Monday 14 April

Tuesday 15 April

Wednesday 16 April

Thursday 17 April

Friday 18 April

Saturday – Sunday, 19 – 20 April

 

Monday 14 April

• The Australian
  
  
  • Teaching strategy to lift status
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Education ministers will consider a national strategy to raise the status of teaching to boost morale within the profession and make it more attractive as a career choice for school leavers.
    
    "At a meeting of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs in Melbourne on Thursday, ministers will consider a proposal for a campaign selling teaching as a profession to school students and addressing inaccurate perceptions of the profession.

    "The proposal from West Australian Education Minister Mark McGowan calls for the states and territories to work together on a commonwealth-funded campaign to run in the middle of the year in time to influence school leavers lodging their preferences for university courses. [I can think of at least one way that Mr McGowan could raise the status of teaching... $$$... Putting human beings into senior DET positions might help, too. Web]

    "The background paper prepared for MCEETYA says workforce projections anticipate a national shortage of teachers of about 30,000 by 2012 as a result of retirement rates exceeding the number of teachers starting work.

    "The MCEETYA meeting, in the two days before the 2020 Summit in Canberra at the weekend, is also expected to discuss a national school curriculum, with Queensland Premier Anna Bligh yesterday calling for the introduction of a national curriculum in less than two years.

    "Ms Bligh's plan, which she will push at the 2020 Summit, would accelerate the process implemented by the Rudd Government to establish a national curriculum board by January 1 and a national curriculum in key subjects in 2011.

    "Ms Bligh said each state and territory should abolish their curriculum authorities and work to create a national body and roll out a national curriculum in 2010. [emphasis added]

    "We will free up about $150 million nationally to go straight back into our classrooms, into better teaching and better opportunities for children," she said.

    "Ms Bligh told a forum of Queensland delegates to the 2020 Summit the system of state-based curriculums was holding back Australia's education.

    "Separate state-based curricula is the rail gauge equivalent to the intellectual effort of this country," she said, referring to the non-compatible rail systems in the states.

    "The West Australian proposal for a National Status of Teaching Campaign is based on a program that has run in Britain for the past decade, which has succeeded in making teaching a sought-after university course.

    "The briefing paper says the declining status of the teaching profession is a significant barrier to attracting people into the workforce and keeping them there.

    "A national campaign to raise the status of teaching as a profession is, therefore, as important for attracting new recruits in a highly competitive labour market as it is to raising the morale and esteem of the existing teaching workforce, ultimately influencing retention rates," it says.

    "The paper says the campaign should target students in Years 10 to 12, people looking to change careers, men, others under-represented in the community and people in occupations with skills required in areas of need such as maths and science.

    "It says the campaign should also deal with the quality of the teaching profession, noting that a number of reports have found that attracting high performers into teaching by making entry highly selective drives up the status of the profession.

    "Teacher education in Australia languishes in the bottom third of university preferences."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • For $110K, science lessons begin
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Before he has even finished his university degree, Michael Briggs is signed up for a six-figure salary in his new job - not as a lawyer or dentist, and not in the mines, but as a high school science teacher.

    "Under a scholarship program unveiled by the West Australian Government, Mr Briggs will receive a $60,000 lump sum on top of his regular teaching salary.

    "In exchange, he will teach in a country school for four years, receiving half his bonus payment now, and the rest at the end of his contract.

    "The bonus $60,000 is paid on top of a first-year teaching salary that is worth more than $50,000, and any other allowances, which can be worth almost $20,000 depending on the posting.

    "The bonus can be paid in a lump sum or, as in Mr Briggs's case, as a fortnightly payment.

    "This brings his starting salary to at least $110,000, an amount few teachers in government schools achieve.

    "The $19 million teaching scholarship program is the latest scheme launched by the state Government to attract teachers into its schools, particularly in rural and remote areas.

    "While all states and territories are suffering from a shortage of teachers, the problem is worse in Western Australia, with prospective and even practising teachers giving up school-work for the big salaries in mining.

    "Mr Briggs, 32, said his decision to enter teaching was prompted by having children and wanting a secure career and job satisfaction rather than the enticement of extra money.

    "I could have done a six-week course and become a crane driver or similar on six figures in the mines but it is just not challenging intellectually," he said.

    "This is the job I want to do. I would be doing it anyway, without the extra money."

    "Mr Briggs was in a gifted and talented class at high school, but after graduating from university he worked in a factory and in the security industry.

    "It was the birth of his first daughter, Gracie, now 4 1/2, that prompted him to reassess his life.

    "When she came along, I thought I don't really want to be doing this forever," he said. "My mum is a teacher, and my sister taught English as a second language, so the family business is pretty much teaching."

    "Mr Briggs finishes his double degree in education and science this year, and will start teaching physics and chemistry as well as some maths next year.

    "State Education Minister Mark McGowan said the teacher scholarship program had received 346 applications to date, with 32 signing up for country service and the $60,000 bonus.

    "Mr McGowan said the scholarships were designed to attract final-year teaching students to regional schools and to attract teachers into areas of serious shortages, such as maths, science, design and technology."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Bring on the reading revolution
    by Janet Albrechtsen
    

    "If the steady stream of dismal statistics has numbed the national consciousness about indigenous educational failures, consider this.

    "In remote learning centres - note they are not even called schools - Mem Fox's picture book Wombat Divine was the only book used to teach literacy to indigenous children from years 1 to 10 during the final term in 2005. As Helen Hughes, professor emeritus at the Australian National University and a senior fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, revealed in a paper released on Monday, indigenous students were taught to read by guessing whole words.
    
    "Is it any wonder that statistics tell us that pitifully few indigenous children learn how to read? Surely, then, an education revolution starts at the most basic level: when children learn to read.

    "As a Labor Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd is uniquely placed to bury some enduring myths about Aboriginal education in general and the teaching of reading in particular.

    "The comparisons and anecdotes in Hughes's paper tell a bleak story in a way statistics never can. The present generation of indigenous children is less literate than that of their grandparents, who attended missionary schools. Immigrants receive better instruction in English than indigenous children.

    "Is it any wonder that, as Hughes reports, "two bright, well-brought-up girls of 15 and 16 who had attended the Homeland Learning Centre where Wombat Divine had been a text for (years) 9 and 10 respectively could not read The Cat in the Hat, write a paragraph describing their journey from East Arnhem Land to Sydney without assistance with almost every word, did not know when to use capital letters, thought there were 100 minutes in the hour, did not know how many weeks there are in a year, how many grams in a kilogram, how to divide a piece of material in two or how to add, let alone subtract, numbers higher than 10".

    "None of this is accidental. It is the result of deliberate policies that gave primacy to culture above all else. Put it down to an indulgence by anthropologists wanting to freeze indigenous people in time so they could study them. Put it down to education bureaucrats who believed that a mainstream education did not suit indigenous children.

    "Make no mistake: as Hughes concludes, indigenous children have been the victims of educational apartheid. About the time that assimilation became a dirty word, indigenous education went into free fall, dragged down by cultural imperatives that sidelined educational outcomes. Nowhere is that disaster better illustrated than in the teaching of reading.

    "Indigenous students are taught to read in a "culturally appropriate way". Apparently, culturally appropriate reading means exposing indigenous children to a pretty picture book about a wombat. Fox is a fine Australian author. Her books, such as Wombat Divine, have delighted thousands of children. She is a strong advocate that if a parent reads good books to their child, that child will learn to read. But reciting and reading are different skills.

    "It is here that Fox's influence as a vocal critic of phonics has not served children well. And it has proven disastrous for the most disadvantaged, those children without the luxury of a home full of books and parents who read to them.

    "Indigenous schools remain caught in the whole-word educational fad favoured by so-called progressive educators. For too long, those who control education in this country have derided phonics as the preferred reading method of conservatives. They treated the basic tool of teaching sounds that make up words as a throwback to the conservative 1950s.

    "Education luminaries such as Brian Cambourne said phonics was a tool to maintain prevailing power structures. The so-called progressive '70s could do better by students, they said. For Cambourne, literacy needed to be re-framed as a social movement that could be used to challenge the political status quo. Mundane tools such as learning the sounds that comprise the words on a page were dumped in favour of teaching students to think critically.

    "However, progress did not follow. It is difficult to think critically about a piece of writing if one cannot read fluently. Children are expected to memorise whole words, learn to read as if by osmosis, without knowing the basic building blocks. When learning basic skills was sidelined, children suffered. And disadvantaged children suffered the most. It is nothing short of reprehensible that our most disadvantaged students are subjected to such illogical reading instruction.

    "Learning to read starts with the most basic of basics. Phonics teaches children the one-letter, two-letter and three-letter sounds that make up words. They learn how to read and how to solve problems by thinking logically. Confronted with a new word, a child trained in phonics will break it down into sound blocks. By building it back up with those sounds they can decipher the word. If working out how to read a new word is empowering for a four-year-old, it is critical for a 17-year-old.

    "Yet those schools that say they teach a balance of whole word and phonics have, in essence, sidelined any systematic teaching of phonics. How could it be otherwise given that teachers are themselves not taught how to teach phonics in any meaningful way?

    "The biggest hurdle to reform is ideology. The left-wing teachers unions have become the latter-day equivalent of the Maritime Union of Australia, blocking sensible reform at every step. Be it phonics or merit-based pay, a notion that most teachers support, or greater freedom for principals in the hiring and firing of teachers, unions have blocked reform, preferring a cushy status quo. And their so-called progressive barrackers in the universities that teach the teachers are with them all the way.

    "As the leader of a Labor Government, Rudd can make a difference to the next generation of indigenous children. The PM has a unique chance to tackle the critics in a way the Howard government never could. When the Howard government spoke of the importance of phonics, critics regarded it as some conservative conspiracy aimed at keeping people in their place and dulling their critical senses. It never made sense, of course. Critical faculties tend to improve most when people learn to read well and enjoy reading.

    "And just imagine if Julia Gillard, the education revolution minister from the Labor Party's left faction no less, chose to confront the ideological critics of phonics? If Rudd and Gillard are serious about an education revolution, let it begin in the classrooms of indigenous children. Let it begin by telling it like it is. Learning the sounds that make up words is not a politically driven agenda. It is about literacy. It is the key to social mobility. Until that small step is taken, indigenous children will continue to suffer."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Aboriginal English to speak up
    
    Aboriginal English should be recognised as a distinct dialect with speakers requiring the support given to those who speak English as a second language.
    
    
    
  • Call for remote student hostels
    
    All rural and remote Aboriginal children would be entitled to a bed in full-time hostels built by the federal Government beside new schools, under a radical proposal to be put to the 2020 Summit.
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • Dark threat to teachers
      
      "The Carpenter Government continues to promote a culture of secrecy and obstinacy through its harassment of the State School Teachers' Union. It attempts to smoke-screen the public from understanding the real daily grinding demands teachers are faced with and temperamentally plays the political spin of the "good guy".

      "It is imperative, more than any time in history, that the union digs in. From the beginning it should have run rolling strikes, one day a week, to emphatically promote its cause and to hit the Government hard in its staunch commitment to the needs of its members. The irregular on-off, half-day strike with future threats was in reality worth next to nothing; that is , it's water off a duck's back as far as the Government was concerned.

      "Dragging out threats over months only allows the media circus to have a field day, the general public to get a misguided perception of events and the Government to sit back and wallow in the increasing public distain over teachers' casual disruptive actions.

      "The SSTU must attack this conniving Government with a united passion. Don't let Education Minister Mark McGowan attempt to use ethnic teachers' union stacking as an excuse for its actions or continue his manipulation of statistics, in particular, the "generous" offer of up to 20 per cent, to woo the public against teachers.

      "This top percentage is for a tiny minority of teachers, with the vast majority receiving the bottom-level 13 per cent offer, which would fall pitifully behind the rate of inflation. Gas, water and power are all headed for significant rises, but not teachers' pay. Are teachers being punished for not being part of the mining boom?

      "All teachers must unerringly stand united behind their union and wholeheartedly support its directions to members.

      "Mr McGowan, you and your Government should be ashamed for attempting to tarnish the reputation of teachers and in the process stain an education system which teachers have slaved to build and maintain to a high standard.

      "Tour insulting pay offer amounts to slave labour and aside from being offensive, is a dark threat to the future of the teaching profession."

      G.W.J. Pearce. Kingsley
      
      
      

• The Age
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Literacy wars cause collateral damage
    by Ilana Snyder
    

    "What is it about literacy education that gets people's adrenalin going?

    "Whether it's a misplaced apostrophe in a student's essay, or an exam question inviting a feminist interpretation of Othello, the teaching of reading and writing is the subject of fierce debates in the media. The debates have reached such intensity in recent years that public confidence in literacy teachers has been undermined and many believe we have a literacy crisis in our schools.

    "Literacy crises have been declared at other points in Australian history but the pattern is the same. Claims are made that standards are slipping and young people are leaving school without basic literacy skills. Next come the reports in the press, letters to the editor and discussion on talkback radio as parents, teachers, union officials, leaders of professional organisations and academics respond. The effect is always powerful, with the public assuming that there is a literacy problem and that teachers are to blame.

    "Not surprisingly, concern about literacy education is not exclusive to Australia. In the US, George Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, with its narrow focus on maths and reading test scores, has provoked deep division in the education community. In England, Tony Blair may have proclaimed that his prime interest was education, education, education but he will be remembered for imposing the prescriptive Literacy Hour and failing to reach national targets for literacy achievement, rather than for his reforming zeal.

    "Part of the explanation for the persistence and passion of the debates is that literacy is of interest to everyone because understanding written words is something that most people do every day. Another part of the explanation is the mythology surrounding literacy - that once acquired, literacy inevitably changes life prospects for individuals and groups. But the most important part of the explanation is that the debates are rarely just about literacy.

    "At their core, they are the product of competing views and beliefs about society - what it is, what it has been and what it should become.

    "Despite the widespread interest in literacy, it remains difficult to define. Traditionally, literacy has been thought of as a psychological ability. Being literate is a matter of cracking the alphabetic code and of acquiring word formation, phonics, grammar and comprehension skills. According to this view of literacy, decoding (for reading) and encoding (for writing) abilities serve as building blocks for doing other things. Once literate, people can get on with the business of learning.

    "More recent understandings see literacy not as an unchanging set of basic skills but as a dynamic repertoire of social practices. According to this view, learning to be literate is more like learning to play a musical instrument in an orchestra than the mechanical acquisition of decoding and encoding skills in a classroom. Reading and writing is always reading and writing something with understanding.

    "My belief is that both psychological and social explanations of literacy are useful and that both should inform literacy education. But that is not the point here. The fact is that there is no single, correct view of literacy that would be universally accepted. There are a number of competing definitions that are continually changing and evolving.

    "Competing definitions are at the heart of the battles over literacy education. The lack of agreement about what literacy is helps explain the conflict between conservative critics who want to preserve valued traditions and literacy teachers who are caught somewhere between the legacy of the past and the imperative to prepare children for the demands of the future.

    "In Australia, conservative critics have sought to discredit a literacy curriculum they believe is afflicted by relativism, fragmentation and a fixation on contemporary social issues. They have poured scorn on the teaching profession and institutions of teacher education, accusing them of damaging traditional educational values. Their mission is greater emphasis in schools on cultural literacy, the literature of the Western canon and traditional values.

    "In response, literacy teachers and academics argue that it is not possible to turn the clock back. There have been enormous changes in the world of ideas - due to science but also due to feminism, multiculturalism and social justice. These ways of thinking cannot be ignored. Giving attention to them in the literacy classroom does not mean that there is no place for the enduring values and traditions of the classics and Australia's cultural heritage.

    "Without question, there are some real problems with literacy education in Australia, but not the ones conservative critics have focused on in the media. There are seriously and consistently low levels of literacy performance among indigenous students, recent migrants and the underprivileged.

    "These young people are the disadvantaged in Australian education. How to improve their educational outcomes is one of the most serious challenges we face. But one thing is certain: a quick-fix, prescriptive literacy program is not the answer.

    "It is yet to be seen if the ferocity of the debates will dissipate, but I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful because there is an alternative to acrimonious exchanges: open, civil public discussion about the purposes of literacy education in contemporary society offers a way forward.

    "We need to talk about how to engage and motivate children to learn and imbue them with high expectations of what they can achieve. We need to discuss how to improve all young people's prospects to gain the literacy skills and knowledge required for post-school work and life.

    "We also need to consider how to ensure the provision of first-rate training for pre-service literacy teachers and excellent professional learning opportunities for teachers in schools. The challenges are huge but so is the potential for productive change."

    Ilana Snyder is an associate professor in the faculty of education, Monash University. She is the author of The Literacy Wars: Why teaching children to read and write is a battleground in Australia, published by Allen & Unwin. RRP $32.95.

    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    A shake-up, but is it bold enough?
    by Caroline Milburn
    

    "A state Government plan to have tougher standards of accountability for Victoria's preschools and schools has been welcomed by education experts.

    "Parent groups and leading educators say the overhaul of the state's education system is badly needed but some have concerns about whether the blueprint is bold enough to achieve its aims.

    "The shake-up, covering children from birth to year 12, aims to tackle student underperformance and revamp child-care services. Under the plan, parents will get unprecedented information on how schools perform, and all early childhood staff will be required to get a qualification.

    "More pressure will be applied to government schools to improve. Struggling schools will receive more intensive monitoring from the Education Department and stronger intervention. High-performing schools will be given greater incentives and responsibilities while "adequately performing schools" will be monitored and get incentives to encourage their improvement..."

    Full story in the The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Teachers' strike set to cripple national tests
    
    Victorian teachers plan to walk off the job during Australia's first national literacy and numeracy tests, a move that would cause chaos in the education system and disrupt the program in which thousands of children are taking part.
    
    
    
  • Coalition unveils $396 million pay plan
    
    Victoria's powerful teacher union has backed a Coalition promise to make the state's teachers the best paid in the country, condemning Premier John Brumby for dragging his heels over a new pay deal.
    
    
    
    • Analysis
      Baillieu bid to be teachers' pet
      by Paul Austin
      
      "Ted Baillieu's audacious bid to become the champion of Victoria's teachers is designed to drive a wedge between John Brumby and a traditionally pro-Labor constituency, and suggests Baillieu will be a policy risk-taker in the lead-up to the next election.

      "The upside for Baillieu of his call for the state's teachers to become the highest paid in Australia is obvious: if Brumby heeds the call, as the education unions want, the Premier will be seen to be playing policy catch-up; if Brumby refuses to find the extra money, Baillieu will be able to run on a "vote Liberal for better pay for teachers" platform.

      "Baillieu is striking while Brumby is vulnerable, losing the propaganda battle with the education unions on a new pay deal for teachers..." [Must be a lesson for the WA Libs in there... Web]
      
      Full story in The Age at link
      
      
      

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Three Letters on Tests that will fail us all are not the answer in schools
      
      
      
      
• The Independent
  
  
  • Tories would allow teachers to use force on pupils [from 8 April]
    by Andrew Grice and Richard Garner
    
    "Teachers would be allowed to use greater physical force against unruly pupils under a proposed change in the law that would be enacted by a Tory government.

    "David Cameron, the Conservative leader, pledged to abolish "no touching" rules under a plan to improve school discipline published yesterday. It said: "We will change the law ... to make it easier for teachers to deal with violent incidents, remove disruptive pupils and physically restrain disruptive children."

    "Asked if teachers should be allowed to hit pupils, Mr Cameron said: "It is acceptable for teachers to feel that they can sometimes be physical. I don't mean going round walloping people. You have got to be able, if a child is tearing down a corridor, to put out your hand and grab them. There is a wave of political correctness in this area that has gone much too far."

    "The Tories would also end the right of appeal to an independent panel when pupils are excluded, abolish rules forcing good schools to take expelled pupils from bad ones and end financial penalties on schools that expel children.

    "A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said new legislation had already been introduced allowing teachers to use reasonable force to restrain pupils.

    "John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said abolishing appeals panels would see more parents going to court to overturn exclusions, which would be more costly.

    "Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said: "Schools have [already] been given an unprecedented menu of sanctions to support them in tackling indiscipline. [What] needs to be looked at is why teachers are not being supported in using them."

    From The Independent at link
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Teachers struggling to survive on income, says report [from 11 April]
    
    Increasing numbers of teachers are struggling to cope with rising mortgage payments and living costs as the credit crunch continues, the Teacher Support Network (TSN) said today.

Tuesday 15 April

• The Age
  
  
  • The Monday Education Section has been updated and includes 10 articles [two were included in Monday's PLATO news coverage]
    
    
    
  • States may adopt ACT plan to fight obesity in schools
    
    A national campaign to combat obesity by using sports equipment to reward children who exercise for at least an hour a day will be discussed this week when state and federal education ministers meet in Melbourne.
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Aboriginal children need teaching that respects their culture
    
    It is too simplistic to insist on imposing values on Aborigines.
    
    Schools are places of learning and accept all families and children regardless of background. They respect the culture and experience that children bring to school and see this as the essential framework of learning, not an evil to be eradicated. The culturally inclusive curriculum does not transform the regular curriculum into an indigenous science, an indigenous mathematics, an indigenous language and the like, but brings different cultural perspectives to bear on particular issues for ongoing investigation and reflection.
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • School bans same-sex formal partners
    
    One of Brisbane's leading private schools, Anglican Church Grammar School, is under attack for its decision to prevent final-year students from taking same-sex partners to the school formal. At least two other Brisbane private schools, Brisbane Boys Grammar and Stuartholme, have allowed students to bring partners of the same sex to the formals. But the administration of "Churchie", as it is known, is maintaining opposition to the practice after several students said they wanted to bring their male partners to the formal.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Students blast uni on double standards
    
    Postgraduate students at the University of Sydney have lashed out at the university's administrators for applying double standards in its plagiarism policy in the wake of recent allegations involving Kim Walker, the dean of the Conservatorium of Music.
    
    
    
    
• The Daily Mail [UK]
  
  
  • What a joke: How pupils can pass GCSE geography by drawing a cartoon
    
    Pupils will be able to gain 25 per cent of their marks in geography GCSE by drawing cartoons and writing poetry.

Wednesday 16 April

• The Australian
  
  
  • Poor grounding a bar to uni
    by Guy Healy
    
    "Those from poor families appear to be no more likely to reach university, despite a vast expansion of the sector during the past 15 years, and the reason is social class and weaker school performance feeding low expectations, rather than the rising cost of higher education.

    "This is the conclusion suggested by a 149-page Universities Australia report on equity and participation released today.

    "Lead author Richard James, from the University of Melbourne, said it was vital to maintain scholarships and other financial measures but added that "money allocated at the point of transition to university isn't going to fix the problem on the larger scale".

    "To fix the problem we have to fix schooling and improve school achievement levels for people from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, their lower rates of school completion and lower academic results at school, which in the early stages makes people start to think going to university is not for them because they won't have the grades," Professor James said.

    "Students from low SES backgrounds held about 15 per cent of places and this had remained nearly unchanged for 15 years.

    "The expansion of the university sector had lifted the absolute number of these students. They were especially under-represented in the most competitive professions, such as law. [emphasis added]

    "As a group, low SES students comprised less than 10 per cent of postgraduate students, the UA study says. The rising cost of higher education, however, did not seem to be a disincentive.

    "Census data suggested university attendance rates were stable for young people in all socioeconomic groups between 2001 and 2006.

    "The increased cost of attending university since 1997 does not appear to have had net adverse effects on any of the socioeconomic groups," the report says. "For blue-collar families, household income appears to have little effect on the likelihood that their teenage children will attend university. School results are the major influence on university attendance."

    "University of Wollongong vice-chancellor Gerard Sutton said he agreed with the James assessment that lack of money was not the main barrier to university.

    "Universities are doing all we can to encourage people and provide scholarships. It's aspirational," Professor Sutton said.

    "That universities had to hand back more than 1700 places this year showed there was no effective unmet demand. Professor Sutton said the Government's appointment of Labor MP Maxine McKew to tackle the issue of early childhood development was a significant development.

    "His university was revamping its early childhood program to improve the number and quality of teachers.

    "Professor Sutton said he and his counterparts in the sector remained concerned about student poverty and the amount of paid work students had to do, which kept them away from their studies.

    "Professor James backed a policy response that would allow students to reduce the time they had to spend in paid work..."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    Similar story in The Age
    
    
    

  • Focus on professions, not trades
    by Guy Healy
    
    "Four professional jobs were created for every one trade job in the decade to 2006, a fact at odds with the Rudd Government's plan to expand vocational training rather than university education, a new study concludes.

    "Professionals and others needing university education accounted for 42 per cent of the 1.47million jobs created during that decade, according to the Monash Centre for Population and Urban Research.

    "The 105,749 increase in tradespeople was dwarfed by the 439,000 increase in professionals..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    Similar story in The Age
    
    
    

  • This is innovative: teach
    by Luke Slattery
    
    "Australian higher education, along with competitor systems in the global knowledge economy, is fiercely preoccupied with university-based research and development, its commercialisation and its contribution to the innovation agenda.

    "But when business leaders are asked what they want from higher education, according to international innovation researcher Alan Hughes, they invariably stress the need for universities to deliver on their founding goal: education.

    "Business sees the key role for higher education as the provision of trained and highly skilled graduates," concludes Hughes, who has been reeled in from Cambridge -- where he holds the rather intimidating title of Margaret Thatcher professor of enterprise studies -- by the federal Government's innovation review to provide expert advice on the international experience.

    "He believes, in essence, that universities' contribution to "human capital" receives too little attention in debates about innovation policy and the knowledge economy..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Editorial
    Seize day on reform
    
    Education ministers must overcome provider capture
    
    "The computers are coming, consensus about the benefits of a national curriculum has been established, and stakeholders agree that the status of the teaching profession must be enhanced. The real work on the Rudd Government's education revolution starts tomorrow, at the education ministers' meeting in Melbourne. High on the agenda is a national strategy to make teaching more attractive, especially to school-leavers at the upper end of the results spectrum. With the national shortage of teachers set to reach 30,000 by 2012, this is an urgent necessity.

    "Merit-based teacher pay was an article of faith with the Howard government, which was unable to beat the implacable opposition of teachers' unions and, through provider capture, the state education systems. The Howard government also identified the importance of a national and more rigorous school curriculum, but failed to deliver. Revitalised federalism presents coast-to-coast Labor governments with a rare opportunity to seize the day on education reform. Be it merit-based pay or better career structures that reward excellence in teaching performance and better qualifications, the profession will not be made more attractive without a major shakeup. This calls for an end to existing arrangements by which unions negotiate uniform salaries and conditions and almost all teachers at the same stages of their careers are paid exactly the same amount, whether good, bad or indifferent.

    "Top teachers often leave the profession, reluctantly, for industry jobs on twice the pay. Spending restraints mean it would be impossible to lift general salaries to anywhere near such levels, but the best teachers deserve to be rewarded with competitive packages, which could be enhanced, as are many academic careers, with greater opportunities for travel and further study.

    "Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's support for a national curriculum suggests progress on that front will be accelerated. This will be good news if governments insist on the highest-quality standards in all subjects and reject misguided notions that lowering the outcomes bar enhances inclusiveness. If the education theorists are allowed to prevail, it will be bad news for states with better curriculums, as they will be at risk of being superseded by inferior ones. Long experience shows that getting the early building blocks such as literacy right means eschewing fads in favour of tried and true methods such as phonics. Testing and transparency of results should be non-negotiable. [emphasis added]

    "At secondary level, the Rudd Government is committed to resourcing schools offering skills training. This is a positive. But the hardest battles will come in restoring rigour in traditional academic subjects such as English and history, which have been left to wallow in sludge by state authorities for years. The depth of the education revolution will depend on how effectively the ministers beat provider capture."
    

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    University is not the place to crush ideas
    
    sinister (adj) 1. Suggestive of evil; looking malignant or villainous. 2. Wicked or criminal. 3.An evil omen. Sinister was the word chosen by The Sydney Morning Herald to describe the campaign launched by the Young Liberals at university campuses under the slogan "Education, not indoctrination".

    Remove the SMH filter and here's the story: a group of Young Liberals is concerned that students are sometimes forced to endure indoctrination by university academics. Their aim is to encourage freedom of thought and intellectual pluralism on campus. Some may say their goal is naive. Universities have always been bastions of left-wing thought. But sinister?
    
    
    

  • UWA wins a chair in literature
    
    The rejuvenation of Australian literature in universities has received a boost with the announcement of a new chair in the discipline at the University of Western Australia.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Struggling schools in line for help
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Suburbs and towns with a high concentration of poor schools would get targeted government support and "reward payments" for boosting students' results under a plan to be considered by education ministers tomorrow.

    "State Education Minister Bronwyn Pike will challenge Canberra to adopt a new national approach to funding and intervening in disadvantaged schools, in what will be the first education ministers' meeting under the Rudd Government.

    "Under Victoria's proposal, each area would get a government-developed action plan setting out the type of intervention schools would get, and the performance benchmarks they must meet in exchange for additional funding.

    "Ms Pike said that rather than tying funding or services directly to individual schools, the Commonwealth should target entire postcode areas with disadvantaged schools..."

    Full story in The Age at link

Thursday 17 April

• The Australian
  
  
  • McKew wants schools open for holidays [late update: online only]
    by Samantha Maiden, Online political editor
    
    "Maxine McKew wants to overhaul school holidays by having the nation's classrooms open for business to provide vacation care and take the pressure off working parents.

    "The Parliamentary Secretary for Childcare, charged by Kevin Rudd with reforming early childhood services, said today she wanted to spark a national debate on better matching work and school or childcare holidays.

    "She floated two possible options: adjusting the school or work holiday timetable; and opening more schools for vacation care.

    "Ms McKew also called for new thinking on part-time workers, complaining too many employers relegated women to the mummy-track if they did not work full-time and “treated them differently’’.

    "Spruiking the benefits of the Prime Minister’s 2020 idea to offer one-stop baby health and childcare centres, Ms McKew said the next big challenge was helping parents juggle just four weeks’ annual leave with up to three months of school holidays.

    "We have a work year that is pretty much 48 weeks or whatever and we have a school year that's about ... two-thirds of that," she said today.

    "It's crazy, if we are going to think big we need to think about some sort of sensible realignment of the work year with (the) school year or vice versa."

    "She told The Australian Online: “I am putting it out there because I know it is what drives parents nuts.

    “You go through the whole 0-5 years period but your problems aren’t over once your children hit the school system. In fact, parents hit a whole other set of challenges. One of the options is employers creatively rethinking the working year.

    “We’ve got all this school infrastructure. Let’s rethink how we can use it 12 months of the year.”

    "Ms McKew said there was room for a “massive rethink’’ on how schools were used.

    “We still have a rigid school year that does not fit the working year. I am not talking about teachers working through the school holiday at all,’’ she said.

    “But the fact is you have anywhere between two and a half and three months a year when you do not have teachers there,’’ she said.

    “Yes there is vacation care, but it is an add-on, it is not an integrated system. I think there is massive room there to rethink how the school holidays are used.’

    “That might be with creative groups, it might be with grandma and grandpa clubs. We have a whole generation of over-60s who are looking for different work/life options.

    “My sister has been saying this to me for years. Her biggest challenge was when her daughter started school and she just said, “This is mad.”

    "Ms McKew also said it was also clear some employers needed to rethink their attitudes to part-time work.

    “Women who have worked hard to achieve a certain level of professional standing find that suddenly you have a child and you are working three days and you are treated so differently,’’ she said.

    “It’s particularly an issue around the quality of work. Very, very few employers are willing to treat those part-time workers with the same status and quality of work as their full-time peers.

    “It’s true for men as well. If men (go part-time) they are not regarded as having the same kind of ‘grunt’ as people who are prepared to pony up for five and six days.

    “The challenge for me is doing it with my own staff. One of my key employees is a mum with young child under two2, she works a three day week and we renegotiate. She puts five, sometimes six, days of work into those three days.’’

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Teachers target national test for strike
    by Farrah Tomazin with Jewel Topsfield
    
    "Tensions between the State Government and teachers have heightened ahead of today's education ministers' meeting, with Catholic school teachers planning to join their public school colleagues and strike during Australia's first national literacy and numeracy test.

    "The teachers plan to walk off the job during next month's flagship test — a state and federal program designed to give governments a clearer snapshot of how students are faring in reading, writing and maths.

    "About 1 million students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are to sit the exams from May 13-15. In Victoria, up to an estimated 200,000 students could be disrupted when their teachers strike and refuse to administer the exams in yet another bid for a pay rise.

    "Victorian Independent Education Union general secretary Deb James said Education Minister Bronwyn Pike should explain to her state and federal colleagues at today's meeting why teachers in Victoria — the lowest paid in the country — got such a raw deal.

    "Ms Pike and Catholic Education Office director Stephen Elder have condemned the action.

    "At the end of the day, it will not help resolve the current wage dispute," Mr Elder said. "Students will also be the big losers as the tests are intended to assist their progress."

    "Other issues to be discussed at today's meeting between federal Education Minister Julia Gillard and her state counterparts include:

    • A Federal Government push to give parents more information on how schools perform.
    • A campaign to combat obesity by using sports equipment to reward children who exercise.
    • A plan to boost the status of teaching and make it a more attractive career choice.

  "Teacher remuneration was also an issue in State Parliament yesterday. Labor MPs refused to support a motion calling on the Government to make Victorian teachers the country's highest paid. The motion was passed after the Government — in a surprise move — refused to vote on it one way or the other.

  "Nationals education spokesman and former teacher Peter Hall, who drafted the motion, rejected suggestions that the Opposition was being populist.

  "This is not a stunt, it's a serious issue," he said."
  
  From The Age at link
  
  

  • Editorial
    Attention please, ministers, it's time for leadership
    
    Today's meeting of education ministers will debate a range of important issues. The top priority should be how to better reward teachers who achieve great results.
    
    "A year ago, the states stood as one to oppose then federal education minister Julie Bishop's attempt to introduce merit-based pay for teachers. Under Ms Bishop's vision, based on a report by the Australian Council for Educational Research, principals would have been given more power to pay teachers according to how much they contributed to students' results, rather than years of service and experience. Teachers would have been assessed on a range of criteria, including the academic performance of their pupils, feedback from students and parents, and the attainment of higher academic and professional standards through greater levels of professional development. The Bishop plan, while lacking in detail, had some merit. Yes, the criteria for assessing performance needed much closer examination. Yes, teachers work in teams, in areas such as the VCE and literacy and numeracy, making judging individual performance difficult. In addition, as the research council warned, across-the-board pay based on merit would require a new funding model — way too hard in what was an election year.

    "A year on, the divisive debate over how to pay teachers has grown rather than subsided. So has the debate about how to lift teaching and education standards. The Australian Education Union wants teachers to be paid more, and it is fighting hard. As talks began in South Australia yesterday on a new enterprise bargaining agreement, the union rejected an offer of a 9.75% pay rise over three years. It is asking for a 21% rise, smaller class sizes and a commitment to attract and retain staff. In Victoria, rolling stoppages continue over a 3.25% wage offer. Today more than 300 teachers in South Gippsland are expected to strike — the first in a string of regional four-hour stoppages. Next month teachers are threatening to block national literacy and numeracy tests. The tests, for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9, are hoped to provide the first accurate snapshot of how the nation is performing on these basic educational goals. [emphasis added]

    "The industrial action and the lack of what appears to be an accepted national position on teachers' pay will almost certainly provide a powerful backdrop to today's ministerial talks — widely billed as an unprecedented opportunity for the Labor states to achieve significant reform. The challenge for the ministers — apart from negotiations on a national curriculum in mathematics, English, science and history and over teacher accreditation and school resourcing — is to get beyond the stigma of the Bishop pay model and develop another, more workable strategy that provides similar outcomes. First steps are needed. The ministers must not be captive to the notion that measuring teacher performance belongs in the too-hard basket. It's time for effective leadership, not political point-scoring. Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu's pledge to make Victoria's teachers the highest paid in Australia if the Coalition wins government in 2010 reeks of the latter.

    "All stakeholders in the education debate agree that more needs to be done to attract and retain quality teachers, and pay is one of the biggest issues. Teachers enter the profession on a starting salary of about $46,000 and within 10 years hit a ceiling of about $66,000. In grappling with the issue of performance pay, the ministers could start by directing most attention to the schools in each state that have the lowest readiness to provide sound education outcomes, assessed by issues such as students' command of language, their exposure to books, their access to computers and their capacity to learn at home. If performance pay means that the standard of learning in these schools rises, then it would be richly justified. In other words, ministers could deal first with those schools in greatest need.

    "Such an approach would marry neatly with the Brumby Government's new five-year education blueprint, which includes a plan to give top teachers financial incentives to work in underperforming schools. It would also complement an agreement brokered at the last Council of Australian Governments meeting to help struggling schools through national partnership payments.

    "It must be hoped that the ministers support performance-based pay in some way, even if such a decision steps up the confrontation with unions. Federal Labor has an enormous opportunity to strengthen Australia's education vision, from targeted teacher incentives in the early years of learning through to university. It is time to recognise the need for greater incentives for the best educators."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers angry at bullying game (page 19)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Teachers have condemned a computer game aimed at teenagers in which players kick, punch or use weapons such as baseball bats and slingshots to battle other students in a fictitious school.

    "The Australian Education Union is part of an international coalition of teaching organisations which combined to denounce the world-wide release of the computer game Bully: Scholarship Edition because they claim it glorifies school bullying. Released in Australia last month, the game was created by Rockstar Games, the same organisation which produced the controversial Grand Theft Auto, in which players steal cars and rob banks.

    "An updated Xbox 360 version of a game first released on PlayStation 2 years ago, Bully: Scholarship Edition is advertised as containing animated blood, violence, sexual themes and use of alcohol and tobacco.

    "A gaming website describes it as "dark comedy set in the most vile and sadistic setting yet in a Rockstar videogame: the schoolyard.

    "As a troublesome schoolboy, you'll laugh and cringe as you stand up to bullies, get picked on by teachers, play pranks on malicious kids, win or lose the girl, and ultimately learn to navigate the obstacles of the fictitious reform school, Bullworth Academy."

    "Federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said the union was disappointed when the game was first released two years ago. "And we are appalled that this new version is said to be more realistic, featuring new methods to torment and to bully," he said. "We are seeing, through the development of some computer games, the glorification of bullying and violence and what we are saying is enough's enough."

    "He called on game producers to show greater responsibility. "We know that bullying is an issue and responsible producers should not be glorifying it," he said.

    "Young Media Australia president Jane Roberts said the game undermined all the work schools had done to push the message that bullying was unacceptable.

    "When that comes up against a commercial product in the guise of entertainment ... that's really disappointing," she said. "Any type of aggressive, violent behaviour is totally unacceptable in any school environment, so why would we want to promote a product where that might be seen as a strategy?"

    "Rockstar Games declined to comment yesterday. A store manager for EB Games said the M-rated game was popular with Perth teenagers and had sold out since its release a few weeks ago."

    From The West Australian

     

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • In short
      
      "G.W.J. Pearce (Letters, 14/4) says that the State School Teachers' Union "from the beginning should have run rolling strikes, one day a week, every week". G. W. J. Pearce could be right and I believe the State School Teachers' Union should arrange for its members to go on strike this week and next week - but we wouldn't want to interrupt their 12-weeks-a-year holidays (plus public holidays and, minimum, four pupil-free days a year) would we?"

      Ross Beckett, Esperance
      

 

• The Times
  
  
• Massive rise in unqualified foreign teachers [from 16 April]
  by Alexandra Frean, Education Editor
  
  "The number of unqualified teachers taking classes in state schools has risen fivefold since Labour came to power, figures suggest.

  "Two thirds of these teachers were hired from overseas, prompting fears that schools are being forced to look abroad to recruit staff as many British teachers quit the profession. [emphasis added]

  "Data released by ministers to the Conservatives yesterday shows that there were 16,710 staff teaching in England’s state schools without qualified teacher status (QTS) in 2007, up from 2,940 ten years earlier. This includes 10,970 teachers trained overseas, up from 2,480 in 1997.

  "In addition 1,562 teachers from the European Economic Area are teaching in Britain after being awarded QTS last year, including 707 teachers from Poland.

  "Michael Gove, the Shadow Children’s Secretary, said that the fivefold rise in teachers without QTS was surprising as the Government’s advice was that everyone teaching in state schools “should have the official qualification”. He said that many qualified staff were “being put off teaching” by increasing problems with discipline and bureaucracy.

  "The figures follow data obtained by the Tories showing that there were more than 250,000 qualified teachers in England under 60 who are not currently teaching and 91,000 qualified teachers who have never taught. [emphasis added]

  "A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said that the vast majority of teachers from overseas were qualified in their home countries. And he said that all teachers from overseas had to convert their qualifications to QTS within four years of arriving.

  “We are clear that schools should only employ teachers from overseas if they can demonstrate they have the skills, experience and qualifications relevant to the post,” he added.

  "A spokeswoman for the Training and Development Agency for Schools said that there had been a small short-fall in the number of teacher training recruits this year. But she said: “It is worth noting that around 10,000 people return to teaching every year.”

  From The Times at link

Friday 18 April

• The Australian
  
  
  • Teachers to merit bonuses
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Teachers will be rewarded for their performance and skills under a national partnership between the federal, state and territory governments designed to attract and retain the best teachers in schools.

    "A meeting of the nation's education ministers in Melbourne yesterday agreed to develop a plan to reward and provide incentives to improve the quality of teaching.

    "The state and territory ministers also made it clear to the commonwealth that they would not be paying for the Rudd Government's promise to provide every student in Years 9 to 12 with access to a computer.

    "The $1 billion policy, announced during the election campaign, provided funds to buy the computers and install broadband access but the federal Government had expected the states and territories to contribute towards the continuing costs of the computers.

    "It is understood that one of the state ministers joked it would adopt a similar tactic at the next election, announcing a state government policy that the commonwealth would have to fund. [emphasis added]

    "The matter has been referred to the nation's treasurers and Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike, chair of yesterday's meeting, said: "The commonwealth is very clear on the states' views that this is a commonwealth program."

    "The idea of paying teachers extra based on merit or performance was first raised by former Coalition education minister Julie Bishop and roundly rejected at the last meeting of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.

    "But at the first council meeting since the election of the Rudd Government, education ministers agreed to research effective ways of rewarding the nation's best teachers with the commonwealth providing $400,000 to fund the research.

    "The meeting recommended that the productivity agenda working group of the Council of Australian Governments, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, develop a national partnership to take to COAG on ways to improve the quality of teachers.

    "The plan will develop rewards, incentives and career structures to attract and retain quality teachers, including at the start of their career, and ways of attracting quality teachers to work in difficult-to-staff schools.

    "It will also examine the quality of teacher education courses and their practical experience, incentives to tackle the inadequate number of teachers in specialised areas such as maths and science and the quality of entrants into the profession. The council also adopted a West Australian proposal to conduct a campaign to raise the status of teaching, which will be half-funded by the commonwealth. [emphasis added]

    "NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca said the state would draft proposals paying extra for improvements in teacher quality.

    "He said one of the most effective ways was to partner beginning teachers in classrooms with more experienced staff to provide instruction of teaching and managing a classroom.

    "Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Julia Gillard said the working group would also look at pilot programs that make a difference to students learning in literacy and in numeracy."

    From The Australian at link
    
    Related stories in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Nothing but talk about the revolution
    by Kevin Donnelly
    

    "If you were looking for an education revolution, don't expect it to rise from the outcomes of yesterday's meeting of the nation's education ministers.

    "As expected, given all levels of government are controlled by the ALP, the proposals outlined in the communique, while mouthing motherhood statements about the need to raise standards, implement a digital revolution and address disadvantage, do nothing to address underlying structural and institutional issues.

    "Forget that we have had ALP state and territory governments in charge of education for years, with standards falling, teachers not being paid enough and thousands of students leaving school illiterate and innumerate.

    "Forget that around Australia, teachers are taking industrial action, thousands are retiring and those new to the profession resign after five years. The best way to improve teaching is to make sure the best ones are paid more and that they have the right tools.

    "Tasmania's dumbed-down and ideologically driven Essential Learnings curriculum was developed by an ALP education minister. Western Australia's extension of outcomes-based education into Years 11 and 12 was also driven by an ALP government. [emphasis added]

    "In Victoria, government schools cried out for funding, as buildings collapsed.

    "The conference is more about spin than substance. Take computers. Before the election Labor promised to deliver a computer to every senior school student and connect them to the web.

    "Fast forward to last month's meeting of COAG and West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter's comment: "The federal Government might have a simplistic approach to delivering computers in order to keep an election promise but the states should not be expected to pay to keep that promise, and this state won't." So much for Labor's vow to get rid of the blame game.

    "To make Australian education world-class, schools need to be freed from provider capture - bureaucrats, teacher unions and professional bodies. Now that would be an education revolution." [emphasis added]
    

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Training shake-up in balance
    by Imre Salusinszky
    
    "The states have been unable to agree on a proposal to deregulate vocational education and training, with the Rudd Government yet to declare its hand.

    "The Australian revealed yesterday a review of the current federal-state arrangements on VET funding, commissioned by former education minister Julie Bishop, recommends a fully contestable national market in VET services.

    "According to the report by Boston Consulting Group, public and private providers should compete for a single pool of funds to deliver vocational training in any jurisdiction - potentially allowing NSW to build a TAFE in Queensland, or vice-versa.

    "As in many areas of federalism under the Howard government, the states would receive incentive payments based on their implementation of the reforms, including demonstrating even-handedness in dealings with private and state-owned providers.

    "But NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca told a meeting of his state and federal counterparts in Melbourne yesterday that he could not see himself taking a proposal to Cabinet to build a TAFE interstate.

    "He said the report was a hangover from the Howard era and should be junked.

    "The Australian understands that the NSW position was supported by Queensland and South Australia, but Victorian Skills Minister Jacinta Allan said that her state was happy to proceed with deregulation.

    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said the meeting noted the report, but did not reveal if she intended to act on it or bring it back to the table.

    "In a communique, the ministers "reaffirmed their commitment to progressing further reform of the VET sector to enhance its flexibility and responsiveness, improve access to skills for all Australians and strengthen the performance of the national training system".
    
    "At present, the commonwealth spends about $1.25 billion each year on vocational education and the states about $2.5 billion between them. The BCG report, which was released following the meeting, notes the VET participation rate has declined from 12.2per cent of the population in 2002 to 11.4 per cent in 2006.

    "It puts most of the decline down to the resources boom in Queensland and Western Australia, with school-leavers in those states taking well-paid entry-level jobs ahead of vocational training.

    "The report says the sector remained immune from the Howard government's workplace reforms.

    "It says Victoria and Western Australia have the least competitive VET sectors, with South Australia's the most bureaucratic. [emphasis added]

    "BCG says there are still too many barriers to new entrants in the field and calls for a single national system of trade qualifications and training.

    "Ms Gillard yesterday also announced health industry executive Philip Bullock would chair Skills Australia, a new statutory body that will advise the federal Government on workforce development and future skills needs."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Burrow pushes cultural learning
    by Brad Norington
    
    "ACTU president Sharan Burrow wants the federal Government to fund a "cultural school bag" for every child in Australia to broaden their understanding of creative arts and history.

    "A mass-produced bag for children, which would also expose them to the nation's multicultural background, is among ideas proposed by the union movement for the 2020 Summit.

    "Ms Burrow said yesterday the cultural school bag could contain local films and television programs, prose, poetry and other items in digital multimedia format. It could also include information about the nation's history.

    "We would want to see an understanding of Australia, of growing up in Australia, that goes beyond the traditional history and contemporary culture, and the creative arts," she said.

    "It is already in train, but in a sporadic way that's not well managed. By 2020 there is no reason why all our students can't be exposed to greater cultural experience."

    "Ms Burrow, a former teacher, said she believed a child's education should include wider exposure to indigenous culture and "all the ethnic mix".

    "The taxpayer-funded bag would offer support to teachers in schools across the country..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • 'Revolution' to offer Aboriginal scholarships
    
    Private and public schools should be given annual results-based incentive payments to cover scholarships for indigenous students and staff in an "education revolution" reflecting the urgent need to address low Aboriginal education standards.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Gillard lashes teacher union
    by Farrah Tomazin and Bridie Smith
    
    "Plans for Australia's first national literacy and numeracy test are in jeopardy, with teachers in four states threatening to walk out on the day of the crucial exam in pursuit of higher wages.

    "Teachers in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia look set to join Victoria in striking next month, in a move that could severely disrupt thousands of students due to sit the exam.

    "In her first big clash with the nation's teachers, federal Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday condemned the strike plans as "very inappropriate".

    "I would say to teachers who are considering this action that the national day of testing is exactly the wrong target to be hitting," Ms Gillard said.

    "She said the national day of testing was important because "it's only by best understanding what's happening in our education system that we can make sure we're keeping the system working the way we want it to".

    "But Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos hit back, saying: "Rather than lecturing teachers about our ethical responsibilities, it is incumbent upon governments to ensure that teachers are being properly remunerated so that we can guarantee a qualified teacher in front of every classroom in Australia."

    "Threats to the testing came as state and federal education ministers met for the first time since the election of the Rudd Government, to discuss ways to improve teaching quality, lift the status of the profession and boost students' results.

    "Amid the fights over pay in individual states, the ministers agreed to investigate ways of rewarding "quality teaching" — potentially paving the way for a national stream of performance-based pay in schools.

    "Ms Gillard announced Canberra would provide $400,000 to research ways of rewarding top teachers, as part of a broader plan to reform training, teaching supply and remuneration.

    "We want to make sure that in this new national partnership, we have before us the best possible evidence about what works, to get the best and brightest into teaching, to make sure that their skills are rewarded when they're there, and to retain them in those classrooms — making sure those skills are being used for the benefit of students," Ms Gillard said.

    "But after an often-spirited debate, the ministers could not decide who would pay additional costs flowing from the Rudd Government's $1 billion plan to give every senior school student access to a computer.

    "In a communique, the ministers noted the policy had "additional financial implications" for states and territories and referred the issue to treasury departments for more work.

    "President of the Australian Secondary Principals Association, Andrew Blair, said states and territories should partly pay for the extra costs, such as installation and maintenance.

    "In other developments:

    • Schools will be given new "goals" outlining how children should be educated, with ministers agreeing to refine the 1999 National Goals of Schooling.
    • Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike spearheaded a deal on a new national partnership to boost education funding in areas with a high concentration of disadvantaged schools.
    • Ministers agreed to bolster efforts in early childhood and indigenous education.

  "More than 1 million students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are scheduled to sit the national literacy and numeracy test from May 13 to 15.

  "But in Victoria, where teachers are the lowest paid in the country, up to 200,000 students could be disrupted when teachers from state and Catholic schools walk off the job and refuse to administer the exams in pursuit of higher pay claim.

  "Last night, the AEU branch president in the NT, Nadine Williams, said teachers had voted unanimously to stop work on May 13 in pursuit of a claim for a 15% wage rise over three years.

  "The State School Teachers Union of WA — which is seeking a pay rise of more than 20% over three years — will meet on Tuesday to discuss whether strike action would coincide with national testing.

  "SA branch president of the AEU, Correna Haythorpe, also would not rule out strike action coinciding with the national literacy and numeracy tests." [emphasis added]
  

  From The Age at link
  
  
  

• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • School classes 'dumbed down' [17 April]
    by Lucy Hood
    
    "Year 11 teachers are being encouraged to make subjects easier for students to pass so their schools do not appear to perform poorly in comparison with others.
    
    "A memo from a western suburbs high school, obtained by The Advertiser, reveals that teachers are modifying subjects to include fewer assignments and, in some cases, no classes. Senior Secondary Assessment Board of SA acting chief executive Graham Benger said that modification of subjects was common across all schools and year levels.

    "Modifying assessment plans and tasks so all students can demonstrate their learning, at whatever level they happen to be working, is good teaching practice," he said.

    "The Woodville High School memo states that students undertaking the modified subjects:

    ARE not required to attend classes.

    ONLY have to complete the "easiest" assignments for the subject, despite other students completing up to seven tasks.

    ONLY need a 15 per cent grade to gain a Recorded Achievement.

    "The memo states: "As a school, we need to ensure that our students are not disadvantaged when compared to . . . schools across the state. Currently, we are allocating a lot more RAs (recorded achievement) and R&Ms (requirements not met)."

    "The modified course only needs to contain one assessment task (maybe the easiest one). The student only needs to get 50 per cent to get an SA (satisfactory achievement) or 15 per cent to get an RA (recorded achievement). It's that easy!" [emphasis added]

    "Concerns have been raised by education experts and business groups that the dumbing down of the curriculum would harm students and the workforce.

    "It is setting people up to fail, not inside the school, but out in the workforce and that's the tragedy," Business SA chief executive Peter Vaughan said. "It's time schools realised it isn't about social engineering, but providing the community with people who are qualified."

    "University of Adelaide senior lecturer Dr Rod Crewther said Year 11 in South Australia was a "joke" compared with other states. "There's been concern for a long time that Year 11 is a joke and things don't seem to be changing," he said. "It has no syllabus, which is a very big problem as there are no set standards.

    "I would be concerned that for disadvantaged students, the year is being wasted."

    "Woodville High School SACE co-ordinator Colin Uphill said while there had been concerns from some teachers it could dumb down the curriculum, up to 15 per cent of Year 11 students were studying modified subjects.

    "He said many of the students had learning difficulties, disabilities or had been absent from school as a result of sickness.

    "It isn't dumbing down the curriculum, it is allowing students to be successful," he said. Mr Uphill said the memo followed a meeting with an officer from the Senior Secondary Assessment Board during Term 1 this year to review the school's 2007 results.

    "We came up with ways of improving the grades . . . it was a suggestion," Mr Uphill said.

    "If there is a legitimate reason they (students) aren't passing, we . . . consider (modifying) after discussions with parents."

    "Mr Benger said the memo given to Woodville High School teachers was "not on SSABSA" advice.

    "They may have some sort of benchmarks but we don't normally identify a percentage (mark) with success or failure," he said. "It wouldn't be common, it would be unusual and it wouldn't be meeting our requirements."

    "Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith said while she supported flexibility, students were required to achieve certain standards. "We support flexibility in teaching and SSABSA's efforts to increase the number of students staying in school, but all students need to achieve the required standard," she said.

    "We are overhauling the SACE to make it tougher by requiring students to pass English and maths in Year 11 and insisting all Year 12 subjects, for the first time, are assessed by external experts."
    
    From The Adelaide Advertiser at link
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • Teachers abused
      
      "It has been reported that there were more than 500 physical assaults on WA teachers last year. This statistic does not portray the true level of violence in schools against teachers by students and parents.
      
      "Many teachers are abused verbally on a daily basis by a small minority of offenders. The teachers are regarded as ineffective if they report this abuse to administrators and are held responsible for the students' behaviour. Thus, teachers are now powerless in their own workplace and are not being protected by their employer.
      
      "Until students and parents are held accountable, the status of teachers will continue to decline."
      
      Jenni Lodge, Kalamunda
      
      
      
      
• The Times
  
  
  • School ‘superheads’ to earn £200,000 a year in rewards and incentives system
    
    Head teachers from grammar schools could see their pay double to £200,000 a year in return for also taking over the management of failing schools in their area, under plans to bring private sector-style leadership and pay rates into state schools. [Happy recruiting Mr McGowan!  Web]
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Leader [Editorial]
    School diplomas: Sheep and goats
    
    If Gordon Brown's government is to chart a path that is distinctively un-Blairite, tackling the reform of A-levels and GCSEs that Tony Blair ducked is a good way of doing it. The new diplomas are intended to fulfil an ambition that has been close to the hearts of educational progressives for more than a hundred years - parity of esteem for vocational, technical and academic qualifications.
    
    
    
  • Number of pupils due to take new diplomas scaled down by a quarter
    
    The government's flagship diplomas policy is dealt a fresh blow today as a minister admits that the number of students due to start the courses in September has been "downgraded" by nearly a quarter amid concerns about quality.
    
    
    
    
• The Daily Mail
  
  
  • 40,000 students could be saddled with 'worthless' qualifications if problems with the new diploma aren't fixed [17 April]
    by Daniel Bates
    
    "Ministers faced a growing backlash yesterday over their flagship vocational diploma programme.

    "Jerry Jarvis, managing director of exam board Edexcel, warned that up to 40,000 students could be saddled with worthless qualifications unless worrying problems are ironed out.

    "He claimed that teachers had not received enough training ahead of the high-profile launch this September, and there were fears the diplomas could be too demanding for teenagers.

    "The attack is hugely damaging for the Government, which is trying to promote the new Continental- style diplomas at the expense of traditional qualifications such as A-levels and GCSEs.

    "Education Secretary Ed Balls has claimed that over the next decade the new qualifications could become the "jewel in the crown" of the education system, and has refused to give any guarantee that the traditional exams will continue.

    "A survey by the National Union of Teachers found that in the schools introducing diplomas, the majority of staff are still unfamiliar with them.

    "Five diploma subjects will be taught from this September in information technology, construction, engineering, creative and media, and society, health and development.

    "A further five will be launched in 2009 and 17 are planned in total..."
    
    Full story in The Daily Mail at link
    
    
    

  • Over a third of bosses say staff lack the three Rs... despite the billions ploughed into education
    by Sarah Harris
    
    "More than a third of employers are worried about the ability of their staff to read, write and add up correctly, according to a report.

    "They complain that workers cannot construct properly spelt sentences with accurate grammar or spot simple maths errors.

    "As a result firms are being forced to invest heavily in remedial training in basic literacy and numeracy at a cost to the economy of £10billion a year.

    "This is despite the Government ploughing billions into education since coming to power in 1997.

    "It has already been estimated that almost half of adults, around 17million, struggle with maths while five million are "functionally illiterate", which means they have the reading age of an 11-year- old or younger..."

    Full story in The Daily Mail at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Mayors push for another uni in west
    by Harriet Alexander, Higher Education Reporter
    

    "Mayors in Sydney's west are pushing for a second university in the region because they say the University of Western Sydney is cutting vital courses, reducing staff and failing to meet demand from students.

    "The president of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, Tony Hay, said the region needed more university places to meet the growth in population, now 1.8 million.

    "And if that means a second university in Western Sydney, so be it," said Mr Hay, who is also Mayor of Baulkham Hills.

    "South Australia, which has a smaller population, is served by three universities, he said.

    "The University of Western Sydney has six campuses, including Hawkesbury, Penrith, Bankstown, Parramatta, Campbelltown and Blacktown, but it announced last year it was winding up courses at the Blacktown campus.

    "It has cut its performing and fine arts programs and is rationalising its nursing program by moving places from Bankstown to the other three campuses where it is offered.

    "The university has also embarked on a voluntary redundancy program among academic staff, raising concerns about its already high staff to student ratio..."

    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    

Saturday – Sunday, 19 – 20 April

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Teachers get serious against State Government
    Exclusive by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "Teachers will launch a campaign against the Carpenter Government - to damage Labor's chances of re-election.
    
    "In about three weeks, hundreds of teachers will doorknock and letter-drop in marginal seats to tell voters "the truth'' about the Government's lack of commitment to public education, says the State School Teachers Union.

    "It said teachers, already stressed by increased workloads amid teacher shortages, were at breaking point because the Government had failed to resolve a pay and conditions dispute after seven months, despite sitting on a hefty budget surplus.

    "Union general secretary David Kelly said the Education Department recently asked the WA Industrial Relations Commission to formally determine teachers' salaries and conditions, which effectively killed negotiations and brought the stand-off to boiling point.

    "Never mind that they (the Government) are going to build stadiums and a ferris wheel on the foreshore, there are other more pressing needs, such as education and health,'' Mr Kelly said.

    "He said if the Government could not show how it would sort out these key areas, which were "a mess'', the electorate should ``send them on their way''.

    "The union will bus teachers, out of school hours, into Kingsley and Ocean Reef in Perth's northern suburbs, Kalamunda and the Darling Range to the east, Bunbury, Collie-Preston and Albany in the South-West and Geraldton "for starters''.

    "They would distribute brochures on class sizes, workloads and poor student behaviour.

    "In Kingsley, we only need to get 25 families to change their vote at the election and it will change sides (to the Liberals),'' Mr Kelly said. [emphasis added]

    "He said the action was needed because the Government refused to budge on pivotal demands such as reducing class sizes, increasing primary teachers' preparation time and giving principals and their deputies appropriate administration time.

    "We find it unbelievable that a Labor Government can be sitting on a multibillion-dollar pile of cash and not give education and the future of our children a higher priority,'' he said.
    
    "It seems like the ballot box is the only way to make them listen.''

    "He said the Government argued that allowing more preparation time kept teachers away from class during a time of shortages.

    "But the Government had ignored the union's proposals, such as removing teachers from bus and yard duties, which would free them up.

    "Paying teachers an allowance to prepare lessons outside working hours, which would free them for more class time, was no different to paying overtime.

    "Mr Kelly said more than 100 teachers had resigned since February and a huge shortage of primary teachers was predicted by 2010. [emphasis added]

    "The union did not rule out industrial action.

    "It is also pushing for a 20 per cent pay rise over three years. The Government's last offer, which it withdrew, was nearly 14 per cent, increasing with allowances and other factors.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said the Government wanted WA teachers to be Australia's best paid, but the union's demands amounted to a minimum 24 per cent pay rise which, with other conditions, would cost more than $1.5 billon."

    From The Sunday Times at link [also view / post reader comments at that link]
    
    
    
    
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Minister wants extra funds for all schools
    by Justine Ferrari, Education reporter
    
    "Concentrating extra schools funding only in socially disadvantaged areas, as proposed by the federal Government, overlooks other students needing more help, including the 20 per cent of Year 12 dropouts in the richest 30 per cent of families.

    "A paper considered yesterday by the meeting of education ministers in Melbourne argues all students need extra funding, particularly if the federal Government wants to achieve the educational goals it has set under its "education revolution".

    "The paper, presented by NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca, argues the commonwealth must fundamentally change the way it funds schools, starting with giving public schools the same level of funding as private schools.

    "The Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs agreed to the paper providing a framework for the next four-year schools funding agreement, which starts next year. The paper sets out factors to be considered, including giving more money to primary schools.

    "The ministers were urged to set aside parochial concerns about a national curriculum and commit to developing uniform core content and achievement levels for each stage of school.

    "The states and territories agreed on Thursday to a proposal by federal Education Minister Julia Gillard to develop a national partnership funding arrangement to provide extra money to schools in low socio-economic areas.

    "Mr Della Bosca told the meeting that while it was important to give extra money to poorer students, other groups also needed more funding.

    "He said that the lowest achievers were not exclusively students from socially disadvantaged families - there were twice as many middle-class students in the lowest three bands of achievement.

    "He wants governments to also focus on the middle of the bell curve of student results. "Failure to address the full range of student needs, particularly middle performing students, risks unintentionally reinforcing a negative impression of government schools in particular and negates the role of public spending in providing education for all students," the paper says.

    "The NSW Government argues that the federal Government must address the historic disparity between commonwealth funding of public and private schools. Federal funding is based on the amount state governments spend per student, called the Average Government School Recurrent Costs measure, but government primary students receive only 8.9 per cent, compared with the secondary school allotment of 10 per cent. Private primary schools receive the same as high schools.

    "In addition, government schools funding is significantly below the minimum federal monies given to private schools, and the paper calls for the commonwealth to raise its public school funding to the minimum private level of 13.7 per cent of AGSRC.

    "Ms Gillard said the paper would be considered as part of school funding negotiations and that the federal Government had no position on its recommendations at this stage."

    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Feature
    Rudd's cycle of promises is more spin than revolution
    
    There is long way to go before we see anything at all like an education overhaul, suggests Kevin Donnelly
    
    "Before the federal election last year, I applauded the Labor Opposition's education policy as coherent and convincing.
    
    "The ALP's intention to make schools accountable for performance, adopt a back-to-basics curriculum and hold teachers unions at arm's length received the tick.

    "Has the Rudd Government delivered on its education revolution? In relation to promising all senior school students computers and access to the internet, the answer is no. Schools lack the costly infrastructure to implement the policy and there are not enough information technology teachers on the ground.

    "Introducing a national curriculum was another election promise. Not only do we have to wait until next year before the national curriculum board is established but, based on the appointment of Barry McGaw and Tony Mackay as chairman and deputy chairman, it is obvious that those responsible for the status quo have captured the agenda. [emphasis added]

    "The Rudd Government's education revolution is more about spin than substance.

    "The most successful schools in Australia, on the whole, are non-government schools. They achieve best academic results, better mirror the values and aspirations of parents, and reflect diverse educational philosophies.

    "No wonder more than 30 per cent of students go to non-government schools, with the figure in many states rising to 40 per cent at years 11 and 12. A genuine revolution would be to empower government schools to act the way non-government schools are free to.

    "Let government schools hire, fire and reward better performing staff, and free government schools from the overly bureaucratic and inflexible control of head and regional offices.

    "A second revolution would be to introduce school vouchers, where the money follows the child, whether to government or non-government schools. Based on the 2003-04 Productivity Commission's figures it costs $10,000 of taxpayers' money to educate a government school student. Why not give parents a voucher for that amount to be spent at whatever school the child attends?

    "Vouchers would enable more parents on low incomes to make the choice and schools are pressured to best meet parental demands.

    "In addition, a real education revolution requires overhauling Australia's substandard and politically correct school curriculums.

    "The early indication is that the Rudd Government's plans for a national curriculum will do little to challenge the status quo, in part, because the National Curriculum Board will represent the organisations responsible for the parlous state of education. [emphasis added]

    "To be credible and effective, any proposed national curriculum should be related to specific year levels, acknowledge the academic disciplines, incorporate regular assessment and consequences for failure, be concise and benchmarked against curriculum developed by stronger-performing education systems.

    "Teacher training is another area ripe for radical change. A survey of beginning teachers by the Australian Secondary Principals Association rated teacher training, at best, as satisfactory and in some areas teachers felt significantly underprepared. A second survey in 2001 and 2002 found that only 43 per cent of beginning primary-school teachers felt properly trained to teach spelling, phonics and grammar. At the secondary level, less than half the teachers felt confident enough to teach maths topics such as algebra, chance and data.

    "A real revolution would make teachers subject experts by making them complete an undergraduate degree before teacher training and give specialist university staff a greater say in what is taught in education faculties. [emphasis added]

    "Much of Rudd's education agenda is copied from Britain. Instead of mimicking failed Blair initiatives, why not be truly radical and create policy on what has been shown to work?

    "Instead of basing what happens in our classrooms on ideology or hunches, a real revolution would be to support teachers with evidence-based research identifying effective classroom practice and giving teachers the right tools to do the job."

    Kevin Donnelly is director of Education Strategies and author of Dumbing Down (Hardie Grant Books).

    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Companies should 'adopt' schools
    

    The nation's top 100 companies should "adopt" a high school and provide students with mentors and examples of success.

    
    

  • Mundine to insist on language skills
    
    Indigenous leader Warren Mundine will demand that federal and state governments force all indigenous children to learn English, and that a second language become compulsory for all Australians across the nation.
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Age
  
  
  • Principals want classes videoed in pay push
    by Deborah Gough
    
    "School principals want short video tapes of teachers working as part of a range of measures to help decide which of the nation's teachers deserve a pay rise.

    "But Australian Education Union state secretary Mary Bluett is not keen on the idea.

    "Based on a United States model, the video recordings would be used to show the effectiveness of teachers in the classroom. The recordings are part of a suite of tools used to judge teachers in the US, including how effective they are at helping families, the community and other teachers.

    "The Australian Secondary Principals Association will talk to the Federal Government about introducing a similar video system here.

    "In the US, teachers provide a portfolio of their work, including a classroom video, and sit for six 30-minute tests on their chosen area of expertise, which might include early and middle childhood, art, mathematics, music, physical education, school counselling and science. [emphasis added]

    "Federal and state education ministers agreed last week to create a performance pay structure for teachers.

    "The Federal Government also announced it would spend $400,000 on researching the most effective model to reward teacher quality.

    "The principals association call comes as the Government moves towards creating new national standards in teaching and attempts to entice teachers to work in poorer areas.

    "Association president Andrew Blair said the US model would form part of its submission to federal Education Minister Julia Gillard. He said the association, which represents state school principals, would seek a "more objective" process than mere test results. "In the end, what we want is a peer system that is evidence-based," Mr Blair said.

    "He said using test results failed to recognise the impact a good teacher could have on students who came to school from families with little interest in learning.

    "Mr Blair said a system based on the US model would be more objective and eliminate the effects of poaching and sifting of students, practices that skewed academic results.

    "The US model, used in Washington, DC, was developed by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards and costs $US3000 ($A3208) for registration and assessment.

    "The Australian Education Union has also sought ways of assessing teaching standards through the University of NSW's Education Assessment Australia.

    "AEU president Angelo Gavrielatos said ministers in the past had simplistic attitudes to performance-based pay.

    "He singled out for criticism former education minister Julie Bishop's plan to have performance pay linked to literacy results achieved by children in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Mr Gavrielatos said such a move would have ignored the work of a child's other teachers, including those at kindergarten, who had also contributed to test scores.

    "Mr Gavrielatos said all teachers needed a wage that would encourage bright students to become teachers and keep them in the profession, but there should also be a performance measure based on set standards.

    "Ms Bluett said video recordings in the classroom could present a problem.

    "Part of the problem is that it doesn't look at what is happening in context," Ms Bluett said.

    "If I was teaching in one classroom it would be different from teaching in another with a different class, a different classroom and a different time, and that is where the sensitivity to that comes up. It is too narrow," she said."

    From The Sunday Age at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age [Saturday]
  
  
  • Plan doomed unless poor schools get help, ministers warned
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Education ministers have agreed to boost school completion rates from 75 to 90%.

    "But the ministers, meeting for the first time under the Rudd Government, have been warned the plan is doomed unless they intervene in the most disadvantaged communities.

    "State and territory ministers endorsed Canberra's election promise to lift year 12 retention rates to 90% by 2020.

    "However, no sooner had they adopted the plan than academics and teachers warned that the target could not be achieved without help for the poorest areas.

    "In the absence of a targeted strategy and significant resources, this plan will remain nothing but hollow rhetoric," said Australian Education Union head Angelo Gavrielatos.

    "Melbourne University education expert Richard Teese said the key to lifting retention rates was improving the achievement and aspirations of the most disadvantaged communities.

    "But he also warned against trying to keep students in schools "just for the sake of it".

    "In other developments:

    • National Curriculum Board chairman Barry McGaw said the new board would meet for the first time next week to start work on Australia's first nationally consistent curriculum.
      
      
    • Ministers reinforced their support for the new national literacy and numeracy test, which is due to take place on May 13 to 15, despite teachers in three states considering joining Victoria in striking on the day of the exam in pursuit of higher wages.

  "Australia's average retention rate hovers around 75%. The ACT has the highest rate (85.9%), followed by Victoria (81.8%).

  "In a bid to tackle the issue and improve students' results, ministers this week agreed to a national partnership that will change the way funding is allocated to some of the nation's neediest schools.

  "Suburbs and towns with a high concentration of poor schools will be targeted for government support and earn incentive and reward payments if they improve their performances."

  From The Age at link
  
  

• Minds of our own gather for a capital idea [bit of a Summit overview]
  
  
  
  • Op Ed: Shock tactics time [another view]
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Mine academy has a rich vein of job potential (page 62)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "School lessons now include operating iron ore compactors as well as reading and maths for a select group of students at Australia's first school-based mining academy at Newman Senior High.

    "The 21 Year 10 students at the nucleus of the academy will eventually provide a "talent pipeline" from which main backer BHP Billiton Iron Ore can recruit professionals and tradespeople.

    "Newman principal Mike Morgan said the school wanted to exploit the fact it was next to Mt Whaleback, the world's biggest open-cut iron ore mine.

    "But it also wanted students to set the bar higher than "working on the hill" as a secretary or a truck driver if they had the ability to become electrical engineers or environmental scientists.

    "He persuaded BHP to put up $90,000 for the first six months to pay two staff members to co-ordinate the program. BHP has committed to continue funding the academy, which will extend to Years 11 and 9 next year.

    "Mr Morgan said the academy offered a specialised curriculum, with the choice of vocational or tertiary studies streams. Six of the current group of 21 were planning to take TEE subjects..."

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Guardian / The Observer
  
  
  • One million pupils 'failed by Labour exam policy'
    by Anushka Asthana, education correspondent
    
    · Study shows GCSE 'lost generation'
    · Parents urge better skills training
    
    "An 'entire generation' of school children has been let down by the Labour government, a new study has claimed. The report, by the Bow Group, reveals that almost a million teenagers failed to achieve even the lowest grade, a G, in five GCSEs since the party came to power.

    "While ministers have boasted about the rise in the number of pupils achieving five C grades at GCSE, they have failed to highlight the growing numbers at the bottom of the pile. Over the past decade the number of teenagers walking away from school without five basic G grades, including in English and maths, has risen - despite billions of pounds of investment in education. Almost 90,000 pupils fell into the category last year, the highest figure since 1998.

    "The report - which covers English schools between 1997 to 2007 - also found there were 3.9 million pupils, close to 60 per cent of the total, who had not gained five C grades at GCSE, including in the core subjects of English and maths. Although a G is the lowest pass possible at GCSE, achieving five C grades is considered a 'minimum benchmark' by employers. The report, The Failed Generation; the real cost of education under Labour, which will be published tomorrow by the right-of-centre think-tank, has calculated that more than £70bn of taxpayers' money had been spent educating almost four million young people who fell short of the basic grades.

    'Ten years after "education, education, education" became Labour's mantra, millions of pupils have failed to gain the qualifications they need under the government's watch,' said Chris Skidmore, chairman of the Bow Group and author of the report.

    'Last year, nearly one in six pupils did not even get five GCSEs of any grade - the highest figures since 10 years ago. These pupils were five when Labour came to power. There are simply no more excuses for this level of persistent and sustained record of failure. We have witnessed a decade of disappointment in which an entire generation of pupils have been let down.'

    "According to Skidmore, employers have warned that young people without five good GCSEs, grade C or above, risk not getting jobs. A survey by the Learning and Skills Council found that more than 20 per cent of employers would not recruit teenagers without the grades or a vocational equivalent while 15 per cent said they would ignore the CVs completely.

    "In preparing his report, Skidmore calculated how much more pupils could have earned had they achieved better grades. Using data that indicated people earn, on average, £2,261 more a year with five Cs at GCSE than those without, he found the 3.9 million pupils had already foregone billions of pounds. The figure would continue to rise as they grew older and their income continued to trail behind their peers, he added.

    "The report also highlighted the fact that spending on each pupil had risen dramatically since Labour came to power, from £2,910 in 1997 to £5,080 last year. 'While spending per pupil has increased by £2,170 - an increase of 75 per cent since 1997/98, the percentage of pupils obtaining five good GCSEs including English and maths has only increased by 9 per cent,' the report states. 'The cost to the taxpayer of funding pupils who then failed to gain five good GCSEs including in English and maths is extremely high.'

    "Last week, parent groups said it was time for ministers to question what was 'going wrong'. 'You could say that if they were not going to achieve those grades, why did we try to make them?' said Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations. 'Why did we not give them a vocational education that could have helped them life-long? You could say that the system is wasting taxpayers' money because we are giving these children the wrong type of education.'

    "Morrissey argued that there would always be some children who were not 'academically great' but who could be successful with the correct support. 'They may have gone through a traumatic time just to achieve that G,' she said. 'Shouldn't we be providing an alternative for youngsters, so they can come out of school with useful qualifications and a little bit of self-esteem?'

    "But a spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families hit back, pointing to the Labour party's successes in education.

    'In 1997 over half of all secondary schools were failing to get 30 per cent or more of their pupils to what we now see as the benchmark for any teenager - five good GCSEs or equivalent with English and maths,' he said.

    'This is now down to a fifth of schools. If that trend continues, there should be no schools under this level by 2012. We now have 70,000 more young people leaving school with five good GCSEs including English and maths than did so 10 years ago. Schools at the lowest level are receiving intensive support.'

    From The Guardian at link

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This page last updated 11 August, 2008 11:47 PM