, provides further evidence of the resilience of Howard's conservative social agenda. Under the heading Greater Accountability, the ALP policy promises - as did Brendan Nelson when he was education minister - to have report cards in plain English, where students are graded A to E and the word fail returns to the classroom.

    "In contrast to the present lowest common denominator literacy and numeracy testing, in which students are assessed only in terms of a minimum standard, Labor also promises to measure student performance in terms of levels of proficiency; one would hope similar to the US, where national tests are measured in terms of basic, proficient and advanced.

    "Holding schools accountable for performance is another initiative that signals a change to the ALP's view of education. Instead of measuring how successful the education system is in terms of money spent, the focus is on learning outcomes and how best to identify and turn around underperforming schools.

    "Although it is not going as far as the league tables introduced under the Blair government in Britain, the Rudd Government intends to make school performance data publicly available, allowing parents to identify successful and underperforming schools. During the primary years, a minimum of five hours of mathematics is in; spell checks are out; spelling is in; self-expression is out; learning correct grammar, punctuation and syntax is in. The ALP policy paper is happy to state: "Sustained attention to the basics should be evident throughout a student's entire schooling career, but particularly in the early years and primary school."

    "When describing its approach to developing a national curriculum, the ALP paper thankfully acknowledges that to be effective any national curriculum must be clear, concise and concrete. In addition to benchmarking the proposed national curriculum against existing state and territory best practice, one also hopes that those developing the curriculum will look internationally.

    "While Kevin Rudd repeats his mantra of an education revolution, especially when it comes to computers, ironically there is something very old-fashioned about the ALP's agenda. The present funding formula for non-government schools is guaranteed, at least until 2012; accountability and a back-to-basics approach is centre stage; and curriculum, to be acceptable, must focus on content instead of new-age competencies and generic skills.

    "To win elections, it is vital to remedy one's weaknesses and to nullify opponents' strengths. With the culture wars, especially education, it is clear that the ALP successfully staked the Howard government's conservative agenda. Whether the Rudd Government will be able to deliver, only time will tell."

    Kevin Donnelly, a former Howard government employee, is director of Education Strategies in Melbourne and author of Dumbing Down (Hardie Grant Books).

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Student interview selection scrapped
    
    Australia's biggest medical school is scrapping interviews for student selection as "useless", saying they are too prone to bias and there is no evidence interviewers can pick which applicants will perform well during the course.
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • First Byte
      

      "I don’t mind Julia Gillard having a super portfolio, but she should not seek to justify it by telling us that this portfolio is all about productivity. Education is not about productivity. It’s about developing fulfilled and discerning individuals who contribute to a well-functioning and just society."
      
      Anne Di Lauro, The Gap, Qld
      
      

    • Most Talked About
      
      "Kevin Rudd’s promise of a computer for every senior school student is to be commended. The way he goes about delivering on this promise will tell us a lot about how he intends to govern our nation.

      "Will he fork over millions of dollars to the big computer companies and Bill Gates and Microsoft, or will he take the initiative and encourage the students to estimate their own school’s needs, source the necessary components and expertise from local small business, and build their own machines and network. Add to this the free, open source Linux operating system (every bit as good as Windows), and not only would we save a fortune, but, more importantly, we would teach our young people to be more resourceful and self-reliant.

      "I understand, of course, that it’s not that simple. However, if the new government adopts a ``can do’’ approach to this, the relevant minister/s could get their heads together and make it happen."
      
      James McHugh, Maryborough, Qld
      
      

    • "Given the importance Kevin Rudd has placed on his so-called education revolution, many would argue that the new Prime Minister has diminished the education portfolio by including it with the equally important portfolio of employment and industrial relations. Surely each of these crucial areas warrants the oversight of a separate minister. I’m sure Julia Gillard is quite capable of carrying out the orders of the trade union movement, but for her to take on the responsibility of both these key ministerial positions, in my view, is asking too much..."
      
      Tom Griffin, Pambula, NSW
      
      
      
    • Consider an alternative
      
      "So it’s back to basics with Australian history - "settlement’’ rather than "invasion’’ ("Gillard wants history taken back to basics’’, 3/12).

      "The former implies the peaceful occupation of virgin territory (ie, terra nullius), the latter calls to mind a "D-Day’’ type armada battering an enemy coast.

      "Perhaps it’s time to consider an alternative more relevant to the actual situation at the time of the First Fleet. For example, “expropriation’’ - defined as "dispossession (especially by the state) of property from its rightful owner’’ - seems to me to be a concise summary of what took place.

      "There is historical support for this view. In 1802, the French explorer Nicolas Baudin wrote to his friend Philip King, the then governor of NSW: “I have never been able to conceive that there was justice and equity on the part of Europeans in seizing, in the name of their Governments, a land seen for the first time, when it is inhabited by men (who) were but the children of nature (and were owners of) the soil which has given them birth.’’
      
      Anthony Brown, Paradise, SA
      
      

    • "Julia Gillard, a Welsh Celtic, is wrong. Australia was invaded rather than settled. Settled might be valid if Britain had not known that the country had indigenous inhabitants but James Cook reported that fact in 1770. Britain and other European powers invaded the various countries they colonised. I well remember being told in primary school in the 1950s that Celtic Britain was invaded by the Romans, Danes and Vikings, Angles, Saxons and Jutes and, finally, the Normans. Was Britain "settled’’?"
      
      Keith Parsons, Newcastle, NSW
      
      
      

    • "In her review of the achievements of the Howard era, Janet Albrechtsen ("Election debacle doesn’t devalue crucial triumphs’’, Opinion, 28/11) includes John Howard’s challenging of a "black-armband version of history with a narrative that embraced a more balanced Australian history’’. To the contrary, it’s the Howard view that is unbalanced and which seeks to return to a state of denial about the less noble aspects of our history.

      "The reality is that until about 40 years ago, a great silence surrounded the Aboriginal experience of white Australia, founded on a deeply entrenched racism. Consider, for example, the prejudice which the freedom rides organised in the 1960s by the now NSW Chief Justice Jim Spigelman, the late Charles Perkins and others sought to highlight, or the child removal polices explored in the Stolen Generations report.

      "This experience was absent from our school history books and rarely acknowledged in the media. Since then, great strides have been made in bringing this experience into the public consciousness. This is not a black-armband view of history but an attempt to face up to the facts of Australian history in a balanced and fair-minded way.

      "It does not mean that the great achievements of our history, and the success of our wonderful democracy, should not be celebrated but, rather, when our children learn (for example) about the heroic feat of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth in crossing the Blue Mountains, they also learn about what this meant for the Aboriginal people on the other side of the divide. They were not invisible."
      
      Jim Neely, Curtin, ACT

Wednesday 5 December

• The Australian
  
  
  • Brightest pupils falling behind world
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Australia's top students are failing to keep pace with their international peers, with the latest OECD tests of high school pupils showing a drop in reading and maths skills.

    "Results from the latest Program for International Student Assessment, released yesterday by the OECD group of 30 developed nations, show that while Australian students still perform in the top 10 of the world in reading, maths and science and well above the OECD average, their ranking dropped.

    "The PISA test of 15-year-olds shows the reading scores of Australian students fell about 15 points over the past six years, with the decline caused by a fall among the highest-performing students.

    "It is noteworthy that, among the countries with above-average performance levels, only Australia has seen a statistically significant decline in their students' reading performance," the report says.

    "In maths, Australia's mean score remained about the same, but this was due to an improvement among the weakest students that counteracted the fall in performance among top students.

    "Ben Wilcox, 13, is one of the nation's brightest students, attending a selective high school in Sydney that takes the state's top performers.

    "Ben's mother, Leonie, describes her son as exceptionally busy rather than exceptionally bright, saying he just does a lot - playing three instruments in five bands, cricket and swimming in summer, soccer and debating in winter.

    "I don't have many free afternoons," Ben said, adding that is the way he likes it.

    "While Ms Wilcox said Ben had been lucky in having primary school teachers who gave him more advanced work, some were reluctant to excuse him from the rote tasks such as times tables and spelling lists.

    "Researchers in gifted and talented education argue that Australian schools need to better provide for the academically gifted, in the same way that elite sports people are fostered, and encourage bright students to forge ahead at their own pace rather than tie them to the class rate.

    "Analysis by the Australian Council for Educational Research, which conducts the PISA test on behalf of the OECD, shows that the main decline in maths scores occurred among girls and in the states of Western Australia and South Australia. [emphasis added]

    "ACER chief executive Geoff Masters said the result was a warning sign, and for the first time boys were outperforming girls in maths. "Girls made good gains over recent decades in maths and we need to keep an eye that it's not starting to erode," he said.

    "In reading, Professor Masters said fewer students were demonstrating skills at the highest levels, which involved sophisticated reading and understanding the nuance of language. Students had to read complex and unfamiliar texts and find information that was not obvious.

    "New federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said the PISA results showed an urgent need for reform in the education system, and she attributed the decline to the "decade of neglect" by the former Howard government.

    "Australia needs a fresh focus on the basics of literacy and numeracy to ensure our kids get the best start to life through a world-class education system," she said.

    "The Government is committed to developing a consistent, rigorous and high-quality national curriculum in the key areas of English, maths, science and history." [emphasis added]

    "The PISA tests have been conducted every three years since 2000, with the most recent last year testing about 400,000 15-year-olds in 57 countries, including more than 14,000 Australian students in about 350 schools across the country. Rather than testing factual knowledge, the PISA tests assess students on their ability to apply their knowledge and skills to problems in the areas of reading, maths and science. Australia's ranking has slipped in all areas since 2000.

    "In reading, Australia ranked equal sixth, while in 2000 it ran second behind only Finland. Australia now falls behind Korea, Finland, Hong Kong, Canada and New Zealand.

    "Australia now ranks equal in reading to Ireland, Liechtenstein, Poland, Sweden and The Netherlands.

    "In maths, Australia ranked equal ninth last year compared with equal eighth in 2003 and second in 2000, now falling behind Chinese Taipei, Finland, Hong Kong, Korea, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada and Macau.

    "The science questions changed between 2003 and last year, making it difficult to compare results, but Australia ranked equal fourth last year behind Finland, Hong Kong and Canada.

    "More than half the 2006 PISA test was devoted to science, and Australian students performed above the average in their knowledge of the content areas. But nationally, physics and living systems or biology were weaker, while Earth and space systems, environmental science, geology and astronomy, were strongest.

    "About 13 per cent of Australian students failed to meet the baseline level of proficiency in maths and science, and 14 per cent in reading. The lowest level is deemed to be the minimum skills required to adequately participate in the workforce.

    "The report adds further evidence to the low standards of indigenous education, with about 40 per cent of students failing to meet the baseline in all three areas."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    Similar stories in today's Age and Sydney Morning Herald
    
    

  • Editorial
    Dumbing Down
    
    The sooner Julia Gillard takes on teachers the better
    
    "Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made much of his education revolution over the past 12 months, promising to address the digital divide he claims is affecting the performance of students. His plan is to put a computer on the desk of every Year 9 to 12 student. Yet the disturbing evidence that has emerged from the latest results of the OECD Program for International Student Assessment is not of socio-economic inequity. Rather, it shows Australian schools are dumbing down their high achievers, particularly girls.

    "While Australia continues to outperform most OECD countries in educational achievement, there are disturbing trends behind the generally good average scores. Australian outcomes in literacy have become more equitable, with socio-economic factors playing less of a role in determining success, but this has come about because of a decline in performance at the upper end of the achievement scale without any improvement at the lower end. In other words, our best and brightest children are performing less well while the stragglers have not made any appreciable progress.

    "The OECD report also shows that gender differences have re-emerged in maths for the first time in many years, with a significant decline in mathematics achievements of 15-year-old girls compared with 15-year-old boys. Once again, ominously, it has come from the higher end of achievement.

    "But the most damning result for Australian educators is the performance of indigenous students, whose scores were on average 2 1/2 years behind non-indigenous students. In scientific literacy, a key focus in the 2006 tests, 40 per cent of indigenous students performed below the OECD baseline. If ever there was a statistic that highlighted the poor educational outcomes of indigenous students who until recently have been allowed to simply not go to school in remote communities in the Northern Territory, this is it. Yet left-wing Aboriginal activists like Michael Mansell, Larissa Behrendt, and Terry O'Shane have launched an attack on Aboriginal academic Marcia Langton, simply because she dared to defend the Northern Territory intervention, which they call an invasion.

    "Education Minister Julia Gillard will have her work cut out in getting state government education departments, who are the captives of the Australian Teachers Federation, to accept her back-to-basics approach to a national curriculum and her orthodox approach to history, in which she said that Australia was settled rather than invaded. The sooner Ms Gillard has a showdown with the black armband activists and the unionists, the easier it will be to start making the changes which are necessary to raise Australia's educational levels to the top of the OECD instead of creating a culture of mediocrity that discourages high achievers." [emphasis added]

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Lessons to learn from the success of others
    by Kevin Donnelly
    
    "As evidence that there is no crisis in education, groups such as the Australian Association for the Teaching of English and the Australian Education Union point to the results of our 15-year-old students in the PISA 2000 literacy test, where the nation was ranked second only to Finland.
    
    "Such optimism is misplaced given last year's PISA results just released, in which Australian students dropped from second to sixth, and the fact the fall was caused by a decline in the students performing at the high end of the scale.

    "That Australian students were ranked fourth in terms of scientific literacy, while commendable, cannot disguise the fact that compared with many other OECD countries, Australia has a significant number of disadvantaged students performing badly - especially indigenous students, those from remote schools and those with poor socio-economic backgrounds.

    "The PISA results mirror Australia's poor performance in a second international series of tests, known as the Trends in International Science Study tests.

    "Not only is Australia placed in the second 11 when it comes to results, consistently outperformed by countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Czech Republic and The Netherlands, but fewer students are able to perform at the highest level.

    "In the 2002-03 science test, 9 per cent of Australian students performed at the advanced level, compared with 25 per cent from Taiwan and 15 per cent from Japan. In maths, only 7 per cent of Australian Year 8 students performed at the advanced level, compared with 44 per cent from Singapore.

    "What can be done to raise standards? The question is more than academic, given Labor's promise to address falling standards and develop more effective curriculums. Identifying the characteristics of better-performing education systems provides one avenue to strengthen our system(s). Countries that outperform Australia emphasise competitive external examinations; the curriculum is academic-based and there is a greater emphasis on effective classroom practice; students are streamed in terms of ability; and there is a differentiated curriculum, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

    "Teachers are provided with clear syllabus road maps detailing what is to be taught. They are, thus, able to put more time and energy into evaluating what works best in the classroom." [emphasis added]

    Kevin Donnelly, a former Howard government employee, is director of Education Strategies in Melbourne.
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    

  • School courses scramble basics
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "School geography courses leave students with a "scrambled" understanding of the subject and lacking in the basic knowledge required to study the discipline in Years 11 and 12 and beyond.

    "A study into the teaching of geography commissioned by the Howard government and obtained by The Australian says that the integration of geography into social studies courses, such as Studies of Society and the Environment, has stripped the subject of its disciplinary integrity.

    "As a result, the geography taught in primary schools and up to Year 10 in high schools had lost the content, rigour and skills it had when it was a stand-alone subject.

    "There are more important gaps in continuity of geographic thinking, content, skills and ideas through the curriculum, particularly from Year 6 to Year 10," the study says.

    "This gap in continuity ... means that many students have a 'scrambled' understanding ofworld patterns of places, resources, developments and issues.

    "More importantly, this gap in continuity occurs because there is little guarantee all students will actually be taught any geographic skills or knowledge in any particular school, even though it is possible or even mandated within current state/territory curriculum and syllabus frameworks."

    "The study, conducted by management consultants Erebus International, was commissioned by former education minister Julie Bishop amid concerns of a decline in the quality of the content and rigour in teaching geography.

    "The study highlights some significant gaps in geography teaching, including generally inadequate study of basic physical geography, little study of the geography of the economy and population mobility being generally ignored, as are the socioeconomic characteristics of communities and the geography of advantage and disadvantage.

    "Aside from NSW, where geography is taught as a mandatory separate subject from Years 7 to 10, curriculums fail to specify the content to be taught.

    "Given that many teachers of SOSE have no training in geography, and often no enthusiasm for the subject, the quality of geography teaching varies enormously from school to school.

    "It depends too much on the teacher, not the system, as to whether a student will gain geographical understanding, knowledge and skills," the study says.

    "The study emphasises the need for practical activities, making the point that "geography without fieldwork is like science without experiments".

    "Computers and technology need to be integrated, and teachers should link the curriculum to current issues."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Your Say Blog [invites reader somments]
    Do we give bright kids a fair go?
    
    "Australia's top students are falling behind their international counterparts, especially in the areas of reading and maths, according to the OECD, and have been doing so since 2000.

    "These findings prompt the question: Are we doing enough in our state-based education systems to give bright kids a fair go?

    "While NSW and Victoria have well-developed systems of state-run “selective schools” designed to foster the talents of “gifted” children, other states have a more disparate approach.

    "There can be little debate that gifted children face as many difficulties coping within the regular school environment as those who struggle.

    "The attitude that exceptionally bright children will simply “do OK” in life because of their high intelligence is still prevalent in some sections of the community, and ignores the emotional and social impact the regular school environment can have on these students.

    "Do we need a nationwide system where every secondary school has a “selective stream” where children are encouraged or required to go more quickly through the basics and to delve more deeply into the subjects?

    "Importantly, this would give intelligent, hard-working children from less well-off backgrounds - and from states other than NSW and Victoria - the chance to compete on more level terms with children born into more advantageous circumstances."

    What do you think?

    Post / read comments at link
    
    
    
    
  • Study finds learning is a casual business
    by Brendan O'Keefe
    
    "Up to two-thirds of undergraduate teaching in Australian universities is done by casuals, a study has found.
    
    "Some academics remain casuals for years, unable to land a permanent job because of university budget restraints.

    "University of NSW learning and teaching project officer Lynn Sheridan, who ran the study for the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching, said "60 per cent plus of undergraduate teaching is now being taught by a casual workforce. In some faculties, schools or units this proportion was up to 80 per cent.".

    "A 2003 study found 40 per cent of teaching was done by casuals.

    "Ms Sheridan discovered one unit with 20 sessional staff, one full-time convenor and three full-time lecturers for 1700 students.

    "National Tertiary Education Union industrial officer Josh Cullinan said the union was "very concerned about the level of casualisation".

    "We would say there are far, far too many," he said.

    "Some of them provide pretty core functions, like subject co-ordination and teaching entire subjects.

    "There is no security. Universities cut off their library and email access between semesters."

    "Up to half of casuals would prefer to be made permanent.

    "Ms Sheridan said lack of permanency hurt universities.

    "You lose corporate knowledge," she said.

    "The NTEU yesterday held a conference on the problem.

    "University of Technology, Sydney, casual humanities tutor Paddy Gibson helped broker a deal to have casuals paid more for spending time outside of normal working hours marking essays.

    "Documenting the amount of time spent marking revealed massive underpayment and exploitation of casuals," Mr Gibson said.

    "PhD student Chris Latham, who works at Murdoch and Curtin universities, struggled to tide himself over during unpaid semester breaks. He said he didn't know at the end of one semester whether he would have work in the next.

    "Another PhD student, Beth Rankin, has been a casual tutor for 15 years: 10 at the University of Melbourne and the past five at La Trobe.

    "She said every end of year was the same: "Every department says 'we have no money'. The dean says 'we can't appoint anyone yet, we can offer only casual year-to-year contracts'.

    "And always, the next year, they say 'we realise we need you to come back'."

    "An NTEU survey this year found 56 per cent of respondents had been in casual academic work for five or more years. Four in 10 had applied for more secure work but more than half had been knocked back. More than two-thirds of the respondents said casual work was their only source of income.

    "Universities Australia chief executive officer Glenn Withers said universities were no different from other businesses in the "trend towards greater workforce flexibility".
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Sector slips in international rankings
    by Luke Slattery
    
    "An overall decline in the higher education sector's international performance highlights the challenge faced by the new Rudd Government in achieving its education revolution.

    "In the two big international measures of university performance -- the Shanghai Jiao Tong index and The Times ranking -- Australia's international standing has slumped despite some strong individual performances.

    "In the 2007 Jiao Tong index, highly respected as a gauge of research intensity, Australia's two top universities lost ground this year against their international competitors and both suffered in the individual ratings.

    "The Australian National University fell from 54th to 57th place while the University of Melbourne slipped from 78th to 79th place. The ANU lost 0.4 per cent in the ratings, which measure highly cited researchers and award winners, while Melbourne lost 0.3 per cent.

    "The Times, which assigns 40per cent of its weighting to peer review, placed 11 Australian universities in its global top 200 (four more than the Jiao Tong). But the rankings of seven universities fell between 2006 and 2007, while only three rose; the Australian National University, ranked 16th in the world by The Times, held its ground..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Triple fund, urge jumpy sector chiefs
    
    Universities have upped the ante on the education revolution by calling for the Higher Education Endowment Fund to be more than tripled in size to $20 billion within five years, while warning that the new Government faces a hostile sector if it fails to deliver on expectations.
    
    
    

  • Aid falls amid a boom in exports
    
    Countries with lucrative export education industries are less likely to be generous with educational aid, and Australia is one of the main culprits, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In a new study of what it calls cross-border education, the OECD says Australia's share of foreign aid devoted to educational development plummeted from 83 per cent to 5 per cent between 1995 and 2005.
    
    
    

  • Integrity the first to fail test
    
    Life stresses make cheating likelier among students, some of whom have stand-ins take exams for them, the nation's first study of stress-related academic misconduct has found.
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Aussie teens fall further behind world's best in reading and maths [Front page]
    
    Australian teenagers' reading and maths skills are rapidly falling behind those of students in other countries, new international test results have revealed.
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    See related stories [above] in The Australian, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Gillard put to the test with education (page 21)
    by Tony Rutherford
    
    "The Rudd ministry, when announced, contained relatively few surprises. It is a pity that Craig Emerson, one of the few really original minds in the Parliamentary Labor Party, did not get a better portfolio — education, in particular.
    
    "Stephen Smith, on the other hand, has been given a portfolio in which, for the first time, his abilities can emerge, even if he will find it difficult with a Prime Minister who will be tempted to be his own foreign minister. John Faulkner, too, has a portfolio entirely fitting his relentless forensic talents.
    
    "The real surprise, however, is the gift of two major ministries to the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard: industrial relations and education. Ms Gillard has no readily apparent track record in thinking about education; nor does she have any obvious talent for independent thought, having had to be dragged reluctantly to a position dateable to somewhere in the early 1990s on industrial relations policy over the last year or so.
    
    "Mr Rudd’s choices were, however, considered and thoughtful; he must know something about his deputy, something other than her undoubted capacity for hard work, that we do not. Certainly, the new minister will need all the help she can get. Implementing Labor’s policy on industrial relations will not be easy. That goes without saying. But education will not be much easier.
    
    "To start with, she will have to map out a reasonably firm position which defines the relationship between States and Commonwealth more clearly than did her predecessor. The benign pre-election attitude of the premiers and State ministers will surely not survive long without something more formal by way of a map to help it along.
    
    "But more than anything else, she will have to come to terms with the mess that is Australia’s public education system. It varies, of course, from State to State, but can nowhere be described as being in a flourishing condition.
    
    "This was well and truly underlined by the well-timed release last Wednesday of the results of the adult literacy and life skills survey, by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The results put one in mind of the opinion voiced by President Ronald Reagan’s 1983 National Commission on Excellence in Education, which reported that “if an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might have viewed it as an act of war”. Indeed, yes.
    
    "The results were summarised in this paper last week (and can be consulted at much greater length on the ABS’s website). Note that the tests concentrated on the ability to function with adequate literacy and numeracy in real-life situations, not in an academic context. Some of the survey’s results were perhaps a little surprising. It seems fairly hard to believe that quite big numbers of middle-aged Australians, for instance, have problems with functional literacy, although the message from some of the statistics is that literacy gets better with age and practice. But the results for young people were entirely unsurprising. Of those aged 15 to 19, 52 per cent scored lower than the acceptable Level 3 in literacy. It may come as a consolation to various ministers and bureaucrats that on a State by State basis, WA performed better overall than all but the ACT.
    
    "These results, and other similar ones, can bring the necessary attention to bear on where the problems are and what the focus of policy should be. The simple fact is that far too many students are leaving school without the skills necessary to cope with life and work. The catchy promises made by Mr Rudd in opposition, and repeated since taking government, are in this context largely irrelevant, even leaving aside the fact that most such students already have satisfactory access to computers. Giving each secondary student a computer will do nothing at all to help here. Indeed, it is more than arguable that the reliance of students on computers works against their improving their basic skills in any relevant way.
    
    "This problem, of course, goes further back into the primary level. There are any number of secondary teachers who can tell you about the steady decline in skills that they see in each successive intake of Year 8 children. And coinciding with that is a matching slow decline in standards of behaviour.
    
    "This is a problem for Ms Gillard. If she accepts the evidence, what does she do with it? Her predecessors, Julie Bishop and Brendan Nelson, found only limited room to manoeuvre. They intervened by forcing standardised testing on the State systems, meeting some fairly determined resistance on the part of both the State bureaucracies and the unions along the way. This kind of thing will, presumably, continue; indeed, must continue. But it was not achieved in the first place without a little financial arm-twisting and blackmail. After that point, policy options begin to get a little bit thin. Can Commonwealth intervention, for instance, make any difference to the appalling conditions that so many teachers labour under, or to the ludicrous attrition rate which is a consequence of that? Can the Commonwealth successfully insist on school autonomy and a far more deregulated salary regime? Perhaps and perhaps not.
    
    "Commonwealth funding of the private education system, of course, which provides a measure of healthy competition, will also continue, even if Ms Gillard is obliged to grit her teeth and swallow her old lefty pride in implementing Mr Rudd’s “me-too” policies. Sooner or later, perhaps, someone is going to say, well, why don’t we do with schools what we are doing with public hospitals — give them performance targets, and take them over if they don’t perform? That is surely one political step too far. She could, of course, have a long and useful talk with Craig Emerson about better funding arrangements (as long as no one mentions the terrible word “vouchers”). In the end, she and her Prime Minister are going to have to decide how serious they really are about their education revolution. And while they are coming to grips with that, things are getting worse all the time."
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Howard to blame for education slip: Gillard
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard says a fall in Australia's education standards is the Howard Government's legacy to the nation.

    "A new study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says the performances of Australian high school students in the key areas of maths and reading have fallen compared to other developed nations.

    "In reading, Australia lags behind five other countries - Korea, Finland, Hong Kong, Canada and New Zealand. In 2000 Australia was second in the reading rankings.

    "Ms Gillard says the statistics are deeply concerning.

    "Obviously we are trying to overcome more than a decade of neglect," she said.

    "I'm not going to pretend that that's going to happen overnight.

    "It's going to be a long job but we're going to get the job started by delivering on important promises, like our promise for universal preschool."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• Mark McGowan Media Statement
  
  
  • Western Australian students among world’s best
    
    Western Australian students performed the best of all the Australian States in the recent OECD global academic test of 15 year olds.

    Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan said the results showed Western Australian students were ranked third in the world in science - up from fourth in 2003.

    “Finland was the only country in the world which scored higher than WA in this area - proof that the quality of science teaching in Western Australian schools is nothing short of outstanding,” Mr McGowan said.

    The latest Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) shows that WA students performed exceptionally well compared with the overall performance of Australian students and those from around the world.

    Science was the major focus of PISA 2006, which saw more than 400,000 students from 57 countries tested on scientific knowledge; identifying scientific issues, explaining phenomena and using evidence.

    “Giving students a solid grounding in science is particularly important as WA’s resources-led economy drives up demand for professionals and skilled workers with strong science backgrounds,” the Minister said.

    “Many Western Australian students also indicated that science has a high personal value, which bodes well for the future of scientific endeavour in our State.

    “What’s more, the socio-economic background of our students has had a low impact on their PISA science performance, which means all of our students are being given opportunities to succeed.”

    Mr McGowan said that Western Australian students had also performed well in maths and reading, the two other areas measured in the test.

    “Western Australia’s results were well above the OECD average in all three areas - maths, science and reading,” he said.

    “Among Australian states and territories, WA was second only to the Australian Capital Territory in each area.”

    While internationally WA has dropped to sixth place from second in 2003 in reading, the results of the top countries, including WA, were particularly close and were significantly higher than the Australian average.

    “WA students put in a far superior performance in reading compared with students in powerhouse countries including the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland,” he said.

    In maths, WA is in sixth place internationally down from second in 2003 but still outperformed countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the USA.

    Students from 16 more countries were tested in 2006, compared with 2003.

    PISA is designed to measure how ready students are to meet the challenges of the future as they prepare to leave school and what skills they possess to adapt to a rapidly changing society.

    “While WA’s results are outstanding we cannot be complacent, as other countries make rapid progress in the performance of their students,” the Minister said.

    “WA’s results show that our students are being well-equipped for life in the real world thanks to our strong education system and dedicated teachers.”

    • PISA Mean Scores showing WA's ranking
      
      
      
      
• Australian Council for Educational Research
  
  
  • The PISA 2006 National Reports
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • U.S. Teens Trail Peers Around World on Math-Science Test
    by Maria Glod
    
    "The disappointing performance of U.S. teenagers in math and science on an international exam, in scores released yesterday, has sparked calls for improvement in public schools to help the country keep pace in the global economy.

    "The scores from the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment showed that U.S. 15-year-olds trailed their peers from many industrialized countries. The average science score of U.S. students lagged behind those in 16 of 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group that represents the world's richest countries. The U.S. students were further behind in math, trailing counterparts in 23 countries.
    

    "How are our children going to be able to compete with the children of the world? The answer is not well," said former Colorado governor Roy Romer, chairman of Strong American Schools, a nonpartisan group seeking to make education prominent in the 2008 presidential election..."
    
    "The PISA results underscore concerns that too few U.S. students are prepared to become engineers, scientists and physicians, and that the country might lose ground to competitors. An expert panel appointed last year by President Bush is preparing to recommend ways to improve public school math instruction, with a focus on algebra.
    
    "Former West Virginia governor Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a group seeking to improve high schools, said the scores show a need for more training and support for math and science teachers. He also said the federal government should encourage states to agree on common education standards so that all students are working toward the same targets..."
    
    "Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said that the results were disappointing but that the National Math Advisory Panel and other initiatives are in motion to bolster math and science education. The ranking "speaks to what President Bush has long been advocating for: more rigor in our nation's high schools; additional resources for advanced courses to prepare students for college-level studies; and stronger math and science education," she said in a statement."

    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Education is about the adults of the future, not just productivity
      
      "The dust hasn't even settled after the election and already it seems to be business as usual for those of us in education.

      "The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, has now told us that productivity is her main focus, and that education is a part of this ("Gillard connects dots with productivity push", December 4). Excuse me? Are we to have little battery farms of children learning facts and figures with a sole aim to filling jobs?

      "Education is a broad concept that embraces people learning for life, of which employment is just one part.

      "We need a minister for education who will look at how best we can support the education of our nation. This means funding universities properly and helping the states with funding for public schools and TAFE colleges. Funding levels must adequately maintain buildings, employ enough teachers to ensure class sizes are appropriate for learning and help those with disabilities and other special needs to have proper one-on-one support.

      "While computers are always welcome, we can educate our students without them. Those of us who educate our society know that human resources such as more teachers will provide much more support to those in our care.

      "While primary schools still have class sizes of 30 and more, our children are getting a raw deal. While governments fund rich private schools, money is being taken away from the public infrastructure. TAFE is being continually dismantled, with the latest plan to overhaul the NSW TAFE system a blow to TAFE students everywhere.

      "I thought that under a federal Labor government we might reverse the trend away from a blinkered focus on economics and more towards supporting communities.

      "With the education of all children a priority, we must start thinking about creating intelligent and able adults of the future, not commodities in the productivity of our country.

      "Not happy, Julia."

      Margaret Grove, Abbotsford

Thursday 6 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers offered new deal (page 6)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "The State Government is bullying teachers into rushing through a new pay deal before the end of the year.

    "The West Australian understands that a new pay offer will be put to State School Teachers Union members today offering a 3 per cent increase next year followed by 4 per cent rises in 2009 and 2010 and 2 per cent in 2011.

    "But the State Government has threatened to withdraw its proposal by December 31, saying it would have to be renegotiated through Treasury and Cabinet if teachers reject it.

    "Teachers will also be told the starting dates for new allowances could be delayed if they turn down the offer and that the matter may be taken to the WA Industrial Commission, which would hold up pay increases."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • WACOT refuses to reveal how many teachers face ban over fees (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "The organisation charged with registering WA teachers last night thumbed its nose at parents around the State by refusing to reveal how many teachers faced being barred from classrooms because they failed to pay their compulsory annual fee.

    "The WA College of Teaching refused to say how many teachers would be deregistered, claiming to do so was not in the public interest.

    "On Monday, it still had about 1000 teachers on its books who had not paid, but it estimates that only about 190 of those are working in WA schools.

    "WACOT decided yesterday it would make good its threat to deregister teachers who failed to pay the $70 fee. But deregistration will not take effect until December 14, after schools break up for the summer holidays, averting the prospect of a shortage of hundreds of teachers in the final week of term.

    "But with the teachers union already warning schools could be up to 600 teachers short in 2008, the prospect of more teachers being banned over the fee means thousands of parents and students face a disastrous start to the new school year.

    "This year's fees were due on April 30 but many teachers refused to pay until after the election of 10 teacher representatives to the new WACOT board. Votes will be counted on Monday and the results announced on Tuesday.

    "WACOT staff contacted hundreds of teachers by phone this week to give them a final chance to pay. Payments flooded in. It is understood that teachers who did not pay by 4 pm on Tuesday will have until next Tuesday to do so, making a mockery of WACOT's threat to ban those who had not paid by this week.

    "Education minister Mark McGowan wrote to WACOT urging it to delay deregistering teachers until the end of next week. Last night, he welcomed the board's decision because it would not cause disruption to classrooms this year.

    "I would strongly urge all teachers to pay their registration before the final cut off date," he said. "If they don't, there could be unfortunate implications. I would not like to see that happen to any teachers."

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said the decision on deregistration should have been left to the new board.

    "WACOT chairman Brian Lindberg did not return calls yesterday. [emphasis added]

    "In a written statement he said the board had a responsibility to manage a regulatory system."

    From The West Australian
    
    

  • ABC News
    
    
    • Hundreds of teachers face deregistration
      
      "Almost 200 West Australian teachers face the sack unless they pay an annual registration fee within nine days.

      "About 190 classroom teachers are yet to pay a $70 registration fee to the West Australian College of Teaching (WACOT).

      "The WACOT board met last night and decided those who fail to pay before December 14 will be deregistered and banned from teaching in schools.

      "The College's Director Suzanne Parry says the school term will be over by then so classes will not be disrupted.

      "Staff have been contacting people individually with regard to invoicing, a great many people had responded we had a very very small minority that said they wouldn't pay," she said.

      "We were so close to the end of the school year that the cancellation becomes effective once the teaching is over and that was the outcome [Education] Minister [Mark] McGowan was seeking also."

      "Dr Parry says she is confident most teachers will pay the fee on time."

      From ABC News at link
      
      
      
      

  • Education in serious trouble: expert (page 18)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    

    "Australian education is in crisis and drastic changes are needed to rebuild trust in the State system to stop the exodus of students to private schools, an expert has warned.

    "Education consultant and former Melbourne University education dean Brian Caldwell said Kevin Rudd's so called education revolution had to move fast to tackle problems with luring and keeping teachers, poor student achievement and crumbling schools.

    "He said the real education revolution was about improving the quality of teachers and he called for all teachers to have masters' degrees.

    "He also said they should be given a boost in salaries, with up to 25 per cent more for top teachers prepared to work in challenging schools.

    "Teachers should also be given an extra 20 days off a year for training and receive more administrative support.

    "Professor Caldwell suggest the key reforms in his book Raising the Stakes, which he co wrote with school finance expert Kim Spinks and is to be launched today. The book cites recent research that shows even though Australia has nearly trebled its student expenditure on school education since the early 1970s, students' achievements have not improved.

    "Governments still deny there's an educational crisis," Professor Caldwell said. "It is a crisis. It runs deep. Many schools are in dire straits."

    "Many public high schools were set to become nothing more than "safety net schools" for people uninterested or unable to afford private education, he said. The number of students in private schools had jumped 21.5 per cent in the past decade, compared with a 1.2 per cent increase in State school enrolments.

    "The quality of teaching was the most important factor in boosting student achievement but it would take years to phase in a requirement for all teachers to hold master's qualifications.

    "What we're doing is taking the lead from Finland, where every teacher has a master's degree and only 105 of students who apply to get in to teacher education are actually accepted," Professor Caldwell said.

    "Students from Finland consistently topped international tests in science, reading and maths set by the OECD.

    "He said the 2006 results released this week showed that Australia slipped from 2nd place in 2000 to 6th in reading and from 2nd to 9th in Maths. But it rated equal 4th in science.

    "WA education minister Mark McGowan said the State Government's pay offer to the State School Teachers Union would see all teachers receive a significant pay increase, including allowances for teaching in tough city and remote schools.

    "The latest OECD results showed that WA performed the best out of all Australian States and was among the best in the world. "

    From The West Australian

    See a related article plus Brian Caldwell's Op Ed in today's Age
    
    
    

• The Australian

© The Australian

• Op Ed
  Howard not to blame for slide
  by Kevin Donnelly
  
  "In response to Australia's unacceptable performance in last year's PISA test, where it dropped from second to sixth in literacy and where fewer students, compared with previous tests, performed at the top of the scale, Julia Gillard, the new Education Minister, blames what she terms the Howard government's "decade of neglect".

"Wrong. History shows that the Howard government has a consistent record of working to raise standards. Not only did John Howard, when prime minister, describe himself as an "avowed education traditionalist" - ironically, Ms Gillard now uses the same expression when describing her approach to education - but his government led the fight against state and territory dumbed-down curriculum.

"One only needs to look at the parlous quality of state and territory curriculum to know where the true explanation lies for falling standards. Literature, especially classic texts, is no longer pre-eminent as students are asked to deconstruct SMS messages, graffiti and movie posters. Across Australia, many students are able to complete Year 12 English without ever reading a substantive novel or play. [emphasis added]

"The Tasmanian and the Northern Territory Essential Learnings approach to curriculum, where teaching the content associated with academic disciplines gives way to new-age dispositions and competencies such as futures and working in teams, provides further proof of where the blame lies for Australian students under-performing.

"As argued by the teacher action group, PLATO, Western Australia's adoption of outcomes-based education has not only made the work of teachers more difficult - no wonder it is impossible for the state Government to attract teachers - but, as a result of falling standards, many students now enter secondary school illiterate and innumerate. [emphasis added]

"Professional associations such as the Australian Association for the Teaching of English, faculties of teacher education and the Australian Education Union are also to blame for students under-performing. Not only have such groups forced a dumbed-down approach to curriculum on schools, but their argument that standards will only improve if more money is spent, based on overseas research, is wrong.

"Over the past 12 months, Kevin Rudd made much of his education revolution, including establishing a National Curriculum Board to strengthen Australia's education system. Unfortunately, in promising to give control of the new board to the Curriculum Corporation and the Australian Council for Education Research - two of the organisations responsible for the present mess - one has todoubt that anything will improve."

Kevin Donnelly, a former Howard government employee, is director of Education Strategies in Melbourne

From The Australian at link

• Editorial
  Education revolution marked on outcome
  

  Labor must tackle the states and unions on schools
  
  "Labor's pledge to end the blame game with the states should not prevent the burden of responsibility being put where it belongs. It is all very well for Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard to say it is the Howard government's fault that Australia's education standards have slipped down the OECD ladder, but at least it tried to intervene. While the report cards of successive Coalition education ministers, including Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, should read "should have tried harder", their state counterparts and teacher union colleagues have certainly earned a "fail". The equality-of-outcomes culture still triumphs over the more traditional Labor view of equality of opportunity. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Ms Gillard must make setting this right the priority of their promised education revolution. Giving away free lap-top computers is a terrific symbol of modernisation but should not be seen as an end in itself.

  "At this early stage of the Rudd Government, there is cause for optimism. Ms Gillard declared on the Meet the Press program on Sunday that she was determined to make basic literacy and numeracy skills the priority in a national curriculum. Without these skills, Ms Gillard said, students were never going to cope with wider curriculums. Ms Gillard is reflecting a view that has been long held by Mr Rudd, who was an outspoken critic of the Studies of Society and the Environment syllabus in Queensland under which history, geography and citizenship studies were combined into a single subject. Mr Rudd argued that SOSE failed to teach students basic facts of history and geography and did not adequately prepare them to understand what they were learning.

  "The trend towards equality of outcome started in Victoria, but has been allowed to creep into all jurisdictions. History has become Time, Continuity and Change in Western Australia and it is possible to complete Year 12 English in NSW by studying a film or song rather than a book. The decades-long equality-of-outcomes experiment has bred a culture of conformity and taken the emphasis away from facts. It has also produced a report-card system in the earlier years of school that makes it impossible for parents to compare pupils against their peers or one school against another.

  "The Howard Government was vocal in its desire to improve the education system and implement national standards, but was frustrated at every attempt. In 2005, Dr Nelson was roundly attacked by state education ministers for wanting to compare states according to the quality of Year 12 education. Plans for a national curriculum have proceeded at a glacial pace. In truth, Labor state education ministers remain captive to the powerful education unions, which are themselves steeped in the collectivist ideal to the point that teachers are paid on the basis of time served rather than skills or merit.

  "To fix the system, Ms Gillard must lay the blame where it is due and tackle the states and education unions head-on. This is not a conservative agenda. Social democrats understand that education is the key to both community prosperity and individual opportunity. Mr Rudd clearly understands the value of education and leads a highly educated cabinet team. When Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard say they are committed to creating a modern education system it must be one that insists on rigour. To get there, the first step is to break the grip of teachers' unions over what children are taught and what parents are allowed to know."
  

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
  
• Bishop raps Gillard on school tests
  by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
  
  "The Opposition yesterday accused Education Minister Julia Gillard of taking the lazy option of blaming Howard government neglect for Australia's fall in international reading and maths tests, instead of holding state Labor governments accountable.

"Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop, the former education minister, said Ms Gillard had to recognise state governments ran schools and set curriculums and as a result were responsible for educational standards.

"If Ms Gillard continues to refuse to recognise that state governments are responsible for standards in their schools, then standards will go backwards," she said. "If this is her best response, it's a warning sign that Ms Gillard is not up to the task of managing her own super portfolio."

"Ms Gillard said on Tuesday that the decline in Australia's international standing in reading and maths tests reflected the decade of neglect by the Coalition government.

"Her comments were in response to the OECD's latest Program for International Student Assessment of 15-year-olds in 57 countries, which showed reading and maths skills among Australia's top students were falling.

"Ms Bishop said the Coalition government had provided $1.8billion to the states and territories since 2005 to improve literacy and numeracy standards. "It's critical Ms Gillard ask state governments to account for how they have invested that $1.8 billion," she said.

"Ms Bishop said teacher unions and professional associations had some responsibility for falling educational standards. "Over the past 20 years, the influence of the education unions on school curriculum has led to the embrace of fads and political agendas rather than on the core skills of literacy and numeracy," she said.

"But teachers' organisations blamed the falling standards on the Coalition government, accusing it of a decade of underfunding public schools compared with private schools.

"The Australian Association for the Teaching of English said the PISA results should be welcomed by parents and teachers because Australia's overall position remained high. AATE president Karren Philp said: "Care needs to be exercised in how the PISA test data is interpreted. It is wrong to immediately assert the results indicate declining standards of literacy in this country." [I was taught that data are plural, Karren...  Web]

"Ms Philp said the test results backed Australia's approach in the teaching of literacy rather than the "back to basics" initiatives adopted in Britain and the US, which rank well below Australia. She told The Australian the fall in performance among top students was of concern, but she was not sure if it represented a drop in standards. "I'm not sure yet. We're going to look very closely at the report," she said. [emphasis added]

"But the Australian Education Union, representing government school teachers, and the Independent Education Union, representing teachers in the private sector, agreed the results suggested a decline among top students.

"AEU acting federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said yesterday: "Based on the results released by the OECD, we have been overtaken, and we are at risk of seeing our international education ranking decline."

"Asked if he stood by earlier comments on standards made by AEU president Pat Byrne, Mr Gavrielatos said: "Teachers have always been and will always remain concerned about standards in our schools. We don't get into hysterical and deceitful debates advanced by the previous government wanting to divest its funding responsibilities."

From The Australian at link

• Reader Comments on yesterday's 'Your Say Blog':
  Do we give bright kids a fair go? [79 so far]
  
  
  
  
• Study gives nod to Sikh knife in school
  
  Sikh students would be allowed to carry small daggers to school under a plan that has outraged teachers and principals.
  
  
  
  
• Letters to the Editor
  

  Most Talked About: Education Standards

  • Gillard should be blaming the Labor states, not Howard
    
    "Test results released by the OECD show the reading scores of Australian students fell about 15 points over the past six years ("Our brightest students falling behind the world’’, 5/12).

    "Julia Gillard blames John Howard. Of course she would. It wouldn’t make sense to blame the state Labor governments which have been responsible for running the schools during those six years. This is what Kevin Rudd means by ending the blame game?"
    
    Richard Shankland, Pymble, NSW
    
    

  • "But I thought state schools were run by Julia Gillard’s colleagues in the state and territory Labor governments? Why doesn’t she acknowledge this? And what about the Australian Education Union? Does it also need to step forward and take some of the blame?"
    
    Stephen Hartney, Highett, Vic
    
    
    
  • "I see that the "standards’’ of Australian high school students have apparently "slipped’’ again. No doubt another round of teacher-bashing is about to kick off, so having taught high school for more than 30 years, I’m getting in first.

    "During that time I have had my salary eroded, my conditions of work undermined, and my time wasted by one idiotic panacea after another emanating from politicians, university academics, journalists, greasy-pole-climbing principals and well-meaning parents, all of whom knew diddly-squat about teaching and learning. Syllabuses changed almost as often as I changed my shirt. Nobody ever gave anything a chance to see if it actually did any good before chucking it out in favour of some other supposedly miraculous scheme. Who in NSW even remembers the McGowan Report, School Appraisals or Open Classrooms, let alone Proposition 14?"
    
    Michael Griggs, Lidcombe, NSW
    
    

  • "I don't know about reading and maths skills but the students attending the state primary school I had occasion to visit yesterday just prior to the start of classes sure as hell won’t learn anything about fine music.

    "The public address system was blaring out at ear-splitting volume some contemporary pop noise presumably chosen for its relevance to the pupils forced to endure the sound. The epitome of musical excellence for this lot will most likely be Australian Idol. And the relevant minister here in Victoria, Bronwyn Pike, thinks that the education system is fine.

    "Judged by this example, I think not."
    
    Peter Schumacher, Shepparton, Vic
    
    

  • "Yes, it’s probably true that "the sooner Ms Gillard has a showdown with the ... activists and the unionists’’ the easier it will be to start making changes to improve the education system ("Dumbing down’’, Editorial, 5/12). But there’s a much more urgent confrontation needed – with "education’’, a term now so amorphous that it has almost totally lost its hard drive, reduced to a sort of fluff with too many soft subjects.

    "From Julia Gillard down, rather than psychobabbling about education, we need to specifically talk about schooling, teaching and learning and focus on what happens in real classrooms inhabited by live students with actual teachers – by whom I mean scholars with a breadth and depth to their learning and practical training suitable for their profession."
    
    Leonard Colquhoun, Invermay, Tas
    
    

  • "The federal government might have changed but this newspaper’s fanciful contention that teacher unions control school education apparently has not. In commenting on the recently released PISA results, your editorial writer asserted that state government education departments are captives of the Australian Teachers Federation.

    "As a state school teacher in Queensland I am, along with 96 per cent of my colleagues, a member of the Queensland Teachers Union. If my union is so powerful, I wonder why it doesn’t force my employer to dramatically improve my salary and working conditions.

    "Incidentally, the QTU is affiliated with the AEU, the Australian Education Union. The title of Australian Teachers Federation used in the editorial has not applied to the national body for more than a decade."
    
    Garry Collins, Stafford Heights, Qld
    
    

  • "It's highly disappointing to read that a federal government report has confirmed what many have long believed, that geography teaching in schools is grossly inadequate and does not teach students highly important skills and knowledge ("School courses scramble basics’’, 5/12). Much needs to be done, starting from now, to rectify this situation and ensure that all children receive an appropriate geography education.

    "Geography is not just about being able to read maps or identify landforms but is a crucial part of understanding how humans interact with their environment, how the physical world shapes societies, and how they shape it and each other. Being aware of different places and people, and understanding the relationships between them, helps children to understand the world in which they live, and encourages them to ask why certain things are observed in practice.

    "Without geography skills, the next generation may be unable to fully grasp the full importance of sustainability, climate change or uneven development. Learning geography is learning about the real world and the big problems facing humanity; this is something we ignore at our peril."
    
    Brad Ruting, Woolloomooloo, NSW

    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Rudd's revolution falls short: expert
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "All teachers should be required to get a master's degree and the best teachers should be given financial incentives to work in struggling schools if the Rudd Government is serious about an "education revolution", according to a leading education expert.

    "As new figures show Australian students are slipping in maths and reading, Professor Brian Caldwell yesterday challenged the newly elected Government to deliver much more than its election commitments if it wanted to tackle underperformance in schools.

    "Professor Caldwell said Kevin Rudd's key pledge to give every secondary school student access to a computer and high-quality broadband was hardly revolutionary, because most students already had access to computers. Instead, the focus should be on improving teacher quality, he said.

    "Everybody welcomes computers in schools and the broadband connections across the country. That's terribly important — but we need to go much further and much faster if we're really going to lift the levels of all of our students in all of our schools," said Professor Caldwell, a former dean of education at Melbourne University.

    "The education revolution in respect to laptops and computers has really been under way for a decade or more. There are gaps in it, and I think that's why Kevin Rudd's promise has been warmly received, but it ought not to be the central part of an education revolution."

    "Professor Caldwell called on the Government to undertake "'fundamental root-and-branch reform" of the teaching profession — a theme contained in his new book, Raising the Stakes.

    "The book, to be launched today, recommends that:

    • All teachers obtain master's degrees before they work in the classroom, with university ENTER scores progressively raised to match the scores in sought-after degrees.
    • Teaching salaries be increased by up to 25 % to encourage the best teachers to work in remote or hard-to-staff schools, and performance pay be offered to top teachers and principals.
      
    • Principals provide staff with at least 20 days of professional development to boost their skills. [emphasis added]
      
      

  "New Education Minister Julia Gillard declined to comment on Professor Caldwell's suggestions yesterday, with her spokeswoman saying the Government would want to look at the book before responding.

  "The book comes out as OECD figures released this week found Australian students were failing to keep pace with their peers, falling behind in maths and reading. A global snapshot of 15-year-olds showed that while Australian students continued to perform in the top 10 of the world in reading, maths and science — and well above the OECD average — literacy and numeracy skills had declined.

  "In bad news for the State Government, which rates education as its top priority, the report found Victoria was the worst of the mainland states in all three areas.

  "Premier John Brumby was forced to defend the figures yesterday, but he did concede there was room for improvement."

  From The Age at link [See the following Op Ed by Professor Brian Caldwell]
  
  

  • Op Ed
    Aiming to be first class
    by Brian J. Caldwell
    
    "Kevin Rudd is to be congratulated on making education his top priority in government. There had been an air of expectancy for most of the year following his promise in January of an education revolution. Two questions might be posed. What is the history of proposals for an education revolution? Are there seeds of such a revolution in policies announced during the election campaign and since Rudd's sweeping win on November 24?

    "It is possible that the idea of a revolution was drawn from a book that inspired New Labour's election in Britain in 1997. The book was The learning game: arguments for an education revolution by Michael Barber, Tony Blair's chief adviser on education. He now works for McKinsey & Company and is co-author of McKinsey's report on How the world's best performing school systems come out on top, which is the most widely read study worldwide of what should lie at the heart of an education revolution.

    "There have been elements of two revolutions in Australia's schools in the last half-century. One was the landmark reforms of the Menzies and Whitlam governments that delivered financial support for and fostered choice among government and non-government schools. Another is the adoption of information and communications technology that has transformed learning and teaching. Much of Rudd's promise of an education revolution is a continuation of the first and completion of the second.

    "Rudd's intentions and Julia Gillard's appointment have been welcomed in the school community. Moreover, there is bipartisan political support for strategies such as a national curriculum, a priority on early childhood education, national testing, an even stronger focus on literacy and numeracy, more school autonomy, and technical education that is better connected to the skills needs of the nation.

    "However, none of these address the "big picture" issues. The McKinsey report contained seriously disturbing evidence that Australia nearly trebled its per student expenditure on school education from the early 1970s to the mid-1990s but average attainment by students did not increase. No other country had such a poor investment record in this period.

    "The gap between our high and low-performing students is among the widest in OECD nations. Up to half of all teachers plan to leave the profession within 10 years. The number of students in private schools has jumped by 21.5 % in the past 10 years compared with 1.2 % in government schools. Most of our government schools and many non-government schools are run-down or educationally obsolete. It is no wonder teachers do not wish to stay in the profession when they are forced to work in substandard facilities.

    "So what strategies should underpin an education revolution, a key aim of which should be to rebuild trust in the nation's public schools?

    "As suggested in the McKinsey report we need root-and-branch reform to create a world-class profession. Drawing on themes in Raising the stakes: from improvement to transformation in the reform of schools, a new book by myself and Jim Spinks to be launched today, we propose the following:

    "Every teacher in Australia entering the profession from a university should have a master's degree — as in top-performing Finland — with targets for minimum ENTER scores progressively raised to match those for entry to other highly sought degrees.

    "There should be incentives to attract outstanding graduate practitioners from fields other than education in disciplines of high priority in schools, with further higher degree work blended with professional practice.

    "At least 20 days per annum of professional development should be required of all teachers. There should be significant increases in starting salaries and upper level salaries for teachers as well as for principals and other school leaders. Allowances of up to 25 % of salary or equivalent in negotiated benefits should be available to ensure top-flight professionals take up appointments in remote or difficult-to-staff schools.

    "There should be financial and non-financial rewards to acknowledge high-performing teachers and principals, on either an individual or team basis, with these weighted to favour achievement in challenging circumstances. Except where it is neither feasible nor efficient for this to occur, all government schools should select staff to meet local priorities and administer a budget that covers most aspects of school expenditure.

    "Targets should be set to rebuild or refurbish in a major way schools that are judged to be run-down or educationally obsolete. Innovative financial arrangements such as public-private partnerships should be adopted to ensure capital is raised to enable this to occur immediately for large numbers of schools.

    "There should be a personalised learning plan for every student in every school. Special schools already do this well but it should be an expectation for all.

    "Targets should be set to ensure that within five years every primary and secondary school has a partnership with a business that operates in an area of a school's specialisation or in other ways makes good educational sense.

    "Targets should be set to reduce the amount of system-wide testing of all students and public/semi-public release of results. There is a place for sampling of student performance to ensure that standards are maintained. It should be noted that Finland — the highest performing nation in international tests — does not have a national system of tests.

    "None of these strategies can succeed without unprecedented levels of co-operation between the different levels of government. Success will attract attention around the world, because no other country with multiple levels of government each with a major role in education has been able to achieve it.

    "The world is watching, Kevin and Julia, but you'll need to go further and faster."

    Brian J. Caldwell is managing director of Educational Transformations and a former dean of education at the University of Melbourne.
    

    From The Age at link [A very similar Op Ed by Brian Caldwell also appears in today's Sydney Morning Herald]
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Turn back the madness
      
      "Victoria's comparatively poor performance in education is no surprise. I left the system after 33 years, 28 of them in leadership positions, shaking my head at the madness that had afflicted it since 1992 and well aware of the steps needed to fix it:
      
      
      • To attract and retain able and independent-minded people as teachers, reverse the $31,000 relative pay cut teachers have endured since 1975.
        
        
      • Restore the almost 2000 secondary teachers still missing after the cuts of the 1992 era by an immediate return to the 1981 Liberal staffing ratio of 10.9:1 and a long-term return to the 1990 Labor staffing ratio of 10.6:1.
        
        
      • Give those teachers the time to do their jobs by restoring the conditions regarding teaching loads and class sizes stolen by retrospective legislation in 1992.
        

      • Reinstate professional judgement by teachers in the running of schools in place of the principal-as-tin-god arrangement that has failed so dramatically over the past 15 years.

      • Halt the recycling of the failed 1970s fad of the open classroom, which is dumping hundreds of children in the one so-called flexible learning space to be facilitated in projects by teams of teachers without regard to their subject expertise."
        

    Chris Curtis, Hurstbridge
    
    

    • Or is Labor to blame?
      
      "Of course Julia Gillard is going to blame John Howard for the standard of education in Australian schools, she is hardly going to place the responsibility where it rightly belongs, with the state and territory Labor governments. May I remind Ms Gillard, Mr Howard urged the states for years to lift their game by going back to basics and providing adequate education for our children. While the Coalition government continually increased funding to the states for education, the states decreased their funding although they had the windfall of the GST."

      Tom Griffin, Pambula, NSW
      
      

    • Go figure!
      
      "RE: Australian students falling behind in reading, maths and science. If you look at the results from the states, you find that the mainland state with the worst result is Victoria. By coincidence, Victoria is the state that has the lowest teacher salaries and student per capita funding. Funny that."

      Stuart Brearley, Box Hill North

     

  • Premier takes a uniform approach to teacher dress
    
    Teachers could be required to abide by school dress codes under recommendations to be considered by the Brumby Government.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Boys' reading skills a worry
    
    The [NSW] State Government has singled out the declining reading skills of teenage boys in NSW for special attention. Commenting on the release of data that shows Australian 15-year-olds are slipping behind in literacy and maths world rankings, the Minister for Education, John Della Bosca, said the performance of boys relative to girls was of particular concern.
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • School computers without support are white elephants

      "Can I take a little further one of the points raised by Margaret Grove (Letters, December 5)? Computers always feature in the glossy promotional literature for schools and of course they are loved by politicians promoting their own educational credentials.

      "But there are significant teacher training and retraining implications which are often ignored. There have been roll-outs of computers in NSW state schools since the '90s, but there has never been adequate consideration of the technical implications for the staffing and servicing of this sophisticated equipment. The "ad-hocery", inefficiency and waste resulting is the stuff which usually attracts the attention of auditor-generals. Surely federal Labor has taken these, and other factors into consideration?"

      Gus Plater, Saratoga
      
      

    • "As a teacher in charge of technology in a fantastic school in Cabramatta, I see what is required in educating students with technology. Unless the school has a teacher who has an unhealthy obsession with IT, it struggles to cope with the ever-growing requirements, upkeep and updates. A company of 60 staff would employ someone full-time to look after its network. A school of 60 teachers usually doesn't have the budget for this. The school has to commit its budget to replacing old computers, never mind the upkeep of numerous printers, digital cameras, laptops and data projectors.

      "Mr Rudd, if you are serious about technology in education, make sure you commit to the whole picture. If you are handing out computers to schools, be aware that they need a budget for their upkeep, software for the students, staff training and a promise of more funding when they become obsolete."

      Adam Williams, Summer Hill
      
      

    • "We can educate our students without computers, Margaret Grove, but in my subject area and yours, small but powerful computer programs enable the dissection of even the most difficult mathematical concepts.

      "Senior students in particular can explore ideas through simple animations they control. There need be no more visualisation problems. Computer technology will revolutionise the teaching of mathematics in our schools, but we need the computers first."

      Bill Newell, Narrabri
      
      

    • "So Ms Gillard's education revolution will provide a laptop for every secondary school student. Terrific. We can expect that the committed and studious kids will take care of their PCs and not leave them on buses. But what about the ones who announce to teacher on Monday morning they've lost theirs? Will they be given a new one? If that happens, you'd have to expect some bargains in the pub car parks any Friday night."

      Chris O'Shaughnessy, Waverley
      
      

    • Mobile phones have a lot to answer for

      "I was not surprised to read that our teenagers are reading less ("Australia slides down the reading list", December 5). Rarely do I see one of them reading a book on a bus or train. Mostly they pass the time talking or texting on mobile phones. This unfamiliarity with the written word is reflected in their conversations, which seem to be bereft of grammar and comprised almost entirely of code. Mobile phones are not entirely to blame; peer pressure must share some of the guilt. Our youngsters converse, I suspect, out of a desire to be accepted rather than any need to communicate."

      Garth Clarke, North Sydney

Friday 7 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Cut-off day for teachers this Tuesday [late update, online only]
    by Yasmine Phillips
    
    "The cut-off date for the $70 fee which has become the mouthpiece for teacher dissatisfaction in WA is Tuesday afternoon, Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan reiterated today.

    "The controversial registration fee, which aims to standardise the teaching profession with consistent police and qualification checks, was initially due on April 30.

    "But teachers from all throughout the State, who have been labelled “rebels” by some groups, refused to pay the $70 fee until after the election of 10 teacher representatives to the new WA College of Teaching board.

    "The bitter stand-off between the organisation charged with registering WA teachers and the profession itself caused fireworks within the besieged WACOT, which was forced to extend the deadline for registration to December 5, and later to December 11.

    "Mr McGowan today reminded all WA teachers that the final cut-off date for registration was Tuesday at 4 pm.

    “WACOT has been contacting individual teachers as has the Department of Education and Training to remind them of their obligations to be registered under the law,” he said.

    “The College of Teaching registration process is an important union-backed quality assurance mechanism by which parents and the broader community can have confidence that all teachers are appropriately qualified and criminally screened.

    “I strongly urge all teachers to become registered before the cut-off date, as unfortunately, if they do not, there will be adverse consequences.”

    "This week WACOT refused to reveal how many teachers faced being barred from classrooms early next year because they had failed to pay their compulsory annual fee.

    "It is understood that WACOT still had 1000 teachers on its books who had not paid the annual fee on Monday but deregistration will not take effect until after December 14, the final day of term four.

    "The teachers union has warned that schools could be up to 600 teachers short in 2008."

    From The West Australian online at link
    
    
    
  • Education Minister's Media Release
    
    
    • Minister reminds teachers of December 11 WACOT registration date

      Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan has today reminded all teachers across Western Australia that the final cut-off date for WACOT registration is Tuesday, December 11 at 4pm.

      “WACOT has been contacting individual teachers as has the Department of Education and Training (DET) to remind them of their obligations to be registered under the law,” Mr McGowan said.

      “The College of Teaching registration process is an important union-backed quality assurance mechanism by which parents and the broader community can have confidence that all teachers are appropriately qualified and criminally screened.

      “I strongly urge all teachers to become registered before the cut-off date, as unfortunately, if they do not, there will be adverse consequences.”
      
      

  • Letter from WACOT to unfinancial teachers
    
    
    • Dear

      Section 59(1) Notice - Cancellation of College Membership

      At its meeting on 5 December 2007, the Board of the Western Australian College of Teaching (the College) decided to cancel your membership. The decision was made under section 46(2) of the Western Australian College of Teaching Act 2004 (the Act), due to non-payment of your $70 annual membership fee. The cancellation becomes effective as of 4 pm, 14 December 2007 if your outstanding fee is not received by 4 pm Tuesday, 11 December 2007.

      What does cancellation mean?

      If your outstanding fee is not received by 4pm, Tuesday 11 December 2007 and cancellation becomes effective it means:

      your name will be removed from the Register of Teachers;

      you will no longer eligible to work as a teacher in any Western Australian school, effective as of 4 pm, 14 December 2007;

      it is an offence, under section 30 of the Act, for you to teach in a Western Australian school without having re-applied and been accepted for College Membership. The penalty for the first offence is $5,000. The penalty for second and subsequent offences is $10,000;

      it is an offence, under section 31 of the Act, for a person to employ, engage or give permission for you to teach in a Western Australian school. The penalty for the first offence is $5,000. The penalty for second and subsequent offences is $10,000.

      How can you become eligible to teach in Western Australian schools again?

      If you wish, at any time in the future, to teach in a Western Australian school you will need to:

      apply for membership to the College, using the approved Application Form. A copy of the Application Form can be downloaded from the College website at www.wacot.wa.edu.au;

      meet the requirements for registration prescribed in Part 4 of the Act;

      pay the required Application, Registration, Membership and Criminal Record Check fees (if applicable).

      Where certified copies of official documents, excluding criminal record checks, have previously been made available to the College, these will still be on your membership file and may be accepted for the purpose of your new application. Please contact the College when completing your application to verify the documents previously submitted to the College.

      What if you believe a mistake has been made?

      The College was most reluctant to decide to cancel your membership. It is, however, bound by the Act to administer the scheme of teacher registration and enforce the compulsory fee and cancellation provisions.

      If you believe a mistake has been made and that the required annual fee was paid before 4 pm, 4 December 2007 please contact the College as soon as possible on 9221 1300 or 1300 652 911 (regional areas) to verify your payment. Please have details of your payment at hand before making your call, for example, your bank statement showing date and amount of payment.

      Can you appeal?

      You have the right, under section 81 of the Act, to appeal the cancellation of your membership. The appeal must be made through the District Court.

      What if you pay the outstanding fee by 4 pm Tuesday 11 December 2007?

      If the College receives your outstanding fee by 4 pm Tuesday 11 December 2007, then cancellation will not become effective.

      The College will send notice of your payment to your designated employer by facsimile letter by 14 December 2007.

      If you have any queries or concerns at any time regarding these matters, please do not hesitate to contact the College on 9221 1300 or 1300 652 911 (regional areas).
      
      Yours sincerely

      Suzanne Parry
      Director
      
      
      

  • Letter to the Editor (page 23)
    
    
    • In Short

      "A note to Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. The laptop revolution looks like window dressing. I'll buy my grandson a laptop, you start at the foundations and get your State Labor mates to provide him with a school that isn't falling down around him and isn't a health hazard."

      Rhys Winterburn, Denmark
      
      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • Teachers reminded of registration deadline
    
    "The State Government is reminding teachers that the final cut off date for registration with their professional body is Tuesday.

    "The Western Australian College of Teaching and the Education Department have been contacting teachers individually to remind them it is against the law for them not to pay the $70 fee.

    "WACOT is standing by its threat to deregister teachers who refuse to pay." [emphasis added]

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Needy schools a priority in computer rollout
    by Patricia Karvelas, Political correspondent
    
    "All secondary schools will be able to apply for commonwealth grants from March next year to boost their computer resources, but the most needy schools will be given priority.

    Federal cabinet yesterday signed off on Labor's ambitious $1 billion computer initiative, the first election pledge to be approved by the Rudd cabinet.

    "Deputy Prime Minister and federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said that under the program every secondary student in Years 9 to 12 would have access to computers and other information technology resources.

    "Ms Gillard said a million Australian students would benefit from the technology fund, the first step in the Rudd Government's education revolution.

    "World-class ICT in schools will make a real and sustainable change in the way teaching and learning are delivered in classrooms across Australia," she said in a statement.

    "The fund will allow each school to apply for up to $1 million, depending on enrolments and existing technology. Funding can be used to buy computers, digital projectors, interactive whiteboards and other equipment.

    "The Rudd Government will work with the school systems in every state and territory to identify schools that have the highest priority in terms of need, and assist them in making applications to the fund. Over four years, all secondary schools will have access to the fund," she said.

    "Ms Gillard said visits to secondary schools by Labor MPs since the election had revealed a desperate need for an increase in computer and internet access.

    "Unfortunately, they found too many Australian schools don't have adequate internet access, some don't have internet access at all," Ms Gillard said after the cabinet meeting in Brisbane yesterday.

    "Too many schools don't have enough computers for senior secondary students."

    "Ms Gillard said she was concerned that technology aids such as interactive whiteboards and digital projectors were missing from many schools.

    "Today, cabinet has agreed that we will implement our $1billion fund to bring computers to Years 9 to 12 students in each Australian secondary school," she said.

    "An audit will be launched to establish existing resources in schools, and the Government will begin discussions with state and territory governments and independent and Catholic schools to ensure the rollout of funding.

    "In the course of this financial year, there will be expenditure of $100 million in grants to schools to assist them with getting computers, internet access and other information technology aids," Ms Gillard said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Schooling key to Aboriginal welfare
    by Stephen Lunn, Social affairs writer
    
    "Improving Aboriginal education should be accorded special status in indigenous policy-making as it was the key to unlocking entrenched disadvantage, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry said yesterday.

    "But policy-makers must support this renewed emphasis on education with a range of measures including securing Aboriginal women and children from violence and providing realistic job prospects, Dr Henry said.

    "In a passionate address to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare conference in Canberra, Australia's key financial bureaucrat laid out a plank-by-plank platform for moving Aboriginal Australia out of poverty and disadvantage.

    "Education can help transform social and economic opportunities, with particularly strong gains for those from disadvantaged backgrounds," he said.

    "Higher levels of education are associated with lower rates of incarceration and increased engagement in civic life. In short, education is the key to better life opportunities and choices."

    "The AIHW's Australia's Welfare report launched yesterday showed just how far behind indigenous Australians remain in education.

    "Retention rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (40 per cent) were just over half that of non-indigenous students (76 per cent) in 2006," AIHW director Penny Albon told the conference.

    "Indigenous students were also substantially less likely to meet national benchmarks in reading, writing and numeracy."

    "Dr Henry said he was concerned the gap in participation had not improved since 2001, and there had been no change in the performance of indigenous students since 2000.

    "He called for seven "platforms of development" to underpin the push to improve Aboriginal education.

    "They are: one, security from violence; two, early childhood interventions; three, supportive home environments; four, access to primary health services; five, incentives in the welfare system that do not discourage engagement; six, realistic job prospects; and seven, indigenous engagement in policy development," Dr Henry said.

    "Treasury has long been interested in improving Aboriginal outcomes - two of Dr Henry's staff are seconded to work with Noel Pearson in Cape York.

    "Dr Henry said he recognised the chasm between his vision and implementation on the ground.

    "In our understandable focus on compliance and accountability we have a tendency to insist on paperwork of Himalayan grandeur," he said.

    "I have witnessed first hand, in several indigenous communities, how the mountains of red tape simply bury the limited administrative resources available at the local level."

    "Policy-makers were learning from their mistakes, he said.

    "I reckon we do know this much, that program delivery must be targeted to local needs, integrated and delivered in a cost-effective and non-threatening way.

    "This is important for the proper functioning of government. But it is equally vital for those people for whom the programs exist: indigenous people."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Tony Smith to take on Gillard
    
    A Liberal who worked nights at a 24-hour restaurant to put himself through university is the Opposition spokesman for education. Tony Smith, the Liberal member for the east Melbourne seat of Casey, was today named the man in charge of taking on Julia Gillard, Labor's Education Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.
    
    
    • Full list, Federal Shadow Ministry – Editorial on the shadow ministry
      
      
      
      
  • Letters to the Editor
    

    Most Talked About: Education Standards

    • Let’s look at what goes on in classrooms here, not overseas
      
      "Of course Australia should strive for a world-class education system. Evidence from PISA 2006 shows, however, that while many students do indeed already have this, clearly achieving world-class standards, there are significant groups of students who do not.

      "Kevin Donnelly ("Lessons to learn from the success of others’’, 5/12) suggests that identifying the characteristics of better-performing countries provides one avenue to strengthen our system. While this may provide some insights, there are often cultural factors that cloud the interpretation of such characteristics.

      "I was surprised when Donnelly suggested the examples of competitive external examinations, streaming and differentiated curriculum. If, for example, we examine the PISA results for a country such as Germany, with a highly differentiated curriculum and streaming, we find that Australia significantly outperforms it in mathematics, reading and science. Moreover, Germany has one of the largest spread of scores between highest- and lowest-performing students in literacy in the OECD and it’s placed in the high-quality, low-equity quadrant in science.

      "By contrast, Finland, which has a comprehensive public education system that aims to give everyone an equal educational foundation and few private schools, is one of the highest achieving countries in every area in each PISA assessment. To improve our system, we need to look more at what happens in classrooms here in Australia, and at what works best for indigenous students and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and in remote regions."
      
      Dr Sue Thomson (author of PISA Australian National Report), Australian Council for Educational Research, Camberwell, Vic
      
      

    • "The decline in reading scores of young Australians, as per the latest OECD tests, can be remedied quite easily. Instead of – or in addition to – making sure every child has a computer, the Rudd Government, with the help of Australia’s book industry, could make sure that every child of a certain age (let’s say 12) gets his or her personal copy of three or four books to use and keep. I would suggest that the small collection include a good standard dictionary, a quality encyclopedia, a classic work of fiction and, if there’s anything left out of a $100, a recommended non-fiction (biography or history) book. As someone who has taught at university for the past seven years, I’m well aware that students’ computer skills are more than adequate but their knowledge of, and use of, books is sadly lacking."
      
      Ken Hickson, Brisbane, Qld
      
      

    • "Our decline in education achievement can be traced back to Joan Kirner in Victoria in the mid 1980s. Her no exams/marks and vague assessments policy was – as she said at the time – designed to give working-class kids an equal chance with rich kids at job interviews. Needless to say employers were horrified. So was I. I had children just entering high school, so I resigned from my job and moved to Queensland. This virus – equal outcomes – subsequently infected all the Labor states, where the "progressives’’ came to the fore. "Look-and-guess’’ reading has left many of our children functionally illiterate and the ideological horror of rote learning means mental arithmetic is beyond most young people. Julia Gillard has a big job ahead of her."
      
      C.A. Bond, Cleveland, Qld
      
      

    • "It’s too bad all the people who know how to run our schools are busy writing articles for, and letters to, The Australian instead."
      
      Mercurius Goldstein, Glebe, NSW
      
      
      

    • "The editorial claim that Labor state education ministers remain captive to the powerful education unions ("Education revolution marked on outcomes’’, 6/12) is untrue. Repeating it in editorial after editorial will not make it true.

      "When the Victorian Labor Government dumped the previous Liberal government’s mess called Studies of Society and the Environment and re-introduced the traditional academic discipline of history to the curriculum, there was not a squeak from the teachers union. When that government brought in the most rigorous reporting system I saw in my 33 years as a teacher, union complaints got nowhere.

      "The so-called powerful teachers union and its members have accepted a $31,000 relative pay cut over the past 30 years, a cut of almost 2000 teaching jobs in secondary schools, increased teaching loads and an explosion to one in five the number of teachers placed on short-term contracts.

      "The decline in Australia’s educational performance will not be reversed by going further down the pathways of principal as tin god, performance pay and competing schools, but by rebuilding the system as one with highly paid, highly able and independent-minded professionals running classrooms in well-resourced schools."
      
      Chris Curtis, Hurstbridge, Vic
      
      

    • "To improve school outcomes requires better parenting. Parental warmth and parental conversation is the fundamental difference between success and failure. If a child is behind the first day they walk into school, they never catch up. All the other popular nostrums – school choice, teacher quality – pale into insignificance when compared with parenting."
      
      Richard Pickup, Karoola, Tas
      
      
      
      
• The Age
  
  
  • Labor review on summer schools
    by Jewel Topsfield
    
    "Contentious summer schools for teachers are likely to go ahead next month, despite Labor rejecting the initiative while in opposition.

    "The brainchild of former education minister Julie Bishop, the scheme offered 1000 teachers a $5000 bonus to go back to school over the January holidays, in a bid to improve teacher standards.

    "When Stephen Smith was shadow education minister, he said this was a "fundamentally flawed" approach.

    "He said paying $5000 to just 0.3% of the nation's 270,000 teachers to attend a summer school would not rebuild the teaching profession.

    "Critics questioned the logic of a plan that rewarded high-performing teachers, rather than helping struggling ones.

    "But The Age has learned Education Minister Julia Gillard has requested a written brief from the Education Department and is considering whether to go ahead with next month's summer schools.

    "Paul Pickering, from the Australian National University, said his understanding was that the scheduled Australian history summer school at the university would proceed as planned. However, he was unsure whether the summer schools would run for the full four years announced in last year's budget.

    "Meanwhile, the Rudd Government's first cabinet meeting agreed to Labor's policy of every secondary school student having access to a computer.

    "Ms Gillard said each school would be able to apply for up to $1 million to buy computers, digital projectors, interactive whiteboards and other equipment from March."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Public schools go private
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Victorian public schools will be built and maintained in partnership with private companies for the first time, under a contentious policy shift by the State Government.

    "Premier John Brumby announced yesterday that 10 schools in Melbourne's outer suburbs would be built through public-private partnerships in a bid to keep pace with population growth.

    "Taxpayers will spend up to an estimated $200 million to build new schools in suburbs such as Cranbourne, Point Cook and Lyndhurst over the next four years, while the rest will be financed through private investment.

    "But the move is likely to prove contentious among Labor's rank-and-file, some of whom have raised concerns about the value for money and secrecy that has traditionally surrounded PPPs.

    "The Opposition accused the Government of a backflip yesterday. The then education minister, Lynne Kosky, declared before last year's state election that PPPs would not be used by the Government to rebuild schools.

    "Last year the Government promised they would not be using public private partnerships to fund new schools. This year, John Brumby said there was more than enough money in the budget to fund their election commitments. This Government can't be trusted on public private partnerships," said Opposition education spokesman Martin Dixon.

    "Mr Brumby said the decision was based on a range of factors: saving public money, freeing up time for principals who would otherwise have to deal with maintenance issues, and building the best schools quickly.

    "The move would also allow public and private schools to share their facilities, and for more preschools to be built on the same sites as schools to make it easier for children to make the transition between kindergarten and prep, Mr Brumby said.

    "Under the Government's plan, a yet-to-be-chosen private sector consortium will build 10 new schools around Melbourne and then be responsible for maintaining them over the next 25 years.

    "The company would receive payments for the school once it was built and approved by the Government, and would then be paid annual operational costs.

    "The first partnership schools will be built in the outer growth suburbs and greenfield sites, but the Government did not rule out future PPPs being used to build schools in the middle or inner city if it proved cost-effective.

    "While the Government has used the private sector to finance multibillion-dollar projects such as hospital upgrades and EastLink, PPPs have never been used to build schools, a move traditionally resisted by the teachers' union.

    "However, Australian Education Union Victorian branch president Mary Bluett welcomed the announcement, after seeking an assurance that future public investment in government schools would not be affected.

    "Ms Bluett said PPPs would benefit families living in growth corridors and ensure that students were educated in modern buildings."
    
    From The Age at link
    

    • DIY or partnership — what's best?
      
      Public-private partnerships are spreading like Paterson's curse.
      
      
      
      
  • Op Ed
    Don't let computers distract us from good teaching
    by Bruce McCabe
    
    "Kevin Rudd has made computers in schools one of his first priorities. This is a truly valuable thing, and he should be applauded for it. But I hope he isn't so bedazzled by the technology that he compromises on the result.

    The goal, of course, is to give our students the best education possible. Unfettered access to the vast repository of information and ideas that is the internet is a big part of this, as is building up general computer skills to equip students for the modern workplace.

    "Based on the election campaign, however, Rudd appears to be taken with the idea of giving every child a laptop, which would not be the best way to deliver.

    "Firstly, laptops will soak up $1 billion before you can blink. Compared with other devices, laptops have high upfront prices and significantly higher continuing costs. Being more complex and more fragile, they suffer breaks and faults more frequently, and being mobile, they have an unfortunate tendency to get lost and stolen.

    "Second, laptops top the list when it comes to the overheads of looking after them, and if people can drag their attention away from "technology showcase" schools for just a second, they will find that we have a really big challenge in our public schools in securing the skills and resources to keep computers running.

    "No one in politics talks about this, but "looking after the computers" is all too often a job foisted on some poor teacher who, not knowing what they were in for, volunteered to do it part-time.

    "In schools across the country this is a recipe for stress, frustration, lots of extra unpaid hours and less than ideal education outcomes.

    "Rudd will get the best bang for his buck by diverting more money into the fund set aside for networks to make sure every school gets, not just any old broadband internet connection, but the very fastest connections available. Enough bandwidth so every child in every classroom can be awash in video, music, communication and creative work. This would make the most direct contribution to education outcomes and it would be a long-lasting investment.

    "This will also reduce the teacher resourcing problem. The world is right now changing the way it uses computers. The traditional scenario of buying and installing software is giving way to the notion of accessing software, and space for storing files, over the internet. In my research, I find business people consistently delighted with the results, because they are finally delivered from all the tedium associated with software installations, tweaking, fixes and updates. It lets them get on with, well, business. It also means any old computer with an internet browser can access the richest applications out there — as long as it is plugged into a speedy network connection.

    "Having software managed centrally and accessed by schools over the internet will free up teacher time and the money will go further buying simpler devices, equipped with little more than an internet browser, which are easy to manage and deliver the same education outcomes.

    "This will be infinitely more efficient than installing and maintaining software on 500,000 laptops, and paying salaries for a thousand dedicated IT managers.

    "The point is that the technology has moved on and laptops are no longer necessary for good education outcomes, not when students can access their homework over the internet any time from any computer at school, home, in the council library, or at a local internet cafe.

    "A bunch of Labor MPs have been busy doing their own homework, having been told by Rudd to visit their local schools and report back on what they see. Let's hope they stay focused on the ends and not the means. The education outcomes will be much richer, the money will go further, and teachers will be allowed to get on with what they do best — teaching."

    Dr Bruce McCabe has researched technology and business trends since 1995. He is the managing director of S2 Intelligence.
    

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Not listening to the lesson

      "Brian Caldwell (Opinion, 6/12) and Kevin Rudd and all these other armchair experts have got the cart before the horse. When has Brian Caldwell ever been in a classroom? They can improve teachers 'til the cows come home but they are missing the point.

      "You can't teach people who aren't listening. If they were genuine about trying to improve educational standards they would place more responsibility on the recipients. Children who want to learn should be in the classroom. Children who are filling in time, being disruptive and antisocial should be somewhere else. Education should be a privilege. Weed out the malcontents with a decent discipline policy and education will improve out of sight."

      Spencer Leighton, Torquay
      
      

    • Drawing a long bow
      
      "La Trobe University lecturer Michael Faulkner (Letters, 6/12) draws a long bow when he tries to blame the education standard of 15-year-olds on a government that was defeated in 1999, when those children have spent most of their education under the Bracks-Kosky regime. Class numbers under Kennett and Bracks are virtually the same, while most of the 8000 teachers who "retired" were not teaching, as they were in numerous education department administrative jobs or on stress leave. Kennett fixed much of the maintenance backlog from the Cain/Kirner era too.
      
      "The current problem with 15-year-olds may have more to do with parents too busy to read to young children to encourage the desire to read, plasma TVs and video games, and the SMS trend where words such as you are spelt "u". When I was at state school (1958-64) class sizes averaged 34.1 children."
      
      Adrian Jackson, Middle Park
      

   

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • A learning curve bent out of shape
    
    Consumer-driven higher education has students demanding top grades with lecturers forced to oblige, write Harriet Alexander and Anna Patty.
    
    The new dynamic has altered the teacher-pupil relationship to one more like service provider and customer, and academics are complaining their role has been reduced to little more than dishing up material to ensure their charges pass.
    
    
    
    • Casual teachers inflating grades: academics
      
      The rising proportion of casual lecturers at universities has been linked to inflated grades for students. This is because there is often nobody to moderate the way that each marker is assessing students' work and to ensure all students are being judged by the same standards.
      
      
      
      
  • To see the truth you must look beyond the score
    by Professor Steven Schwartz, vice-chancellor of Macquarie University
    
    "Consider this number: $1.2 million. That is the amount that Macquarie University spends every day - 365 days a year..."
    
    "Now, here's another interesting number. How much of the $1.2 million that we spend each day do you think comes from the government (or, more accurately, the taxpayer)?

    "Not that long ago, the answer would have been all of it. Not any more. Universities vary, but for Macquarie the taxpayers' contribution is about one-quarter.

    "Three-quarters of our spending comes from the money we earn from fees, investment income, royalties, licences, patents, contracts and donations. About a quarter of our income comes from overseas students. Macquarie hosts students from more than 100 countries and we earned $112 million from foreign students' fees last year.
    
    "By any measure, Macquarie is a large and complicated organisation. Not surprisingly, we have many stakeholders. Politicians, students, parents, employers, foundations, graduates, not to mention academics, publishers, research-granting agencies and the media are all interested in what we are doing and how well we are doing it.

    "To help them make these judgments, magazines, newspapers and a range of research institutes have begun to publish yearly rankings. The process began 20 years ago when the magazine US News & World Report published a ranking of American universities. The editors picked a few key measures, such as difficulty in gaining admission, number of books in the library and the ratio of students to staff. They aggregated these measures into a score and then ranked universities from highest to lowest. The idea is to summarise the relative quality of complicated organisations using a single number..."
    
    "This left an opportunity for others to invent their own rankings. There are now dozens. They produce different results, which is not surprising since they use different measures. For example, some focus on research output while others examine the quality of the food served in dining halls..."
    
    "Universities are important institutions and stakeholders deserve to know how they are performing. Ranking systems are one way to do this but they are not perfect. The media can help make them better. Rather than accept the results at face value and look for a scandal where none exists, the media can serve the public good by questioning the rankings.

    "How are they calculated? Are they based on objective data or opinion polls? Are they transparent and verifiable or are the data secret and not open to checking. Why are there big changes and are these changes credible?

    "By asking these questions, news organisations can help to keep the rankings honest and, over time, to perfect them."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • They are reading, but it's not any old stuff
      
      "Australian teenagers are not necessarily reading less, Garth Clarke (Letters, December 6), it is the kind of reading they are doing that has precipitated drops in literacy.

      "The hours teenagers spend reading and writing SMS messages and keeping their blogs and MySpace pages updated indicates a form of literacy. These activities reflect the mutating face of language at the point at which it moves quickest; in the shared patois of the young.

      "An older generation schooled in the previous incarnation of proper grammar may not like it, but that construct of English is drifting into history. Should we castigate our youth for not learning an archaic form of English they are no longer using?"

      Pierre Mol, Pymble

Saturday – Sunday, 8 – 9 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers flag tough action over pay offer (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Parents facing the prospect of a chronic teacher shortage in the new year have been warned by the teachers' union they should also prepare for industrial action in 2008.

    "The group of teachers elected to take over the State School Teachers Union committee next month said yesterday the Government's latest pay offer was inadequate and teachers should brace for industrial action.

    "The group, which will hold 15 of 17 positions on the union committee, is expected to adopt a tougher negotiating position that its predecessors, whose reign ends on December 31.

    "The union's existing committee yesterday sent a statement to teachers advising them that if they decide to reject the pay offer, they should be willing to impose industrial action.

    "But in a notably tougher statement, the committee members-elect stated categorically the offer was inadequate and recommended industrial action from the start of the 2008 school year.

    "The offer is being rushed through and fails completely to address a number of pressing issues that are facing teachers and administrators working in government schools," spokesman for the new committee members, Evan Thompson, said. "The salary barely covers WA's rate of inflation in a time of critical teacher shortage." [emphasis added]

    "The new committee also viewed as a veiled threat Government advice that it would withdraw the offer it not accepted by the end of the month.

    "Teachers and administrators literally cannot afford to accept the Government's offer because of where it will leave the teaching profession in future years," Mr Thompson said.

    "The existing union committee has made no recommendation on whether it thinks teachers should support of reject the offer, which includes a salary rise of 3 per cent next year followed by 4 per cent rises in 2009 and 2010 and 2 per cent in 2011.

    "SSTU senior vice-president Anne Gisborne, who will take over as president next month, conceded that the second offer did not significantly differ from the first, which the current committee rejected without putting to a vote by members.

    "She said the Education Department had refused to lower class sizes, citing teacher shortages, and refused to increase the time allocated to primary school teachers for duties other than teaching. But the revised offer did bring forward the first pay rise from 2009 to July 2008.

    "Members have until December 21 to vote on the second offer."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • New life for Nativity in schools (page 12)

    The traditional Nativity play could be returning from the brink of extinction in WA State schools, with some schools putting renewed emphasis on Christmas celebrations with traditional religious themes.

    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • In Short
      
      "The WACOT farce continues. Teachers who are currently in teaching positions but have not paid their membership fee to the West Australian College of Teaching are allowed to vote in the upcoming general election of teacher members on to the WACOT board. Teachers who are not currently teaching but have paid their WACOT fee in full are not allowed to vote in the election because they are not currently attached to a school.

      "How can anyone take this organisation seriously?"

      Christine Corcoran, Leschenault
      

      
      
      
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • No education blank cheques
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Education Minister Julia Gillard has warned the states she will not be offering a "blank cheque" on schools funding without a guarantee of targets on transparency, literacy and numeracy.

    "Stressing that the Labor states were keen to adopt a collaborative approach, Ms Gillard said yesterday that ultimately the Rudd Government would do what was required to "get things done".

    "In an interview with The Weekend Australian, she also accused the Howard government of ramping up the culture wars of curriculum and literacy teaching as a distraction to hide the failure to deliver results.

    "And she warned unions the new Labor Government would not allow "obstacles" to stand in the way of delivering parents more information on how their children were faring at school.

    "There's not going to be any blank cheques," she said. "Every funding agreement will be clear. The obligations of the commonwealth and the states and territories will be clear. We will deliver our programs and we will make the necessary inter-governmental agreements."

    "Ms Gillard, the Deputy Prime Minister, said she wanted parents to have access to as much information as possible.

    "We intend to govern transparently," she said. "I am all for getting information to parents that enables them to be informed. If you are asking me what my predisposition is; people need to have information."

    "Former education minister Julie Bishop, now deputy Liberal leader, claimed state bureacrats and left-wing ideologues had hijacked what was being taught in schools, with some themes coming "straight from Chairman Mao". But Ms Gillard yesterday accused her of using the culture wars as a distraction from her failure to deliver results.

    "I think the former Liberal government spent a lot of time on colourfully embroidering this debate and it was mainly to distract from the fact that they weren't getting much done," Ms Gillard said.

    "You know, I would rather see people spending their investments and their time on the fundamentals, like making sure children can read and can write, than have education ministers stalking around the country making statements about the culture wars.

    "Obviously our curriculum content will be the subject of development by experts. I am not going to sit here writing curriculum. The key thing for Australian students is you want them to go to school, to get literacy and numeracy. They are the foundation stones for all else. You can't engage in any form of wider learning if you don't have those basic skills."

    "On the question of which method was best to teach literacy, Ms Gillard said both phonics and other approaches, including whole-language, had a role.

    "Where the (House of Representatives) inquiry came down is that it would be overly prescriptive to say there is only one way of achieving literacy, but certainly phonics plays a role in achieving literacy," she said. "I think it's been used in the cultural wars but once again I think it's been a distraction from an evidence-based task."

    "Ms Gillard said she planned to establish a national curriculum board to establish core competencies in English, maths and science. [emphasis added]

    "We will have a national curriculum board. We will have experts guiding the process. In the first instances I want to talk to our state and territory colleagues. All of the early feedback I am getting is that they are excited that there is a government that is prepared to invest in education and has a reform agenda," she said.

    "Ultimately, though, we will deliver our programs and we will use the necessary mechanisms to do that."

    "Ms Gillard described this week's Program for International Student Assessment figures, showing reading and maths skills among Australia's top students were falling, as a wake-up call.

    "In relation to teachers' unions, Ms Gillard said you would "have to ask them" why they had opposed greater transparency and plain-language report cards in the past.

    "Well, we are going to deliver our programs. So, we're not going to let any obstacles prevent us delivering our programs," she said. "We will get it done."
    
    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Telstra rejects Labor broadband plan [late update from 7 Dec]
    
    Telstra has bluntly rejected the new Government's proposal for a partnership to build a national broadband network, jeopardising Labor's ambitious agenda for a broadband and education revolution.
    
    
    
    
  • Feature
    No time for dreaming
    
    What future now, six months and 1.5 billion well-meaning budget dollars on, for the federal intervention in the remote Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory?
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • The kids are not alright
      
      "This nation’s education system must be one of the few social services that has failed to progress over the past 40 years.

      The quality, in literacy and numeracy, of students now leaving primary schools is surely lower than it was in the 1950s. Their ability to use Google is better than mine, but they are unable to hold a lucid conversation. They show great knowledge of the environment but cannot understand the meaning of litter.

      May I suggest three steps that would prove to me that governments, state educational bureaucrats, school principals, teachers’ unions and parents cared about the education of young children?

      First, remove all computers, apart from interactive whiteboards, from primary schools. Second, ministers, academics, unionists and parents should henceforth cease using the word "kids’’ in relation to education. As my mum used to say, "Only goats have kids’’. Until we respect children for what they are – young adults – we will not be able to earn (nor deserve) their respect.

      "Third, parents should take financial and moral responsibility for the way that their children behave at home, in public, and at school."
      
      Michael Doyle, Wheelers Hill, Vic
      
      
      

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Perth Muslim school raided and boss charged
    Exclusive by Paul Lampathakis and Nicole Cox
    
    "A Muslim school in Kenwick has been raided by police and shut down by WA Education Minister Mark McGowan. The school's head faces a stealing charge.
    
    "Mr McGowan said he had taken the extraordinary step of closing Muslim Ladies' College in Kenwick because of allegations, including fraud and the use of unregistered teachers who were focusing mainly on religion, rather than the WA curriculum..."
    
    "It is alleged the school was overclaiming for state and federal government funds for students. Police prosecutor Sgt Scott McCormick told the court that detectives had discovered the money had been sent to Pakistan...
    
    "On Friday, Mr McGowan told The Sunday Times: "I want to make it clear that this decision (to close the school) has not been made because this is a Muslim school.

    "This decision has been made because this is a school that is not educating students properly.

    "An investigation into the operations of the college by the Department of Educational Services began in December 2006 -- following complaints about the conduct of the principal-administrator, staffing of the college and the educational program.''

    "Key areas investigated included whether teachers were registered, the appropriateness of qualifications of teachers, inadequate educational leadership and standard of education, and the sufficiency of the school's resources.

    "Mr McGowan said other concerns were about the college's governance structure, the condition of buildings, and facilities and enrolment, and attendance procedures.
    
    "He said it was found that teachers were inexperienced in teaching and understanding the curriculum framework, and students weren't being taught all required subjects.

    "The college has employed a number of unregistered teachers and many with limited authority to teach,'' he said. "Teachers are not spending 50 per cent of the school day on literacy and numeracy, as required.

    "Instead (they) spend a large amount of time on religious studies. This is clearly unacceptable and seriously damaging to the student's academic well-being..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    

  • Teacher pay deal 'biggest' in history (page 22)

    "The latest pay offer to teachers in $85 million better than the previous one last month, according to Education Minister Mark McGowan.

    "But Mr. McGowan said the new deal had been misrepresented as not a significant improvement, though it increased in value the amount teachers would get form about $600 million to $685 million.

    "He said, for example, some senior teachers would have received a 22 per cent pay rise by the end of the agreement in February 2011 - with an increase of due as early as July 2008, on top of an already agreed raise in March.

    "Some administrators, such as department heads, principals and deputy principals would also have got up to 27 per cent rise over those four years.

    "Mr. McGowan's statements came as the new group elected to the State School Teachers' Union executive claimed the Government's latest offer was being rushed through and was inadequate.

    "The group was reported as recommending industrial action form the start of 2008. [emphasis added]

    "Our first offer this time around was $600 million and what's out there now is worth $685 million over four years," Mr. McGowan said.

    "It's now the biggest pay deal in WA's history."
    
    From The Sunday Times
    

    
    

  • School fees on rise (page 15)
    by Paul Lampathakis and Michael Washbourne

    You could have a new car for the same price

    "Sending a child to an elite private school next year will cost more than $15,000 - enough to buy a new car.

    "A Hyundai Accent hatchback cost about $15,490 in 2007.

    "But next year it will cost at least $15,886 for one year at Christ Church Grammar School in Years 8 to 12 - up from $14,500 in 2007.

    "Presbyterian Ladies' College will charge about $15, 700 for Years 10 to 12 next year, compared with $14,880 in 2007.

    "A year at Hale School will cost about $15,500 for Years 8 to 12 - an increase from $14,150 this year.

    "St. Hilda's Anglican School for Girls will raise it Years 11 and 12 fees from $13,960 this year to more than $15,000. And Perth College will charge $14,265 for Years 9 to 12, up from $13,203.

    "Association of Independent Schools of WA executive director Audrey Jackson said increases, ranging from 6 to 9 per cent, could be attributed in part to pay rises for new graduate teachers, who would start on $50,000.

    "Many schools are also building and building costs have increased astronomically over the past few years," she said.

    "WA Director of Catholic education Ron Dullard said increases in his sector ranged from six to 10 per cent. "The 10 per cent relates to primary school fees, which are substantially lower than Catholic schools in other states," he said.

    "Typically, Catholic primary schools are around $800 or $900, depending on the year and the socio-economic status of the community. Catholic high schools typically have fees of about $2,800 now."

    "Catholic school Iona Presentation College fees will rise from $3740 in 2007 to $4040 in 2008 - an increase of 8 per cent.

    "Aranmore Catholic College fees will increase to $2780 - up 9 per cent from the $2550 in 2007.

    "Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan said there were no plans to increase government school fees.

    "An Education Department spokeswoman said state schools had a maximum voluntary contribution of $60 from kindergarten to Year 7 and $235 in Years 8 to 10.

    "WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said there were compulsory charges of from $200 to about $260 for Years 11 and 12."

    From The Sunday Times
    
    
    

• The Age [Saturday]
  
  
  • Editorial
    All we are saying, is give PPPs a chance
    
    Despite criticism over secrecy, the use of public-private partnerships for schools is worthwhile.

    "It's about ensuring that we can roll out the best possible schools in the shortest possible time." So said the Premier, John Brumby, in announcing on Thursday that 10 schools would be built around Melbourne using public-private partnerships.

    "The education system needs more schools, and quickly. The schools, to be built in the city's growth corridors, include sites at Point Cook, Taylors Hill, Derrimut, Kororoit Creek, Truganina, Lyndhurst and Cranbourne.

    "Private consortiums will design, build, operate and maintain the schools on public land for 25 years. The consortiums, quite rightly, will not have an input in the teaching or curriculum. Taxpayers will inject $200 million, with the rest being provided from the private sector. The Australian Education Union has welcomed the move, saying that the PPPs will "benefit families living in growth corridors and will ensure that students are educated in modern facilities". For the latter reason alone the move is worth praise.

    "A year ago Professor Brian Caldwell, former dean of education at the University of Melbourne, said that hundreds of public schools should be knocked down. "You can visit schools in the state, and whether you are looking at toilet facilities or classrooms, they are appalling," he said. A figure of $4 billion was put on fixing the problem. In its budget last year the State Government (when Mr Brumby was treasurer) outlined a rebuilding program of $555 million to upgrade 131 schools.

    "This week's announcement is the result of a request by Mr Brumby in September to the Treasury and to Education Minister Bronwyn Pike to report on PPPs for schools. At the time the Premier also raised the possibility that the new school sites could include kindergartens, community centres and sports facilities. In effect, a hub for social interaction.

    "Critics of PPPs point to the long-term negatives of taxpayers having to pay the private sector for a service that should be the principal responsibility of government. Yet the demand in this state is so urgent and the shortage so chronic that engaging in PPPs seems an eminently sensible method of solving the problem.

    "Mr Brumby has made no secret of his embracing of public-private partnerships. In his time as treasurer and now as Premier, the state has embarked on more than a dozen major PPPs, including Southern Cross Station, EastLink Freeway, Melbourne Convention Centre, the County Court and Melbourne Showgrounds. The week before his request to Treasury and Ms Pike, he unveiled one of Victoria's largest PPPs: the construction of the controversial $3.1 billion desalination plant at Wonthaggi. In his defence of PPPs, Mr Brumby has cited the example of Scotland. "The injection of new investment, new leadership and and new vision in Scotland has transformed areas that for decades have underperformed."

    "Thirty of Scotland's 32 local authorities are looking at using PPPs to renovate or rebuild more than 300 schools by 2009. Yet the use of PPPs has come under fire. Malcolm Fraser, the former vice-chairman of Architecture and Design Scotland, said that schools built through PPPs had, in effect, been a disaster. "The best of them are not good enough, the worst fill me with despair for the generations of young lives that will be blighted by their dark classrooms, poor facilities and playgrounds," he said.

    "His comments followed revelations that Scots will have to pay £22 billion ($A51 billion) over the next 40 years to fund all the country's PPPs. Certainly there is a question mark over costs blow-outs, but there is no time like the present to build schools.

    "Clearly each country has its own particular needs with which to contend in relation to public-private partnerships. However, the benefits in providing more Victorian schools quickly where they are needed cannot be easily dismissed. It comes down to this: what value do you place on your child's education?"
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • When public is really private

      "The State Government's decision to allow private developers to build and own public schools begs the question — what is the difference between public and private schools?

      "Traditional private schools are operated by non-profit organisations that do not return a dividend to their owners. All revenue received by the school is spent on the school. In effect, private schools are run as co-operatives of fee-paying parents.

      "By contrast, public schools will now return a profit to their private investors. Part of our public education budget will end up in the hands of private enterprise. The Government and the teachers union have no qualms about this, but they strongly object to public funds going to private school parents. Why?"

      Bruce King, East Malvern
      
      

    • PPPlease explain

      "The definitive judgement on PPPs comes from the mouth of Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo: "They have the public interest in mind and we have profit in mind … and it doesn't work" (The Age 7/12). Perhaps somebody should tell the Brumby Government."

      Gary Heard, West Melbourne
      
      

    • Education is a right

      "I was appalled at the attitude of Spencer Leighton to education (Letters, 7/12). Claiming that education should be a privilege cuts across everything I believe about how society and individuals can move forward in productive and informed ways.

      "Clearly his education was seriously lacking if he defends and defines success by "culling" those young people whose needs are not yet being properly met.

      "Education is a right and everyone needs to understand that without it division and prejudice have fertile fields in which to grow. Unfortunately, education sometimes fails even the literate."

      Carol Oliver, Daylesford
      
      
      

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Unis may look abroad to cover loss of full fees
    
    Three university chiefs have forecast that the Government's plan to abolish fee-paying places for domestic students will encourage the sector to take in more international students.
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Experts need class time

      "As soon as the various "education experts" such as academics, consultants, bureaucrats and school principals spend a continuous term or semester every few years as a full-time classroom teacher (as opposed to reading and writing the literature, and making flying visits to the chalkface), then 30-year veteran teachers like me will start to take their "big picture" suggestions seriously ("Rudd has a long way to go to become the education prime minister", December 6)."

      Steve Ellis, Hackett, ACT
      
      

    • Nothing casual about it

      "As a casual academic, I reject any suggestions that casual staff are less professional than permanently employed academic staff ("Casual teachers inflating grades: academics", December 7) . Indeed, casual staff do not have security of tenure and unprofessional workplace behaviour would impact on their ability to obtain work in the future.

      "The real issue is the lack of funding to the tertiary education sector, which affects both permanent and casual academic staff. Many casual staff have been teaching for years, but are unable to obtain permanent positions because it is cheaper to employ them casually.

      "One reason it is cheaper to employ casual academic staff is that, due to their professionalism, they work many more hours than they are paid for. This is necessary to provide the best possible educational outcome to our students."

      Anne Wills, Engadin
      
      
      

• The Sunday Age
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Dad, is that a reindeer in our chimney?
    
    A little wonder is a wonderful thing, especially at Christmas, writes Andy Griffiths.
    
    "... [My six-year-old daughter] lives in an amazing world in which once a year a giant rabbit hides chocolate eggs in bushes and in the branches of trees for her to find.

    "A world in which you put old teeth into a glass of water and wake up in the morning to find that a fairy has exchanged it for a golden coin.

    "A world in which a fat old man with a team of flying reindeer breaks into the house in the middle of the night to leave a pillowcase full of toys for her to play with when she wakes up.

    "Where there is wonder, imagination is not far behind, and as good as the toys are, this is the abiding gift. The true magic.

    "I've long forgotten the contents of the many pillowcases I collected over the years, but I've never forgotten the magical feeling of waking up on Christmas morning and seeing that pillowcase bulging with mysterious shapes. Or the empty glass of milk on the tray. Or the remains of the flying reindeer's carrot feast on the plates.

    "Impossible! Incredible! Wonderful!

    "And why not?

    "In these times of obsession with educational outcomes, it's easy to forget that a sense of wonder is its own reward..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Age at link
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    

    • Embracing learning in digital age
      
      "Mark Pesce, "Brace for a steep re-learning curve" (The Sunday Age, 2/12), makes two major mistakes. First, he misrepresents the deep engagement schools already have with digital technologies. In virtually every school in this country, teachers and students have regular access to computers, internet, podcasts, interactive whiteboards and so on. Most teachers have reasonable levels of technology literacy. Second, by using the "digital native" rhetoric he suggests a very static view of information technology. Next year's "digital" will be different to last year's. It is changing all the time, so there is no before or after that can define digital immigrants and digital natives. It is better to consider that we are all digital immigrants all the time, for the ground is constantly changing under us.

      "To compound his misunderstanding of how people use digital technologies, he suggests that younger people get it and older people do not. The digital "literacy" of many young people is fragile and uneven at best. Just look at the time and effort schools are putting into two key issues: cyber-bullying and plagiarism. Pesce may be impressed with the speed with which some young people SMS, but keypad facility is not digital literacy. The physics teacher in his example was simply experiencing what any teacher or lecturer has to treat as commonplace nowadays. Anyone in the audience with a laptop and wireless internet access will do as I do at conferences: I Google the speaker and follow the paper being presented from his or her past writings, taking the occasional digital photo of the overheads as we go. The importance of the teacher or lecturer is not in the information they disseminate, it is in the wisdom they lead you to.

      "Where am I in the digital divide? At 59 and a school principal, Pesce would consider me a dinosaur. He would be wrong, I am just a guy using technology that is relevant to me as it suits me."

      Roger Hayward, principal, St Leonard's College

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This page last updated 13 August, 2008 0:43 AM