Monday 3 March

Tuesday 4 March

Wednesday 5 March

Thursday 6 March

Friday 7 March

Saturday – Sunday, 8 – 9 March

Monday 3 March

• The Australian
  
  
  • Teachers dispute merit-based pay
    by Paige Taylor
    
    "The Carpenter Government's pay dispute with teachers appears likely to escalate over State Education Minister Mark McGowan's plan that would pay Western Australia's best and most experienced teachers more than their peers.

    "Mr McGowan has refused the WA State School Teachers Union's demand for nine automatic, annual payrises for all teachers after graduation, saying he believes most teachers do not object to the 42 hours of professional development over five years they are required to complete in order to advance up the payscale.

    "More controversially, Mr McGowan hopes to introduce a new top base pay of more than $90,000 a year for teachers with more than nine years' experience, but only for those who can show they are hard-working, highly qualified and effective in the classroom.

    "The proposal follows his ill-fated plan last year to reward 50 of the state's best classroom teachers each year with base salaries of $100,000.

    "We want teachers to be aspiring to do better and to reward them for doing so," hesaid.

    "There is already a level of reward built in for remaining in the classroom over time and working hard, but we also want to have some merit in the system."

    "About 7000 West Australian teachers defied an order of the WA Industrial Relations Commission when they stopped work on Thursday morning to discuss the Government's pay offer of between 13.6 per cent and 22 per cent over three years - depending upon teachers' experience and whether or not they work in a remote or tough school.

    "Of all teachers in their seventh year, West Australians are the highest-paid in the country, earning $69,132.

    "Payrises up to that point are automatic in Western Australia.

    "In NSW, two further annual payrises are automatic.

    "Mr McGowan said his proposal to introduce an additional top-tier salary that was merit-based would continue to improve the school system and help prevent excellent classroom teachers from becoming principals or education bureaucrats. At present, 550 West Australian teachers earn the top base salary available for a Senior Teacher Level 3 - $77,744 a year.

    "Under the Carpenter Government's offer - rejected by teachers last December - that would rise to $90,027 by 2011.

    "Under the state Government's offer, a teacher on the current pay scale who chose to work at a "tough" Perth school would be paid $104,537 a year by 2011.

    "A teacher with the same experience at a remote school would earn $112,282 a year by 2011.

    "Mr McGowan said the pay would be even higher if the teacher was part of the pay category he hoped to create.

    "The Education Department's negotiating team is due to meet the State School Teachers Union again this week."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Unis may lose right to students in weak disciplines
    
    Universities would no longer be able to sign up research masters and doctoral students in research fields where they are weak, under a proposal being developed by a sector working party.
  
  
  
  
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Dispute shouldn't hurt students, say parents (page 4)
    by Tiffany Laurie

    "WA's main parents group has criticised the Department of Education and Training and the State School Teachers Union for neglecting students in their prolonged battle over teachers' pay and conditions.

    "The WA Council of State School Organisations yesterday called on the union to drop some of its claims and for the State Government to improve its offer to teachers in a bid to reach a speedy resolution to the bitter dispute, saying the battle - which escalated with a half-day strike last week - was affecting students.

    "As the union and State Government both launched advertising campaigns on the dispute, WACSSO president Rob Fry said each party had to be prepared to back down and approach the negotiations in a mature way to get the best outcome for students.

    "The call came after the union refused to rule out further industrial action, despite the WA Industrial Relations Commission decision to prosecute the union for defying its order not to hold a stop-work meeting last week.

    "Mr. fry said the teachers' decision to work to rule, which effectively stopped many extracurricular activities and threatened events such as school balls, was having an impact on students. But the Government's failure to provide appropriate salaries and conditions meant schools did not attract and retain the best teachers.

    "We want to get it over with because it is affecting students in the classroom," Mr. Fry said.

    "It seems that the union will not get everything it is asking for, but the Government has to realise they may have to give something more."

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said the Government would continue to negotiate on a fair and reasonable offer for teachers, but the union had to decide whether higher pay and allowances or improved conditions were more important.

    "The fact is any teacher, after nine years in the classroom, who is prepared to have done a small amount of additional professional development, would be paid a minimum of $84,357 in February 2011 and many thousands of teachers would receive thousands of dollars more in additional allowances," he said.

    "But union president Anne Gisborne said salaries and conditions had been neglected for years and it would be irresponsible for teaches to "take the money and run". She said the Government's figures were misleading and were based on a deal that was withdrawn last year after 90 per cent of teachers rejected the offer.

    "Ms. Gisborne said the union was prepared for a long campaign and while no further industrial action was planned, it could not be ruled out.

    "The teachers' union and the Department of Education are expected to meet the Industrial Relations Commission on Wednesday."

    From The West Australian

     

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • Lift game on education

      "What is it that happens to people when they reach positions of power, that they lose touch with the grass roots and with reality?

      "Your report (Union hurting State schools: Carpenter, 29/2) is a classic example. For years State and Federal governments of both political persuasions have allowed the public school system to decline for both economical and ideological reasons.

      "So where are the next generation of physics, chemistry, science and maths and computing teachers supposed to come from if they can earn double a teacher's salary in the private sector?

      "You would think the Government would be asking the teachers what needs to be done to not only maintain the present workforce, who are leaving in droves, but also to attract our best and brightest young people into the profession. Instead, they are more interested in engaging in a pointless ideological battle.

      "The best economies of the 21st century will be those that place great emphasis on intellectual capital.

      "Lee Kuan Yew, the former prime minister of Singapore, once said that Australia was in danger of becoming the "white trash of Asia" and the "quarry of Asia".

      "Until we become serious about our education system and become one of the top OECD countries in terms of education investment, instead of being in the bottom four, these predictions will come true. "

      Terry Dwyer, Warwick
      
      

    • Teacher abuse

      "Yes, Alan Carpenter, the teachers' strike may encourage parents to send their children to private schools and discourage people from becoming teachers. But, no, the reason is not as you suggest. The strike exposes the parlous state to which you and your predecessors of both sides of politics have brought the system.

      "I retired from teaching, walking away from my vocation at 61 instead of hanging in until 5 or longer. The primary reason was I'd had enough of what is effectively abuse of teachers by their employers. Sure, abuse by students and increasingly parents is band enough but the working conditions and salaries have long been simply insulting.

      "Considering the level of training, continuing professional development and the dedicated and uncompensated out-of-hours contributions teachers make, the recent offers to teachers deserve the contempt teachers demonstrated on Thursday.

      "Doesn't the desperate shortage of teachers tell you something? Do you think the debacle of OBE hasn't taken its toll? Do you think teachers are unaffected by the state of facilities and quality of country accommodation? This has been coming for years.

      "You can't hide behind the current economic boom to mask the deep disaffection among so many experienced teachers. Nor can you suggest that the problem lies within the union executive. Those are typical smokescreens that fool few and to resort to a bully boy threat with your remark that these "unjustified tactics would ultimately backfire to everyone's detriment" betrays the fundamental mindset that has bedevilled management of our education system for years.

      "I may be happily out of the system now by the teachers have my 100 per cent support."

      Bevan Hill, Mandurah
      
      

    • Role important

      "It is widely reported that teachers' salaries have significantly dropped relative to the rest of the community. After so many years of such neglect isn't it just possible that teachers have now done their bit in carrying the rest of the community on their backs whenever a wage inflation appears?

      "Surely when many parents find time for their families dwindling, the supplementary role of teachers has never been more important. More kids whose minds are stimulated by creative and interesting programmes means fewer driven to express their angst through binge drinking, aimless graffiti, minor crime and violence. Local newspapers bear witness with a plethora of complaints of disturbances and inappropriate behaviour.

      "Surely better salaries will attract more graduates to teaching and enable development of interesting and relevant teaching. It will be money well spent since it will ultimately help to produce well adjusted and contributing leavers. Extra classes with specialist teachers to assist challenged students gives many kids hope but it seems there are other more pressing priorities for our current government."

      John Pool, Greenwood
      
      
      

• The Age
  
  
• State teachers strike today, 4000 Catholics on Friday
  by Bridie Smith
  
  "More than 4000 Catholic school teachers will walk off the job this Friday, disrupting more than 160 schools, in their bid for higher wages, lower class sizes and better working conditions.

  "Hundreds of their state school peers will strike this morning in their campaign for better wages and conditions.

  "Teachers at Victoria's 480 Catholic schools will strike on Friday, leaving about 130 schools with no option but to close or run alternate programs.

  "Victorian Independent Education Union general secretary Deb James advised parents not to send their children to school on Friday.

  "The Catholic school teachers, some from as far away as Echuca, Ballarat and Geelong, will attend a meeting at Dallas Brooks Hall on Friday before marching to Parliament. Other meetings are planned for Mildura, Warrnambool and Wodonga.

  "Among the schools disrupted are St Dominic's in Broadmeadows, Avila in Mount Waverley and St Mary's in Ascot Vale.

  "Staff in Catholic schools are angy about the issue of pay and they are especially angry that the Government won't come to the bargaining table with a new position," Ms James said. "They are not usually the most militant groups going but they will speak out when things aren't right."

  "Ms James said the protest was about more than money, with Catholic teachers standing up for the future of the profession.

  "Staff in schools can see that their own colleagues are being seduced away into other industries or other states to work."

  "Pay rises for Catholic school teachers, whose last pay rise was in October 1996, have matched increases in the state school system since 1997. Their enterprise agreement expired last October and they have been negotiating a new one since last November.

  "Talks between the Australian Education Union and the Government have stalled, with the union wanting a 10%-a-year wage rise and the Government offering 3.25%.

  "Yesterday, Education Minister Bronwyn Pike was confronted by about 25 protesting parents and teachers at Moonee Ponds West Primary School, where she opened the new gym. Ms Pike called on the teachers to return to the bargaining table, after more than three months away.

  "The union has not moved from its ambit claim one bit," she said. "There has to be movement on both sides and the union has not moved."

  "She said the Government had to be fiscally responsible, with every rise of 1% above 3.25% equating to an additional billion dollars.

  "State school teachers are taking part in rolling four-hour stoppages in trying to pressure the Government to improve its offer.

  "Today, more than 70 schools in the Geelong and Bellarine region will be disrupted as hundreds of teachers walk off the job. Tomorrow, 65 schools in Stawell, Ararat and Horsham will be affected. The 35 stoppages, which started last week outside the Glenroy electoral office of Premier John Brumby, will continue until April 23.

  "AEU state president Mary Bluett said Victorian teachers were the lowest paid in Australia, with those at the top end receiving 15% less, or nearly $10,000 less a year, than their NSW counterparts."

  From The Age at link

• Start of a school revolution
  by Jessica Shepherd, Guardian
  

"China's rulers aim to transform their education system overnight, writes Jessica Shepherd.

"Neon Chinese characters shine through the early morning smog covering Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province. A long way below, cyclists chance their luck cutting the paths of the taxis stacked on the city's third ring road.

"To the right of the traffic, on land the size of two soccer pitches, 3000 pupils from Xi'an middle school stand in neat rows waving their arms in tandem for zao cao - morning exercises.

"At exactly 9am the loudspeaker system is switched off. And, without fuss, the 15 to 17-year-olds walk to their first lessons.

"It has long been assumed in the west that Chinese schools encourage a collectivist mentality, are obsessed by exams, spoon-feed their students and are closed to links abroad.

"But several of China's top schools - including this one - can now do much more than challenge these assumptions.

"In elite schools, significant shifts in government education policies are being implemented almost overnight and sustained by vast investment, producing experiments in education that would be deemed radical by western standards.

"Avant-garde teaching is in action at another school, called Shaanxi middle school. A group of four 15- and 16-year-olds are taking their peers' art lesson while their teacher observes their communication skills. At the end, students are asked to evaluate the lesson with an A, B, C or D grade. It's all part of China's New Goals reforms. The plan is to overturn teaching methods in the Asian powerhouse, province by province. The education ministry wants to do away with decades of rote-learning in favour of group work, class discussions and role-play. The emphasis is on communication skills rather than fact absorption.

"On the Chinese education ministry's website, it says: "Quality education and moral education have gained a new momentum." Too right, says Zhang Fan, a teacher at Shaanxi middle school. He explains it in the terms of an ancient Chinese proverb - showgen eeyu buru showgen eeyzu - it is better to teach someone how to fish, than to give them the fish.

"The New Goals reforms are being rolled out with alarming speed, at least in the elite schools. In Shaanxi province, the reforms were introduced last September for senior one pupils, who are aged 15. Teachers at Mr Fan's school had just five days to learn the new teaching methods of group work and role-play exercises, and to get used to new textbooks.

"Chinese teachers admit they haven't found it easy. He Lina, an English teacher at Shaanxi middle school, says: "If you had come here last year, you wouldn't have seen this style of teaching. The students think more as a result, but they also find it tiring. It has been hard for everyone to make the jump."

"Li Hong, the vice-principal, can see its benefits. "Before the reforms, teachers told the children how to think. In five or 10 years' time, the pupils will have the spirit to learn by themselves."

'Xiqi Hou, a grade one English teacher, says: "Last year, I would have just been doing language exercises with the pupils and then explaining the answers. Now it is listening, writing and comprehension. We see the shortcomings of the previous system."

"The Chinese government pledged in 2006, in its 11th five-year plan, to pour 14 billion yuan ($A2.08 billion) into vocational training between 2006 and 2010, and to train an extra 36 million workers. It is a U-turn on previous policies, which cut the budget for vocational education. The government anticipates that the number of students in vocational schools will soon be equal to those in the more academic equivalent, senior high schools for 15- to 17-year-olds.

"At Xi'an middle school, head teacher Wang Lanjun explains how he has already sealed partnerships with schools in Japan, Italy, Korea, Australia and Singapore - and is looking for more.

"Ge Wang, a 17-year-old student at Shaanxi middle school, is just one of the pupils who has spent a year abroad and hopes to go to university in the US.

'At Xi'an Bodi middle school, translations are provided for the phrases in calligraphy that hang on the walls. "A tolerant person will have many friends" is one. "Contentment is the least I expect today" another. Both are evidence of China's recent drive to emphasise traditional notions of proper conduct, familial duty, respect for others and social responsibility.

"It is reasonable to assume that these are only the creme de la creme of China's schools. The Chinese education system has its faults, says Dr Ed Vickers, an expert on East-Asian education at the Institute of Education, University of London. "The elitist bent of Chinese government education policy over most of the past quarter century has tended to favour 'key' or 'model' schools. There is a growing socio-economic inequality between coast and hinterland, urban and rural areas, the east and the poorer west."

"However, the Chinese government claims that in 2005, 95% of the country was able to have the nine years of education it says are compulsory from the age of six. It says this was a 10% increase from 2000.

"Dr Vickers also criticises the Chinese government for promoting technological and scientific expertise, seen as directly contributing to economic growth, at the expense of more "humanistic" studies. -- GUARDIAN

HOW THE CHINESE SYSTEM WORKS

"From six to 12 years, Chinese children attend primary school. At 12, they go to junior middle school. Their compulsory education is meant to end at 15. In poorer areas, it may end earlier. Aged 15, they take an exam and go to either a vocational school or the more academic senior high school, also called a middle school. Which university they go to will be determined by their score in the gaokao, the college entrance exam."

From The Age at link

• Pioneering a new school of thought
  

The only person in the 20th century to build two public school systems in Australia hasn't lost his zeal as a reformer.

 

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Unis' lack of punch leaves them on ropes
    by Gerard Noonan
    
    "Athletes stay fit when they train hard and compete often. True, they risk injuring themselves more if they do both, but inaction and disengagement lead to flabbiness.

    "The way Australia's 38 public universities have shaped up to the change of government in November suggests they are the academic equivalent of athletes who have let themselves go after tolerating 11 years of the Howard government's bullying and disregard for higher education.

    "They should have trained and competed harder during those years against such narrow-minded parsimony and anti-intellectual cant.

    "Instead, they allowed themselves to be bent to the government's will. The better-off institutions were suborned by the cultural elitism that favoured the sandstone institutions over the technical universities. The regionals always knew their patrons in the National Party would make sure they were (relatively) well looked after.

    "When tens of thousands of offshore students, with cash in their back pockets, came pouring through the educational turnstiles the Coalition government made it look like it was the happy workings of the market. In fact it was a barely disguised and highly successful move to vacate the field of providing adequate funding for the higher education sector.

    'The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recently estimated that between 1995 and 2004 Australia cut public funding of universities and TAFE by 4 per cent. The average OECD country increased it by 49 per cent in the same period.

    "The best the Libs had on offer was a version of the Future Fund that would have provided a meagre trickle of development dollars to each university. It was a bit like an old uncle leaving a bundle in the will, but making it a condition that all 38 universities had to scrabble each year to get a slice of the earnings on the endowment.

    "Despite Labor's rhetoric, Kevin Rudd offered remarkably little during the election campaign and precious little since. The combined weight of the nation's intellectual elite has been singularly unsuccessful in getting anything like what is needed to restore the hopelessly skewed imbalance.

    "He has promised to break the link between workplace agreements and funding (important, but big deal), abolish full fee-paying domestic students (welcome, but fiscally irrelevant) and offer mid-career fellowships and more scholarships (about time).

    "As for restoring Australia's educational standing in the international marketplace for ideas, Labor is offering grim fiscal rectitude this year and only a lick and a promise next year.

    "Time to get into the gym, vice-chancellors."

    Gerard Noonan is the Herald's Education and Social Issues Editor.

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    

  
  
• Taking standards overseas
  
  After 10 years as head of the NSW Board of Studies, Gordon Stanley is embarking on an international role at Oxford University, writes Anna Patty.

  It seems an unlikely pilgrimage, but NSW has now delivered up two of its highest-profile educationists to Britain to specialise in the "rocket science" area of developing school curriculums and setting educational standards that carry through to university entrance.

 

Tuesday 4 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Graduate teachers most likely to resign (page 9)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "More than half of WA’s newly qualified teachers plan to leave the public system within the next 10 years because of concerns over poor pay and heavy workloads, a new survey has found.

    "The Australian Education Union study of more than 1700 new teachers across Australia with between one and three years experience found that WA had fewer teachers who were prepared to stay in State schools for more than 10 years (44 per cent) compared with 52 per cent nationally. WA also had many more teachers planning to leave the profession within four or five years (20 per cent) than the national average of 15 per cent.
    
    "In WA, 64 per cent of new teachers hoped to be in another industry in 10 years time, compared with 55.5 per cent nationally.

    "Of the 222 WA teachers surveyed, 80 per cent said they were dissatisfied with their pay, compared with 60 per cent nationally.
    
    "Teachers’ top national concerns were workload, pay, managing disruptive students and class sizes.
    
    "Nationwide, 28 per cent of new teachers said they had been asked to teach subjects outside the area in which they were qualified, compared with 26 per cent in WA.
    
    "AEU Federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said the results, to be released today, show that a lack of funding for public schools is fuelling a national teacher shortage.
    
    "WA State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne said the results echoed the key issues in the union’s current campaign for higher pay and better working conditions.
    
    “Low salaries and unreasonably high workloads are driving teachers away from the profession,” she said. “By ignoring these crucial resourcing issues, the Carpenter Government is compounding WA’s severe teacher shortage.”
    
    "Education Minister Mark Mc-Gowan said he had not seen the report but he recognised the need for teachers to receive a pay increase.
    
    “Our last offer to the SSTU would have seen teachers receive pay increases ranging from 13.6 to 22 per cent,” he said. “The Government’s offer would have seen any teacher, after nine years in the classroom, who is prepared to have done a small amount of additional professional development, paid a minimum of $84,357 in February 2011 and many thousands of teachers would receive thousands of dollars more in additional allowances.
    
    “The State Government has made a number of changes. . . . to alleviate teacher workload, including the reintroduction of a syllabus for kindergarten to Year 10, a return to traditional methods of marking and the provision of practical resources to help teachers in planning and assessment.”

    From The West Australian at link
    
    See similar / related stories below from other newspapers
    
    
    
  • Education bureaucrat gave up in disgust (page 9)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "An education bureaucrat who quit in disgust after she was ordered to return to the classroom to help alleviate the teacher shortage is serving beers in a pub.

    "Former Swan district office literacy consultant Claudia Renner, 42, chose to work as a barmaid rather than return to schools because she felt undervalued by the Department of Education and Training.

    "Ms Renner and other district office staff have accused the department of ripping out support structures for teachers.

    "Education director-general Sharyn O'Neill ordered senior bureaucrats from district and central offices back into schools late last year as part of her "classroom first" strategy. Nearly 190 were identified as being able to return to teaching and 144 were placed in schools at the start of the year.

    "Ms Renner claimed that of 12 staff identified in the Swan district office, where she worked, only two had actually gone back into classrooms.

    "She was offered a teaching job just one day before the school year started.

    "I went through hell and back to decide (to leave) , but in the end it was too much like a demotion," she said. "It was a very stressful time, lots of tears, lots of angst, no sympathy from the department."

    "Ms Renner, who has a MBA and is working towards a PhD, said she applied for five other support jobs in the department over the summer holidays, but was told she was over-qualified. It was surprising that she was considered too qualified for those jobs but not for teaching or serving drinks.

    "Another district office employee, who still works for the department, said Aboriginal children would be the worst affected by the loss of support staff because less support was being given to teachers in remote schools. Many were inexperienced graduates or teachers recruited from interstate and overseas who needed extra help.

    "The curriculum support teams have been virtually decimated," she said. "There's all this lip service about addressing the literacy gap between indigenous students and the non-indigenous students - and the first thing they do is cut staff from one of the programmes that have been specifically designed to do that."

    "Schools deputy director-general Margery Evans said all teachers were valued for their diverse skills and experience.

    "Our priority is to make sure that every regular classroom has a qualified teacher and we make no apology for putting classrooms and students first," she said. "Schools will continue to receive support from district education offices in a variety of ways."

    From The West Australian
    

    
    
  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    Of a total of 14 Letters published in The West Australian today, 10 dealt with the teaching crisis: ALL were supportive!!

    • In Short

      "The focus of the Premier's vindictive outburst against the schoolteachers' union in which he described the stopwork meeting as "an act of gross irresponsibility" (report, 29/2) totally avoids the issue.

      "The strike was an act of desperation, not of irresponsibility. Teachers don't readily take strike action, but the need to retain teachers is desperate. I recently spoke to a former colleague who has more than 30 years of teaching experience. His son, an economics graduate, earns more in his first year of employment in industry than his father.

      "I call on all concerned to recognise the need to value our teachers in the way the commercial world values quality employees; through better pay."

      Noel Williams, Glen Forrest
      
      

    • "Your headline (Union hurting State schools: Carpenter, 29/2) was way off the mark. It should have read Carpenter's Government hurting State schools. Education director-general Sharyn O'Neill is quoted as saying: "I don't want to speculate how long these pay negotiations are going to take." I wonder how long the negotiations lasted for Neale Fong's astronomical $600,000 salary package (with not much to show for it). Loosen the purse strings, Mr Carpenter, pay the teachers what they deserve after enduring your administration's disastrous OBE debacle, decaying infrastructure, student abuse and parent apathy."

      John Bowes, Carine
      
      

    • "In response to our Premier's bizarre assertion this it is the teachers' union that is hurting State schools, I am driven to state the bleeding obvious. That is, if his tight-fisted Government would for once make us a respectful and fully-funded offer, then none of Thursday's stopwork meetings or future actions would be necessary. Once again, it's akin to blaming the police for all the crime or the nurses for hospital bed shortages. The opportunity to fund State education fully and thereby attract and retain both staff and students is a lot like February 29 - it comes along only every now and then."

      Michael Armstrong, Balingup
      
      

    • Bleak future for education in WA.

      "I was disappointed to read your editorial (Teachers' strike a disservice to education, 1/3). While acknowledging that fair-minded people would accept that teachers deserve a decent pay rise, your editorial is scathing in its criticism of the action that teachers and the union have taken in trying to achieve this. How would you suggest that we should have proceeded? History has shown that asking doesn't work.

      "When our older teachers began their careers in the early 1970s, a top-of-the-scale teacher earned more than 81 per cent of a parliamentary backbencher's salary. By last year this had dropped to 54 per cent. Measures against other statistics, such as average wages, show similar or greater drops.

      "We have seen an ongoing situation where at the start of each year there are insufficient teachers to staff our schools, yet the reason for this has been known for some time. In 2000, the then opposition spokesman for education, Alan Carpenter, during parliamentary debate, savagely lambasted education minister Colin Barnett over low teacher salaries which he linked to impending teacher shortages.

      "Mr Carpenter stated that we were paying our teachers the lowest rates in the country and asked: "How stupid can we get?" He went on to say that arguing publicly against their position (teachers) does no good for the status of teaching and "we end up with lines that teachers get too many holidays".

      "How ironic that this Government's anti-teacher advertising raises the issue of these holidays without pointing out the amount of preparation and marking that teachers do during these periods, as well as during evening and on weekends. Teachers could point out that the Legislative Assembly is scheduled to be in recess for 20 weeks this year. The published schedule indicates that it will sit only for 54 days during 2008.

      "The Government advertising also boasts of the salary a "senior teacher Level two" will receive. Yes, but in the year 2011. Further, a teacher does not automatically progress to this point. Just to reach senior teacher Level one a teacher must be at the top of the salary scale for one year, apply for the position after undertaking extra study and then be prepared to undertake extra duties and responsibilities.

      "Your editorial compares our little half-day stoppage to the militancy of the construction unions. If this were true, teachers would not be in the position that they currently find themselves. Our State is now flush with funds and there needs to be a compromise between grandiose schemes to build infrastructure and providing the basic necessities in health and education.

      "Mr Carpenter is a hard man to go up against. We have seen his anti-teacher advertising before. He won last time. If he wins this time, pity the future of education in WA."

      Bob O'Neill, East Victoria Park
      
      

    • Union Boost

      "For the first time in many years I have to disagree with your editorial about education. The teachers' union did not do a disservice to education in WA; it gave it a major boost. For too many years the previous leadership of the teachers' union was an ALP lapdog, even going so far as to protect Ms Ravlich, the only education minister in WA's history to be worse than Alan Carpenter.

      "The current union's stand was to ensure there would continue to be State education in WA. I quite Alan from the days before he became the "accidental Premier", at a time he was the opposition spokesman for education.

      "We are facing a massive crisis. A teacher shortage is looming. The department has done its work on this. At the same time, we are allowing the situation to go on and we are paying out teachers the lowest rates in the country. How stupid can we get? We must pay them more."

      "At a time when WA is the richest State in the Commonwealth with the highest-paid State politicians and the highest-paid public service CEOs, why should our teachers' salaries continue to lag behind other States?

      "The Government's offer of a handful of highly paid "executive teachers" and paying those in hard-to-staff schools more, while at the same time leaving the majority of teachers behind cost-of-living increases, is ridiculous. The teachers' union was not only correct in its call for a strike, it was long overdue."

      Patrick F Whalen, Yokine
      
      

    • Use surplus

      "You really got it wrong in your editorial. The Government's last offer to teachers barely matched projected inflation. The Minister says "average teachers will earn $85,000. The very top of senior teacher Level Two would have earned slightly less that that figure - and not until 2011.

      "At a time of a growing teacher shortage and a huge surplus, is the Government trying to exacerbate the situation? Why didn't the Minister mention that the Government is also hiding the Twomey Report, received two months ago? I'll give odds that if it helped the Government's case it would release it.

      "Very disappointing."

      Steve Kessell, Willetton
      
      

    • No respect

      "Education Minister Mark McGowan has been quoted in the media as saying that an "ordinary teacher" with nine years service who was prepared to do 40 hours of professional development over five years would have been paid "a minimum of $84,357".

      "The actual figure is tens of thousands less for 90 per cent of "ordinary teachers". The figure Mr McGowan quoted is accurate for "senior teachers", who make up around 10 per cent of the teaching population.

      "These people have been able to jump through the hoops required for the position. However, they are not necessarily representative of the rank and file, dedicated professionals wee need to keep in teaching.

      "Our teachers need community support. The teaching profession is currently being respected less and supported less than at any time in at least the last three decades. In addition, teachers are challenged more by parents, assaulted more and have more expected of them than at any time in our history.

      "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the patience of the decent, hard-working teachers in our community is beyond running short. Parents of the not-too-distant future, prepare for even more problems in our schools as those teachers who have stuck with teaching out of dedication and passion prepare to leave the profession in droves."

      Andrew Cathles, Thornlie
      
      

    • Last Resort

      "In find it annoying when people like the Premier and the Education Minister criticise teachers for going on strike. For teachers, striking has always been a last resort. In fact, until the 1980s there had never been a teachers' strike in WA.

      "I would say that the average teacher works much harder and is placed under much more stress than any politician. Un this country there have been quite a few former prime ministers who have lived into their 90s; I'm willing to bet that most teacher dies at a much younger age.

      "Politicians don't have to go on strike - if they want anything they simply vote for it. They also have a tribunal which gives them regular pay rises.

      "And to those who write about teachers always being on holidays and finishing at 3.30 pm every day (of course student free days are additional holidays for teachers, aren't they?), I say if you think teaching is such a soft cop, why don't you train to become teachers?

      "First, though, you might like to think about why there isn't a stampede to get into teacher training when teachers work under such utopian conditions."

      Bob Stephen, Hillarys
      
      

    • The Government can't see the big picture.

      "The Carpenter Government risks permanently antagonising those very teachers who are needed to stay on while the search for replacements continues. Higher pay offers to retired teachers, access to superannuation and the opportunity to retire all risk being a total waste of time if the Government cannot or will not understand the big picture.

      "Teachers in this State all come from the same source, Australia's or overseas tertiary institutions. They are diminishing in number and have to be attracted and retained in the profession in public or private schools. If the private schools pay more they will get the lion's share of the teaching staff. Get real, Mr Carpenter, and stop biting the hands that will save the State's education system. Once teachers have left the profession there is little chance of their return. What an incredible investment loss."

      Paul Storey, Sorrento
      
      

    • "I doubt many teachers will lose sleep over not winning the support of Michael Quadrio and his friends (It's a joke, 1/3). Perhaps those with the advantage of a more detailed understanding of the teaching profession are better placed to appreciate the fact that taxpayers get an extremely good deal for the service of their education workforce - even with the (ho-hum) holidays.

      "As for Mr Quadrio's criticism of teachers for "industrial thuggery", and the West Australian editorial as "ragtag militancy" , in the past six years there has been one stop-work meeting - last Thursday. Hardly the stuff of big bellies and braces."

      P Jeffery, City Beach

      
      
      
• The Stirling Times
  
  
  • Editorial
    
    "Last week's stop work meeting by teachers should send a strong warning signal to the Sate Government that urgent action is needed to address failures in the public education system, including teacher pay, staffing, resources and classroom conditions.

    "The disruption could have been avoided had negotiations proceeded with urgency over the eight week break after the State Government's last pay offer of 13 percent was rejected in December. On Thursday teachers condemned the State Government for failing to respond in a timely manner to the union members' rejection of the December offer.

    "Teachers are right to demand the State Government provide the resources, time and staff to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.

    "More important than the rate of pay teachers receive is the resources they need in schools including equipment and staff and the support of the department. Ageing schools and the shortage of teachers means the situation in classrooms can only worsen if action is not taken now.

    "At least one undergraduate employed in a teaching role in a public school this week revealed how dire the shortage really is.

    "Yet the Government has not released the Twomey Report into solutions to the shortage, another of the union's demands.

    "If the Education Department is to attract professionals to state schools, it needs to offer an attractive career with competitive pay and conditions. If we neglect our public schools, an exodus of teachers from the state system will ultimately diminish the standard of education delivered.

    "Equipping children with the knowledge and skills they will need for the rest of their lives is a task many are passionate about, despite the ill-equipped and undermanned schools in which they work.

    "A protracted dispute with teachers over pay and working conditions will only make it harder to attract professionals into the public education system."

    From The Stirling Times
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Teachers plan mass exodus from profession: survey
    
    "A survey has revealed two thirds of West Australian graduate teachers plan to leave the profession within 10 years.

    "The survey by the Australian Education Union has found 64 per cent of teachers in Western Australia, with one to three years experience, intend to pursue different careers within a decade.

    "That is compared to 55 per cent nationally.

    "The President of the State School Teachers Union, Anne Gisborne, says more than 80 per cent of the 222 teachers surveyed were unhappy with their pay.

    "The area of salaries and workload when we look at the West Australian figures compared to the interstate figures is nearly 10 per cent higher than our national colleagues," she said.

    "I think that's an element that needs to be paid attention to."

    Rejects claims

    "The Western Australian Minister for Education says he rejects claims the government is not doing enough to retain state school teachers.

    "Mark McGowan says despite the government's best efforts, there will always be a number of graduate teachers who will leave the profession.

    "We do value teachers and that's why we want to pay them more, that's why we've put in place more support than ever before," he said.

    "I mean the last seven years we've been in office we've employed 1500 additional teachers with 3000 additional aides and support staff just to support the existing schools without much increase in the number of students, but on top of that young people these days are looking for other opportunities."

    From ABC News at link
    

 

• The Australian
  
  
  • Most new teachers plan to change career
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "More than half of public school teachers at the start of their careers intend to change professions in the next 10 years.

    "A survey of teachers in their first three years in the classroom by the Australian Education Union found that workload and pay were the biggest disincentives to the profession.

    "Cited by about 60 per cent of the more than 1700 teachers surveyed, the issue of pay has risen in the list of teachers' concerns, overtaking the management of behaviour.

    "About 55.5 per cent said they would leave their jobs in public schools to work in another industry, despite 49.5 per cent saying they had changed careers to become a teacher.

    "About 48 per cent believe they will not be teaching in a public school in 10 years, including 46 per cent of teachers in their first year on the job.

    "While numerous government reports at state and federal level over the past decade have recommended programs to support teachers starting in the job, the survey suggests little effective has been done.

    "More than half, about 53 per cent, never received formal mentoring in their jobs, and this proportion rose in the past year by 7 per cent, while 55 per cent had no ongoing induction. Only 38 per cent had formal mentoring in their school, while 32 per cent had participated in an induction process at their school.

    "Almost a third of new teachers felt their education and training at university had failed to prepare them for the reality of the classroom. About 27 per cent said their preparation was poor or very poor, while 40 per cent rated it as satisfactory.

    "AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said the increased proportion of teachers citing pay as a major concern illustrated that the underfunding of public schools was continuing to contribute to the exodus of teachers from the system."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Adults struggle with maths
    by Alexandra Frean, The TImes

    "More than a quarter of adults in Britain struggle to add up prices in their heads when shopping and a fifth do not know that 8 is the square root of 64, according to a survey of the nation's mental arithmetic skills.

    "Research by KPMG, the accountancy firm, indicates that 47 per cent of adults wish they had learnt more maths at school.

    "Women are much less confident - or possibly more honest – than men: 34 per cent say they have trouble working out sums in their heads, against 18 per cent of men. More than half of mothers (51 per cent) struggle to help their children with their maths homework, against 39 per cent of fathers.

    "One in five adults aged 25 to 34 feel that greater ability in maths would have helped them to go further in their careers.

    "The YouGov survey of 2,006 adults aged 18-plus found that difficulties with maths spread across social classes and ages, though to differing degrees.

    "Three per cent of adults in the ABC1 social classes and 4 per cent of those in the C2DE classes struggle with mental arithmetic in shops most of the time.

    "However, only 25 per cent of the top social groups feel uncomfortable in shops some or most of the time, against one third of the lower social groups (32 per cent).

    "Those aged 55 and over are the most confident (77 per cent), against 64 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds, who are the least confident.

    "Adults in Scotland are the most confident, with 77 per cent claiming to be confident or very confident at mental arithmetic, against 69 per cent in London, the least confident region.

    "The survey included an on-the-spot question: what is the square root of 64? One in five (21 per cent) either did not know or got the answer wrong. Responses ranged from 2 right up to 4,096.

    "The survey was commissioned by the Every Child Counts campaign, launched by the Government and charities last year to help to overcome innumeracy in children. Pupils aged 7 who have the greatest difficulties in mathematics will get extra one-to-one help from specialist teachers for 12 weeks. The scheme aims to reach 30,000 a year in 2010-11, when it goes national.

    "John Griffith-Jones, chairman of the Every Child a Chance charity, said the secret to combating adult innumeracy was to lay solid mathematical foundations among the young.

    "Adult innumeracy is one of the greatest scourges facing the country," he said. "The survey shows how essential it is that the business community gets involved in tackling the problem. Through the Every Child Counts program we aim to find a long-term solution, spearheading resources of specially trained teachers to help the seven-year-olds who have the greatest difficulties.”

    Can you count?

    1 In a test, a pupil scored 18 marks out of 25. What was the pupil’s score as a percentage?

    2 For a school play, 120 tickets were sold at £1.50 each and a further 100 child tickets were sold at 75p each. What was the total amount of money raised from ticket sales?

    3 What is 6.03 multiplied by 100?

    4 A test had 50 questions worth one mark each. The pass mark was 60 per cent. How many questions had to be answered correctly to pass the test?

    5 In a class of 28 pupils, 3/7 were boys. How many boys were there in the class?

    Source: Training and Development Agency for Schools

    'Sample mental arithmetic test sat by all trainee teachers (not just maths teachers) to gain qualified teacher status."

    Answers

    1 72
    2 £255
    3 603
    4 30
    5 12

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • New teachers fail test of real classrooms
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Most new public school teachers say they are not properly trained to deal with classroom demands, abusive parents or difficult colleagues.

    "A snapshot of the nation's newest school staff has renewed concerns about the quality of university teaching courses and prompted calls for state and federal governments to intervene.

    "Based on a union survey of almost 2000 teachers, the study found almost one in nine did not feel they were properly trained to deal with harassment or tension with parents and staff.

    "And almost 70% felt university had not really prepared them to teach students with disabilities, those from non-English-speaking backgrounds or children living in dysfunctional families.

    "Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said the findings highlighted the need for better resourcing, both in schools and cash-strapped university teaching faculties.

    "Parental expectations are forever increasing, and sometimes those expectations are unrealistic — and teachers bear the brunt of it," he said.

    "The survey also highlighted problems with teacher shortages, with almost half the respondents saying they planned to leave the profession within 10 years.

    "It also found:

    • Workload, pay, class sizes and dealing with bullying, violence or disruptive behaviour were the four biggest areas of concern.
    • More than half the newcomers were on fixed-term contracts.
    • 35% of teachers believed indigenous students were not being properly supported in schools.

  "The quality of university teaching courses has been a pressing issue for governments in recent years. Last year, the Victorian Government sought to tackle the problem by challenging Canberra to implement a wave of reforms, including a scheme in which university teaching graduates would have their HECS debt reduced.

  "Under the proposal, which is still being pushed by Victoria, newly trained teachers would have a typical HECS debt reduced in stages until it had been completely wiped out, similar to the Rudd Government's HECS discounts for maths and science degrees.

  "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said she was committed to "increasing the quality and relevance of initial teacher training and finding new ways to attract the best and brightest".

  "But Sue Willis, president of the Australian Council of the Deans of Education, said that while greater investment was needed, she did not believe the quality of university teaching courses was poor.

  "It doesn't surprise me that people in the beginning of their profession feel ill-equipped to deal with difficult parents or staff — I'd be surprised if there are many jobs where on your first day you are on top of those things," she said.

  "Federal Opposition education spokesman Tony Smith accused the states of inaction and said the survey showed "it is time to implement performance-based pay for teachers, greater principal autonomy, better teacher training and strategies to attract" good teachers."

  From The Age at link
  

  • Daunting task for newcomers

  
  

  • University crisis is Howard's legacy: PM
    
    Australian universities are in crisis after the Howard years and their finances need to be boosted to ensure a productive future, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.
    
    
    
  • The Monday Education Section has been updated and includes 17 items [three of which featured in yesterday's Breaking News]

Wednesday 5 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • OBE exams too hard: examiners (page 16)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "TEE results in new Year 12 outcomes-based education subjects last year were significantly worse than the target score across all subjects because the exams were too difficult, the Curriculum Council's own reports have found.

    "TEE examiners' reports... show that students in engineering studies, aviation and media production and analysis achieved average raw exam marks of between 38 per cent and 46.77 per cent - well below the Curriculum Council target in all subjects of 58 per cent..."

    "Parents, teachers and principals raised an outcry last year after students did the engineering exam, complaining that the paper contained questions that were not in the syllabus and bore little resemblance to practice exams..."

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Teachers pay adverts a misleading waste: union (page 16)
    by Bethany Hiatt and Amanda Banks

    "The teachers' union has attacked the State Government for wasting thousands of taxpayers' dollars on advertisements promoting a pay offer it says is inadequate because it could still leave WA teachers behind their counterparts in NSW in three years..."

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Rudd take on education may succeed (page 21)
    by Tony Rutherford
    
    As Carpenter Government blusters, appointment of senior adviser may signal real progress
    
    "Schools reform, episode 3091... Last week's strike by WA's teachers did not in the end reflect much credit on anyone. Whatever the Government says, there are still a lot of teachers out there whose salary is not much different from average weekly earnings. They should have a pay increase and it should be a decent one, one which would match everyone's protestations of the professionalism of teachers..."

    "The union for its part is, as usual, taken for granted by a Labor Government which has often - especially at election time - treated them as useful fools. The union hung back for too long on a number of key issues, not least outcomes-based education, the WA College of Teaching debacle and the competence of Ljiljanna Ravlich as education minister. Its loss of influence is almost total and many of its members don't much see the point of belonging any more.

    "The Government has, as usual, addressed the problem with its usual mixture of bluster and disinformation. The Minister's insistence on using the pay rates for senior teachers as a bench mark of his Government's generosity is either ignorant or deliberately misleading - what proportion of teachers does that category include? One in eight, say, or one in 10? We should be told..."

    Full story in The West Australian: Well worth a read !!
    
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Sunbury students walk out of class over merger proposal
    
    Up to 1000 students from Sunbury College walked out on strike yesterday afternoon — protesting over a proposed merger with Sunbury Downs Secondary College that could take place as early as next year.
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Don't demonise private education [late update from 4 March]
    
    Not all parents choose religious schools because they are themselves religious. The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes in 2005 found that close to one-third of students in other non-government schools - mostly Christian and Muslim schools - came from families that had never belonged to a church or religious organisation. These families are seeking an alternative to the available public schools, and religious schools are often the only alternative. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is an important question.
    
    
    
    
  • Children to be taught Net security
    by Karen Dearne
    
    "Students will be taught to identify and protect themselves against online threats under a new federal Government program to embed a "culture of security" in the next generation of internet users.

    "Under the program, e-security education modules aimed at students in years 3 and 9 that will address key aspects of safe online behaviour, as well as the use of appropriate computer defence systems.

    "Students will also be taught to recognise the legal and other consequences of sharing software, music, movies and other copyright information..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Start applying for PCs now: Canberra
    
    Secondary schools can start applying for a federal Government grant to purchase new computer and electronic equipment from today.

Thursday 6 March

• The Australian
  
  
  • Teachers demand time out of class

    "Senior full-time teachers would spend fewer than four days a week in the classroom and parents would no longer receive end-of-term reports on each child's progress under conditions demanded by their union in Western Australia.

    "The State School Teachers Union's escalating pay stoush with the Carpenter Government led to a half-day walkout last week as teachers flexed unprecedented bargaining power brought on by the state's chronic labour shortage.

    "But the Government's refusal to cave in to demands that included six hours and twenty minutes a week of paid out of class time for high school department heads is threatening industrial havoc.

    "All high school and pre-primary teachers in Western Australia now get five hours a week of paid out-of-class time, equivalent to one full school day. Primary school teachers get three hours and forty minutes, which the union hopes eventually to increase to five hours.

    "SSTU state president Anne Gisborne said the Government must address this and other issues to recruit and retain teachers. The Department of Education has been losing teachers to the booming resources sector, where comparatively unskilled workers can earn more than $100,000 a year.

    "The Government needs to recognise this agreement could be the essential plank in their addressing the teacher shortage in the short term and the long term," Ms Gisborne said. "This is something we are trying to remind the department and the government."

    "The Government and the union each launched advertising campaigns at the weekend stating their cases and the union revealed yesterday that it hopes to remove the requirement for interim reports, leaving parents with two school reports per year per child.

    "The union is also opposed to years 3,5 and 7 state literacy and numeracy tests, which it says are among the increasing number of assessments that reduce teaching time.

    "Among teachers in their ninth year in the job, West Australians are the highest paid in the country, with an annual wage of $69,132.

    "The Carpenter Government is offering pay rises of between 13.6 per cent and 22 per cent over three years, but there has been quibbling over the Government's insistence that teachers earn their pay rises with 42 hours of professional development over five years to be completed in their own time.
    
    "'Ms Gisborne said this had largely been resolved, with an undertaking that teachers would be able to do their professional development during work hours.

    "The dispute returns to the Industrial Relations Commission next week."

    From The Australian
    
    
    
    
  • School computers list secret
    by Sid Marris
    
    "The names of almost 1000 secondary schools in the running to secure money under the first tranche of the Rudd Government's computers in schools program will be kept secret.
    
    "The Opposition has accused Labor of withholding the list from parents in a bid to cover up the inadequacies of state governments.

    "The results of an audit of all state, Catholic and independent secondary schools has revealed 295,972 students in 937 schools had just one computer under four years old for every eight students or worse.

    "The schools will now be invited by letter to apply for some of the first $100 million of funding under the $1 billion program to lift that ratio to one to two, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday.

    "Seventy per cent of the most disadvantaged students were at state schools, 20 per cent were at Catholic and 10 per cent at independent schools.

    "The audit revealed the average ratio was one to five.

    "We have unashamedly, in this first round, focused on the schools that are in the greatest need," Ms Gillard said.

    "But Ms Gillard said she would not be making the names of the schools public and parents would have to consult with their own schools to find out if they were on the list or if their school would be applying for the additional money.

    "Ms Gillard said parents would be able to find out through "a range of discussions at their local schools" such as school councils.

    "It is still unclear who will pick up the bill for additional costs - such as power points, energy costs, maintenance, insurance, furnishings, training for teachers - or whether schools that cannot get money for that supporting infrastructure will be given any assistance from commonwealth grants.

    "Ms Gillard yesterday repeatedly refused to say who would pay for the extras and ongoing costs other than to say that the Labor Government was seeking a "partnership" with states, territories, Catholic and independent schools.

    "Opposition education spokesman Tony Smith accused Ms Gillard of trying to cover up for state government that had a woeful track record of funding infrastructure in their schools. [emphasis added]

    "He said the previous Coalition government had publicised every grant it made to schools.

    "Mr Smith also noted that Kevin Rudd's election promise was that every student in Years 9 to 12 would have their own computer, but the initial rollout was for one computer for two students.

    "It is hardly going to be a secret when the computers arrive in a box on the back of truck and the students start using them," he said.

    "It seems she is trying to cover up for state government inadequacy because many of the state governments have professed to have had computer programs and state governments are very sensitive about their own infrastructure failures in the schools they own and operate."

    "Education expert Kevin Donnelly said the decision not to release the names of the schools was "bizarre" and some parents may only find out by luck.

    "The lack of transparency meant a parent would not be able to check if a school had taken up the invitation."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Ending educational apartheid will cost
    by Helen Hughes

    "Julia Gillard's plan to fund 200 additional teachers with $100 million of support is a commendable response to the Northern Territory's crisis in indigenous education. But the Education Minister has been poorly advised.

    "The proposed measures will not come close to delivering indigenous literacy and numeracy. It would be better to identify effective solutions now than have to make another apology in 20 years.

    "For the past two years, the NT's Department of Employment, Education and Training has reported years Three and Five literacy benchmark pass rates of about 90per cent for non-indigenous children. For indigenous children in Darwin and Alice Springs, the pass rate drops to 60 per cent. But for indigenous children in remote areas, the rate crashes to just 20 per cent. Even this pass rate is overstated: most of the children attending the 62 homeland learning centres have not even been tested for years Three and Five benchmarks.

    "Thirty years of welfare dependence with attendant alcoholism, drug abuse and violence in indigenous communities have played a role. Poor school attendance also has been blamed for poor results.

    "But most indigenous parents are desperate for real education for their kids. NT school enrolments for 2008 appear to be higher than the 2006 census data (which admittedly probably undercounted the indigenous population) indicate.

    "The main reason for poor attendance is that many indigenous people are offered pretend education: the product of pseudo-curriculums and inadequate teaching. In the few schools where there are effective teachers who ignore the official curriculum for indigenous children, they attend school and pass the tests.

    "The separate curriculums followed by indigenous schools are a form of apartheid.

    'When children of non-English-speaking immigrants enrol in Darwin schools, they follow the mainstream curriculum but take English as a second language programs.

    "Indigenous parents in the Top End want their children taught the mainstream curriculum in English from kindergarten so they can get jobs and participate in society. They know that only literate communities can preserve traditional languages in the modern world.

    "All commonwealth funding for education in the territory should depend on the condition that indigenous children are not intellectually segregated but taught the same curriculum as other children.

    "The absence of indigenous teachers in the NT is another indicator of educational failure. The NT's population is 28 per cent indigenous but, of 4572 registered teachers there, only 164 (3.6 per cent) identify as Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders. Of these, only 63 (1.4 per cent of the total) have completed the normal four-year course of education required to qualify as a teacher. Most of the other 101 indigenous teachers have been registered (together with another 600 non-indigenous teachers) without such qualifications. These 700 underqualified teachers are concentrated in the 62 learning centres and in the community education centres that act as substitutes for schools in predominantly indigenous communities.

    "These teachers have not been assisted to upgrade their qualifications to present standards and there is no provision in the new commonwealth legislation for them to do so.

    "The bill allocates $18.4 million for the creation of 190 education department jobs for former Community Development Employment Program participants, a change long overdue. In contrast to teacher aides in mainstream schools, who help children in classes taught by qualified teachers, indigenous teacher aides in learning centres are often the only people in front of the class.

    "Many of the CDEP teacher aides would not pass the Year Seven literacy test. What steps are being taken to assist these teacher aides to become literate and numerate?

    'The planned funding does not include housing for additional teachers outside Darwin. At present NT housing costs, this would require another $22.5 million in 2008 and $67.5million by 2011. Such funding - $90million in total - would almost double the planned commitment.

    "Because of past policies, more than 5000 of the nearly 8000 indigenous teenagers in the NT cannot pass the national literacy benchmarks. Nor could another 5000 men and women in their 20s. The accumulated backlog of insufficiently literate indigenous young people is 10,000. They represent the future of indigenous communities.

    "No part of the present education system can accommodate teenagers with Year One literacy. They cannot sit side by side with six-year-olds or in a class of teenagers from the mainstream education system. To bring these indigenous teenagers to the stage where they could access mainstream jobs and further education would require one or two years of sheltered accommodation in an English-speaking environment, intensive tutoring and part-time employment. The minimum cost would be $50,000 a year for each student. The real cost of remedying past failed policies would therefore be $500 million to $1 billion.

    "There is clearly a lack of any remedial action on this scale. Even partial solutions will require more funds than have been committed. Parents of students who do not pass benchmark tests are entitled to vouchers worth $700 a year to have their children tutored. This program assumes literate parents and access to qualified tutors. Parents in one remote indigenous community have therefore asked the federal Government if they can aggregate these vouchers and use them together with foundation funds to pay for a remedial teacher for their children. They have not even received the courtesy of a reply.

    Helen Hughes is a senior fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies. An account of her experiences of indigenous Territorians' education problems appears in the March issue of Quadrant."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Text book's blue word alarms parents
    
    Schools have been cautioned to better inform parents of the books their children study at school, after concerns were raised that a novel set for year 7 girls contained the word c--t.
    
    
    
    
    
• Time Magazine
  
  
  • How to Make Great Teachers [from 13 February 2008]
    by Claudia Wallis
    
    "We never forget our best teachers—those who imbued us with a deeper understanding or an enduring passion, the ones we come back to visit years after graduating, the educators who opened doors and altered the course of our lives. I was lucky enough to encounter two such teachers my senior year in a public high school in Connecticut. Dr. Cappel told us from the outset that his goal was not to prepare us for the AP biology exam; it was to teach us how to think like scientists, which he proceeded to do with a quiet passion, mainly in the laboratory. Mrs. Hastings, my stern, Radcliffe-trained English teacher, was as devoted to her subject as the gentle Doc Cappel was to his: a tough taskmaster on the art of writing essays and an avid guide to the pleasures of James Joyce. Looking back, I'd have to credit this inspirational pair for carving the path that led me to a career writing about science.
    
    "It would be wonderful if we knew more about teachers such as these and how to multiply their number. How do they come by their craft? What qualities and capacities do they possess? Can these abilities be measured? Can they be taught? Perhaps above all: How should excellent teaching be rewarded so that the best teachers—the most competent, caring and compelling—remain in a profession known for low pay, low status and soul-crushing bureaucracy?

    "Such questions have become critical to the future of public education in the U.S. Even as politicians push to hold schools and their faculty members accountable as never before for student learning, the nation faces a shortage of teaching talent. About 3.2 million people teach in U.S. public schools, but, according to projections by economist William Hussar at the National Center for Education Statistics, the nation will need to recruit an additional 2.8 million over the next eight years owing to baby-boomer retirement, growing student enrollment and staff turnover—which is especially rapid among new teachers. Finding and keeping high-quality teachers are key to America's competitiveness as a nation. Recent test results show that U.S. 10th-graders ranked just 17th in science among peers from 30 nations, while in math they placed in the bottom five. Research suggests that a good teacher is the single most important factor in boosting achievement, more important than class size, the dollars spent per student or the quality of textbooks and materials.

    "Across the country, hundreds of school districts are experimenting with new ways to attract, reward and keep good teachers. Many of these efforts borrow ideas from business. They include signing bonuses for hard-to-fill jobs like teaching high school chemistry, housing allowances ($15,000 in New York City) and what might be called combat pay for teachers who commit to working in the most distressed schools. But the idea gaining the most momentum—and controversy—is merit pay, which attempts to measure the quality of teachers' work and pay teachers accordingly..."
    
    Full story in Time Magazine at link
    
    

Friday 7 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Blow to OBE with new rules on TEE subjects (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Another plank of the discredited outcomes-based education system has been abandoned, with a directive from the Curriculum Council yesterday that TEE students must study at least one humanities subject and one maths or science subject to graduate from high school.

    "The council told schools it would again force students to pick subjects from two lists after "feedback from schools, industry and universities".

    "The policy reverses a requirement in place for two years that students select their Years 11 and 12 courses to ensure they cover the 13 "overarching learning outcomes" enshrined in the WA Curriculum Framework.

    "It is understood that many schools found that having to check whether students complied was time-consuming and onerous. Schools were also promised a software program to help them when counselling students in their subject choices, but it never arrived.

    "The change will apply to this year's Year 10 students when they choose their Year 11 subjects. It will not apply to current Year 11 and 12 students.

    "Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood said the changes would ensure "breadth of study" and would be easier to manage.

    "Teachers, students and parents will be more familiar with this approach, which will provide students with a broad education and meet the intent of the existing requirement," he said.

    "Greg Williams, president of teachers' group People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes, said common sense was returning to the decisions being made by the Curriculum Council.

    "Mr Williams said the requirement to meet 13 outcomes had not meant students were getting a broad education. "You could get most of them (the outcomes) from cooking," he said. [emphasis added]

    "Under the new system, students must study at least one subject from each of the two lists to qualify for a WA Certificate of Education, which they need for university entrance.

    "But the changes still leave untouched new university entrance rules scrapping the former requirement that scores in at least one humanities subject had to be included in university entrance calculations, which led to a big drift away from humanities enrolments last year.

    "Under the system, results from students' best four subjects will be used to calculate tertiary entrance scores. This means that students can still enter university after choosing "easier" subjects.

    "Churchlands Senior High School principal Neil Hunt said the dual list system would be more workable than trying to map student choices to 13 outcomes. "But I find it incredulous that we've got three systems in three years to get to it," he said."

    From The West Australian
    

    
    

  • Prize-winning principal nurtures local concerns (page 5)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Dedication to the community and to her 16 pupils in the tiny Wheatbelt town of Babakin, 250km east of Perth, has won Linda Crombie the title of Principal of the year.

    "Ms Crombie, 55, is married to a local farmer and has been involved with Babakin Primary School for 25 years. She said she would stay until she retired.

    "I think I've got at least another good five years left in me, if not more," she said. "I just love it with a passion and it's just my life really."

    "Ms Crombie said the school's small size meant it could cater for every student and make a big difference. "Not just from an academic point of view - we don't make geniuses of them all - but socially we do a lot for these children too," she said.

    "Babakin Primary School has an "open door" policy and organises regular activities for the community, including daily morning teas, annual picnics, camps and sports carnivals.

    "Once a fortnight, the school invites babies and children aged up to four to attend 90-minute learning sessions at the school with parents or grandparents.

    "We set up a program that educates the parents as well as the children," Ms Crombie said.

    "She said living locally made her very aware of the community's needs. "It keeps your finger on the pulse," she said.

    "A mother of four, two of whom are about to be married, she said she had no idea what to do with her $40,000 prize.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said Ms Crombie had shown tireless dedication.

    "The award, founded by the Rotary Club of Heirisson, recognised the role principals play in students' education."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    
    

    • It's not just money

      "Shame on you, Mark McGowan, for trying to convince the public of your generosity in offering WA teachers the highest wages in Australia. What your advertisement concealed in the small print was that you are comparing 2008 wages in other States against your offer to teachers (with nine years experience) of $84,000 in 2011.

      "I have been teaching for 30 years and have weathered the ups and downs that this profession has seen over the years, but this is the first time I have felt angry enough to voice my concern. This campaign is not just about wages. We have been very restrained in our claims for many years now. Students and teachers and support staff have been made to put up with constantly deteriorating conditions in our workplace environments for several years due to government neglect. The teacher shortage was brought to the Government's attention five years ago by the SSTUWA, but nothing has been done to address this situation.

      "There is no shortage," has been DET's reply and yet it has not told the public that there is no longer any support staff left in central office of district offices around the State because they are all in classes.

      "As a profession, we no longer have access to professional development, as required by WACOT, because there is no one left to deliver courses to teachers. Many planned school priorities have been cancelled because of this. Relief teachers are now a rare commodity. They have been snapped up to fill the teacher shortages. So who will step in when your child's teacher is sick?

      "The average age of teaching staff is WA is around 50. What is going to happen when we all retire in the not-so-distant future?

      "A salary of $84,000 a year in 2011 seems along time to wait to be the "best paid teachers in Australia".

      "Get real, Mr McGowan."

      Jackie Roggio, Albany
      
      

    • "So Mr Carpenter (Union hurting State schools: Carpenter, 29/2) is of the opinion that the State School Teachers' Union "is plagued by internal problems".

      "Surely Mr Carpenter ought to be aware that people who live in Labor glass houses should not throw stones."

      Tony Eardley, Waterman's Bay
      
      
      

• The Age
  
  
  • Catholic teachers to join strike
    by Bridie Smith
    
    "Up to 4000 Catholic school teachers will stop work today amid a series of state school teacher strikes, as pressure mounts on the Government to improve its teachers' wage offer.

    "The state's principals have also foreshadowed their own industrial campaign, which could take place from next month.

    "Today's stop-work, the fourth in just over three months, will disrupt up to 250 of the state's 480 Catholic schools, according to the Victorian Independent Education Union, with about 65 schools closing completely.

    "However, the Catholic Education Office, which disputes the union figures, estimates that just 49 schools will be closed.

    "Since 1997, pay rises for Catholic school teachers have matched pay increases in state schools.

    "VIEU general secretary Deb James said it was impossible to reach a new agreement with Catholic employers until there was an outcome in the state sector, where teachers are asking for a 30% wage increase over three years. The Government is standing firm on its offer of 3.25%.

    "Ms James said a 3.25% wage rise would be "an effective pay cut for teachers" over the next few years. Catholic school teachers' last pay increase was in October 1996.

    "Staff in Catholic schools are determined to stand up for what they believe in," she said. "They will not be stopped on this issue."

    "The Principals' Association of Victorian Catholic Secondary Schools also called on the Government to increase its offer, warning that if the "critical role of teachers" was not recognised, the Government risked "derailing its own commitment to offering the best education possible" for Victorian students.

    "As well as improved pay, Catholic teachers are pushing for scheduled class time to be reduced and for smaller classes.

    "Catholic Education director Stephen Elder agreed a deal could not be reached until the state school teachers and Government had settled their dispute.

    "He said he was disappointed that some teachers were taking action while negotiations were "progressing in good faith".

    "The Government could have an added headache next month, with principals likely to conduct four-hour regional rolling stoppages as part of their own wage negotiations.

    "Australian Principals Federation president Fred Wubbeling said the application for protected industrial action had been lodged and a significant proportion of the federation's almost 2000 Victorian members was likely to take part.

    "Members were seeking a 30% pay rise over three years as well as administrative help to improve workload issues and measures to tackle the attraction and retention of staff. [emphasis added]

    "Mr Wubbeling said the Government's offer of 3.25% was inadequate. "If we accepted that, we would be going backwards … It is totally unacceptable to us."

    "Disruptions to Victorian schools are set to continue well into April. State school teachers in Melbourne's south-east and far north-west will take part in rolling stoppages next Wednesday and Thursday."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
  • Toddlers given free book in literacy bid
    
    Every Victorian toddler will be given a free book when they turn two in an effort to improve childhood literacy.
    
    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • At Charter School, Higher Teacher Pay
    by Elissa Gootman
    
    "Would six-figure salaries attract better teachers?
    
    "A New York City charter school set to open in 2009 in Washington Heights will test one of the most fundamental questions in education: Whether significantly higher pay for teachers is the key to improving schools.
    
    "The school, which will run from fifth to eighth grades, is promising to pay teachers [US]$125,000 [approx. A$140,000], plus a potential bonus based on schoolwide performance. That is nearly twice as much as the average New York City public school teacher earns, roughly two and a half times the national average teacher salary and higher than the base salary of all but the most senior teachers in the most generous districts nationwide.

  
  © The New York Times

  "The school’s creator and first principal, Zeke M. Vanderhoek, contends that high salaries will lure the best teachers. He says he wants to put into practice the conclusion reached by a growing body of research: that teacher quality — not star principals, laptop computers or abundant electives — is the crucial ingredient for success.

  “I would much rather put a phenomenal, great teacher in a field with 30 kids and nothing else than take the mediocre teacher and give them half the number of students and give them all the technology in the world,” said Mr. Vanderhoek, 31, a Yale graduate and former middle school teacher who built a test preparation company that pays its tutors far more than the competition.

  "In exchange for their high salaries, teachers at the new school, the Equity Project, will work a longer day and year and assume responsibilities that usually fall to other staff members, like attendance coordinators and discipline deans. To make ends meet, the school, which will use only public money and charter school grants for all but its building, will scrimp elsewhere..."
  
  Full story in The New York Times at link
  
  
  

• The Wall Street Journal
  
  
  • Education Panel Lays Out Truce In Math Wars [5 March]
    
    Effort to Fix 'Broken' System Sets Targets for Each Grade, Avoids Taking Sides on Method
    

A presidential panel, warning that a "broken" system of mathematics education threatens U.S. pre-eminence, says it has found the fix: A laserlike focus on the essentials.

Saturday – Sunday, 8 – 9 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers face new hearing (page 6)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "The State School Teachers Union will appear in the WA Industrial Relations Commission again on Tuesday to answer allegations that it defied the commission's order to call off its half-day strike just over a week ago.

    "The union appeared before the commission yesterday to set a hearing date.

    "But instead of setting a formal hearing, the full bench agreed to a suggestion from both parties that they reconvene for informal discussions on Tuesday.

    "SSTU president Anne Gisborne hoped a resolution could be found soon. "We would like to see an agreed position and in avoidance of a penalty," she said.

    "She said negotiations between the Department of Education and Training and the union for a new enterprise bargaining agreement would continue next week.

    "The union is demanding a pay rise of more than 20 per cent over three years. It rejected the Government's offer of between 13 and 15 per cent over three years in December.

    "It is understood the department is reluctant to offer more money to teachers without further concessions from the union and it is seeking to have issues such as flexible hours for teachers and combining classes across schools, which were rejected by the union in December, put back on the table.

    "Ms. Gisborne said it was too early to say whether a deal was in sight but she said the union would not back down on its priorities."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Trades training boost
    by Justine Ferrari
    
    "Schools proposing to train students in trades suffering the biggest skills shortages will receive priority under the federal Government's Trade Training Centres in Schools Program, unveiled yesterday.

    "Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday wrote to all high school principals across the government and non-government sectors inviting them to apply for funding under the program.

    "The program was a key plank of the Government's Education Revolution policy outlined during the election campaign, along with the secondary school computer fund to provide access to a computer to every student in Year 9 to Year 12.

    "The trade training centre program will provide $400 million this year in two phases, the first handing out $100 million by the end of June with the remainder delivered by the end of the year.

    "Ms Gillard said the program would help the Government meet its target of increasing the proportion of students achieving Year 12 or an equivalent qualification to 85 per cent by 2015 and 90 per cent by 2020. The current rate is about 75 per cent."

    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Age
  
  
  • New school of thought on Ja'mie and Jonah
    by Tom Reilly
    
    "Troubled Jonah Takalua can be heard shouting "Puck you, miss!" in classrooms once again. But his presence has nothing to do with filming for Summer Heights High; instead, Chris Lilley's hit "mockumentary" is being studied by schoolchildren across the state.

    "Despite criticism from the head of the Victorian Principals Association — who slammed the series as inappropriate for teenagers — Ja'mie, Jonah and the irrepressible Mr G are now considered characters as valued as any creation of Shakespeare or Dickens.

    "The first study aid on the eight-part series has just been produced, to help teachers of English, drama, media and values education use the show to help spark debate in the classroom.

    "The wide range of issues which Summer Heights High deals with provide excellent opportunities for teachers to engage a class in discussion. As well as looking at characterisation and narrative, there are obviously topics like bullying and drug use which come up in the program," says Maguerite O'Hara, a former teacher with 20 years' experience, who wrote the guide.

    "Shot in Melbourne, Summer Heights High is a satirical take on high school life, centred on three main characters: delusional drama teacher Mr G, stuck-up private school exchange student Ja'mie King, and troubled Tongan bad boy, Jonah Takalua. Lilley plays all three.

    "Addressing subjects such as cliques, bullying, racism, disability, homophobia and swearing, the ABC show immediately found its critics after airing to huge audiences in September last year..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Age at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Why this mum hates homework
    
    I hate homework. Although I'm certain my children's teachers don't intend it, I feel mildly persecuted by it. As a rule-abiding parent, I want to uphold the idea of homework, not least to see my children daily made more disciplined, independent and resourceful. (Sounds lovely, doesn't it?) However, my children are only 10 and eight and, higher up their list, as they sit at the kitchen table with their legs dangling, comes yawning, head scratching and general distraction.
    
    
    

• The Age [Saturday]
  
  
  • Victoria's elite schools swoop on indigenous talent
    
    Elite private schools are taking Aboriginal students from remote communities in an ambitious bid to narrow the education gap between indigenous and non-indigenous children.
    
    Private schools are also considering plans to create a new indigenous "transitional school" to improve literacy and numeracy skills and give the students a chance to experience city life before taking on scholarships worth tens of thousands of dollars.
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • School rules for ball dates (page 7)
    by Hayley Bolton

    "Boys wanting to attend their girlfriends' school balls are having to pass interviews.

    "Elite girls' schools aren't just insisting on more modest ball gowns in 2008; theyre checking the suitability of partners.

    "At some schools, older boyfriends have to attend an interview and produce proof of age.

    "Craig Winter, the Year 12 co-ordinator at Mandurah's Frederick Irwin Anglican School, said he and the deputy did the vetting there.

    "If they are older than school age, they come into the school and have a little chat about what they do and how old they are," Mr. Winter said.

    "If the kid looks reasonable, then it's fine."

    "He said the girls knew not to push the boundaries.

    "About 19 is the upper (age) limit," he said.

    "Methodist Ladies College prinicipal Steve Lee said he expected girls to bring school aged partners to balls.

    "If they have a partner who is significantly older, they come in and meet me," he said.

    "I explain the expectation of school-age behaviour and check that they're happy to behave in accordance with the school rules."

    "Some schools are also trying to impose stricter ball dress codes.

    "Catholic girls school Mercedes College gave all students a letter to be signed by them and returned to the school before they could buy their ball tickets.

    "It said: "Please make sure that ball attire is suitable for our ball. Your ball gown should signify you as a young woman who values modesty and respect for yourself and others."

    "Dana Mathers, owner of Strange Love ball dress shop in Perth, said some girls were "going into panic mode (and) thinking they have to dress like a nun."

    "It's making it a bit extreme and spoiling it for the girls," she said."

    From The Sunday Times
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 75)
    

    • "I support the teachers' strike in WA and other parents should too.

      "Do teachers get paid overtime when the prepare lessons at night? Will my son be paid overtime when has to check exam papers while having dinner with us in a restaurant?

      "All the extra time outside the classroom hours is forgotten.

      "Teachers deserve every cent. The physical threats, verbal abuse, extremely poor working conditions, lack of support from principals and the Department of Education are some of the things they have to endure apart from teaching."

      M.P. Jones, Swan View
      
      
      

• The Washington Post
  
  
  • D.C. Schools Chief Fires 98 Workers
    
    Largest System Dismissal in a Decade Is Part of Pledge to Improve Efficiency
    
    Ninety-eight D.C. school system employees were fired yesterday as part of Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's effort to establish a "culture of accountability" by sweeping out unproductive and unneeded workers at the central office... [Rhee's spokeswoman] said the dismissals were based partly on employee performance and on Rhee's plans to make the central office more efficient.

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

This page last updated 11 August, 2008 11:46 PM