Monday 16 June

Tuesday 17 June

Wednesday 18 June  Twomey Report released

Thursday 19 June

Friday 20 June

Saturday – Sunday, 21 – 22 June

Monday 16 June

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

    • In short

      “One of the fundamentals of government is that all information concerning an issue is tabled to allow an informed decision to be made.  This is not the case in the teachers’ dispute.  The Twomey report is being withheld (using some lame excuse to justify this), not allowing the community and decision makers a chance to consider whether the teachers or the Government are right or wrong in their long-running dispute.

      “Keeping the report secret is both an abuse and misuse of the Government’s power; it must be released.  At least then the Industrial Relations Commission will be able to consider if the threatened strike action by teachers is in any way justified.”

      Mal McFetridge, Safety Bay
      
      

    • Out of Touch

      “It is hard to imagine how the Department of Education and Training could become so out of touch with its duty to the public.

      “In your report (13/6), DET said “the proposed industrial action was not in the public interest”, was “distracting staff” and “detracting from the proper operation of schools”.

      “It is in the public interest that education is properly managed and resourced.  It is not in the public interest that there should be a serious shortage of teachers caused by poor pay and conditions.  All teachers care about the welfare of the students in their care and of course they are distracted by the current situation.  What thinking person wouldn’t be?  Teachers cannot sit back and do nothing when the education of their students is under threat.  When DET starts acting in the public interest, education will be able to flourish."

      Robin Taylor, Carine
      
      

    • Ready to fight

      “The Education Department says industrial action is “distracting staff”. Well, what distracts me most is the way I am undervalued and treated contemptuously by this arrogant Government.

      “I am “distracted” by young teachers who are paid so poorly (due to the erosion of professional pay) that they can’t afford rental costs and will probably never be able to buy a house.

      “The department also says that “tension is becoming more evident” in schools – it is anger, not tension that we feel, anger fuelled by the Government keeping the truth about the teacher shortage secret.

      “No one wants to lose pay in strikes but if I do, it will because I, like thousands of my colleagues, value public education and are prepared to fight for it.”

      Andrew Bell, Woodvale
      
      

    • Fast-tracking an insult

      “I refer to your report (Fast-track scheme to train more teachers, 7/6).

      “I was bemused and insulted to read about Education Minister Mark McGowan’s latest proposal to fast-track experienced professionals into our schools, using a short three-month “summer school” in what took me and most teachers four years to gain a thorough understanding of the diverse roles of the teaching profession.

      “Of course the universities will be happy to oblige, because they will see increased funding.  I have worked personally with graduate diploma students in one of our universities.  My role was to instruct them in the English curriculum area of primary school education.

      “Within my class I had an equal mix of four-year trained Bachelor of Education students and “experienced professionals” with backgrounds including architecture, engineering and physiotherapy completing a one-year graduate diploma which was certainly “fast-tracking” in my book.

      “Most of these “fast-trackers” were only getting a small piece of the bigger picture and were confused about the teaching roles that they would be stepping into the following year, where basically they would have to learn the hard way, on the job and by their mistakes.

      “I these professionals think that teaching will be a change of lifestyle, well yes, you will definitely experience that, with little time to enjoy your weekends and holidays, your stress levels will rise and you will have less quality time to spend with your families.

      “If they think that teaching will fit in around their children, they will soon learn that school may finish at 3.15, but most teachers continue working way beyond that and in their holidays.  So my advice would be to hold onto your well-paid job and don’t waste your time.

      “Come on, Mr McGowan, instead of dumbing down teaching pre-service education and creating a workforce of teachers that won’t stay around for long, when they quickly realise that they have been thrown in the deep end and set up for failure, start rewarding the ones that are doing the job and doing it well.  Raise our salaries and attract those truly interested in the profession and the future of our children.”

      Therese Cianfrini, Kardinya
      
      

    • Predictable
      
      “Education Minister Mark McGowan is becoming entirely predictable.  His bellicose and belittling comments about teachers are exacerbating a crisis of confidence in the State education system.

      “In the face of dire teacher shortages, he refuses to address issues of teachers’ pay and work conditions.  Like Pontius Pilate, he tries to wash his hands of the issues to an industrial court that will take six moths or more to hear submissions and come to grips with the detail.

      “Meanwhile, Mr McGowan hides the Twomey report that he commissioned to advise him on how to address teacher shortages.  One of the key recommendations surely is to make salaries and conditions far more attractive.  It is disingenuous of him to now pretend that solutions can be determined by legal argument.  His actions continue to alienate the education workforce.

      “The intransigence of the Government speaks volumes about its lack of concern for our wonderful government schools.  The community should be concerned that a central building block of our society is being dismantled. Government schools provide for the needs of most of our children.  Their success underpins the success and social cohesion of the community.  The haemorrhaging of teachers out of the system should be ringing loud alarm bells.

      “Every informed commentator agrees that teachers across the government and private sector need a major pay rise to attract more people into the profession.  The only one who believes the Government offer is adequate is Mr McGowan.

      “It is a sign of his desperation that he now floats the idea of people needing just three months to become a teacher.  What an insult.  As a teacher, I have six years of university training.  Would you want doctors, dentists, engineers, nurses or car mechanics to have their training reduced to one third of the current requirement?”

      Ken Wadley, Leeming
      

      
      
  • 300 Rudd computers for rich school (page 18)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    “One of  WAs wealthiest Catholic schools will receive more than 300 computers under the Rudd Government's computers in schools program.

    “John XXIII College, a well equipped school in Mt Claremont which charges fees of about $5000 a year, will receive 308 computers in the first round of the program.

    “Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard described schools that were successful in the first round as "schools that were most in need" because they had only one computer to eight or more students.

    “Other well-resourced Catholic schools to receive first-round funding included Aranmore Catholic College for 182 computers, Ursula Frayne Catholic College for 151, Kolbe Catholic College for 229 and St Brigid's College with 218. Smaller schools such as Sacred Heart School in Beagle Bay and St Mary's College, Broome, also received funding.

    “Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard said John XXIII was not the most expensive Catholic school but it had the highest socioeconomic score out of all WAs Catholic high schools. The score measures the income of the community from which a school draws its students. Mr Dullard said the decision on which schools received funding was based on a national audit of the ratio of computers to students in each school.

    “No school would be disadvantaged because if they did not receive computers
    in the first (round, they could apply for subsequent rounds. "On the surface of it you could say that it's not fair and equitable, but really when you look at it, it is," he said ,"It was done very objectively and recognising that every school over the first two tranches of this will actually get their ratio of one (computer) to two (students),"

    “John XXIII principal Anne Fry said the decision was based purely on statistics and the fact that most of its computers were more than four years old.
    State schools that received first round funding were mostly in the country.

    “Association of Independent Schools of WA deputy executive director Valerie Gould said some schools chose not to apply for their full entitlement of computers in the first round because they could not afford the associated infrastructure costs for extra wiring, cabling and network connections.”

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Education database raises privacy fears [late update: online only]
    AAP
    
    "A photograph and details of every state school student in Queensland will be posted online by December this year, raising fears of privacy breaches and the risk of pedophiles hacking into the database.

    "Information including photographs, personal details, career aspirations and off-campus activities as well as student performance records for 480,000 public school children will be on the state government's intranet database, dubbed OneSchool.

    "Education Minister Rod Welford said the system would be available only to the school's principal and an individual student's teacher.

    "Four Queensland teachers were recently arrested in an international investigation into an internet-based child porn network.

    "Queensland Council for Civil Liberties vice-president Terry O'Gorman said parents should be concerned, because the OneSchool system could put students' privacy at risk.

    "There was no risk that pedophiles could hack into the database to target children, Mr Welford said.

    "It will be limited to people at the school who are responsible for managing the student's time at school," Mr Welford told ABC radio.

    "So I can assure parents there is absolutely no security risk with this site.

    "It's not a public internet site.

    "It's not like Facebook or any other Google internet site that you can access."

    "Parents wanting access to their child's records on the database could approach their school, he said.

    "At present, records were kept partly on paper and partly on computer, a system which was not as secure or as efficient as OneSchool would be, he said.

    "If we don't put a student's information on this database, it will be much more difficult for teachers to provide efficient service to that student."

    "But Mr Welford conceded it would be possible to keep a separate record on paper for those who did not want their details on the database.

    "The system was already in operation in some schools, Mr Welford said.

    "It's gradually being rolled out," he said.

    "As schools have their wiring and computer systems upgraded to handle this new OneSchool system, then schools are being installed with it."

    "The information would be kept as long as children were in the school system, both primary and secondary, he said.

    "Mr O'Gorman told AAP the OneSchool online database could put students' privacy at risk.

    "The various information available (on the database) is considerable. It includes a child's behavioural patterns and their career aspirations," Mr O'Gorman said.

    "Putting all this information on one massive database with high volume access is putting students at risk of having their details intruded by others.

    "This wouldn't happen in the private school sector, but because this is a state school system people feel they have less say."

    From The West Australian online at link
    
    
    
    
• SSTUWA
  
  
  • The facts about the current dispute [15 June]
    
    "You need to know what is happening in public education because the future of our children and the future of Western Australia is at stake. Something that every parent needs to know! The current dispute between State School Teachers’ Union and the State Government follows months of misleading and mischievous media comments by the Minister for Education and Training Mark McGowan.  In September 2007 the Teachers’ Union placed a log of claims to the department at the start of negotiations. It included salary increases, changes to class sizes, changes to DOTT time(planning and preparation time) and improvements to rural housing for teachers who work in country areas. The Government refused to discuss the issues seriously -in fact it misled the community on a number of occasions about what it was offering..."
    
    [a pretty reasonable summary... Web]
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Public school funding short by $8.4bn
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Government investment in public school facilities is about one-third the amount spent by the private school system, representing a shortfall of $8.4 billion, equivalent to $1.2 million for every public school, a report commissioned by the Australian Education Union has found.

    "The report estimates $22 billion on top of current levels of state and territory investment would be required over the next 12 years to enable public schools to match the average expenditure in the private sector.

    "The report, Rebuilding Public Schools: Investment Targets for 2020, was written by an independent education economist, Adam Rorris, who has worked for the UN, the World Bank and international development agencies. He was previously the manager and principal analyst of the Schools Resourcing Taskforce, which advises federal, state and territory education ministers.

    "Federal and state governments allocate more than $10,000 a year for each public school student, compared with $6000 for each private school student.

    "However, in a comprehensive look at national capital expenditure in both public and private schools, Mr Rorris found that while private sector investment grew substantially in that period, government spending was static.

    "Over the three years the report's authors studied the issue, the average amount spent by private schools rose from $1380 to $1560 per student in 2008 dollars, while spending by the states and territories only increased from $537 to $542 per student.

    "The report says the largest differences in spending between the public and private sectors are in the three biggest states of NSW, Victoria and Queensland, which have total funding gaps of about $3 billion, $2 billion and $1.5 billion respectively.

    "In 2005, the NSW Government spent $426 per public student on capital works, while private schools in the state spent $1492 per student.

    "The Victorian Government spent $540 per public student, compared with private sector funding of $1743.

    "The report's findings also highlight research in the US and Britain that found school facilities had a significant impact on the performance of students and teachers, and noted that both countries had embarked on significant programs for school building.
    
    "Mr Rorris called for a rethink on the way Australian schools operate, pointing to trends in the US and Britain where schools are becoming hubs for a range of community services.
    
    "Schools need to be redefined and repositioned as more than just 9am-to-3pm school facilities," he said.
    
    "There's a historic opportunity to extend the role and position of the local public school."
    
    "He said British schools would offer a core set of extended services by 2010, including childcare, parenting support and community access to IT, sports and arts facilities.
    
    "In Western Australia, the economic boom has prompted the state Government to embark on the next round of new school buildings, and the chance to reconfigure public schools for the 21st century.
    
    "One such model is Ellenbrook Senior College, a comprehensive high school in the northern suburbs of Perth, which was built in partnership with the local council, the City of Swan. The school opened last year to Year 7 and 8 students, and will gradually grow a year at a time until it houses about 1500 students from Years 7 to 12.
    
    "Principal Leigh Cottrill said the school's philosophy was to make close links with the community. The school's library, for example, doubled as a community library and was staffed with school and council librarians.
    
    "It allows students to go in after school or on weekends and access the college's network and online information, plus all the additional resources in a community library," Mr Cottrill said. Similarly, the school's performing arts theatre, which is up to industry standard, and the recreational facilities including gymnasium, sports oval, tennis and basketball courts are jointly managed with the council. [emphasis added]
    
    "The report says the annual capital investment in public schools nationally is about $2.1billion, and would need to rise to $4 billion a year to match the private sector investment.
    
    "School facilities (in the government sector) have been in long-term decline," it says.
    
    "In many cases it is questionable whether many schools are up to the task of providing a suitable education for children.
    
    "A great deal of our current public school infrastructure cannot effectively meet the needs of schooling."
    
    "Looking to 2020, NSW will need an additional $8 billion to match private sector investment, Victoria an extra $5.7 billion and Queensland $3.4 billion. South Australia would have to lift its current projected allocation of $848 million to $3.6 billion.
    
    "AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos called on the Rudd Government to fund a large-scale schools capital building program through its $20 billion Building Australia Fund.
    
    "When it comes to investment in infrastructure, investing in our public schools and students is the most important infrastructure investment a government can make," Mr Gavrielatos said.
    
    "He said Education Minister Julia Gillard wanted to end the public-versus-private divide in the education debate, and one constructive way of doing that was to rebuild public schools.
    
    "Kevin Rudd has proposed a model where family and child health, welfare and care services are organised around schools.
    
    "The report argues that the funding imbalance puts public school students at a disadvantage.
    
    "These funding imbalances nurture resentments and create a divide between sectors that is both unnecessary and damaging to education," Mr Rorris says.
    
    "The imbalances damage public schools by creating a resource incentive for families to move their children towards the private sector."

    From The Australian at link
    
    See similar AAP story in The West Australian online
    
    
    
    
  • The poor cousins in hunt for funds
    by Justine Ferrari
    
    "Public and private schools are becoming misnomers.

    "Public schools are primarily funded by government but increasingly rely on private contributions from parents, whether as a term-based fee or through fundraising to pay for a music teacher.
    
    "Private schools are primarily funded through fees and church contributions, but they too receive government funding, about $6.3 billion this year and growing. By 2012, the federal government will give more money to private schools than universities.
    
    "No one will be surprised to learn that private schools often have better, bigger and newer facilities - but these are subsidised by taxpayer money.
    
    "Yet as the Rebuilding Public Schools report shows, governments are not even close to spending as much on public schools as the private sector invests - they spend one-third the amount on capital works.
    
    "Governments are letting down public school students by failing to take seriously the quality of school environments, the standard of facilities and their suitability to teach in the 21st century.
    
    "It is a core responsibility of government to provide a universal high-quality school system.
    
    "The public school system by and large is the one educating the socially disadvantaged. [emphasis added]
    
    "Education is widely acknowledged as the key to overcoming social disadvantage, and benefiting the nation economically in the long term. Indeed this maxim is now one of the major policy planks of the federal Government.
    
    "To expect the public school system to achieve this with its present resources is unrealistic.
    
    "The federal Government wants to end the divide between public and private schools. To do this the standard of public school facilities must be raised.

    "Public schools are expected to compete with private schools for students, but they cannot compete with inadequate - not just rundown - facilities.

    "An exodus from government schools is under way. The public school system will look second-rate because it is given second-rate treatment by governments." [emphasis added]
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • State facing chaos if pay talks fail
    by Jamie Walker
    
    "Public sector unions will wreak havoc in South Australia unless 11th-hour talks avert a strike byteachers, as well as an impending walkout of key hospital specialists.

    "Premier Mike Rann faced a test of nerve as the teachers' union vowed to ramp up its campaign for a 21 per cent pay increase over three years, in defiance of a state Industrial Relations Commission recommendation to abandon tomorrow's one-day strike.

    "With the resignation of up to 115 emergency department consultants and anaesthetists due to take effect from next week, Mr Rann's 4.4 per cent target for public sector salary rises in 2008-09 is under pressure.

    "A big win for the militant SA teachers would have national implications, with the potential to trigger flow-on public sector pay claims in other states. Teachers in Western Australia are pushing for a 20 per cent pay increase over three years, and have rejected a counter offer of 13 per cent.

    "In May, Victoria's public school teachers secured pay rises of up to 15.2 per cent. The deal, worth an estimated $2 billion, came after pace-setting increases of between 14 per cent and 31.4per cent to Victorian police.

    "Australian Education Union state president Correna Haythorpe said tomorrow's teacher strike was almost certain to proceed. It will close an estimated 530 of 600-odd state schools, creating expense and disruption as working parents scramble to find alternative childcare arrangements or face taking the day off.

    "The Rann Government has offered the 13,500 public school teachers 9.75 per cent over three years, but Ms Haythorpe said this would not keep pace with inflation. "It is nowhere near what we are looking for," she said.

    "She added that teacher union members had backed rolling work stoppages from next month unless the state improved its offer.

    "Tomorrow's 24-hour strike is the first in 12 years by South Australian teachers.

    "Ironically, the prospect of a public sector pay breakout, which could feed into wages generally, fuelling inflation, is being boosted by competition between the states for frontline service providers such as teachers, nurses and doctors.

    "Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson said his state would be keen to recruit disaffected South Australian medical specialists.

    "The 44 emergency department specialists who tendered their resignations last week, timed to take effect on June 26, want added benefits to take the annual base pay of a standard level-9 consultant from $313,000 to $425,000. The state's current offer would increase the base salary to $356,000.

    "The Government was advised last night that 56 anaesthetists would quit along similar lines, while the Royal Australian College of Surgeons said a number of surgeons had resigned in the past week out of disillusionment with the state system.

    "State Health Minister John Hill called on their union, the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association, to provide full details to allow for contingency planning.

    "Potentially, this could involve cancellation of some elective surgery, Mr Hill said yesterday.

    "The doctors' tactics to tender forward-dated resignations echoes those used successfully by South Australia's public sector psychiatrists last year, and has been denounced as "blackmail" by Mr Hill.

    "Fending off the poaching bid from Queensland, he said: "I am confident the South Australian health system and the state Government's package for doctors will stand up against any other health system in Australia."

    From The Australian at link
    
    Also see the articles in The Adelaide Advertiser
    
    
    
    
  • Teachers find ways to go full bore with the Bard
    
    While debate continues over what place, if any, Shakespeare will have on the national English curriculum, Ms Lord is one of many English teachers who hope a revised curriculum places more emphasis on the classics than on multi-modal, pop-culture-based texts.
    
    "I don't think we should dumb down or water down the syllabus because we're concerned with the ability of our students." she said. "Of course students today have the capacity to learn Shakespeare - teachers and curriculum drafters have just been a bit lazy."
    
    
    
  • Food's on and children keen for school
    
    The federal intervention into remote Northern Territory communities has meant that nutrition programs exist in almost all remote classrooms in the Territory, but teachers at Papunya had recognised the importance of feeding children at school many years earlier.
    
    
    

© The Australian

• ABC News
  
  
  • New 'flexible school' to operate all year long
    
    "A new prep to year-12 school is being launched in the city of Melbourne today.

    "The private school will operate between 7am and 7pm and is is aimed at giving working families a flexible educational option.

    "Eltham College will run the school, which is expected to operate year round, and feature before and after school care.

    "David Warner, the CEO of the new Melbourne City School, says the school will operate outside normal hours.

    "People who live and work in the CBD are looking for a school that will provide caring with schooling," he said.

    "What we will be setting up is a 52 week a year school, where both school and before and after school care will be converged."

    "He said the city needs a school that is relevant to students in the 21st century.

    "They have very different access to the information that's available in the world to people of even five, ten years ago," he said.

    "They want schooling that will actually work with them and their world, rather than the schooling that just simply says this is the curriculum, this is the subject, this is what we're going to teach you."

    "Junior classes will be running at the school next year while the senior school is expected to open in 2012.

    "The school will have special classes in Chinese language immersion and robotics."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Cautious support for new teachers' code
    
    "The Queensland Teachers' Union has given cautious support to plans to develop a new code of ethics.

    "The Queensland Government says the new code will give families and students confidence that teachers are working to the highest standards.

    "But the union's Steve Ryan says there is already a code in place.

    "As everyone in the community would know, 99.9 per cent of teachers follow that code to the highest integrity," he said.

    "The problem is that these things come up from time to time and it does detract from other issues and teachers want to be supported in the classroom rather than simply having this thrown at them all the time."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Qld public schools suffering with underfunding, union says
    
    "The Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) says the Federal Government should take responsibility for fixing rundown schools across the state.

    "A report commissioned by the Australian Education Union (AEU) shows Queensland private schools are receiving about $1,000 more per student per year for capital investment than public schools.

    "QTU president Steve Ryan says the quality of public school education is suffering from underfunding.

    "I came across a primary school principal recently who had to take $3,000 of curriculum money and readdress that to pay his electricity bill," he said.

    "That's the sort of thing that is happening at the moment because schools are chronically underfunded and so we've got a basic need of electricity in this case outweighing the curriculum."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Bosses urged to consider strike dilemma
    by Lucy Hood, education reporter
    
    "Employers should be sympathetic to working parents caught up in tomorrow's teachers' strike and let them stay home to look after their children, the state's peak business body says.

    "Thousands will be forced to use annual and carers' leave, sick days or call on grandparents, as more than 11,000 teachers go on strike over the teacher pay dispute.

    "Business SA chief executive Peter Vaughan said employers should allow workers a day's carers' leave or the option to work from home.

    "Employers and workers should understand the strike is the action of a third party . . . and that these things do occur," he said.

    "I hope the productivity (loss) to the state is minimised by good working relationships between workers and their employer."

    "South Australian Primary Principals Association president Steve Portlock said all parents had been notified by their school if it was to close, stay open or offer a modified program.

    "A modified program means children won't be in their normal classrooms but be given a more relaxed (schedule) than normal."

    "An Education Department spokeswoman said it was up to individual schools to determine whether out of hours school care services were still available.

    "Negotiations between the State Government and the teacher's union broke down on Friday following a hearing at the Industrial Relations Commission which recommended, but did not order, teachers "desist" from strike action.

    "The Australian Education Union wants a 21 per cent pay rise over the next three years. The Government has offered 9.75 per cent – or less than half – over the same period.

    "Both the AEU and the State Government yesterday said they were willing to continue negotiations. But AEU SA Branch president Correna Haythorpe said they would continue only if Industrial Relations Minister Michael Wright and Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith were present.

    "We need the decision-makers at the table," she said. "It's been a very difficult decision to take stopwork action; however, we feel we have little choice because the Government has not given us a good offer." [emphasis added]

    "A spokesman for Mr Wright said the State Government's "experienced negotiators" were the most appropriate people to handle the union's agreement.

    "The strike does not affect private or Catholic schools."
    
    From The Adelaide Advertiser at link
    
    
    

  • Over 11,000 teachers set to strike [15 June]
    
    "More than 11,000 public school teachers are likely to participate in South Australia's first 24-hour teachers' strike in 12 years this Tuesday.

    "Kindergartens, schools and TAFEs will be affected, with schools left to make their own arrangements for student care on the day.
    
    "Both the Australian Education Union and the government say they are willing to continue negotiations over the pay and conditions dispute, but neither appears willing to give any ground.
    
    "The AEU wants a 21 per cent pay rise over the next three years as well as extra funds to reduce class sizes and retain staff.
    
    "The government has so far offered a 9.75 per cent pay increase over the same period.
    
    "The Industrial Relations Commission on Friday recommended but did not order that teachers not proceed with the strike.
    
    "AEU state president Correna Haythorpe said teachers were "absolutely going ahead with the strike'', but as recently as yesterday had indicated a willingness to meet again with industrial relations minister Michael Wright.
    
    "I made it clear we are prepared to meet only if the minister is in the room,'' she told AAP today.
    
    "We are more than prepared to discuss these matters but they need to bring us a new offer.''
    
    "She said she had not heard back from Mr Wright.
    
    "A spokesman for Mr Wright told AAP the government was happy to keep negotiating but the negotiations were always conducted by departmental representatives who were familiar with the process and details of the individual agreement.
    
    "The ball is really in the union's court,'' the spokesman said.
    
    "It's up to them where we'll go from here.''
    
    "The spokesman said each school would make their own individual arrangements for student care on Tuesday.
    
    "About 85 per cent of the state's 13,500 AEU members voted for the strike." [emphasis added]
    
    From The Adelaide Advertiser at link
    
    
    
    • Operations in jeopardy
      
      Adelaide's public hospital pay dispute has escalated dramatically with the mass resignations of 56 anaesthetists now threatening hundreds of scheduled operations.
      
      
      
      
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Gaithersburg School Tailors Teaching To Help Students Cope With Disorder
    by Daniel de Vise
    
    "The first day of kindergarten found Alex Barth in the principal's office. The teacher had asked students to draw self-portraits. Alex had wanted to draw his in red crayon. There was no red crayon. Alex had melted down.

    "Alex was a capable child with superior intelligence -- and no end of eccentricities. He would flee noisy school assemblies. He couldn't bear the smell of the cafeteria. By the end of first grade, his mother was spending much of the day at Alex's side.

    "Robyne Barth soon learned her son had Asperger syndrome, a developmental disorder on the autism spectrum. Children with the disorder, known in shorthand as Asperger's, might have strong academic gifts but deficiencies in such social skills as carrying on a conversation and playing with others at recess..."
    
    "The program at Diamond Elementary is one of several in Montgomery County for children who have average to above-average intelligence but are coping with developmental disabilities. It addresses one of the most vexing problems in special education: What to do with a child who is disabled but capable of work at or above grade level? Such programs are unusual in public education. Because children with Asperger's often are bright and capable, albeit with some behavioral quirks, schools tend to assign them to regular classrooms, either missing or misdiagnosing their disability..."
    
    "The program, with two teachers and four aides serving 15 children, focuses on two goals: teaching students to recognize and cope with manifestations of their disorder, such as a panic attack in the gymnasium or uncontrollable restlessness in math class; and easing them into regular classes to the greatest extent appropriate, a process called mainstreaming, which drives special education across the country..."
    
    "Asperger's falls at the mild end of the autism spectrum, a range of disorders characterized by impairment in social interaction and communication. By varying estimates, Asperger's affects anywhere from one in 30,000 people to one in 200..."
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    
    

• The Guardian
  
  
  • Government urged to follow Sweden in adopting international GCSEs
    by Anthea Lipsett
    
    "The government has been criticised for denying state school pupils access to International GCSEs (IGCSEs).

    "A study - Swedish Lessons - from the independent think tank Civitas attacks the government for creating a growing "educational apartheid" in refusing state funding for the tougher exams.

    "It claims children in Sweden, where IGSCEs are approved, will leave school with better British qualifications than state school pupils in the UK.

    "Science IGCSEs are seen as more challenging than normal GCSEs and are used increasingly in British independent schools because of their internationally recognised high standards.

    "They are not, however, accredited by the government regulator Ofqual, which means the qualification is not eligible for public funding and therefore cannot be offered by state schools.

    "The report's author, Civitas researcher Nick Cowen, said: "The fact that state schools are forced to teach a narrow curriculum and offer less valuable qualifications due to bureaucratic edicts is bad enough.

    "But now we are faced with the likelihood that Swedes will be emerging from their state-funded secondary schools with better British qualifications than the majority of British pupils are even allowed to attempt.

    "This is what political interference by successive British governments in the school curriculum has led to." ...

    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Clegg pledges to scrap Sats
    
    The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, will pledge to scrap national Sats tests and call for a shorter school curriculum in a speech attacking the government's "one-size-fits-all" approach to education.
    
    Similar stories on BBC News and in The Independent
    
    
    
    
• Education Minister Mark McGowan media statement
  
  
  • Academy Awards for Education offer $375,000 in prize money
    
    [more like "Academy Award Bullshit", Mark... Web]

 

Tuesday 17 June

• ABC News
  

  • Teachers ordered to drop industrial action
    
    "The Industrial Relations Commission has ordered the state's teachers not to withhold student reports from parents.

    "Members of the State School Teachers' Union had planned to withhold hard copies of student report cards from all primary and secondary school students.

    "The Commission has also ordered the union not to participate in rolling half-day stoppages."
    
    From ABC News at link

    More stories from ABC News
    
    

    • Summary of WAIRC Order
      
      Commissioner Jennifer Harrison today issued an order that the State School Teachers Union of W.A. (Inc) (“SSTU”) and its members lift bans on reporting to parents at the end of Semester 1, 2008 and the Commission also ordered that the SSTU lift its resolution that its members participate in rolling half day stoppages.

      On 12 June 2008 the Department of Education and Training notified the Commission that it was in dispute with the SSTU over existing and threatened industrial action in relation to a new industrial agreement.

      After hearing from the parties Commissioner Harrison decided that as the parties were unable to reach agreement on a replacement industrial agreement and as the issues in dispute were soon to be put before the Commission for arbitration it was appropriate that SSTU members refrain from taking industrial action whilst a new agreement was being arbitrated.

      The Commission refrained from issuing orders with respect to teachers undertaking activities such as attendance at camps and country week [e.g. Directive 1].
      
      
      

• Twomey Taskforce Interim Report
  
  
  • Between June and September, the Taskforce received over 250 submissions and conducted a total of 15 forums across both metropolitan and regional areas. Informed by these activities and other sources, I met with the Hon Mark McGowan, Minister for Education and Training, on Monday, 15 October 2007 to report to him on the progress we are making.
    
    While the Taskforce has been underway, concurrent reviews into aspects of the public education sector have been undertaken. One of these was the Gerard Daniels review which resulted in recommendations being made to simplify existing recruitment processes within the Department of Education and Training (WA). Strategies have been introduced such as the “Classroom First” strategy, which aims to alleviate pressure on existing teachers by reducing their workload so they can concentrate on pedagogy (i.e. by the reintroduction of a syllabus, returning to traditional methods of marking; reducing administrative requirements, etc). The DET has recently announced an expansion of its scholarship programmes to encourage final year students of education to take up teaching, to encourage education assistants to up-skill and to attract existing teachers to specialise in areas of need. It has also embarked upon a public media campaign to bring the career of teaching to the fore and developed a new website, Teaching WA, dedicated to the attraction and recruitment of teachers.
    
    The Taskforce applauds and fully supports these initiatives, which complement its work and underscore the State Government’s commitment to the education workforce, as evidenced above and by the formation of the Taskforce itself, which is looking at the following areas amongst others:
    
    * Salaries and allowances for school and TAFE staff. Salaries need to reflect the professional nature and the importance of teaching (i.e. the value of education); allowances need to genuinely compensate for varying living and working conditions; realistic incentives are needed to support staff undertaking challenging appointments; and excellence needs to be consistently and broadly rewarded.
    
    * To encourage ambitious teachers to remain in the classroom, a more comprehensive career structure within the public education sector needs to be developed. This should incorporate, amongst other responsibilities, elements of support and mentoring for beginning teachers which need to become more integral to the system.
    
    * TAFE lecturers need to be supported to maintain close contact with their industries and to deliver learning. Strategies need to be developed to help TAFE staff deal with behaviour management issues now that, in some cases, they will be offering courses of study to a younger cohort.
    
    * Workload could be better distributed if more staffing categories were introduced into schools and TAFE colleges. This might involve personal assistants for principals; full-time education assistants to help manage inclusive classrooms; mentors to help new TAFE staff develop delivery and assessment skills.
    
    * Funding needs to be assured so that successful professional development programmes (i.e. classroom management in schools (CMIS)) can continue until methods are embedded in the school or TAFE college culture.
    
    * The status of the teaching profession will be raised by improving conditions in the first place. However, it needs to be recognised that education is a service to the public and principals should have more professional autonomy in leading their schools, underpinned by the provision of centralised support and development.
    
    * This holds as true for TAFE colleges which need more flexibility in recruitment and employment conditions for staff.
    
    * Conditions need to be improved in both the fabric of schools and colleges and, in relation to country locations, the provision, quality and maintenance of housing must be a priority.
    
    This list is not exhaustive and we continue to develop what we see as the major shortfalls and how to resolve them. The majority of feedback provided to the Taskforce has come from people involved in the public education sector. To a great extent, it is the strategies to alleviate the pressure on the public sector that will set in train improvements in the overall status of teaching and increase the number of people choosing teaching as a career. These aspects will carry over positively to the education sector as a whole.
    
    The Taskforce anticipates presenting its final report to the Minister in December 2007, and will be making a strong case for the State Government to support in both word and deed the recommendations it makes in relation to the above and other matters.
    
    LANCE TWOMEY AO
    CHAIR
    MINISTERIAL TASKFORCE
    EDUCATION WORKFORCE INITIATIVES
    
    October 2007
    
    From Education Workforce Initiatives at link
    
    
    
  • Update from the Chair

    The Ministerial Taskforce, Education Workforce Initiatives, concluded its activities in December 2007, when I delivered the final report to the Hon Mark McGowan MLA, Western Australian Minister for Education and Training.

    The Taskforce undertook a comprehensive review of the processes underpinning the supply and demand of teachers and lecturers in Western Australia.  The report was prepared with the assistance of a number of people directly involved in both public and private education and training; it was informed by a great deal of consultation, advice and feedback from the general public, teachers and people connected with the education and training sectors; and it was further developed through personal interviews and a review of associated literature.

    The Taskforce believes that the recommendations in the report provide a useful guide for the Government of Western Australia to enable them to take the necessary steps to ensure that the education and training environment operates effectively for all teachers, lecturers and students.

    While I continue to keep in contact with the Minister’s office, it is essentially up to the Minister to use his discretion about when and how to release the report to the wider community.  I understand that the report is under active consideration by the Government.

    The Taskforce has completed its mandate and can no longer accept submissions.  I would, however, like once more to acknowledge with thanks the many submissions we have received.  I would also again like to thank those who made the effort to attend the public forums.  All of this input provided valuable insight into the practical issues affecting the provision of education in Western Australia and how they might be resolved.

    LANCE TWOMEY AO
    February 2008

    From Education Workforce Initiatives at link
    
    
    
    
• SSTUWA News
  
  
  • Reprinted from the April 2007 edition of Western Teacher
    
    Talking to Lance Twomey about the Teacher Shortage
    by Don Rowe
    
    "...I hope it's not one of those reports that lies on a shelf. I don't believe it will. If I thought that I'd never have taken on the role."

    As the State Government hides the Twomey Taskforce Report from teachers and the general public, citing Cabinet process, we look back at an interview with Professor Twomey from an article in the April 2007 edition of Western Teacher. Our own Don Rowe interviewed Professor Lance Twomey about the initial work of the taskforce into the teacher shortage and his initial views. Given the report has subsequently sat on shelf in the Education Minister's office for over six months while teacher shortages and industrial chaos rages, Twomey's 2007 optimism makes depressing reading in the winter of 2008. 

    Lance Twomey doesn't have a luxurious office with a big chair. We sat in a fairly stark room set up for meetings, and work.

    There is little doubt that he knows he has a tough job heading up the taskforce looking into the current teacher shortage, He is not under any false illusions about what the problems are.

    I put it to him that one of the long-term problems he faces is that current high school students just don't want to become teachers.

    "It's a very difficult state of affairs and it's going to be difficult to overcome this. Even those who do decide to teach are completing four years at university and then more that half are deciding not to teach. It also seems that within the universities there are lecturers who convince them to change their career paths," says Twomey.

    "The current employment situation in Western  Australia means that these students can get a better paid job with better prospects - especially if they're prepared to go up north. And in some cases they haven't altogether liked what they've seen in their prac."

    I offered to him my opinion suggesting that it's about money and housing.

    "It's so difficult! It was put to me the other day that a TAFE lecturer in Karratha might earn up to $65,000 but there are a number of firms that would offer him or her $100,000 to work with them rather than teach - now that's not good for our future.

    "The big issues are salary, housing (why is it that teachers get poorer housing than police?), and respect. All of these issues have to be attacked." [emphasis added]

    So what is his taskforce doing and going to do?

    "The taskforce is developing well. We're working on a consensus basis. We'll be going out and talking to the community right across the state, to teachers, to parents. We'll be talking to students in the last couple of years of high school and we're seeking submissions."

    Although his report will take some time to get finalised, I suggested that he might already be getting some feelings about the key issues.

    "I think that the results of our enquiry will probably be along the lines that we have talked about: salary, housing, respect; those sorts of issues. And I amid to have the report completed by the end of the year.

    "It's a formidable task, and I hope it's not one of those reports that lies on a shelf. I don't believe it will. If I thought that I'd never have taken on the role."

    I asked him where the teachers were going to come from to solve the immediate short term crisis.

    "It's interesting to look at who is available or potentially available. As I understand it 8,000 people who are registered as teachers who aren't teaching. Now i don't believe anyone has gone out and asked them why not, and under what circumstances they might teach.

    "There are about 1,000 students who last year graduate as teachers but chose not to take up positions. There are teachers who are retiring, and they need to be asked if they might consider coming back, under what circumstances, what would you need to come back?

    "There are 10,000 Australian teachers teaching in the United Kingdom. There is a whole raft of potential options to find the teachers we need - in the longer term, but equally as critical is to make teaching an attractive proposition for students in high school, to have them seriously considering teaching as a career.

    "The solution in some cases will require money, and the Government knows that. In some cases it won't cost much money; what it will require though are some major changes in attitude. And the question is: Can that come about?"

    I left Professor Twomey with the distinct impression that he was a man who understands the issues, he knows the problems and will come up with the right solutions.

    But I also left with my still-lingering doubts that those in power will have the courage to make the necessary changes. [emphasis added]
    
    From SSTUWA at link
    
    
    

  • Wanted - thousands of teachers urgently [16 June]
    
    Western Australia faces anywhere between 30,000 and 40,000 students without a teacher unless the Government makes some very logical decisions. The SSTUWA anticipates massive teacher shortages in the near future and this has been backed up by State Government studies and forward projections. Already leave (including Long Service) has been denied to all teachers for 2009.

    The Department of Education and Training has advice that we will reach a point in the next few years where we will be anything up to 3000 teachers short.
    
    That is between 30,000 and 40,000 students without a teacher.
    
    But in 2007, well into the reported teacher shortage, a series of committees and forums was organised, chaired by Professor Lance Twomey to look at the problem and suggest solutions. Amazingly at the time, the Education Department's own website showed that there were less than 20 vacancies in the state for teachers! Why?
    
    They employed a recruitment firm to get more teachers from other countries. Why?
    
    Because there has been no long term planning by the department to solve this problem - a problem everyone knew was going to exist. Why?
    
    Because the status of teaching had dropped as teacher salaries have dropped in comparison to the rest of the workforce.
    
    It is known that most teachers don't want to go to the country to teach. Why?
    
    Because they don't want to live in dongas, caravans, pub rooms or substandard housing and be paid less than those who are employed to clean kitchens on mine sites.
    
    You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to see the obvious.
    
    If, overnight HECS fees were removed and current year 12 students were convinced to take up a career in teaching, it would still take another five years before they finished their degrees and were ready to start teaching - that's if they went into a Government School at the end of their degree.

    That leaves only two logical options:

    • 1. Take teachers away from children in other countries and import them into our system - no mean feat when you consider the United Nations estimates the world is currently short about two million teachers.
    • 2. Encourage existing teachers to remain in the system and encourage some who have retired early or resigned in disgust to come back and teach in our schools.

    There are some moral problems associated with poaching teachers from other countries.

    The most logical step is to ensure that existing teachers remain teaching - and then move to encourage some who have quit because of overwork, stress and being underpaid, to return and take up positions.

    Maybe the following real employment adverts may be a hint for the Government and the department:

    • Auto Electrician - Mining $94,000 plus vehicle, meals and accommodation.
    • Plumbing Supervisor - Metro area, package includes car, phone and $90,000pa
    • Mechanical Supervisor - Immediate start, large existing project $200k package
    • Systems Expert Engineer - $145K plus productivity bonus

    Compare these to Classroom Teacher - work ungodly hours, face uncooperative students (frequently abusive) - live in a donga, mark papers each evening, examine kids more often than you teach them, no overtime - $55-$69k.

    It's not complicated which career path any bright student would pursue.
    
    
    

• AEU Media Statement
  
  
  • Call for new standard and timeline to rebuild schools
    by Angelo Gavrielatos - AEU Federal President   
    
    New report finds $2 billion annual shortfall
    
    The Australian Education Union is calling on the Rudd Government to establish a new standard for buildings and facilities in public schools after an independent report found a $2 billion annual shortfall in capital investment. A national audit of all public schools is required to assess the state of buildings, heating and cooling, sports, art and music facilities and maintenance, says AEU Federal President Angelo Gavrielatos.
    
    “An independent report commissioned by the AEU found that between 2002 and 2005, public schools, on average, missed out by about $1.2 million each when compared with private school capital investment,” said Mr. Gavrielatos.

    “This shortfall is being felt right across the country and the Rudd Government must set an urgent timetable to renovate and rebuild run-down schools.

    “Every Australian child deserves to be taught in a school with quality learning environments and modern equipment.

    “Eleven years of under-funding by the Howard government has created a huge shortfall in investment for public school infrastructure.

    “While state and territory governments have a role to play, the Rudd Government must now take the lead in addressing the neglect of Australian public schools.

    “The Federal Government must establish a new benchmark for school buildings and facilities and make sure every school has the resources they need to meet it.

    “The Government’s $20 billion Building Australia Fund should be used for this purpose. When it comes to investment in infrastructure, investing in our public schools and students is the most important infrastructure investment a government can make.

    “This is our opportunity to create quality buildings and resources that could be used by the whole community.

    “As well as improving the quality of education for our children, rebuilding and upgrading schools across Australia would also improve environmental performance.”

    From SSTUWA at link
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  

  • School halts fingerprint experiment (page 10)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “A backlash by parents has forced an Anglican school to drop plans to scan students’ fingerprints as they entered and left school.
    
    “The plan had been devised by the school as a way of monitoring attendance.
    
    “Peter Moyes Anglican Community School has apologised to parents for causing concern after a letter sent to them early last week said the school planned to use biometric scanning to identify students and reduce clerical errors.
    
    “Biometric identification uses a fingerprint to create a digital template on a computer program. It does not store fingerprints.
    
    “In a second letter late last week, principal Doug Swingler said he had proposed to run a trial of the biometric system using middle-school students.
    
    “I have received expressions of concern from a small number of parents in relation to this issue (also expressions of support),” Mr Swingler said in his second letter to parents.
    
    “As a result, I have decided to retract the information provided and not proceed to trial the product until consultation is undertaken with the school community.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • No Change

      “The letter from Michelle Briede (Why bother, 14/6) demonstrates how little has changed in the time of this Government administration.

      “Some years back when Alan Carpenter was minister for education part of my work was to assist in recruiting teachers for relief and temporary positions in our schools.

      “I lost count of the number of teachers who arrived here in WA, having previously forwarded their documents to the Education Department to enable a smooth transition to teaching – some from other States or countries – only to find that when they arrived there was “no record” or the documents “were lost” and the process had to start again. Some had to wait months to get a “magic number” so they could do relief work.

      “The resourcing of education has not been a priority for this Government despite many pronouncements to the rhetoric of developing a “world-class system”.

      “In the past two years I have been privileged to work with many teachers across the length and breadth of WA who have been prepared to undertake extra training to “mentor” new graduates so that they may develop the same passion, within their own power, to enhance the learning of others.

      “To attend this training to enhance their profession, some of these mentor teachers have travelled up to 400km, paid for child care on their “day off”, attended programs on Saturdays and school holidays.

      “To take on this role of mentor they receive no extra pay, are rarely given a lighter teaching load and will normally carry out their mentoring in their own time. Such is their passion for their profession.

      “The stringing out of the current pay negotiations by the Education Minister is a continued reflection on how important the profession is to the Government.

      “If the leadership and management demonstrated by the last three ministers for education is any example, the fact that so many are willing to “hang in there” for the sake of the profession is more a testimony to the character of those who make a difference despite the indifference of the Government.

      “When Michelle Briede returns to Victoria she will provide the real picture of how the WA Government, with its record of financial surpluses, has built the human infrastructure for our communities.”

      John Willett, Currambine
      
      

    • I Disagree
      
      “While my classes are far from perfect, I totally disagree with Katherine Summers’ extremist views of the state of education today (Education revolution, Kev? It’s a rebellion, 14/6).

      “We are far from the thuggery that Summers would have readers believe. Of course there are cases of students who have very little concept of appropriate classroom behaviour. As a teacher, it is your job to educate students about what is appropriate in class and to have a “presence” in the classroom so that they don’t start piercing each other, throwing compasses or swearing at you.

      “And Summers spoke about the administration of her school not being supportive and giving inappropriately short punishments to students. So find a new school! In the current climate of our State’s teacher shortage, if you’re a half-decent teacher then you won’t have a problem finding another job.

      “The thing that I found most hypocritical about the article was the “redeeming” final anecdote. Summers has gone on an extensive rant about how much she hates every aspect of teaching, only to give one solitary tale about what keeps her there. Surely, if the state of education is so overwhelmingly gloomy, you wouldn’t have persevered for four years while on such a “poor” wage.

      “Katherine, you say kids don’t know anything. I thought that was the role of a teacher. If they don’t know, maybe you should teach them.”

      Lisa Moller, Success
      
      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Teachers union needs to stop whingeing
    
    Good school facilities help boost performance
    
    "Leaving biased and shrill arguments to one side, a few basic facts need to be understood about government funding of public and private schools. The latest available figures show that in 2005-6, the average recurrent government spending - state and federal combined - was $11,243 per state school student. The comparable figure per private student was $6268.

    "Private students also benefit from the fees paid by their parents, which can range from $1500 a year to more than $20,000. In exercising that choice, such parents, who also help fund state schools, save taxpayers billions of dollars that would otherwise need to be spent if the private students were in the state system.
    
    "In raising serious and legitimate concerns about capital spending on state schools, the Australian Education Union is misdirecting its wrath. At the weekend, an independent report commissioned by the AEU was released, showing that between 2002 and 2005, public schools on average missed out by about $1.2 million each when compared with private school capital investment.
    
    "AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos was correct to argue that "every Australian child deserves to be taught in a school with quality learning environments and modern equipment". But in blaming "22 years of under-funding by the Howard government" for "a huge shortfall in investment for public school infrastructure", Mr Gavrielatos played down the fact that state governments, not the commonwealth, are primarily responsible for state schools. The regrettable fact that investment in state schools has slipped below what it should be is overwhelmingly the states's failure, despite their coffers being swollen with GST revenue.
    
    "What also needs to be understood is that in comparing capital expenditure in state and private schools, the report, titled Rebuilding Public Schools: Investment Targets for 2020, compared apples and oranges. It compared government capital investment in public schools with joint parental-government capital spending in private schools. As the independent school sector pointed out yesterday, 87per cent of capital spending in that sector in 2005 came from parents, 9 per cent came from the federal government and just 4 per cent from state governments. In the Catholic systemic schools, about 80 per cent of the capital spending in some states comes from the parents, the rest from governments.
    
    "In simple dollar terms, figures produced by the independent sector show that the federal government spent $305 per government school student on capital works in 2006/7, and $183 per non-government student. The fact that private schools are spending more stems from the fact that they tend to borrow for capital projects and build the debt servicing into the fees of future generations. In 2005, the net total borrowings of the independent school sector was $2.5billion or $5770 per student.

    "Enrolment patterns are also a factor, with the ABS reporting 7.1per cent growth in the private sector and a 0.6 per cent decline in state enrolments from 2002 to 2006. State governments should lift capital investment in their schools to narrow the gaps identified in the report. But important as they are, facilities are not the only factor in performance. Many space-restricted inner-city state and private schools outperform schools with more lavish campuses. Teaching quality, curriculum, parental support and discipline also matter. State teacher unions should stop whingeing about the private schools, and work constructively with governments to improve their own sector."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Like giving video games
    by Ray Fisman
    
    "More than three decades ago, Commodore introduced the PET, the world's first personal computer, apparently so-named to take advantage of the '70s craze for pet rocks. My ever-doting and education-obsessed parents brought home a PET for me and my siblings, hoping to put us at the vanguard of the digital revolution-to-be. The results were mixed at best. Though the machine was entirely unsuited to mindless fun -- it had four kilobytes of memory and a tiny green display of monochrome ASCII characters -- my friends and I found a way to turn this supposedly educational device into a toy. We spent endless hours watching a little green cursor race around the screen in a rudimentary, freestyle version of Pac-Man. Once an early edition of Space Invaders appeared, I think my parents came to regret their attempt to prepare us for the computer age.

    "A generation later, parents are more worried than ever about making sure their children can compete in today's hi-tech world, and the growing digital divide is a subject of great concern for educators and policymakers. Federal subsidies in the US provide billions of dollars for computer access in schools and libraries, and billions more may soon be spent in the developing world through programs such as One Laptop per Child. But even OLPC's $100 laptop comes loaded with more distractions than my PET ever had. So will children use these subsidised computing resources to prepare for the demands of the 21st-century job market?

    "Or do computers just serve as a 21st-century substitute for that more venerable time-waster, the television?

    "New research by economists Ofer Malamud and Cristian Pop-Eleches provides an answer: for many children, computers are indeed more of a distraction than a learning opportunity. The two researchers surveyed households that applied to Euro 200, a voucher distribution program in Romania designed to help poor households defray the cost of buying a computer for their children. It turns out that children in households lucky enough to get computer vouchers spent a lot less time watching TV, but that's where the good news ends. [emphasis added]

    "Vouchered" children also spent less time doing homework, got lower grades, and reported lower educational aspirations than the "unvouchered" children.

    "This is certainly not the first attempt to measure the costs and benefits of giving computers to children.

    "Some earlier studies also found that computers have a negative effect on scholastic achievement. Others found the opposite. But it's hard to know what to make of these earlier studies because they compare families that have decided to buy computers with those that haven't, and compare children who choose to spend their days parked in front of a computer v those who spend their time doing other things (like studying, playing soccer, or getting up to no good). This makes any study of computer v non-computer children an apples-to-oranges comparison: Parents who buy computers tend to place more value on education; they're also more likely to live in good school districts, pay for extra maths classes, and generally provide a richer learning environment for their children than parents who don't buy computers.

    "(In my case, it's probably a lot more than access to a PET that accounts for my decision to spend 22 years in school.)

    "Malamud and Pop-Eleches chose the Euro 200 program because it solved the apples-to-oranges problem. While Euro 200 didn't exactly hand out computers at random, it came pretty close. The program provided vouchers worth E200 (about $330 today) for computer purchases by poor families with children. (The income cutoff was $50 per month per household member.) But there weren't nearly enough vouchers to go around. In 2005, for example, nearly 52,000 qualified families applied, but the government had funding for only 27,555 of them. As a result, vouchers were given only to families with incomes below $17 per household member. This means that some of the families that got vouchers - those with, say, incomes between $16 and $17 - were basically identical to some of those that didn't (families with $17-$18 incomes). These families all have similar computing aspirations (they all applied to the program) and differ only in which side of the $17 cutoff they happened to sit on. (Economists call this a "regression discontinuity".)

    "So what happens when good fortune delivers vouchers (and hence computers) into the homes of Romanian youths? Obviously a lot more time logged on to a computer: about seven hours more per week for vouchered v unvouchered children.

    "Much of this computer time came at the expense of TV-watching: Children in families that received a voucher spent 3.5 fewer hours in front of the tube per week. But computer use also crowded out homework (2.3 hours less per week), reading, and sleep. Less schoolwork translated into lower grades at school. Vouchered children's marks were lower than their non-vouchered counterparts, and they also had lower aspirations for higher education.

    "Vouchered children were 13 percentage points less likely to report an intention to attend college. And, interestingly, vouchered students who were college-bound were not more likely to express interest in majoring in computer science.

    "When my friends and I figured out how to transform my PET from a learning tool to a proto-videogame console, my parents stepped in to make sure Space Invaders didn't crowd out homework. Where were Romania's parents? The voucher program was specifically designed to help poor households, and their dire financial circumstances meant that these families were probably less able to afford after-school care or otherwise see to it that the computers were used for learning and not just recreation. Indeed, the authors found that when they looked specifically at families with stay-at-home mothers who may be more present and able to police computer use, the negative effects of vouchers were greatly reduced.

    "Perhaps not surprisingly, the lesson from Romania's voucher experiment is not that computers aren't useful learning tools, but that their usefulness relies on parents being around to ensure they don't simply become a very tempting distraction from the unpleasantness of trigonometry homework. But this is a crucial insight for those tasked with designing policies to bridge the digital divide. The express intent of Euro 200 was to give a boost to poor children' educations. Through programs such as One Laptop per Child, governments around the world have similarly committed to purchasing millions of computers to improve computer access for children.

    "But Malamud and Pop-Eleches' results suggest that merely providing access may be more of a curse than a blessing. If we really want to help poor children, whether in Romania, sub-Saharan Africa, or America's housing projects, we may want to focus on approaches that provide structured, supervised access through after-school programs or subsidies that bring technology into low-income schools. But just giving children computers? Might as well just ship them PlayStations."

    Ray Fisman is the Lambert Family professor of social enterprise and research director of the Social Enterprise Program at the Columbia Business School. His book with Ted Miguel, Economic Gangsters, is forthcoming in October.

    From The Australian at link [story quoted on ABC News]
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Having fewer, better students would raise standards
      Most Talked About: Proper English
      
      "Perceptions by academics of the writing skills of undergraduate students (Most talked about, 16/6) could be improved simply by reducing undergraduate intake to, say, one-third of its current level.
      
      "University entry cut-off scores would rise and overall quality would improve.

      "An important collateral advantage would be that some of the academics who currently complain would no longer have jobs in tertiary education.
      Once they had gained the necessary additional qualification, they could then become high school English teachers and, by personal example, show just how the job should be done."
      
      Garry Collins, President, English Teachers Association of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld
      
      

    • "Lenore Ferguson finds it "extraordinary’’ that I should have criticised her works in The Australian given that the ETAQ had published articles of mine in their journal and on their website ("Teacher’s grammar full of errors’’, 13/6).

      "In the journal article, I was not allowed to mention any specific errors in her work (two earlier short drafts focusing on a small sample of errors were rejected).

      "Moreover, in her commentary in the journal on my website critique, Dr Ferguson claims, wrongly, that it requires “readers to have extensive knowledge of traditional, structural and functional grammars’’ which is likely to discourage many teachers from consulting it.

      "After several months of trying vainly to persuade Dr Ferguson to ensure that readers were made properly aware of the numerous and serious errors in the material, I felt I had no alternative but to draw public attention to the matter."
      
      Emeritus Professor Rodney Huddleston, Sunshine Beach, Qld
      
      

    • "Andrew Butcher and Ian Green (Letters, 16/6) are not convinced that knowing the difference between nouns and verbs improves students’ writing skills.

      "That seems odd, for if a student doesn’t know what a verb is, how can he or she possibly compose a proper sentence which, by definition, must contain a verb?

      "Your correspondents also express concern about badly constructed and ambiguous sentences from students. In other words, those sentences fail the test of lucidity, for which brevity is an essential requirement.

      "Unfortunately, Butcher and Green are themselves guilty of a crime against lucidity by indulging in verbosity. Their penultimate sentence is 50 words long."
      
      Richard Congram, Carindale, Qld
      
      

    • "Mortar boards off to Professor Butcher and Dr Green.

      "They are right:  A rote knowledge of the labels put on the various bits and pieces of English grammar is not the key to good written, or indeed, spoken English.

      "An understanding of how to use English, with a total emphasis on meaning, meaning, meaning, is what should be taught.

      "Let’s join the Americans in dropping talk of adverbs and adjectives and change to a description of what they are, modifiers of a verb or noun."
      
      John Morgan, Paddington, NSW
      
      

    • "It is time an actual classroom teacher weighed in to the English grammar debate.

      "Professor Butcher’s comment on his students is, in my opinion, and that of many of my colleagues, spot on.

      "How to address the problem is, however, another matter.

      "It requires time for students to practise, and time for teachers to provide regular, and comprehensive, feedback.

      "Timetables and workloads in most secondary schools do not allow for either. English teachers are already stretched to breaking point trying to cover the content required by the syllabus in the class time allocated.

      "To mark and provide feedback on an average junior assessment piece takes about 20 minutes; a senior piece at least 30 minutes.

      "For a class of 25 students, this means about eight to 12 hours’ work.

      "Yet the allowance for preparation and marking is a mere 10 minutes per 50-minute lesson; 40 minutes a week.

      "The debate needs to move away from academic argument about what, theoretically, we should or should not be teaching, and focus on practicalities; what is possible in the classroom given the time constraints."
      
      Rosemary Stride, Wavell Heights, Qld
      
      

    • "David Close (Most talked about, 16/6) says "mastery of our language is essential to enable us to meet the manifold demands of everyday life’’.

      "In one form or another, this theme is often repeated when people talk about the lack of English skills or similarly repeated for maths, history, science and virtually every subject.

      "If mastery of school subjects is essential and none of these subjects have been taught properly for 30 years or more, then why are we in the middle of an economic boom?"
      
      Mark Millard, Coolbellup, WA

      [Apologies: The Letters in yesterday's Australian didn't get included on PLATO's news. Web]
      
      
      
• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Why today's teachers' strike is probably futile
    by Michael Owen and Lucy Hood
    
    "Today's strike by public-school teachers will have little impact on pay-rise talks because the Government does not have enough funds set aside to meet their demands.

    "Senior Labor sources last night said there was no provision for any substantial increase in the State Government's pay offer. [Sound familiar? Web]

    "They stopped short of saying the Government's "final offer" already was on the table but declared any further movement would likely be "miniscule".

    "More than 11,000 teachers will strike today, forcing the closure of more than 530 schools and affecting more than 165,000 students.

    "It is the first full-day strike in 12 years in South Australia.

    "About 60 schools will remain open and offer modified programs for students whose parents want them to attend. Teachers will rally at Rymill Park from 10.15am, then march along North Terrace to Parliament House.

    "The Advertiser has been told by senior figures there is "no way" the Government is going to agree to the demands being made by the Australian Education Union for a 21 per cent pay rise over three years.

    "This would cost $2.8 billion, compared with the Government's offer of a 9.75 per cent rise over three years, at a cost of $309 million.

    "Senior MPs view today's strike as a waste of time and privately say it will have "no impact" because there is such limited room for the Government to revise its latest pay offer.

    "But AEU state president Correna Haythorpe last night hit back, insisting the Government "had the money".

    "You only have to look at the ($160 million) Budget surplus to see that there is money and this proves that education is clearly not a priority to the Government any more," she said.

    "The Advertiser, however, understands there are secret contingency lines in the State Budget with enough money to offer increased wages to doctors, teachers and TAFE lecturers.

    "But the strong feeling in political circles is that the Government is more willing to meet doctors' demands and hold out on wage negotiations with teachers.

    "The view of senior Government sources is that the teachers do not have the community support that health professionals have. [emphasis added]

    "Further hardening the Government's stance is a firm belief among senior ranks that the union has not negotiated properly or in good faith.

    "Senior MPs say the union has not responded to its latest increased offer and instead has demanded three times what was being put forward.

    "The union counters by arguing it is being denied meetings with Industrial Relations Minister Michael Wright.

    "There is room to move but we need to be talking to the decision makers, not with negotiations who have no authority," Ms Haythorpe said.

    "But Mr Wright said: "All they've got to do is show a willingness to negotiate and they've got a meeting with me."

    "One senior Labor source said after offering a 3.25 per cent annual pay increase and "quite a lot" of money for extra teachers and non-teaching resources, the only response from the teachers union "has been to go on strike". Mr Wright said talks with teachers had been extended for four months and the union "has not moved one cent".

    "Their (total) claim is $2.8 billion. I ruled that out previously and I rule it out again today," Mr Wright said.

    "He warned teachers that today's strike and any further industrial action planned by the union would make "not one cent of difference" to the Government's position.

    "Mr Wright said "it would appear to be the case" that the union was "hell-bent" on striking just to make a point and force unreasonable pay claims.

    "The AEU has now threatened "rolling stoppages" from the beginning of Term 3 which starts on Monday, July 21.

    "Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith yesterday told The Advertiser she was "disappointed", saying: "I understand that the leadership of the union is new and rather frisky."

    "Her comments were dismissed by Ms Haythorpe as "entirely superficial".

    "Opposition education spokesman David Pisoni said Dr Lomax-Smith and Mr Wright had "given up" on negotiating with the teachers' union.

    "Mr Rann must now take responsibility as it is he who has claimed to be the `Education Premier'," he said.

    "SA Secondary Principals Association president Jim Davies yesterday warned the Government risked "not enough principals to run its schools" because of the "inadequate offer".

    From The Adelaide Advertiser at link
    
    
    • Ministers Michael Wright and John Hill take hard line on strikes
      
      Two key State Government ministers are talking tough against doctors' and teachers' unions whose industrial campaigns are threatening to cripple the state.
      
      
    • SA teachers' strike - bosses urged to think of the children
      
      Employers should be sympathetic to parents caught up in tomorrow's teacher strike and let them stay home to look after children, Business SA says.
      
      
      
      
• ABC News
  
  
  • Hundreds of suspensions not a crisis: Scrymgour
    
    "The Territory's Education Minister has revealed that there have been more than 220 student suspensions at Taminmin High School in Darwin's rural area so far this year.

    "But Marion Scrymgour denies the school is in crisis, saying the tough action ensures a positive learning environment and teacher safety.

    "The school's principal Tony Considine says he has drawn a line in the sand for misbehaviour such as smoking and violence, and few students reoffend.

    "Last week, the Territory Parliament's question time was dominated by the topic of disciplinary problems at schools.

    "The Education Minister says about a-thousand students were suspended across the Territory in the last financial year.

    "This is a school that is getting the results for all its students. It is not a school in crisis or out of control. It is a school that has put in place effective policies that have said we will not tolerate violence or bad behaviour in our precinct."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Promised fines for truancy not happening at Tiwis school
    
    "The principal of a school on the Tiwi Islands says the federal intervention has done nothing to address low attendance and literacy rates.

    "Last night, the ABC's Four Corners program uncovered the challenges surrounding education in remote Aboriginal communities, with a focus on the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin."The program stated up to 90 per cent of early teenagers in the community are functionally illiterate, with 13-year-olds having the reading age of a child less than six."The principal of Xavier Community Education Centre at Nguiu, Kathryn Van Egmond, says the intervention promised to fine parents of children who do not attend school, but that has failed to happen."I'm not sure what else talks. Money is supposed to talk isn't it, but there are so much bigger issues than just cutting off money. The people need to be talked to."They need to make the decisions from within rather than from without and we're making decisions for them. It has to come from them or nothing will change.""She also says community members do not agree with bilingual education because it fails to ensure students can speak English.

    "I've got nothing against the bilingual system, but you just have to have really good teachers teaching it and I'm sure there are plenty of good teachers around doing the program, but then there are some times the high turn over of staff people without English as a second language background."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Parents fear demountables health risk [16 June]
    
    "The Education Department is sending an inspector to Dongara District High School after complaints from students that decaying transportable buildings are making them sick.

    "Parents say the school's six demountables were already old by the time they arrived at the school, and have deteriorated to the point that water flows down the walls when it rains.
    
    "Nationals' MLA Grant Woodhams raised the issue in Parliament last week, saying the department has been aware of the situation for months.
    
    "Mr Woodhams says the situation is reaching crisis point.
    
    "There's one particular student who is now being schooled at home because the spores in the airconditioning and the floors and the walls are causing a very strong allergic reaction," he said.

    "Her mum had to quit her job to look after her and teach her at home."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Statewide school database will be secure: Welford
    
    "Queensland Education Minister Rod Welford says he is surprised that some parents did not know about plans for a statewide database of school records.

    "Mr Welford says the computer system will be secure and will not be of much interest to people with "wrong motives".
    
    "The Council of Parents and Citizens Associations say parents were kept in the loop, but Mr Welford says more information will go out.
    
    "P&C spokesman Charles Alder says if parents want to know about such things, they should get more involved.
    
    "We've been consulted by Education Queensland on the 'one school' program for over 18 months," he said.
    
    "It's been passed on through each of our regional representatives, the school P&C representatives - the principals also have been speaking about it in their P&Cs.
    
    "If you have a look at the average school P&C, there might be 10 or 15 parents representing a school of 700 or 800 children."
    
    "Mr Welford says he will make sure that much more information goes out to parents about how the system will work.
    
    "I am surprised but I think there's been a lot of sensationalism around this issue that has caused unnecessary concern for parents," he said.

    "We'll make sure that much more information goes out to parents about how this system will work, we'll ensure that principals brief their P&Cs but I want to ensure parents, this will be a very, very secure system."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • NSW dept ordered to review school drug leaflet
    
    "The New South Wales Government has ordered the Department of Health to review all drug education material for young people.

    "Controversy over a leaflet suggesting ways to minimise the risk of taking illegal drugs sparked the review.
    
    "The controversial leaflet is titled "Choosing to use but wanna keep your head together", and advises teenagers on what to do if they choose to take substances like ecstasy and cannabis.
    
    "It is being distributed at schools and community facilities, and includes advice for students to wait until they turn 18 before experimenting with drugs, and then to "use only small amounts and not too often".
    
    "The leaflet had been intended to be used with teenagers at high risk of drug use.
    
    "But State Health Minister Reba Meagher has recalled it to be pulped, saying its advice about what people should do if they take drugs is unacceptable.
    
    "There's a difference between harm minimisation and a message that implies tacit approval for drug experimentation," she said.
    
    "The Iemma Government is 100 per cent committed to harm minimisation, but we will not tolerate any message to young people that it implies that it's OK to experiment with drugs."

    "Sydney West Area Health Service published the leaflet but has declined to comment about its withdrawal."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Science teachers suffering 'lack of confidence'
    by Richard Garner, Education Editor
    
    "Many science teachers lack the confidence to teach the subject because they have had little or no training in it, says a report by Ofsted, the education standards watchdog, today. Too few allowed their pupils to do experiments – relying instead on studying textbooks, inspectors said.

    "Standards in the subject had stagnated for the past three years with little or no improvement in the results of national curriculum tests for pupils aged seven and 11, they found.

    "Science is a fascinating subject," said Christine Gilbert, the chief inspector of schools and chief executive of Ofsted. "Yet for many pupils it lacks appeal because of the way it is taught.

    "The most stimulating and engaging teaching and the best learning occur when science is brought to life and pupils are given the chance to conduct, record and evaluate their own investigations. Schools need to raise pupils' aspirations and enjoyment of science and ensure that they nurture the talents of our potential young scientists of the future."

    "The problem of lack of subject knowledge was most acute in primary schools, the report added. Throughout all compulsory schooling, one in four pupils was taught in unsatisfactory accommodation.

    "Teachers in primary and secondary schools were too concerned with meeting test and exam requirements to the detriment of scientific inquiry, Ofsted said. As a result, pupils relied too heavily on textbooks and commercially produced worksheets. Schools with the best results had introduced pupils to the idea of carrying out their own investigations from the foundation stage for three to five-year-olds. [emphasis added]

    "Meanwhile, a government inquiry into maths teaching in primary schools will today recommend specialist teachers be employed to help pupils struggling with the subject.

    "The review, by Sir Peter Williams, follows claims that one-to-one teaching with pupils who are behind in class can have a remarkable effect on improving standards. The Government is expected to back the recommendation that there should be a move towards employing more specialist maths teachers – instead of relying on more generally trained primary teachers.

    "In secondary schools, only 43 per cent of teachers had a degree in the subject they taught, according to figures from a government staffing review released earlier this month. But the picture was rosier for science classes – a total of 96 per cent of biology and physics teachers had a post-A level qualification in their subject."

    From The Independent at link
    
    Related story on BBC News
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • Experts to champion better maths
    
    "There is to be a new emphasis on maths play in England's nursery schools and 13,000 maths specialists to spearhead better primary school teaching.

    "The government accepts the findings of a review it commissioned from a team led by Sir Peter Williams.

    "It will take 10 years and £187m to train the specialists, expected to be drawn from existing teachers..."

    Full story at BBC News at link
    
    
    
  • 'Blind eye' turned to exam cheats
    
    Universities are turning a blind eye to cheating to boost degree results, a leading academic has said.
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Report Finds Little Gain From Vouchers
    
    Students in the D.C. school voucher program, the first federal initiative to spend taxpayer dollars on private school tuition, generally did no better on reading and math tests after two years than public school peers, a U.S. Education Department report said yesterday.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • School's in for working families
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "With all the talk about working families, it was only a matter of time before someone created a school to cater for them.

    "At the Melbourne City School, opening hours are 7am to 7pm, family flexibility is the mantra and most "traditional" classroom structures are thrown out the door.

    "More people are living and working in CBDs, and have an increasing need for quality schooling and quality care for their children," the school's chief executive, David Warner, said. "It's not about one size fitting all."

    "For families willing to pay the annual fee of $16,750, the school is expected to open its doors next year, starting with 15 to 30 students from prep to year 2.

    "Parents will be able to drop off their children as early as 7am, and leaving them there for up to 12 hours.

    "Lessons will take place between 9am and 3pm, and out-of-classroom hours will be spent in a form of child care, with teachers known as "learning advisers".

    "Dr Warner, who is also the head of Eltham College, said each child would get a personalised learning plan and be taught in groups according to subject needs.

    "The school was launched at the Melbourne Town Hall yesterday by prominent businessman Harold Mitchell, who is financially backing it, and Lord Mayor John So.

    "Under government guidelines, the school will need a minimum of 20 students and must adhere to Victorian curriculum standards if it is to be approved for registration.

    "But as potential CBD sites are negotiated, families are warming to the idea.

    "Wayne and Helen Woodman said they would consider transferring their eight-year-old daughter Bethany from Eltham College to the Melbourne City School next year.

    "The traditional 9am to 3pm schooling model doesn't really suit today's lifestyle," said Mr Woodman, a city-based accounts manager and self-confessed "workaholic".

    "I tend to work long hours so an educational facility with flexible hours would be fantastic."

    "Victorian Parents Council executive officer Jo Silver said: "A 7am to 7pm school is many working parents' dream … But parents need to be very mindful that they are balancing their needs with those of their child."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
  • Fewer VCE graduates enrol for university [16 June]
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "A growing number of public school students in Melbourne's west are enrolling into university, as more from the east take on trades and apprenticeships, according to new Victorian Government research.

    "But fewer VCE graduates are going to university overall, with many forced to defer tertiary studies and work for a year to cope with rising costs.
    
    "A snapshot of the class of 2007, to be released today, shows that more than one in four students who completed year 12 are now not in any form of tertiary education or training.
    
    "Of that group, more than 14% entered the job market, 3% are looking for work, and 11% deferred their studies for the year — the highest rate of deferrals since the Government started tracking students five years ago.
    
    "The trend has prompted the Victorian Education Minister, Bronwyn Pike, to challenge the Federal Government to boost student income support.
    
    "She warned that programs such as AUSTUDY and Independent Youth Allowance — which students often claim barely cover the cost of living — needed a rethink.
    
    "The study was based on an April survey of more than 33,000 students who completed their VCE last year.
    
    "Conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research, the Government's annual On Track study also found:

    • Private school students were enrolling into university at a greater rate than their public school counterparts (54% compared with 36%).
    • The number of students enrolling into university has fallen slightly, from 47.4% last year to 44% this year.
    • Almost 20% of public school students entered the workforce after completing their VCE, compared with 9% of students from non-government schools.

  "The figures come at a critical time for the Government, which is preparing to unveil a new five-year education blueprint designed to tackle underperformance and make schools more accountable for their results.
  
  "Ms Pike admitted she would like to see more young people entering university, TAFE or training courses after finishing school.
  
  "But she said she was "heartened" to see the data shattered typical "east-versus-west" school stereotypes: public school students from Melbourne's west who are attending university had increased to 36% — the highest since the Government started tracking students in 2003.
  
  "In the same period the number of government school students taking up apprenticeships or traineeships from the eastern suburbs has almost doubled from 5.3% to 9.3%.
  
  "The study suggests that most students deferring tend to come from non-metropolitan areas."Opposition education spokesman Martin Dixon — who is involved in a parliamentary inquiry into the participation of regional students in higher education — said costs were a major factor in stopping students from even attempting further studies.

  "The president of the National Union of Students, Angus McFarland, said the findings were further evidence that the Federal Government, which is reviewing Australia's higher education system, should improve student income support immediately."
  
  From The Age at link
  
  

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    "Surveys show many students are deferring studies ("Fewer VCE graduates enrol for university", The Age, 16/6).

    "It is not all about the cost of higher education. There is a perverse incentive — if students work in a gap year they establish eligibility for Austudy, regardless of their parental income. It would seem likely that rather than having to take time off because they can't afford university, some students, and their families, are ensuring that Austudy is paid where it otherwise wouldn't be because of the means test.

    "This trend is likely to increase with growing awareness that a year off establishes a student's independence and that Austudy is paid even when students live at home in well-off households."

    Bronwen Murdoch, South Melbourne
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Teacher's pest: top health official sacked
    
    The chief medical officer of HealthQuest, the medical screening body for all public servants, has been sacked after telling the Education Department a teacher it intended employing was being investigated by police for defamatory website postings about him. There is no evidence the teacher was being investigated by police.
    
    
    
  • Teacher's killer sues for being given knife in cooking class
    
    Woman suing state for allowing her access to knife she used to kill a teacher.

 

Wednesday 18 June

Twomey Report

• The Twomey Report has been released and is available at this link [144 p, 1.7 MB .pdf]
  
  
  
• Complete set of Recommendations from the Twomey Report [essential reading !]:   
  as web page    as .pdf file
  
  
• Executive Summary
  
  The Ministerial Taskforce, Education Workforce Initiatives, was developed in response to the progressive decline in the number of teachers available to work in certain areas of the Western Australian education workforce over recent years. This trend is compounded by a corresponding reduction in the numbers of people entering education degree courses and subsequently entering the teaching workforce. These are part of an Australia-wide trend and, while most acute in Western Australia, where employment has reached record highs, they are progressively becoming more evident across Australia. To-date major shortages have been experienced in:
  
  • secondary rather than primary schools
  
  • regional more than metropolitan locations – with the exception of a few difficult-to-staff metropolitan schools
  
  • particular subject areas, most notably the physical sciences, languages (particularly English), mathematics, design and technology, and home economics.
  
  Similarly, vocational education and training is under extreme pressure as the demand for skilled, experienced individuals caused by massive resources growth has made it difficult to retain current staff and attract new lecturers.
  
  The Taskforce engaged in a broad and inclusive consultative process which included:
  
  • careful consideration of appropriate Australian and international literature in the education workforce domain
  
  • meeting with expert individuals
  
  • commissioning independent market research
  
  • calling widely for written submissions from the Western Australian public
  
  • conducting 15 interactive forums across the State.
  
  Careful consideration of the data and information produced recommendations in 15 main areas aimed at improving the number and quality of those entering school teaching and Technical and Further Education (TAFE) lecturing, and determining the requirements necessary to keep them in the system and more content with their employment. It is evident that changes made to salaries, allowances and conditions of teachers within the Western Australian public school sector tend to flow on to the Catholic and independent
  school sectors.
  
  Prior to the presentation of this report, the Minister, the Director General and the Department of Education and Training (DET) initiated numerous reforms, both as a result of a report by Gerard Daniels Australia (February 2007) and from their own observations and decisions.
  
  Almost all submissions made to the Taskforce commented adversely about relative salaries in respect of those of other professions and occupations. This has been addressed in the report, along with the need to provide allowances in line with those paid to other Government employees. There is a real need for a system of differentiated salaries to attract high-quality teachers into particular subject areas and to work in difficult-to-staff schools.
  
  Similar observations are made in relation to TAFE lecturers and school support staff. A more extensive, merit-based career structure needs to be instituted to encourage the best teachers to remain in the classroom and ensure that salaries and conditions for principals are competitive with the non-Government education sector. The supply, conditions and safety of housing for those of the workforce in regional and remote Western Australia is also a major issue demanding rapid action.
  
  Leadership within the public education sector, the mentoring of pre-service teachers, and of teachers and lecturers themselves, is of major importance. The identification, development and selection of principals and other leaders must be more systematic and under constant review. Planned succession is important. Excellence in leadership is a prerequisite for an excellent education system. In this regard, appropriate support for principals, deputy principals, school leaders and teachers is essential if the Director General’s “Classroom First” strategy is to be adequately supported. Teachers and lecturers have to be provided with the right support and allowed to get on with their main task. They need to be generally representative of the wider Australian population, with the Indigenous teacher workforce requiring particular support.
  
  At every forum and in most submissions there was comment on the perceived decline in the status of teaching and teachers in recent years. The Taskforce commissioned TNS Social Research to consider teacher status as part of their brief and the research showed high levels of appreciation from parents and the community in general. It was teachers who were most critical about their status and saw it manifest in terms of ‘low’ salaries, ‘poor’ working conditions, student behaviour, a ‘hostile’ press and what they saw as the absence of a strong voice in their support.
  
  The most consistently successful education systems (Finland, Singapore, Boston and South Korea) clearly show that the most important factors in student success lie in getting the right people to become teachers and developing them into effective instructors (McKinsey, 2007). What is proposed in this report as approaches worthy of support are:
  
  • attractive salaries and allowances
  
  • merit scholarships
  
  • better practicum arrangements (including regional placement support)
  
  • career pathways for education assistants
  
  • a strong and focussed marketing campaign
  
  • the development of a Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER) subject – the ‘Study of Education’.
  
  Within TAFE, important factors include:
  
  • attractive salaries and allowances
  
  • greater flexibility of appointments, working conditions and workloads
  • increased autonomy
  
  • more industry partnerships
  
  • joint appointments with industry
  
  • focussed marketing campaigns.
  
  The vocational and school education sectors would substantially benefit from greater access to the best, multi-modal, flexible learning resources. This applies as much for metropolitan colleges and schools as it does to country locations. Globally there have been massive investments into flexible learning and the delivery of knowledge. The DET would benefit greatly by combining its presently distributed resources, investing more substantially in the product and the skills base of its workforce.
  
  This report encourages delegation and delineation authority, funding and responsibility to where operational decisions need to be made, i.e. to individual schools or clusters of schools. An education and training workforce advisory committee with an independent chairperson and wide-ranging membership is appropriate in order to support current and future workforce planning.
  
  Public sector requirements, the provisions of the Public Sector Management Act 1994 and the relationship of the State with the Federal Government are critical factors in the growth, evolution and continual improvement of the Western Australian education system. This report considers ways in which these may be further facilitated and augmented.
  
  The United Kingdom’s Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), in its successful consideration of workforce requirements, states that it was no particular recommendation on its own that made a difference, but rather the implementation of the pattern of recommendations as a whole that brought about positive change. The view of the Taskforce is similar. Improvement will follow the implementation of the spectrum of recommendations with regard to the education workforce in Western Australia.
  
  
  

Media coverage

• ABC News
  
  
  • Minister bows to pressure on teacher report
    
    "A State Government commissioned report into the teacher shortage has recommended significant payrises and more career based opportunities.

    "The Government has been under pressure to release Professor Lance Twomey's report, which its had for six months.
    
    "The Education Minister Mark McGowan tabled the report today, stressing that it should not be linked to the current teachers pay dispute. [And why not? Web]
    
    "I believe it is in the interests of informed and measured debate on the issues facing education in Western Australia thatI release the report now," he said.
    
    "The report recommends immediate and significant payrises for teachers but does not say how much they should get. "The Liberal's Education Spokesman Peter Collier wants all 83 recommendations acted on.

    "Teachers will be singing from the rafters today because what they'll have in this report reflects what they need and what they deserve," he said. [emphasis added]

    "Teachers want a 20 per cent pay rise over the next three years."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • McGowan releases Twomey report
    
    "The Minister for Education, Mark McGowan, has bowed to pressure and released the Twomey report into Western Australia's teacher shortage.

    "Mr McGowan says he has also given the report to the Industrial Relations Commission which will arbitrate a pay dispute with teachers.

    "The report makes 80 recommendations on how to boost teacher numbers.

    "Mr McGowan concedes one of those is a substantial pay increase for teachers.

    "He says the Government supports the broad thrust of that recommendation and that is why it put forward an offer which would make Western Australia's teachers the best paid in the country.

    Good report: Opposition

    "The Liberal Party's Education Spokesman Peter Collier says it is an excellent report.

    "What we've got here is, we've got piecemeal solutions in regard to behaviour management, we have an inadequate EBA offer to teachers, and at the same time there has been no movement in terms of career opportunities for teachers," he said.

    "Quite frankly, if the Government wants to be serious about overcoming the teacher shortage and prevent a crisis in three years it must embrace the recommendations of Professor Twomey." [emphasis added]

    Government embarrassed: Union

    "The President of the State School Teachers Union Anne Gisborne says it is embarrassing for the government to be forced into publicly releasing the Twomey report.""This government has had the Twomey taskforce report, one that it commissioned itself, available since the first of January," she said.

    "It should have been out and it should have been available in the appropriate negotiations that were occurring between the parties not something that gets flopped on the table now in the context of arbitration."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian online
  
  
  • Report fails to specify teachers' pay rises [5:30 pm online update]
    
    "A State Government-commissioned report into the teaching shortage in WA has recommended pay rises for teachers but has not specified how much they should receive.

    "The government has been under pressure to release the report as it continues a protracted dispute with the State School Teacher’s Union over pay rises and improved conditions in the State’s schools.

    "The union has rejected the government’s offer of 13-22 per cent pay rises and demanded pay rises of more than 20 per cent over three years as well as smaller class sizes and more time allocated for administration and preparation.

    "Releasing the Education Workforce Initiatives Report by Professor Lance Twomey, Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan said he hoped it would prompt informed and measured debate on education issues.

    "Mr McGowan commissioned the report in February 2007 to look at issues facing the teaching workforce - across Government and non-Government sectors - and over the long term.

    "Mr McGowan said the Government had originally intended to release the report following detailed consideration of the 83 recommendations and the development of a formal response.

    “In light of the decision by the Industrial Relations Commission to rule against any further industrial action by the State School Teachers’ Union, and in response to the continuing speculation about the content of the report, I have decided to release it today,” he said.

    "However, the Minister said the report was not intended to frame the current Government school teachers’ enterprise agreement, and anyone reading the terms of reference would see that.

    “The report does recommend a significant increase in pay for teachers but does not specify the size of any increases,” he said.

    “The fact that the Government’s pay offer to Western Australian teachers would make ours the best paid of all States is ample demonstration of our commitment.

    “I am also firmly of the view, backed up by the Twomey report, that teachers working in the toughest schools and in the most remote locations should be rewarded, which is why we offered significant increases in allowances, which could have totalled more than $22,000.”

    "Mr McGowan said the report covered 15 major themes, including remuneration, leadership and mentoring, flexible learning, housing, vocational education and training, workload, and career progression.

    “There are more than 80 recommendations traversing Commonwealth and State issues and multiple agencies,” he said.

    “The Government has been responding progressively to the report over time and many initiatives have been implemented that answer its recommendations.  The Government will continue to respond to its recommendations in the future.”

    "The Minister said it was important to note that Professor Twomey had made the observation that no one recommendation by itself would improve the status of teaching.

    “This report, along with other advice received by Government, must continue to underpin a wide-ranging and long-term program of education reform in WA,” he said.

    "Shadow Education Minister Peter Collier said it was essential for the government to implement all of the 80 recommendations the report contained.

    "He said unless the government recognised the report reflected the needs of the profession, the teacher shortage would deteriorate even further.

    “The ball is now in the Government’s court – this report cannot be consigned to the dustbin like so many others before it,” he said.

    "Mr Collier said teachers across the state would welcome the release of the report – albeit well overdue.

    “Today has the potential to be a watershed day for teachers in Western Australia – but only if the government embraces the recommendations of the Twomey Report.” [emphasis added]

    From The West Australian online at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • Twomey report on teachers received cautiously
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "A report released today recommending significant pay rises for teachers won't be adopted in full, WA's Education Minister has signalled.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan today released the long-awaited Twomey Report into long-term issues facing teachers.
    
    "The WA State School Teachers' Union, which is locked in a protracted pay dispute with the government, and the Opposition, have been calling for the release of the report, which Mr McGowan has had since the end of last year.
    
    "Mr McGowan said the Government had originally intended to release the ‘Education Workforce Initiatives Report’ by Professor Lance Twomey after a detailed consideration of the 83 recommendations and the development of a formal response.
    
    “(But) in light of the decision by the Industrial Relations Commission to rule against any further industrial action by the State School Teachers’ Union, and in response to the continuing speculation about the content of the report, I have decided to release it today,” he said.
    
    “The report does recommend a significant increase in pay for teachers but does not specify the size of any increases.
    
    “The fact that the Government’s pay offer to Western Australian teachers would make ours the best paid of all States, is ample demonstration of our commitment."
    
    "Mr McGowan said an analysis of the current Victorian teachers' pay deal and indications of where NSW teachers would "probably go in the future", had shown that "at every single salary point West Australian teachers would be better paid than teachers in other states".
    
    "He also said that the Government had already implemented a number of the recommendations of the report, which was commissioned by the Minister in February 2007 to look at issues facing the teaching workforce.
    
    "The Minister said the Government would continue responding to the report's recommendations.
    
    "And he today released a document which listed the previously rejected pay offer to teachers, increased pay for graduates, increased regional allowances and proposals for career progression, as initiatives that the Government had already undertaken.
    
    "But he said although the Government broadly endorsed the report and saw it as a "way forward", there were some recommendations he was "not as keen on as others".
    
    "For example, the Government had already expanded the number of teacher's aides in classes by 2300 in the time the Labor Government had been in office, but the report recommended consideration for having one in each classroom.
    
    "That's not something that I'm going to initiate," Mr McGowan said.
    
    "What I believe is that aides and aide time need to be dedicated especially to the areas of need.''
    
    "Of the union's recent threats of rolling half-day strikes, Mr McGowan said he urged the union to abide by the rulings of the Industrial relations Commission, as would the Government.
    
    "Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier welcomed the release of the report, but warned the Government to implement its recommendations or face more teacher shortages.
    
    "Mr Collier said the report acknowledged what everyone else had been telling the Government for the past five years.
    
    "This was that teachers needed a significant across the board salary increase and more career opportunities.
    
    "He said recognition also needed to be given to the fact there were enormous behaviour management problems in WA classrooms and there was a "disconnect" between the Education Department and teachers.
    
    "Mr Collier disputed Mr McGowan's claims that WA teachers would have been the best paid in Australia if they had accepted the Government's pay offer.
    
    "Quite frankly (that statement) is an insult to teachers," Mr Collier said.

    "He's basing those figures on the assumption that there'll be no salary increases in any other state until 2011. As well as that, there's been no provision in the budget this year for any improvements in terms of career opportunities for teachers." [emphasis added]
    
    "State School Teachers' Union president Anne Gisborne said teachers were pleased that minister had released the report "finally".

    "But she also disputed Mr McGowan's claims about teachers being the best paid in Australia had they accepted the previously rejected pay offer.
    
    "The Industrial Relations Commission has taken over arbitration of the teachers' pay and conditions negotiations because the Government and the union were not able to strike a deal after more than eight months of wrangling.
    
    "The union has maintained that the report would help the commission make decisions about teachers' pay and conditions.
    
    "We would like to acknowledge the work of members in putting pressure on the Minister and bringing to the attention of the communities, the need to actually have this report in the public domain, particularly in the context of arbitration," Ms Gisborne said.
    
    "We certainly will be looking much closer at the fine print in the Twomey taskforce report and we'll ensure that the relevant elements are built into the evidence that we will be presenting in the arbitration process to improve the salary and working conditions of teachers."
    
    "Among recommendations in the report are "attractive salaries and allowances" for teachers, merit scholarships, better practicum arrangements and career pathways for education assistants."

    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    
    

  Other education news
  

• The West Australian
  

  • Teacher ready to strike against order [Front Page]
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “A series of strikes planned by teachers remains on the agenda after their union warned it may ignore the latest ban handed down last night by the industrial umpire.

    “The WA Industrial Relations Commission ordered the State School Teachers Union to "immediately cease" half-day rolling strikes planned to disrupt classes in the next two weeks and to lift its ban on issuing student report cards.

    “The commission also ordered the union not to engage in any form of industrial action until a new enterprise bargaining agreement was arbitrated.

    “SSTU president Anne Gisborne said the union’s executive would meet to consider the commission's decision before the end of the week and the union was likely to lodge an appeal.

    “But she refused to rule out pushing ahead with strike action.” No, we haven't finished our discussion with executive," she said. "We will be communicating with our members as soon as possible on this matter."

    “The union was fined $1500 for going ahead with a half-day stop-­work meeting in February after the commission ordered it to call off ral­lies across WA. It could face deregis­tration or another fine if it ignores the commission's latest orders.

    “Last week, the union announced it would hold rolling strikes at selected schools until the Government improved its pay offer.  It also directed teachers to withhold students’ report cards until the Government released a six-month-old report it commissioned into teacher shortages.

    “The report, by former Curtin University vice-chancellor Lance Twomey, is believed to recommend significant pay rises.  Education Minister Mark McGowan received the report in December last year but is refusing to release it.

    “The Department of Education and Training complained the proposed strikes would disrupt students’ learning, create uncertainty and were ”unjust, unlawful and unwarranted”. Commissioner Jennifer Harrison agreed any strikes would have a detrimental effect on schools and students.

    “The interests of those persons directly involved in this dispute, particularly students, and the interest of parents will be compromised if the proposed rolling stoppages occur and semester one, 2008, reports do not issue,” She said.

    “But Commissioner Harrison rejected the departments request to order the union to lift its ban on paid overtime, which has been in place since the start of the year, saying the ban did not constitute industrial action.  Under the ban, teachers have refused to attend camps, sporting events and extra staff meetings.  The department argued this was disadvantaging students.

    “Teachers are furious that after eight months of wrangling the Government has failed to meet its demands for pay rises of more than 20 per cent over 3 years, smaller class sizes and more preparation time.  The Government offered pay rises of between 13 and 22 per cent.  Mr McGowan refused to comment.”

    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • My students threaten me
      
      “Thank you for publishing Katherine Summers' opinion piece (Education revolution, Kev? It's a rebellion, 14/6). It could have been any day at the high school I teach at.
      
      “Since starting teaching three years ago I have had objects thrown at me, I have had all manner of insults said to my face (with no remorse from the child in question), been physically threatened, had slanderous comments about my virtue written on the bus stop, had my possessions stolen and broken by students in my class, had my office broken into after school hours and my laptop stolen and had to put my home phone number on silent after a student got hold of it and made nuisance phone calls, Need I go on?

      “My sister, who is also a teacher, tells similar stories, including how her house was broken into and her valuables stolen by students.
      
      “Most days when I get home I continue doing my school work, such as marking and lesson planning, for no extra pay. Because of the rising cost of just about everything (including our mortgage payments), I work a second job selling Tupperware. I make more per hour selling plastic than teaching.
      
      “Of course, tell this to most members of the public and they don't believe you. They go on about how many "holidays" we get (half the time we spend the shorter holidays preparing for the next term or going to compulsory professional development courses) or that we only "work" 8.30am to 3pm (ignoring all the work we do unpaid outside those hours and most of us, especially female teachers, still have to do the second shift of housework).
      
      “Tell people about the rise of anti-intellectualism ("What do I need English for? What do I need social studies for? I'm just going to drive a truck up north and get paid more than you. Why do I need to learn a foreign language? Everyone should learn English!") and they say "it can't be that bad" and laugh.
      
      “We teachers ask to be paid what we're worth for the work we do and the training we have to get and we are labelled as greedy. We ask not to have to put up with the worsening conditions we work in and we are labelled as whiners and treated with contempt. How many other jobs have to put up with what we are asked to endure?

      “Please withhold my name and address. I wouldn't put it past some of my students to start persecuting me if my name is attached to this.”

      Name and address supplied
      
      

    • I Disagree

      “Sadly, Lisa Moller (Letters, 17/6), the account written by Katherine Summers is not extremist in the least. In fact, it only begins to illustrate the issues we face at our school on a daily basis.

      “As a teaching staff, we have been and continue to be subjected to constant aggression, assault and intimidation by students and parents - in fact, anyone who sees fit to wander on to the grounds - causing massive disruption to the teaching and learning programs. Our school community has been put in this position largely by administrators at school and systems levels who have substituted educational philosophy for common sense, and we are now
      all suffering the consequences. Add to this a community struggling with enormous social issues and our ability as a school to cope is tested.

      “Ms Moller, I know what my job is and I value education. I am an experienced leader, highly organised and highly skilled, yet every day I slip further behind. I have a "presence" yet I am almost completely overwhelmed and disempowered by the sheer enormity of the daily grind. There is very little opportunity to engage students in rigorous learning but there is a strong survival instinct from lesson to lesson, day to day. Two hundred and seven suspensions in one term, from just three year groups, must sound some warning bells!

      “Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of our situation is that those outside the fray do not have the remotest sense of what it is actually like to work here. This is understandable, because much of what goes on here is beyond belief in a school setting. However, those administrators who have seen it first hand and have failed to act decisively have no such excuse.

      “While there are many isolated successes occurring at our school, through the amazing efforts of some incredibly dedicated and highly talented teachers, the bigger picture is one of a school in crisis.

      “No doubt Ms Summers will face the music over her published article even though she has merely highlighted our situation.”

      Carry Fuller, South Lake
      
      

    • Back to basics

      “I have every respect for those teaching in schools. After 22 years as a parent volunteer in every aspect of school life, no amount of money would attract me to face some of the students (or their parents) for more than a short time.  

      “I firmly believe that teaching staff need more than just passing lip service to their problems. I know of young, highly qualified people left until the week before school starts to be offered a position and one sent to unsafe accommodation in a remote country area. Money is not the only issue, the system needs an overhaul.

      “Students facing their final months of education do not need this additional stress. Little people do not need their fragile early lives disrupted. However, schools are not only about teaching.

      “With the decreasing number of volunteers, many P&Cs are struggling financially to provide stocks of uniforms, given the minimum order and lengthy production requirements of manufacturers. Canteen staff are working miracles to provide the required food in ageing premises, which we cannot afford to upgrade further to actually cook meals.

      “Rolling strikes will be a nightmare for all P&Cs. In addition, many parents working on a casual basis are faced with losing a day's pay to care for their children at home, making less money available to cover the cost of uniforms, school fees and so on.            .

      “Rolling strikes are not the answer. Get back to the basics. Both sides must leave the "my way or no way" syndrome at home.”

      Eve Webb, Mariginiup
      
      
      

  • Teacher who left pupils amid quake gets the sack (page 45)
    Beijing
    
    A Chinese high school teacher has been sacked and denounced by local media and internet users for leaving a classroom during the devastating earthquake last month.
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
• Low marks for computers in schools
  by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
  
  "The digital education revolution remains a long way off, with a report suggesting the use of computers in schools is limited, largely ineffective and teachers are sceptical about their application.

  "The report, commissioned by the federal Government, highlights an "avoidance culture" among many teachers who are unwilling to use computers and says there is little evidence of profound improvements in student learning or teaching.

  "The report, Partnerships in ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Learning, says Australia remains in the early phase of integrating computers into the classroom and the curriculum, and is yet to determine how they can be used effectively.

  "It says computers and other information technology do not guarantee improvements in student performance and teachers are sceptical about their use. "There were examples of teachers unwilling to be involved in projects because they saw ICT use as more work, peripheral to the main game in schools, avoidable, not guaranteeing improved learning outcomes and outside their experience and expertise," it says.

  "One of the authors, John Pegg from the University of New England, said the federal Government's program to deliver computers into high schools was the easy, albeit expensive, stage.

  Professor Pegg said considerable differences existed in "e-maturity" between schools, teachers, academics and city and rural areas. "It isn't a level playing field; the adoption of computers and information technology across the nation is patchy," he said.

  "Professor Pegg said many schools were still teaching computer skills rather than using computers as a teaching tool.

  "Googling isn't learning," he said. "Computers are highly motivational for the kids; they're great for capturing kids' attention but in terms of learning it's not really clear. If teachers don't change their teaching to support that ... you can expect no difference."

  "Professor Pegg said it was just as important for teachers to know when not to use computers. A study by the European Commission released last year found computers improved student achievement in English and slightly in science, but not in maths. The effects were most evident in primary schools.

  "The Australian report trialled a model for developing better use of computers based on a partnership between schools and universities.

  "The study highlighted the lack of assessment about the use of computers.

  "Processes and learning gains should be tested in some form. It is not sufficient to report that there are benefits to embedding ICT into the curriculum based on hunches or feelings that it was effective," the report says..."

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
• Editorial
  Groundbreaking TV
  

  The Tiwi Island children are not easily forgotten
  
  "Critical as The Australian remains of much ABC reporting and commentary that is limited by an urban-left, sociology-driven world view, we are always happy to praise outstanding quality from our electronic rivals. Monday night's Four Corners, in which Sarah Ferguson reported on education in the Tiwi Islands, 90km from Darwin, was a prime example.

  "Educating Kimberly gave a close-up insight into the importance, challenges and rewards of boosting education for remote indigenous children. The engaging warmth and potential of young Australians such as Kimberly Cunningham, Ryan Walapinni and Bertram Tipungwuti could not be forgotten easily. Nor could the difficulties school principals encounter making children attend classes, keeping them focused and boosting literacy skills despite community brawls, gambling on pension day and general lethargy.

  "Ferguson did not pull any punches, but treated her wide variety of interviewees with respect. Her old-fashioned, thorough reporting was on a par with the work of her spouse, Tony Jones, who won a Walkley award last year, partly for his interview with then-Northern Territory chief minister Clare Martin, after a year of Lateline reporting on indigenous issues. Three days after the interview, former prime minister John Howard announced his emergency Territory intervention.

  "As Ferguson reported, after four decades of good intentions and bad outcomes, the Tiwi elders decided they had to act to save their children. They asked the former federal government to build a boarding school in the islands, but away from Nguiu, the main community. The $25 million school, still being completed, gives the children, in the words of Bernard Tipiloura of the local education board, "good sleep ... three meals a day; they would have better teachers, qualified teachers to learn, and no bilingual - we said English only". Ensuring the children attend remains the major challenge. At least, as Ferguson said, "there's broad agreement that this latest effort cannot fail".
  
  From The Australian at link
  
  
  

• NSW high school drug education leaflet to be pulped
  by Lauren Wilson
  
  "The "harm minimisation" message may be dropped from the NSW Government's drug education policy after a pamphlet provoked uproar in Sydney.

  "Health Minister Reba Meagher said yesterday that all drug education material distributed through NSW schools would be reviewed and a pamphlet offering children guidance on experimenting with drugs in the least harmful way would be pulped.

  "The government-funded brochure was distributed to Year 9 and 10 students in western Sydney. For those intent on ignoring warnings not to use drugs, the brochure says teenagers should become acquainted with their family medical history, wait until the age of 18 and "use only small amounts and not too often".

  "Ms Meagher said much of theinformation was "focused on encouraging young people not to use drugs ... but thereference to what young people should choose to do ifthey ignore anti-drug advice or information is simply not acceptable".

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
• Letters to the Editor
  
  
  • States have been delinquent in public education
    Most Talked About: School Funding
    
    I was pleasantly surprised and encouraged to read your excellent editorial ("Teachers union needs to stop whingeing’’, 17/6). 
    
    "It has been a constant irritant to me that for many years the Australian Education Union has been deliberately misrepresenting the situation with regard to funding for private schools.

    "In its advertisements during federal election campaigns, the AEU has always ignored the primary responsibility of state governments for the funding of the public school sector, therefore distorting the real picture.

    "My old school in Melbourne has consistently argued that if recurrent government funding were paid directly to fee-paying parents rather than the school, the basis for such consistent attacks on particular private schools would be largely removed.

    "It’s probably asking too much to expect the AEU to change its spots, but your editorial should give the public pause to think about the delinquency of the state governments around Australia in not funding the state schools properly."
    
    R.T. Hawksley. Benowa, Qld
    
    

  • "The private schooling system is increasing both in population and, accordingly, government funding. However, there are aspects of private education that are not often addressed by politicians or by media commentators.

    "State schools cater for the vast majority of students from low socio-economic backgrounds, indigenous students and those with intellectual and physical disablities. Essentially, the vast majority of state schools take all students, regardless of their religious beliefs, race, intellectual ability or financial circumstances.

    "In contrast, private schools are selective, discriminating by religious background, gender and capacity to pay. I think the case of the Muslim school in Camden in Sydney’s southwest is an interesting one, not only because of the directly associated issue of racial tolerance, but also because it highlights the existing inequitable, exclusive and discriminatory practices seen around the country on the part of private schools and sparks challenging questions about whether the existing education system promotes egalitarianism, diversity and tolerance."
    
    Luke Vanni, Wavell Heights, Qld
    
    

  • "Your editorial will not stop this public school teacher whingeing loudly, whenever and wherever he can, about the billions of dollars spent every year by both state and federal governments on subsidies to private schools. I, for one, object to you preaching to me about the virtue of this grotesque extravagance of middle-class welfare dressed up as choice. The logic used entitles me to a taxpayer subsidy for my private car on the basis that I don’t impose a burden on public transport by choosing not to use it. Bias and shrillness in this debate are not the exclusive domain of one side or the other and your one-sided effort does nothing to address that."
    
    Steve Brooker, Balhannah, SA
    
    
    
  • "Before getting too excited about the differences in infrastructure spending between public and private schools, you need to take into account a few factors.

    "First, the proportion of students attending private schools is increasing and that will drive capital investment at a greater rate because new facilities need to be constructed, which is more expensive than maintenance of existing infrastructure. That does not seem to have been discussed in the Australian Education Union report.

    "Second, private schools have much more extensive sporting and other extra-curricular programs, and it’s one of the reasons our family prefers private education.

    "Third, the fact that more is being spent on the private school sector may be affected by “prestige’’ issues, such as the quality of architecture, that are irrelevant to the quality of education. It is clearly not the case that public school funding needs to be at parity with private schools. Once again, the Australian Education Union is trying to dress up its old jealousy game."
    
    Peter Nugent, Bardon, Qld
    
    

  • "I can't believe we are again airing the arguments for and against private and public schools. The main focus always ends up with the great financial sacrifices that many of the parents of private school pupils supposedly make to pay for private education. This is the least important point of the whole argument.

    "There is one main reason why there shouldn’t be any private schools: it’s stupid. A country such as Australia, which is made up of people from all over the world, is only making a rod for its own back by allowing schools of privilege and schools of particular religions. By persisting with these schools, we are further entrenching resentment, ignorance and, eventually, hostility.

    "The education system ends up in a giant double-standard. For instance, most Labor politicians send their children to private schools. They are such wonderful examples of egalitarianism, I don’t think.

    "Throw all Australian children into the same schools - the smart with the stupid, the religious with the secular, the fat with thefit, the good with the bad and the rich with the poor."
    
    Des Hoad, Palmyra, WA
    
    

  • Some schools still teach grammar in systematic way
    
    "It appears to me that academics whose habitat is the study rather than the classroom lose touch with the reality of the subject itself.  Andrew Butcher and Ian Green (Letters, 16/6) state that knowledge of grammatical terminology has no connection with the standard of students’ written communication. This is like saying a chef has no need to know the properties and applications of yeast, sugar and salt in the production of bread.

    "Butcher and Green see no need for their first-year university students to understand the meaning and purpose of adjectives or adverbs. He believes that some innate ability will enable them to connect these building blocks of language to creative expression.

    "My school uses a traditional, systematic approach to the study of grammar with outstanding results. Our former students have no problem in producing the required standard of written work for their university assignments and in fact act as tutors to other students who have no idea how to string sentences together. Academics would do well to observe schools that are successfully producing literate students, rather than making pronouncements based on random navel gazing which have no basis in research."
    
    Alan Greenwood, Principal, Community Christian Academy, Newstead, Tas
    
    

  • "Apropos the current debate on grammar, I have been asked to pass on a teaching aid entitled “The Grammar Rap’’, a work channelled to me by the ghosts of Ruskin,T.S. Eliot and Swinburne. For maximum effect, it’s best performed in school assembly by the principal, the head of English and the school janitor (academic dress optional):

    “Heah’s a little song and it’s all about grammar,/ And if yo’ don’t like it, gonna hit yo’ wit a hammer,/ ‘Cos a hammer is a noun and a noun is a thing,/ A verb is what you do, just like when you sing./ An adverb’s how you do it, a noun is what it is,/ To describe a noun, use an adjective. “Now listen up and settle, Ah know you think Ah’m rude/ But when it comes to grammar, Ah got attitude/ There’s words like “if’’ and “and’’ and “but’’, you need to know their function/ They join up parts of sentences, they got the name conjunction,/ And words that take the place of nouns, like ``he’’ and “she’’ and “it’’,/ And “you’’ and “me’’ and “we’’ and “they’’, they’re pronouns, that’s no sweat.

    “And brother take some notice of ma closing deposition/ Those words that tell you where you at, they’re called the prepositions/They words like “by’’ and “from’’ and “up’’ and “down’’ and “in’’ and “out’’,/ Like real estate, position, bro, is what it’s all about.

    “So teach yo’self some grammar, like yo’ momma would expect/ ‘Cos when it comes to grammar, gotta do it wit respect.’’

    "Swinburne’s version was considerably more vulgar but the above will usually encourage the required outcomes."
    
    Linda Aronson, Balmain, NSW
    
    
    

• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Teachers threaten rolling stoppages
    by Lucy Hood, education reporter
    
    "Frustrated public teachers will go ahead with "last resort" rolling stoppages as early as next month if the ongoing pay dispute is not resolved.They will follow the lead of their Victorian counterparts, who were recently awarded average pay rises of 15 per cent following more than 30 rallies, strikes and stoppages over a 10-month period.

    "It could result in a repeat of yesterday's full-day teacher strike, the first in 12 years.

    "More than 11,000 teachers, preschool staff and TAFE lecturers walked off the job, forcing more than 400 schools to close and some TAFE lectures to be cancelled.

    "About 8000 teachers, parents and children – many dressed in red – marched and chanted from Rymill Park, carrying banners and balloons.

    "They rallied on the steps of Parliament House for about an hour, calling for a 21 per cent pay rise over three years and improved working conditions.

    "The Government has offered less than half – or 9.75 per cent.

    "Australian Education Union SA branch president Correna Haythorpe said yesterday unless the union dealt with the "decision makers", teachers would continue with further industrial action.

    "We will follow the lead of Victorians with rolling stoppages as a last resort," said. "We believe there is room to move and if the Victorians manage to resolve it, so can we."

    "But Industrial Relations Minister Michael Wright said he would only agree to face-to-face meetings if the union was willing to "budge" on their offer.

    "He said there would be negotiations this week where it was hoped to "narrow differences".

    "Mr Wright refused to comment on a report in The Advertiser yesterday in which senior Labor sources revealed the Government did not have enough funds set aside to meet the teachers' union demands.

    "Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith said that the offer given to teachers was "fair".

    "They have received two offers from the Government and at no point during the negotiations have they budged one jot," she said.

    "Among the thousands on strike yesterday was graduate physical education teacher Russell Curyer from Urrbrae High School.

    "Mr Curyer, who started full-time teaching this year, said that without an improved salary, he may have to consider another profession.

    "Twins Emanuela and Alessia Griolo were among students making the most of yesterday's day off. The pair, in their second week at Glenelg East Primary School after moving to Adelaide from Victoria, visited The Beachouse fun park at Glenelg for the first time yesterday."

    From The Adelaide Advertiser at link
    
    Video of the Teachers' Rally
    
    
    
    
• SSTUWA News
  
  
  • Summary of WAIRC Order
    
    
    
  • State Council resolutions regarding three month degrees [17 June]
    
    Minister McGowan’s proposal to fastrack professionals into teaching via a “ Western Australian 7 June 2008 was raised at the June 2008 State Council. As it was heard on the State Council floor, “three months today …and twenty four hours next week.” The following resolutions were endorsed by State Council:
    
    
    • SC 40.6  That WACOT be urged to ensure that the integrity of the profession is retained in the face of problems which will be faced as a consequence of ongoing teacher supply problems.
      
      
    • SC 40.7 That the Minister for Education and Training be condemned for his latest initiative to tackle teacher supply, that being a three month fast track course for experienced professionls and that the SSTUWA raise its concerns with WACOT and urge members to register their opposition to such proposals with the WACOT Board.
      
      
    • SC 40.8 That the members of the SSTUWA refuse to support the training of any teacher engaged in any post graduate training courses of less than one year full time duration or a teaching graduate course of less than four years full time duration. This action will include but not be limited to accepting these pre-entry teachers on practicum or training courses or programs.

    Members are advised:

    • the Union has written to WACOT on this matter 
    • the Union is urging members, as per SC 40.7, to write on this matter directly to WACOT
    • the Union has written to the Minister on this matter
    • the Union has made comment on this matter in various media
    • the Union will be advising Universities of SC 40.8
      
      
      
      
• The Age
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • "Isn't Eltham College ("School's in for working families", The Age, 17/6) saying "no matter how family-unfriendly your work habits are, we will provide a school to mind your children and fit into your career aspirations"? As a career teacher in government schools, I am disgusted - especially when I consider that taxpayers' money will, of course, contribute to this exercise in educational greed and consumerism."

      Mick Webster, Beechworth

Thursday 19 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • State uses cold water to take heat off report (page 4)
    by Keryn McKinnon, FOI editor
    

    “Once again, the State Government has shown its penchant for spin and its disdain for accountability and Freedom of Information laws.

    “For seven months, Education Minister Mark McGowan has refused to release the Twomey report, which cost taxpayers nearly $480,000 and investigated how to overcome the critical shortage of teachers in WA.

    “There are few reports which could be more important to fast track through the red tape. We are talking about the education of our children.
    
    “But the Government has fought against its release. When faced with an FOI request for the document in February, it used its standard excuse of Cabinet confidentiality to prevent disclosure.

    “Today, it’s clear why the spin doctors urged secrecy. The report paints a bleak picture of how the Government has handled the teaching crisis.

    “It found there had been a lack of long-term planning, teacher and TAFE lecturer salary levels were below the national average and the pay structure a required a major overhaul. It warned that the situation would worsen unless drastic action was taken.

    “So what has changed that has finally prompted the release of the report? Mr McGowan said yesterday is was an act of good faith after the WA Industrial Relations Commission this week banned strike action by teachers in their very bitter pay dispute.

    “But this has happened before. A February WAIRC order against striking failed to produce any “act of good faith” from the Government. The difference now is a gas crisis dominating the news and a Government spin machine in full flight, operating on the presumption that the prospect of cold showers and no heating will keep the Twomey report off the front page.”
    
    From The West Australian

    
    
• Teachers need big pay rises, says report [Front Page]
  by Amanda Banks

  “Substantial pay rises, better housing and an improved image for the profession are among a long list of changes the State Government needed to implement to tackle the chronic teacher shortage, according to a report that Education Minister Mark McGowan has kept secret for six months.

  “The taxpayer-funded report by academic Lance Twomey criticised the Government for failing to devise a strategy to avoid the teacher shortage, which he said had been evident for many years.

  “The Government, which is locked in a bitter pay dispute with teachers, has fought hard for many months to prevent the report being released. In a bid to keep it secret Mr McGowan rejected a request for a copy by the West Australian under Freedom of Information laws.

  “It is surprising that workforce planning has not been given greater priority within the education sector, considering that the declining trends in teacher supply have been evident for some years,” the report said.

  “Data supplied by the Department of Education and Training’s workforce planning unit indicates that in the five years between 2002 and 2007, classroom teacher vacancies at the start of the school year increased from 55 to 206.

  “This trend is increasing and indicates that without substantial intervention, it will become increasingly difficult to fill vacancies in regional WA, in secondary education generally and in specific subject area.”

  “Mr McGowan said the report had been released as an “act of good faith” after a WA Industrial Relations Commission decision on Tuesday night that banned teachers from taking further strike action.

  “We have been implementing dozens of the initiatives already,” Mr McGowan said. “However, I do recognise more work needs to be done.”

  “Professor Twomey welcomed the release of the report, saying it was likely to take up to three years to implement the recommendations and would require hundreds of millions of dollars.

  “He said the Government’s pay offer to teachers, giving pay rises of between 13 and 22 per cent, was a “reasonable” start towards the significant across-the-board salary increases that would be needed to attract people to the profession.

  “Professor Twomey warned that the report provided a package for reform, saying the recommendations were inter-dependent and none would work in isolation.

  “The report shows that WA teachers and TAFE lecturers are paid below the national average at nearly all salary levels, despite being the only State to have a steady decline in the general pool of teachers in a booming economy.

  “The report, which calls for an overhaul of the pay structure to recognise areas where it is hardest to recruit staff, says the Government has taken action to address the present teacher shortages, but that it is not enough.

  “Significant spending to improve country housing, lifting the perceived status of teaching, introducing a TER subject on the “study of education”, better practical teaching arrangements, a strong marketing campaign, increasing the number of para-professionals in classrooms and a merit-based scholarship system to attract high-achieving students into the profession are among the report’s other recommendations.”

  From The West Australian
  
  

• Teachers’ union says report backs their claims [online only: added at 1:45 pm]
  by Aleisha Preedy
  
  "Teacher wage increases recommended in the long-awaited Twomey report should be a priority for the State Government, the State School Teachers Union said today.

  "The Education Workforce Initiatives Report by Professor Lance Twomey was released yesterday by Education Minister Mark McGowan.

  "SSTU president Anne Gisborne welcomed the report and said it reiterated what WA teachers had been calling for: wage increases and better conditions.

  “It certainly isn't saying anything more than what we have been saying, but it gives an independent perspective that has identified the key elements in our log of claims,” she said.

  “These claims include a need for significant salary increase, the need to deal with improved allowances, incentives for people working in remote and rural communities, the need to address housing provisions, career path developments, student management and better infrastructure.”

  "Ms Gisborne said she hoped any wage recommendations were implemented as a priority and that the union would release an in-depth response to the report next week.

  "The report, commissioned by the State Government in February 2007, was designed to look at issues facing the teaching workforce across Government and non-Government sectors over the long term.

  "Although pay rises were recommended to combat the State's teaching shortage, the report did not specify how much teachers should receive.

  "The government has been under pressure to release the report as it continues a protracted dispute with the State School Teacher's Union over pay rises and improved conditions in the State's schools.

  "Earlier this year the union rejected the government's offer of 13-22 per cent pay rises and demanded pay rises of more than 20 per cent over three years as well as smaller class sizes and more time allocated for administration and preparation.

  "Speaking at the unveiling of the report yesterday, Mr McGowan said the Government had originally intended to release the report following detailed consideration of the 83 recommendations and the development of a formal response.

  “In light of the decision by the Industrial Relations Commission to rule against any further industrial action by the State School Teachers' Union, and in response to the continuing speculation about the content of the report, I have decided to release it today,” he said.

  "However, the Minister said the report was not intended to frame the current Government school teachers' enterprise agreement, and anyone reading the terms of reference would see that.

  “The report does recommend a significant increase in pay for teachers but does not specify the size of any increases,” he said.

  “The fact that the Government's pay offer to Western Australian teachers would make ours the best paid of all States is ample demonstration of our commitment.

  “I am also firmly of the view, backed up by the Twomey report, that teachers working in the toughest schools and in the most remote locations should be rewarded, which is why we offered significant increases in allowances, which could have totalled more than $22,000.”

  "Mr McGowan said the report covered 15 major themes, including remuneration, leadership and mentoring, flexible learning, housing, vocational education and training, workload, and career progression.

  “There are more than 80 recommendations traversing Commonwealth and State issues and multiple agencies,” he said.

  “The Government has been responding progressively to the report over time and many initiatives have been implemented that answer its recommendations. The Government will continue to respond to its recommendations in the future.”

  "The Minister said it was important to note that Professor Twomey had made the observation that no one recommendation by itself would improve the status of teaching.

  “This report, along with other advice received by Government, must continue to underpin a wide-ranging and long-term program of education reform in WA,” he said.

  "Shadow Education Minister Peter Collier yesterday said it was essential for the government to implement all of the 80 recommendations the report contained.

  "He said unless the government recognised the report reflected the needs of the profession, the teacher shortage would deteriorate even further.

  “The ball is now in the Government's court – this report cannot be consigned to the dustbin like so many others before it,” he said.

  "Mr Collier said teachers across the state would welcome the release of the report– albeit well overdue.“Today has the potential to be a watershed day for teachers in Western Australia – but only if the government embraces the recommendations of the Twomey Report.” [emphasis added]
  
  From The West Australian at link
  
  

• Strict records ‘key’ to school asbestos peril (page 49)
  by Yasmine Phillips
  
  “WA schools are littered with more than 21,000 asbestos-containing materials, according to a parliamentary report released yesterday, which has prompted fears for health and safety if a comprehensive database is not strictly observed.

  “The Upper House committee inquiry into the level of exposure to the deadly substance found that 769 schools had asbestos products in their fences, walls, sunshades and vinyl flooring.

  “There is an extensive presence of ACM (asbestos-containing materials) in State schools,” the report said. “The Asbestos Survey identified over 21,000 ACM components in 769 State schools.”

  “The report found that stipulated procedures had failed Karrinyup’s Deanmore Primary School when an electrician unknowingly worked on asbestos during school hours.

  “In its submission to the inquiry, the State School Teachers Union called for all ACMs to be removed from WA schools and colleges.

  “But WA Council of State School Organisations president Robert Fry said that task would be well beyond the economic means of any government. He urged people to be extra cautious when working with older buildings.

  “I think the biggest concern is if the Government needs to replace them – they’ll be looking at almost every school in the State,” he said.

  “The committee recommended that information relating to the location and removal of ACMs be strictly recorded on a register and the Department of Education and Training maintain a record of all air monitoring.

  “Liberal MP Barry House, who chaired the committee, said the department had already begun to enforce those recommendations but highlighted the need for more transparency in its management processes.

  “Asbestos in schools is a very sensitive issue and we all have a responsibility to make sure it’s managed safely,” he said.

  “The committee took up this issue as a result of matters related to Carine Senior High School – we have explored how DET surveyed and managed ACMs in schools across the State. As a result of our inquiries, there has been considerable progress.”

  “DET acting executive director of infrastructure Mal Parr said 60 cases of overhanging branches rubbing against asbestos materials had been dealt with after an asbestos registry identified more than 21,000 ACMs last year.

  “The remaining incidents were “low risk”.

  “With appropriate management, no concerns are anticipated with these building components,” he said.

  “The department is looking at the implications of the committee’s recommendations.”

  From The West Australian

   

• Letters to the Editor (page 22)
  

  • It’s time

    “Now that the gas crisis has hit and the WA public has been left in the dark about all the relevant facts, perhaps Alan Carpenter can face his moment of truth.

    “The Twomey report, addressing issues to do with the teacher shortage, has been a well-kept secret. The findings have jet to be revealed, even though it is strongly suspected the report would shed some light on teachers’ pay claims and call for improved conditions.

    “Now, in the face of threatened cuts and power shortages, the WA public is again being told that the full story of the gas explosion has not been revealed. Why this veil of secrecy? Mr Carpenter has taken over the reins of this portfolio from Fran Logan, apparently in an effort to look like the knight in shining armour who saves the day and consequently leads Labor to a clear victory in the forthcoming election.

    “I, for one, do not want a leader who has absolute power. We all know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Labor governments have always represented the grassroots. I don’t want to be kept in the dark about strategies that can save the public sector and I certainly don’t think it is fair that in this time of wealth and prosperity generated from the mining industry I should have to freeze during winter.”

    Christine Kelly, Spearwood
    
    

  • Try a stint at my school

    “I have to shudder at Lisa Moller’s response (Letters, 17/6) to Katherine Summers’ examination of her experiences (Opinion, 14/6). Good on Ms Summers for staying at a difficult school doing the hard yards trying to make a difference and not running from the situation. We need more dedicated staff like her.

    “Most schools in WA have at some time experienced similar situations to the ones described.

    “In my 23 years of experience in education and in discussion with colleagues we found Ms Summers’ articles to be more than accurate.

    “Lisa Moller has made the suggestion that “if you’re a half-decent teacher you could find a new school in the current climate of teacher shortages”.  Dear Lisa, in the metropolitan area teachers can accumulate only a limited number of transfer points. We’ve had staff trying to transfer for 20 years.

    “Perhaps if you have been in your school for more than five years you may offer your place as a swap to one of the more challenging areas.

    “In our school over the past few years we have experienced the following , and I have not included all major incidents.

    “We were one of the first schools in WA to experience a police lock-down and search of the grounds by armed TRG with dogs that lasted from 9am to 12.30pm while we were stuck in the classrooms, staff and students, with no access to toilets. That was fun.

    “We had two armed parents fighting over a carpark space at the end of the day with students trying to go home safely; a recently released prisoner who was armed, holding three staff hostage in the principal’s office over a custody battle; a parent, unhappy with their child being stopped from fighting with another student, who went to a staff member’s home at the weekend throwing stones, gum nuts and making threats; break-ins at the school, to secure areas, stealing and damaging student and staff belongings.

    “These are just a few of the incidents. In case you are wondering, this is a primary school in Perth. Let us know when you would like a transfer to our school and I will put a good word for you.

    “You need to recognise that because there is such diversity in our culture, so too are the types of experiences staff face in education. Don’t pull other staff down because you have not experienced what they have. I look forward to your future support as we strive to improve conditions for staff in schools.”

    Russel Riley, Thornlie
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Teacher ban lifted
    
    "The State School Teachers Union has lifted its ban on teachers issuing report cards to parents after the State Government released a report on the teacher shortage.

    "On Tuesday, the Industrial Relations Commission ordered union members not to participate in rolling stoppages and to lift the ban on reports.

    "The Union Secretary David Kelly says members have now been instructed to lift the ban, after the Government yesterday bowed to pressure and released the Twomey report, which calls for significant pay rises for teachers.

    "We're now of the view that the Minister has finally realised that the information out in the public domain is the best place for it to be," he said.

    "We are happy that he's done this and he should be congratulated for finally getting to the point where indeed that report now is released."

    "Mr Kelly says the union executive will consider whether to continue with plans for rolling stoppages at a meeting tomorrow."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Premier defends keeping Twomey report under wraps
    
    "The Premier, Alan Carpenter, has defended his Government's decision to delay the release of a report on the state's teacher shortage.

    "A taskforce headed by the former Vice Chancellor of Curtin University Lance Twomey compiled the report, which made more than 80 recommendations about how the Government could best improve the situation.
    
    "The Education Minister, Mark McGowan, tabled the report in Parliament yesterday, six months after receiving it.
    
    "Mr Carpenter says the document will affect several areas of Government so his party needed time to respond to its contents.
    
    "What we were trying to do, if you look at the Twomey report it goes well beyond matters directly related to the Department and teachers it goes to behavioural patterns in society, it goes to housing issues and so on, it was more of a whole of government document," he said.
    
    "It goes well beyond matters directly related to the Education Department and teachers.

    "It was more of a whole of Government document and we wanted to fashion up a response that would address the issues broadly." [emphasis added]

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • School reports back as teachers relent
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "Teachers will lift their ban on giving students their school reports - but have not decided whether they will continue with planned strikes.

    "WA State School Teachers' Union president Anne Gisborne said the union executive had advised union members today to to lift the ban on reports - now that Education Minister Mark McGowan had finally released the controversial Twomey Report.

    "That would comply with an order from the Industrial relations Commission this week.
    
    "But she said that the issue of planned rolling half-day strikes before the school term ends on July 4, was still being discussed and there would be a union executive meeting tomorrow.
    
    "We believe that if this (Twomey) report were in the public domain months ago, it would have given the Minister and the Carpenter Government the opportunity to respond to teachers with an improved (pay and conditions) offer, rather than having the issue drag for months in arbitration," Ms Gisborne said today.
    
    "The Industrial Relations Commission has taken over arbitration of the teachers' pay and conditions negotiations because the Government and the union were unable to strike a deal after more than eight months of wrangling.
    
    "The union has always maintained that the Twomey report into long-term issues facing teachers - which was released yesterday - would help the commission make decisions about teachers' pay and conditions.
    
    "The Education Workforce Initiatives Report, by former Curtin University vice-chancellor Lance Twomey, recommends more attractive salaries and allowances for teachers, merit scholarships, better practicum arrangements and career pathways for education assistants.
    
    "We ask the question why the delay, when this report should have been available months ago," Ms Gisborne said.
    
    "Mr McGowan yesterday justified the delay in releasing the report, which he had had since the end of last year.
    
    "He said the Government had originally intended to release it after a detailed consideration of the 83 recommendations and the development of a formal response.
    
    "(But) in light of the decision by the Industrial Relations Commission to rule against any further industrial action by the State School Teachers Union, and in response to the continuing speculation about the content of the report, I have decided to release it today," Mr McGowan said yesterday.
    
    "The union is pushing for a 20 per cent-plus pay rise over three years.
    
    "It wants smaller classes, more preparation time for primary teachers and "appropriate'' administration time for principals and their deputies.
    
    "The Government's last offer, which was rejected by teachers and which the Government then withdrew, was nearly 14 per cent, rising with allowances and other factors."
    
    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Behaviour of kids sending teachers packing
    by Paige Taylor
    

    "The increasingly bad behaviour of children - and the expectation on teachers to act like parents by instilling manners, morals and values - is driving many teachers out of the profession in Western Australia, a wide-ranging report on schools to the Carpenter Government has found.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan was under renewed pressure yesterday to resolve his marathon pay dispute with the state's 21,000 government school teachers following the release of an independent report outlining their stressful working conditions.

    "Lance Twomey's Education Workforce Initiatives report recommended significant pay rises for all teachers and a "zero tolerance" approach to bad student behaviour.

    "Professor Twomey and his taskforce called for more teacher assistants to help teachers cope with disruptive children and better personal safety for staff.

    "This is an increasingly complex, challenging and difficult area that anecdotally has resulted in many public school teachers leaving the profession or moving to the non-government sector," the report found.

    "The taskforce heard that teachers were expected to take on the responsibilities of a parent by "teaching manners, instilling morals and values".

    "Mr McGowan said he broadly supported Professor Twomey's report, but it did not change his latest pay offer to teachers, which they have rejected. Mr McGowan's fight with the State School Teachers Union has been referred to the state Industrial Relations Commission.

    "The offer would make West Australian teachers the highest-paid in Australia, but SSTU president Ann Gisbourne said conditions were the sticking point. These included workload, teacher housing and appalling student behaviour. [So Gisborne CONCEDES the rejected offer would have made WA's teachers the highest paid in AUstralia??? Web]

    "There is no doubt there has been a deterioration in behaviour ... some of it is to do with lack of parenting skills and the home situation," she said.

    "Ms Gisbourne said that in some schools teachers paired up for playground duty for their own safety."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Students deprived of grammar skills
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    

    "The grammatical term "verb" is mentioned 110 times in the primary school English syllabus in NSW, but only twice in the high school course, on the assumption that students know what a verb is and how to use one correctly.

    "But about 60 per cent of Year 7 students fail to correctly identify a verb in the state's literacy test.

    "A survey of school English syllabuses across the nation shows that grammar and its specific terms are mentioned in varying detail with high school curriculums tending to omit them.

    "Absent from the NSW high school English syllabus is any mention of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, clauses, colons or apostrophes. In addition to the two appearances by verbs, pronouns, commas and tense are mentioned once each.

    "University of Western Sydney lecturer in literacy pedagogy Megan Watkins said the teaching of grammar was basically phased out in NSW in 1974 in the belief that it was "more a hindrance than a help".

    "It was thought because spoken language didn't necessarily need to be taught, you could acquire an understanding of written grammar through experiencing and being involved in the writing process," she said.

    "But there are major differences between speaking and writing, one being that you don't have an explicit understanding of the grammar you are using when speaking, which was not really understood at the time."

    "While grammar returned to the primary syllabus in 1994, Dr Watkins said there was now a generation of people who were unfamiliar with grammar, and how to teach it.

    "She said students needed not only to be taught the parts of speech, but also how to construct sentences and use grammar in different styles of writing.

    "If you're just teaching nouns and verbs and identifying past participles, while it's useful, it doesn't really tell students how to write," she said. "It's like reading the sounds of letters but not putting them together to make words. We need to teach kids how to write. It's not just a process of doing more, it needs to be explicitly taught."

    "But state English curriculums fail to even explicitly include many grammatical terms in describing what students should know and be able to do.

    The National Statements of Learning, agreed to by all states and territories, fails to mention nouns or apostrophes for Year 3 students. While conjunctions are included in the Year 3 statement, they are not mentioned in Years 5, 7 or 9.

    "The Victorian Essential Learning Standards, covering students up to Year 10, mentions nouns only four times, adjectives twice, verbs four times and pronouns five times. Similarly, the West Australian English syllabus for Years8 to 10 makes no mention of nouns, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives or prepositions.

    "The essential learnings component of the Queensland curriculum framework is more consistent, although it fails to include tense, prepositions, conjunctions or clauses.

    "The literacy tests conducted by NSW, which test students' knowledge of grammatical terms, show that 58 per cent could not identify a pronoun, 66 per cent failed to identify an adjective, and 63 per cent incorrectly named a conjunction."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Claims of John Della Bosca Iguanas cover-up
    
    
    • MP misled NSW Premier 'twice' [The Age]
      
      
    • Editorial: MPs acting like bullies are simply intolerable [The Age]
      
      [the Neal-Della Bosca camp had last week released four statutory declarations supporting its version of events, but withheld three others that presumably didn't support their story]
      
      
      
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Making people employable starts with an education
      Most Talked About: Indigenous Jobs
      [six Letters at that link]
      
      
    • First Byte
      
      I read the NSW Government has issued a guide to school students as to the sensible use of drugs, presumably including alcohol ("High school drug leaflet to be pulped’’, 18/6). Will there be a parallel instruction to politicians?"
      
      Sydney Mitchell, Erina, NSW
      
      
      
      
• WA Today
  
  
  • Teachers strike looms as pay fight draws on
    by Andrea Hayward
    
    "West Australian teachers are questioning their commitment to their profession after a bitter fight with the State Government to become the best paid teachers in the nation.
    
    "The Twomey report, released by WA Education Minister Mark McGowan yesterday, recommended an immediate and significant pay rise for teachers.
    
    "The State School Teachers Union has pushed for WA's teachers to be paid more than their national counterparts since their last Enterprise Bargaining Agreement expired.
    
    "In February, teachers defied an Industrial Relations Commission order and went ahead with a strike after rejecting the State Government offer of a 13 pay cent pay rise.
    
    "An overwhelming 90 per cent of the union's membership rejected the pay offer.
    
    "The SSTUWA is considering further industrial action despite another IRC order directing it not to proceed with rolling strikes or instruct its members against writing school reports.
    
    "Lynette Virgona, an English high school teacher with 23 years experience, says morale within the teaching fraternity is low.
    
    "Being forced into arbitration like this and then being told we can't take any action, we feel like we have no voice," Ms Virgona said.
    
    "From our point of view we think there's a real crisis in education, it's not just public education, it's affecting the private system as well but no-one ever talks about that, in terms of the shortage of teachers," she said.
    
    "As WA booms and lucrative job opportunities are presented, she said teachers were considering alternative careers.
    
    "A genuine love for teaching does not stop Ms Virgona from wondering if she has done the right thing by her family by sticking with it.
    
    "There's a real reward in there but I've got a family, I've got four kids, I'm the major breadwinner so I've got to say am I doing the right thing by my family?" she said.
    
    "The State Government's offer was rejected by union members because it offered to make WA teachers the best paid in 2011 compared to the pay of interstate teachers now, Ms Virgona said.
    
    "What they are saying is by the time we get to 2011 we'll be on a certain rate and then they are saying that will be the best rate in Australia," she said.
    
    "But that's compared to what other states are getting now so four years down the track they aren't going to be getting the same as they are getting now, that's obvious."
    
    "Mr McGowan said yesterday he broadly supported significant pay rises for teachers as recommended in the Twomey report.
    
    "He said an analysis released last week showed the State Government offer would make WA teachers the nation's best paid.
    
    "The minister said the Twomey report was unrelated to the arbitration, but would provide measured debate.
    
    "We're not at a tough point, we just had the Industrial Relations Commission rule out strikes and rule out action which might have withheld reports," Mr McGowan said.
    
    "Ms Virgona said the bottom line is the education budget needs to be increased."
    
    From WA Today at link
    
    
    
    
  • Twomey report - teachers need pay rise [18 June]
    by Andrea Hayward
    
    "A government taskforce into the education workforce has recommended an immediate and significant pay rise for teachers as they prepare to take further industrial action.
    
    "Education Minister Mark McGowan released the Twomey report today, which contained 83 recommendations, including improved pay for teachers and lecturers and for Mr McGowan to take every opportunity to enunciate support for the teaching fraternity and their value to the community.
    
    "The taskforce, headed up by Professor Lance Twomey, was established by Mr McGowan in March last year when the State Government faced a teacher shortage when the school term commenced.
    
    "The State School Teachers Union of Western Australia had criticised him for not releasing the report earlier.
    
    "Mr McGowan said he had released the report as an act of goodwill after the Industrial Relations Commission ordered the SSTUWA not to hold rolling strikes or instruct its members to issue reports.
    
    "I welcome that ruling and I and the department applied for that ruling in order  to protect students' education around Western Australia," Mr McGowan said.
    
    "In light of that and as an act of good faith to the workforce and in order to end the destruction of the issue that this has become, I have today released the Twomey report."
    
    "In February teachers defied an IRC order and went ahead with a planned strike after rejecting the offer of a 13 per cent pay rise.
    
    "SSTUWA president Anne Gisborne told 6PR she was disappointed the report had not been released earlier.
    
    "I think it's not before time, we are certainly acknowledging the work of our members in refusing to produce student reports as one of the significant pressures in finally getting this document released into the public domain," Ms Gisborne said.
    
    "The disappointment for us is that the document is now being released as we move into arbitration.
    
    "We believe if it had been available during negotiations it may well have assisted both parties to resolve the matters between themselves…"
    
    "Mr McGowan said he endorsed significant pay rises for teachers.
    
    "I want to make sure our workforce is there for the long term, I want to make sure that our teachers are well paid," he said.

    "Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier said it was essential the government implemented all recommendations in the report."If the government fails to adhere to Professor Twomey's recommendations, it will do so at its peril," Mr Collier said."The report was well overdue, Mr Collier said."One wonders why it has taken so long for the Minister for Education to release the report," he said."There is little evidence to this point that the government intends to incorporate the reports' recommendations with the necessary vigour.

    "That is, the minister has been completely intransigent with regard to the current EBA negotiations, which should have been done and dusted months ago."

    From WA Today at link
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Rules Are Rules, Even for Test Graders
    by Jay Mathews
    
    Veteran Exam Reader Is Rejected for Not Having Enough Forms of ID
    
    "Every time Elly Kluge's friends and colleagues ask what happened last week at the Advanced Placement European history test grading session in Colorado, the 67-year-old Arlington County history teacher says: "I was sent home early because I am a terrorist."

    "That is not quite accurate, Kluge acknowledges, but she loves saying it because she wants to make a point.

    "Kluge is one of the most experienced AP history teachers and graders in the Washington area, but Educational Testing Service officials told her she had to stop reading exams, and pay her own way back to the airport, because she had only a Virginia driver's license to prove her identity. They insisted she show a second form of identification under a federal law meant to control immigration and protect homeland security.

    "What does homeland security have to do with grading history tests?" asked Kluge, who flew back to the Washington area Friday after being turned away from the seven-day grading session in Fort Collins [Colorado, 3,500 km away] ..."
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    
    

• The Guardian
  
  
  • Schools 'timebomb' as 55% of heads near retirement
    
    Up to 55% of headteachers could retire within four years, according to the government's chief adviser on school leadership who says schools are facing a "demographic time bomb" in the staff room. Some schools may consider employing heads who have no experience of teaching in order to fill posts, said Steve Munby, head of the National College for School Leadership (NCSL).
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Alan Smithers: Home education's time may have come
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Sydney is China's new friend [18 June]
    by Harriet Alexander Higher Education Reporter
    
    "The University of Sydney has become the latest institution to join a Chinese Government bandwagon by establishing a Confucius Institute, which critics say may compromise its academic integrity.
    
    "The university officially opened the institute yesterday, saying it was heeding calls by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to make Australia the most Asia-literate nation in the Western world.
    
    "It is the fourth Australian university to set up a Confucius Institute, named for the fifth-century BC philosopher once despised by China's Communist Party..."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    

  
  
  • Harm minimisation: just say no
    by Miranda Devine
    
    "Three weeks ago, on May 27, Tony and Angela Wood went to a Chinese restaurant to mark what would have been their daughter Anna's 28th birthday, had she lived. As they do each year, they ordered her favourite meal, Peking duck, and remembered the 15-year-old girl who died in 1995 after taking ecstasy for the first time.
    
    "But while her parents have been touring schools and spreading the message that illegal drug use is never safe, Anna Wood was being co-opted without their permission as a poster girl of the drug harm-minimisation lobby, which has shaped debate about drug use in Australia for 25 years - but is losing credibility as contrary evidence piles up..."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    

Friday 20 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers union to appeal no-strike order [online only, added at 5:45 pm]
    by Neil Devey
    
    "The State School Union says it will appeal against a ruling that has seen it call off planned strike action as part of its pay claim.

    "The WA Industrial Relations Commission earlier this week ordered the union not to go through with the rolling stoppages and at a meeting today the SSTU agreed to comply.

    "However, union president Anne Gisborne says the union will appeal.

    “Our members and the union and the executive are very firm in their belief that they do have a right to use industrial action to put pressure on the employer and the government to deliver appropriately for the members and we will continue to pursue our capacity to have that as one of our strategies,” she told ABC."

    From The West Australian online at link
    
    
    
  • Teachers lift reports ban but strikes still on cards (page 11)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “The teachers’ union yesterday lifted its ban on issuing students’ mid-year report cards after the State Government released an academic’s report on the profession which it had kept secret for the past six months.
    
    “The State School Teachers Union had been withholding the report cards until Education Minister Mark McGowan made public the report into the teacher shortage by respected academic Lance Twomey. The report, released suddenly on Wednesday, recommended big pay rises, better housing and an improved image for the profession.
    
    “The WA Industrial Relations Commission ordered the union on Tuesday to lift its ban on school report cards and to call off half-day strikes. The union’s executive is expected to decide today whether it will defy the order by pushing ahead with strikes.
    
    “SSTU president Anne Gisborne said teachers were disappointed that Mr. McGowan had taken so long to release the Twomey report.
    
    “Initiatives already put in place to tackle the teacher shortage had failed to do anything to solve the problems faced by teachers already in the workforce, she said. Mr. McGowan’s with-holding the report for six months had been “deliberately designed to frustrate.”
    
    “I still fail to see why the Minister needed to dig in his heels on this matter and I think it was a senseless act and it could be characterised as unnecessarily provocative,” she said.
    
    “Mr. McGowan finally buckled this week after dodging the issue for months by saying the Twomey report would be released only after it had been to Cabinet.
    
    “He said he had chosen to release the report on Wednesday in light of the IRC decision to ban further industrial action by teachers and in response to continuing speculation about its contents. Just last month he told a Budget estimates hearing that he expected to release the report later this year.
    
    “The report had been on the agenda of a Cabinet committee but the said last month it could not be released until the Government had also prepared a detailed response. Asked how long it would take to prepare a response, Mr. McGowan said: “How long is a piece of string?”
    
    “Shadow education minister Peter Collier said Mr. McGowan had delayed the release of the report because it recommended significant salary increases for teachers.
    
    “He has known this and yet he has constantly condemned teachers for their ‘unreasonable’ salary demands,” he said. “This deceit will only serve to diminish his credibility with teachers and undermine the profession as a whole.”
    
    “Mr. Collier said Mr. McGowan had grudgingly released the report only after enormous pressure from teachers and the community. “The comical irony is that this very report, which the Minister announced as the panacea to solve the teacher shortage 18 months ago, has in fact exacerbated the level of dissent amongst the profession,” he said.” [emphasis added]
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • Top priority
      
      “At last Mark McGowan has released the Twomey report into teacher shortages that has been withheld throughout current wage negotiations.
      
      “I note that the very first point in the report is for “immediate and significant investment in public teacher and lecturer remuneration.” This is vital if we are to maintain teaching as a professional occupation in WA.
      
      “The current wage negotiations are doing nothing to keep teachers in the system and nothing to entice capable young people into the profession. The Government needs to rethink its spending priorities for the good of education in WA and future of our youth.”
      
      Ian Middleton, South Greenough
      
      

    • Now it’s time for action
      
      “Congratulations to Mark McGowan for finally releasing the Twomey report. At last the public can read what it paid for after nearly six months of Cabinet attempting to understand its contents.
      
      “However, somebody needs to make Mr. McGowan understand that they myths he regurgitates in his press releases are completely unconvincing to anyone except himself. Constantly saying that WA teachers will be the highest paid in the country will not make it so.
      
      “If one reads the fine print the only truth in his press releases is that WA teachers of 2012 will be the highest paid teachers when compared to what other States pay their teachers today.
      
      “The Twomey report clearly states that teachers need significant pay rises immediately. It also states that these pay rises are merely in order to bring the pay of teachers back in line with other professions.
      
      “You commissioned the report, Minister. Please read it, understand it and enact it. If this is beyond you, perhaps you could do a three-month course and become an English teacher next year when your colleagues will be able to explain it to you.”
      
      Geoff Clayton, Maylands
      
      

    • In Short
      
      “My students threaten me” said a letter from a teacher (18/6). Well, I guess most of us knew this was coming, except the bleeding hearts who allowed this to happen.
      
      “Invariably, once the cane and teachers’ rights to discipline their students were removed, these youngsters became a law unto themselves.
      
      “Meanwhile, back in the classroom we continue to produce more anti-social crash-test dummies.”
      
      J.Parsons, Wembley Downs       
      
      

    • Bring back the cane
      
      “Recently these letters pages have highlighted an unacceptable level of violence against our educators – the school teachers of our children – a complete lack of respect for authority and a devil-may-care approach to the future of our nation.
      
      “Articles on other pages have reported minimal sentences for major crimes, with judges quoting “truth in sentencing” legislation as the reason for letting hardened criminals off with a slap on the wrist. Sixteen months for a star-picket assault on an innocent gardener, six years for a baby rapist etc.
      
      “Now here’s an idea. When I was at school we had corporal punishment and, like most states, capital punishment. They were a serious deterrent. I received four cuts of the cane on my left hand (I write right-handed) for a minor infraction in fourth grade during mid-year exams. I would have never considered abusing my teacher. Should Messrs Carpenter, McGowan and McGinty perhaps look at gauging people’s thoughts and have a realistic investigation (referendum) on what we, the electors, think about what is happening in this wonderful State of ours where I sleep every night with every door and window locked, my vehicle locked, my alarm set and a baseball bat beside my bed?
      
      “I think an overwhelming yes vote to corporal punishment and yes vote to life sentences being life sentences would be the result. Let’s get some sanity and safety back into the community and stick the Ferris wheel where it belongs.”
      
      Clive Mayo, Heathridge
      
      
      
• Western Australian College of Teaching position statement
  
  
  • Standard of initial teacher education programs
    
    Maintaining and promoting the standards of the teaching profession through high quality initial teacher education programs is a priority of the Western Australian College of Teaching. 

    Teaching is a complex task requiring particular knowledge, skills and personal attributes for success. The impact of teaching on the lives of students is often profound and the link between professional competence and student outcomes is well established. Preservice education is the first step in ensuring that teachers have the professional competence to teach effectively.  The early years of teaching are also important, and comprise a key part of the development of professional expertise.  

    Governments, universities, unions and employers have agreed that the minimum time needed to develop professional competence to commence teaching is one year of study in a four year higher education program. Research indicates that the most effective preservice teacher education program are those that have a balance of theory and practice and encourage preservice teachers, with the guidance and support of mentors, to reflect on their practice over a period of time. 

    In times of teaching shortage, such as that currently being experienced in Western Australia, it can be expected that there might be demands for reducing the period of preservice teacher education. It is important that any reductions in time do not involve any reduction in the quality of the initial preparation, and are balanced by extra attention to support in the early years. 

    The Western Australian College of Teaching; 
    

    • has a responsibility to assess all Western Australian preservice teacher education programs for the purposes of teacher registration;
      
      
    • is committed to maintaining the national standard of a minimum of one year of preservice teacher education in four years of higher education;
      
      
    • recognises that some people will have acquired or developed some of the skills, knowledge or attributes required for teaching prior to enrolling in a preservice teacher education program and is committed to honouring national processes for the Recognition of Prior Learning;
      
      
    • supports universities in offering innovative programs that allow students the opportunity to complete components of their program through summer schools and internships;
      
      
    • is committed to working in partnership with other regulatory authorities, universities and employers to establish a national system for accrediting preservice teacher education programs;
      
      
    • upholds the right of the profession to maintain standards through setting minimum qualifications for teacher registration.

    From the WACOT homepage at link

    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Govt ups teacher pay offer to 12 per cent
    
    "The Government has upped its pay offer to striking Northern Territory teachers.

    "Until now the negotiations have been stuck, with teachers demanding a 20 per cent rise over three years, and the Government offering 11 per cent.
    
    "The Commissioner for Public Employment says he has increased that offer to 12 per cent over three years, and reduced the maximum class size to 26 students.
    
    "The Australia Education Union is discussing the offer.
    
    "Meanwhile, new research has shown that the Northern Territory will be hardest hit by Australia's workforce crisis.
    
    "The report's author Professor Tony Barnes says the non-Indigenous employment rates are almost at capacity.
    
    "There is already an employment squeeze bordering on a crisis. Most employers are if not desperate, they are definitely seeking workers.
    
    "He says services like teaching and nursing would already be in crisis if not for retirement age workers staying in jobs longer, record rates of women in the workforce and migration.
    
    "But he says that situation is not sustainable and demand for employees is far outstripping the what the population can supply.
    
    "He says sustaining the Territory's economy will require a major boost to Indigenous employment rates, which remain alarmingly low on international standards, lingering at the bottom of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 's employment scale.
    
    "Professor Barnes is preparing to present his research at the Australian Population Association Conference in Alice Springs this month.
    
    "He says workers coming from interstate and overseas are meeting some demands ... but critical positions in health and education are going unfilled.
    
    "The resources sector and the other high paying industries can always use the back pocket, the wallet to help attract the skilled people they need.

    "But it's been very difficult for the service industries - nurses, teachers - to be able to just crank up the pay levels to attract more people." [emphasis added]

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • 2000 WA teachers face deregistration
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "About 2000 teachers face deregistration early next month for not paying a $70 fee to their professional body - despite WA's teacher shortage."The Western Australian College of Teaching is now concluding its annual cycle of invoicing," WACOT director Suzanne Parry told Perthnow.
    
    "There are a number of people who haven't paid, who if they don't pay fairly quickly will have their registration cancelled," Dr Parry said today.
    
    "They've got until the third of July (to pay)." 
    
    "Dr Parry said the non-payers were about 5 per cent of the teaching membership of 45,000 and about half were no longer in WA.
    
    "WA State School Teachers' Union president Anne Gisborne said the union urged teachers to be registered.
    
    "Ms Gisborne said WACOT had an important role to play in maintaining "standards and integrity" in the profession at a time of shortage.
    
    "She said such a maintaining of standards was especially important at a time when Education Minister Mark McGowan was proposing that teaching diplomas be cut down from a one-year duration to a "three-month quickie".
    
    "Mr McGowan, who couldn't be contacted for comment, has previously said that if WACOT deregistered teachers, the Education Department and other employers were obliged by law to stop them from teaching. This week the Minister said the teacher shortfall was now under 30 staff.
    
    "Last year, WACOT came under fire from teachers who did not want to pay the fee because the college hadn't abided by its own Act and had board members elected by teachers.
    
    "But WACOT had an election which closed on December 10, that saw members of the anti-outcomes-based education group, People Lobbying Against Teaching Outcomes, win six of the 10 teacher-elected positions. [emphasis added]
    
    "There are another nine board members appointed by the WA Education Minister.
    
    "A media release from WACOT this afternoon said that at an extraordinary meeting last night, the college board agreed to deregister non-paying members.
    
    "College acting chair Jacqueline Varris said: "All non-financial members will be sent notices tomorrow advising that deregistration will be effective from 4pm on Friday July 4, if fees remain outstanding by 4pm on July 3".
    
    "Mrs Varris said many of the teachers who would be deregistered were no longer working in Western Australian classrooms, or had left the State, and had simply failed to notify the college of their intentions.
    
    "She said she was confident that the majority of the remaining non-financial members would follow the same pattern as last year and pay the fee before they faced cancellation of their membership and deregistration.
    
    "The college board urges those who have not paid to do so in order to minimise the disruption that deregistration would cause to schools and the wider community," she said.
    
    "Re-registration is a costly and time consuming exercise for teachers.
    
    "Teachers have a system of registration similar to other professional groups such as doctors, nurses and midwives, dentists, accountants, lawyers and psychologists. There is a legislative requirement for teachers to pay an annual $70 fee for registration."
    
    "She said teachers had a membership card clearly stating the March 31 expiry date of their financial membership. They were sent an invoice in February and the majority of the 45,000 members had paid on time.
    
    "The college secretariat sent a reminder letter in April and if the membership fee was still unpaid, there was a follow-up reminder notice in May, along with a letter from the college director warning about deregistration.
    
    "In some instances teachers may have changed address and will not have received an invoice," Mrs Varris said.
    
    "Numerous measures have been taken by the college to contact these teachers even though it is their responsibility to inform the college of their contact changes.
    
    "As the teaching professions regulatory authority, the college works to ensure that teachers in Western Australian classrooms are suitably qualified, are competent to teach, are of good character and have satisfied the requirements of a criminal record check."
    
    "She said teacher registration had been in place in Western Australia since September 15, 2004. All Australian States and the Northern Territory now had teacher registration boards."
    
    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Mine school's out despite boom
    by Paige Taylor
    
    
    "Australia's biggest mining school is winding back in the heart of the West Australian goldfields, and the state's universities are producing only a small number of graduates in mining disciplines, despite enormous demand from the resources sector.

    "The West Australian School of Mines' Kalgoorlie campus had just 12 first-year students last year and it intends to drop all first-year courses from next year, followed by all second-year courses from 2010.
    
    "West Australian Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan has called for help from federal Education Minister Julia Gillard. "It is difficult to attract students to higher education in fields that are in demand, like geology, when we are in an environment where finding work in unskilled or semi-skilled occupations is easy," Mr McGowan wrote.
    
    "While all universities have been recruiting hard for mining-related courses, their graduate figures remain low. Last year, the University of Western Australia produced just 34 geologists and 27 process and resource engineers, but had 207 law graduates and more than 300 students completing arts degrees.
    
    "At Murdoch University, four people graduated with metallurgy or mineral science degrees, and at Curtin University there were 27 metallurgy, 23 surveying and 43 geology graduates last year.
    
    "The small number of graduates is a concern for the West Australian Chamber of Minerals and Energy, which estimates the state's resources boom will require an additional 42,000 workers by 2012.
    
    "While the West Australian School of Mines will continue to run first-year and second-year courses in Perth, its decision to close the doors to students in Kalgoorlie has angered local MP John Bowler.
    
    "He said the commonwealth funding was a major factor -- the school of mines was the nation's most isolated university but was not funded as such because its head office was in Perth.
    
    "We cannot understand how the Kalgoorlie campus only receives a loading of 7 per cent for each student, while just south of Sydney, students in Wollongong attract a 10 per cent loading," he said in a letter to Ms Gillard.

    "Mr McGowan also outlined his concerns surrounding the delivery of higher education funding in regional areas in Western Australia. He said metropolitan-based universities in Western Australia were not funded adequately for the regional delivery of higher education.

    "The current scheme, which incorporates a regional loading into the Commonwealth Grant Scheme for students enrolled at regional campuses, provides little benefit or incentives to universities to increase such enrolments," Mr McGowan said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    

  • Education rebounds as an export winner
    
    An influx of Chinese and Indian students has made education the surprise success among Australia's exports.
    
    Similar story in The Age
    
    
    
  • Student 'caught hacking results' [reprinted from The Times]
    
    It could be a long time before Omar Khan goes to college: up to 38 years, say Orange County prosecutors, who have arrested and charged the 18-year-old with breaking into his prestigious high school and hacking into computers to change his test grades from Fs to As. If convicted on all 69 counts, including altering and stealing public records, computer fraud, burglary, identity theft, receiving stolen property and conspiracy, Mr Khan could spend almost four decades in prison.
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Computers can’t teach
      
      "Ray Fisman ("Like giving video games’’, Opinion, 17/6) rightly argues that giving a child a computer will not, on its own, be likely to produce a positive educational outcome. 
      
      "If merely providing content and opportunities for play were all that learning required, then textbooks and libraries would have replaced parents and teachers long ago.
      
      "Fisman is wrong, however, if he assumes that the purpose of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project is simply to provide unsupervised learning on what is effectively a games machine. Unlike the kinds of laptops promoted by business and likely to be found in the average Australian home, the laptops provided by this organisation are designed to provide the basis for creative projects initiated by the child, and to enable a link to a school-based server where content and curriculum may be controlled by a teacher.

      "The OLPC computer works only in conjunction with a central server. The child’s laptop has minimal storage of its own, and operates more like a combined digital exercise book, library and communication device. Each laptop links to the next and has its own power supply (solar, battery, etc), so children who live in remote areas without transport can contact each other and the central server.

      "Computers are, like every other technological advance in education, only as good as the teachers who use them. There is no replacement for wisdom and skill. What computers can provide, and the altruism of the OLPC volunteers is attempting to enable, is some kind of equality for developing countries in getting access to the kinds of resources we take for granted."
      
      Margaret Chandler, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of South Australia
      
      

    • First Byte
      
      "Is it safe to assume that Justine Ferrari’s use of the split infinitive “to correctly identify’’ in her story on grammar teaching ("Students deprived of grammar skills’’, 19/6) was deliberate, or is it a case of people in glasshouses?"
      
      Stan Klan, Toowoomba, Qld

 

Saturday – Sunday, 21 – 22 June

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

    • It’s your duty to read this report

      “The Twomey report has been released but in true style it has been released in a time of crisis (gas crisis). Don’t let the smoke and mirrors hide this brilliant report which should have been released six months ago.

      “Taxpayers have paid a big sum of money for Professor Twomey to confirm that there is indeed a teacher shortage and a crisis in our public education system and failing to heed his advice will be to the detriment of our society.

      “So switch off your plasma screens, dim down the lights, get yourself a glass of wine (only one or two, mind, I don’t want to be seen to be encouraging binge drinking) and a copy of the Twomey report (which is available online) and be prepared for a very interesting and revealing read.

      “The future of public education is at stake. Make it your duty to become informed."

      Lisa Thomas, Perth  

       

    • Obscene ruling

      “The problem of teachers having to cope with unruly, disrespectful, foul-mouthed students has been highlighted in your paper recently. One wonders, therefore, how a Senate inquiry into swearing on TV can even contemplate rejecting calls for some obscenities to be banned from television (Ramsay won’t f-f-fade away, 19/6).

      “A recent poll showed that the majority of people are not happy with the use of such language on television.

      “While accepting that certain standards do “evolve”, common sense should tell us that there are some standards which need to be adhered to for the sake of a well-ordered, wholesome society – one in which we would be happy to see our children and grandchildren living.”

      Gillian Gonzalez, vice-president, Australian Family Association of WA

  
  

  • 2000 teachers face threat of class ban [Front Page Headline]
    by Gabrielle Knowles
    
    “WA’s teacher shortage is on the verge of crisis after it emerged last night that up to 2000 of them will be banned from the classroom unless they pay compulsory annual registration fees.
    
    “The WA College of Teaching said the 2000 teachers had just two weeks to pay their annual $70 fee or it would be illegal for them to teach.
    
    “It is understood that at least 1000 of those facing suspension are working in schools, meaning the State Government may have to take desperate measures to accommodate thousands of children.
    
    “WACOT director Suzanne Parry said last night she was confident most, if not all, the 1000 teachers working would pay the fee before the July 3 deadline.
    
    “We expect them all to have paid before the cancellation takes effect…We are receiving 300 to 400 payments each day,” she said. “At the point of cancellation last year, we had to deregister only about six working teachers.”
    
    “But it is unknown how many this year are opposed to paying the fees or have just forgotten.
    
    “Education Minister Mark McGowan refused to comment on the planned ban last night.
    
    “But when WACOT, the industry registration body, threatened late last year to deregister non-paying teachers, Mr. McGowan intervened, admitting deregistration would cause “significant disruption”.
    
    “He convinced the board in December to offer a reprieve, call on it to recognise “significant challenges” the education system faced to keep enough teachers in classrooms.
    
    “Shadow education minister Peter Collier said it would be a disaster if even 10 per cent of those 1000 teachers refused to pay their fees.
    
    “We can’t afford to have one teacher lose their position for not paying a WACOT fee,” he said. “Teachers have endured so much over recent years, this has the potential to make a crisis situation catastrophic.”
    
    “My concern is that many teachers feel slighted by the treatment they have received from the Government in regards to EBA and this may be their parting gesture.”
    
    “He did not believe that almost 2000 teachers had forgotten to pay the fees.
    “WACOT ensures WA teachers are qualified, competent and have passed a criminal record check.
    
    “Acting chairwoman Jacqueline Varris said the non-financial members represented about 5 per cent of the organisation’s 45,000 members.
    
    “She said teachers had a membership card that clearly stated March 31 expiry of their financial membership. Invoices were sent in February and members who did not pay were sent reminder notices in April and May.
    
    “Teachers were outraged last year when the Education Department said it would sack teachers who did not pay the $70 fee by October. Many refused to pay until an election was held in December for 10  teacher representatives on the WACOT board.
    
    “The State School Teachers Union, which had refused to back teachers who had not paid their fees, condemned the Government for failing to enable an election to be held earlier. It also criticised the department for its threats to sack teachers.
    
    “SSTU president Anne Gisborne did not return calls last night.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Bad students 'to be counselled'
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "Badly behaved public students won't be suspended, but will be instead counselled after school.
    
    "Education Minister Mark McGowan today announced a 13-week trial that will look at after-school hours counselling as an alternative to suspension.
    
    "Mr McGowan said it was important that unruly students felt the pain of their actions by sacrificing their personal time and not valuable school time.
    
    "Counselling will not only teach the child a valuable lesson about taking responsibility, but it will also create an opportunity for the child to work through their issues,'' Mr McGowan said.
    
    "There are 17 schools from the Fremantle-Peel, Canning and West Coast districts which have volunteered to take part in the trial.
    
    "Last year, two-thirds of the 7,600 students who were suspended were only suspended once, which indicates that suspension is an effective strategy.
    
    "However, we want to see how effective it is to give students a second chance, without a suspension being recorded against them, by teaching them to take responsibility for their actions.
    
    "Mr McGowan said parents would have to give their consent and be willing to take their children to and from the one hour counselling sessions. [emphasis added]
    
    "These would be held at places central to each of the three educational districts.
    
    "He said the willingness of the students and their families to engage in the process, as well as the seriousness of the students' behaviour, would be considered during the trial.
    
    "During the sessions, school psychologists will work with students to develop strategies and discuss any personal issues which may be relevant to their behaviour,'' he said.
    
    "The student services staff at the students' schools will receive written feedback and will be advised of any issues which need to be followed up.
    
    "The trial is part of the Government's progressive response to the Twomey Report's recommendation to ensure a safe environment for teachers and students.
    
    "Recently, I announced five primary behaviour centres which will deal with persistently challenging students and we are currently trialling three secondary behaviour centres.''
    
    "He said the Carpenter Government had spent more than $100 million on its behaviour management and discipline strategies in schools since coming into office.
    
    "Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier said he was very supportive of any strategies that would improve behavioural issues in classrooms.
    
    "However, until the Government adequately resources our schools to ensure that they can implement early intervention strategies, the problems will not go away,'' Mr Collier said.
    
    "Mr Collier said, for example, the current quota of school psychologists was one for every 2000 students, which he called "hopelessly inadequate'' and a typical example of the lack of adequate resources implemented by the Carpenter Government." [emphasis added]
    
    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
  • Schools face crippling teacher shortage
    by Paul Lampathakis, education reporter
    
    "WA faces a crippling shortage of up to 11 teachers for each school under plans to deregister them for not paying a $70 fee.

    "And while shortages continue, it can also be revealed teachers are quitting because the Education Department won't let them take leave without pay.
    
    "The WA College of Teaching yesterday confirmed more than 2500 teachers could be stopped from working from July 4 for not paying their $70 registration fees.
    
    "This was more than the figure of 2000 reported earlier.
    
    "On Thursday perthnow.com.au broke the story under the headline "2000 WA teachers face deregistration''. The story was repeated today by The West Australian newspaper which incorrectly claimed the issue had only emerged on Friday night.

    "Teachers who contacted The Sunday Times said pockets of eight to 11 teachers at individual schools were not paying their fees because they were "pd off with the way public education is being handled by this Government'', including the protracted pay dispute.
    
    "WACOT director Suzanne Parry said: "The feedback is that (such groups) are generally discontented with the general state of the profession and that they're protesting at whatever point they find.''
    
    "Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier said shortages in already understaffed schools would bring some to a "grinding halt''.
    
    "Mr Collier said dissatisfaction among teachers had resulted after years of the Government's mismanagement of issues such as curriculum and assessment changes, and the present pay dispute. [emphasis added]
    
    "Education Minister Mark McGowan refused to comment, but previously said if WACOT deregistered teachers, the Education Department and other employers were obliged by law to stop them teaching.
    
    "The teacher shortfall is about 28 staff.
    
    "Dr Parry confirmed more than 2500 teachers had not paid their fees by this week, but said considerably fewer than 2000 were still in WA schools.
    
    "She said hundreds of teachers were paying daily. In previous years, almost all teachers had paid and she expected they would do the same this year, rather than be out of pocket and pay a re-registration fee.
    
    "Mr Collier said the Government's mismanagement of education was also exposed by the fact 90 teachers resigned last year after the Education Department would not give them leave without pay.
    
    "He said this happened even though the Government was warned by its own reports teachers felt the department was inflexible and unable to see the benefits of offering leave without pay as an alternative to resignation.
    
    "Last year, the Department received 258 applications for leave without pay with only 27 per cent or 70 teachers granted their request,'' Mr Collier said.
    
    "Of the 188 who did not have their leave approved, 90 chose to resign.''
    
    "He said one teacher was quitting for the private sector because she was distraught over the department's decision to reject her leave-without-pay request last year, after 27 years' service." [emphasis added]

    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
    
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Send kids to school or lose welfare
    by Patricia Karvelas and Natasha Robinson
    
    
    "Parents who fail to enrol and regularly send their children to school will have their welfare payments stopped under a radical plan being trialled in six Northern Territory communities.
    
    "On the first anniversary of the Northern Territory intervention, the Rudd Government has revealed it will force school principals to tell Centrelink when children were failing to turn up to class.
    
    "The trial includes both white and indigenous children.
    
    "If successful, it will be rolled out across the country to improve the school participation rates of all children.
    
    "Parents in Hermannsburg, Katherine, Katherine Town Camps, Wallace Rockhole, Wadeye and the Tiwi Islands who are on welfare will be forced to tell Centrelink where their children are enrolled.
    
    "Parents who fail to enrol their children or get them to school regularly will have their income-support payments suspended until they fulfil their obligations.
    
    "The Government will spend $17.6 million over three years, with the new regime to start at the beginning of next year.
    
    "The plan raised immediate concerns from teachers, who argued that the Northern Territory school system was not properly resourced to cope with the influx.
    
    "Australian Education Union Northern Territory president Nadine Williams said the territory and federal governments must back up their announcement with greater resources for the remote schools, which were already critically under-resourced.
    
    "We do not have the capacity across all of the remote schools to cope with current numbers of individual students, many of whom are four, five years behind in schooling," Ms Williams said.
    
    "This problem has beset the Territory and it is part of the reason why an intervention has been needed in the NT; we do have a crisis."
    
    "Under the plan, all income-support payments will be affected, including the dole and single parents' payments, but family payments, including Family Tax Benefit Part A, will not be part of the new measure.
    
    "Full backpay will be provided if parents who lose their entitlements meet their responsibilities within a 13-week period.
    
    "Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said two metropolitan communities had also been chosen to take part in the trial, but she declined to reveal them.
    
    "The tough new regime strengthens the Northern Territory intervention.
    
    "Although the Howard government had talked about linking welfare payments with school attendance, it had not been implemented.
    
    "Ms Macklin announced the changes yesterday at the Clyde Fenton School in Katherine alongside Northern Territory Education Minister Marion Scrymgour.
    
    "It's a responsibility of all state and territory governments to make sure that children are enrolled at school," Ms Macklin said.
    
    "It's the law that children are enrolled to go to school, that they attend school on a regular basis.
    
    "What we are doing today is really saying to parents 'You have a responsibility to make sure that your children attend school regularly'."
    
    "An estimated 2000 children, or 20 per cent of indigenous students in the Northern Territory, are not enrolled in school.
    
    "A further 2500 do not attend regularly and about 8000 attend only 60 per cent of the time. [emphasis added]
    
    "Clyde Fenton School principal Bryan Hughes said the new regime involving Centrelink would help him get indigenous students into classes more often.
    
    "He said children who lived in the Katherine Town Camps were attending school only between 40 and 60 per cent of the time.
    
    "Ms Macklin also released a report with the findings from interviews with operators of the first 20 licensed stores to run compulsory income management.
    
    "The report showed that store operators had found a significant change in shopping habits. More fresh food was being bought and more money spent on the needs of children.
    
    "Sales of cigarettes had halved and customers were saving for the purchase of white goods such as fridges so they could store fresh food at home."

     

    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    • No question of turning back
      
      In the tumultuous year since John Howard's indigenous intervention turned the Northern Territory on its head, the federal government's emergency response has been condemned and praised, questioned and revised, lampooned and obituarised.
      
      
      
      
• Townhall.com
  
  
  • Return of the Math Wars
    by Debra J. Saunders
    
    "1997 saw the height of the Math Wars in California. On the one side stood educrats who advocated mushy math -- or new-new math. They sought to de-emphasize math skills, such as multiplication and solving numeric equations, in favor of pushing students to write about math and how they might solve a problem. Their unofficial motto was: There is no right answer. (Even to 2 plus 2.) They were clever. They knew how to make it seem as if they were pushing for more rigor, as they dumbed down curricula. For example, they said they wanted to teach children algebra starting in kindergarten, which seemed rigorous, but they had expanded the definition of algebra to the point that it was meaningless. On the other side were reformers who wanted the board to push through rigorous and specific standards that raised the bar for all California kids. Miraculously, they succeeded, and they took pride in the state Board of Education's vote for academic standards that called for all eighth-graders to learn Algebra I.

    "Now many of those who fought on ground zero are afraid that the current board members will vote to undermine that standard. Earlier this month, many of those educators wrote to board President Ted Mitchell, urging that the board reject a vote they believe would undermine the Algebra I standard. The board tabled the measure until later. The fight continues.

    "Because this is an education issue, educratese obscures the issue, so bear with me. Understand that while the board members maintain that they voted to make Algebra I the standard for eighth-graders, there isn't an explicit requirement. The official Mathematics Content Standards for California Public Schools has a chart that lists Algebra I as a math standard starting in the eighth grade, but, with a nod toward local control, it is not explicitly required for the eighth grade.

    "Still, it is clear the board saw Algebra I as an eighth-grade standard because it put in place incentives for local districts to teach Algebra I to eighth-graders, and disincentives for not doing so. And they worked. The proportion of eighth-graders taking Algebra I grew from 16 percent at the beginning of the decade to more than half of eighth-graders today -- and some of those students are taking higher-level math. Supporters say the goal is to have all eighth- graders in Algebra I by 2014.

    "Enter the No Child Left Behind bureaucracy. The federal law requires eighth-graders to take a test aligned to the state standards for that grade -- instead of giving one test for the Algebra I students, and a below-grade-level math test for the rest. The choice for state educators: Make all students take the algebra test right away, make all students take a tougher general math test, come up with an alternative test or negotiate a deal to allow the state to give two tests until a given date.

    "The board was considering a blueprint by state schools chief Jack O'Connell for a tougher general math test. Good. Except that O'Connell's staff also says -- and this is where the fighting starts -- that Algebra I was never an eighth-grade standard. "There's a state desire for all eighth-graders to take algebra, but that is not the official standard," said spokeswoman Hilary McLean. They use the fact that the standard has yet to be met to back up their argument. "They've always wanted a safety valve for the kids who weren't ready yet because the system wasn't ready yet," said Deputy Superintendent Rick Miller.

    "And if it's not the standard, why bother?

    "EdVoice policy director Bill Lucia fears that the gains made by African-American and other minority students will vanish. He cited an EdSource report that showed that the proportion of African-American eighth-graders taking Algebra I had nearly doubled from 2003 to 2007. "Notably, the percentage of these students who scored advanced or proficient on the Algebra I (California Standardized Tests) also increased from 17 percent to 20 percent."

    "Said Lucia, "You threw a bunch of black kids in the algebra class and typically the education establishment would say now you're going to create a problem, because fewer kids are going to pass. But what do you know? More kids are able to take it. More kids are passing, too." To Lucia, this is no time to throw in the towel.

    "Where's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appoints state school board members? "He doesn't micromanage the board," answered spokeswoman Camille Anderson.

    "Miller denied that O'Connell wants to eliminate the standard. He told me that there's more information today, so O'Connell simply wants the board, with the input of teachers, principals and superintendents, to have "a good, open, honest conversation" about the eighth-grade Algebra I standard.

    "Which he also says doesn't exist."
    
    From Townhall.com at link
    
    
    

• The Guardian
  
  
  • Classroom assistants no substitute for teachers - union
    by Anthea Lipsett
    
    "Schools should be subject to tighter controls over their use of teaching assistants, a union said today.

    "Unison, which is holding its annual conference this week, said teaching assistants were increasingly being used as a cheap way of covering teachers' lessons.

    "According to the BBC, the schools minister, Jim Knight, said teaching assistants eased the burden on teachers but should not lead classes for more than a short period.

    "Christine McAnea, head of education at Unison, said schools either chose to ignore guidance in place over the use of support staff or did not understand it.

    "She said: "There's too much flexibility in it and we're trying to negotiate much tighter guidance.

    "Schools can use people who aren't qualified teachers to cover for them, provided headteachers are sure they have the skills, knowledge and experience and are working under a system of supervision.

    "Schools are abusing this and there's an impact on standards and staff who are already very low paid."

    "McAnea said the moves were a deliberate money-saving device used by schools to avoid paying supply teachers, which cost around £150 a day, compared with £50 for support staff. [emphasis added]

    "She said qualified support staff can, under supervision, provide short-term cover for teachers provided they know what they are doing.

    "Some fairly low level, low paid teaching assistants are asked to cover two hours or an afternoon a week standing in front of a class room and get just £5 an hour extra for doing that," she said.

    "She said 13,000 people held higher level teaching assistant status (HLTA) but only a fraction were being deployed as HLTAs, and paid more, by schools all year round.

    "Unions are working closely with schools, local authorities and the government on a new national pay structure and contract for support staff in England. McAnea said she hoped this would address the worst of the problems.

    "Knight said teaching assistants were doing an incredibly good job, but should not be seen as "interchangeable with qualified teachers".

    "Teaching unions backed up the claims and urged proper pay and conditions for support staff.

    "Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "We have grave concerns about the number of teaching assistants being asked to do more than they are paid to do or feel comfortable doing. It is unfair on them and unfair to pupils.

    "Heads are breaking the terms of the national agreement (between unions, employers and the government) if they are using teaching assistants to teach a class of pupils when a teacher is absent.

    "There is already national guidance for schools [from the Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group (WAMG)] on the proper use of support staff. Teaching assistants play an important role supporting teachers, but they should not be taken advantage of by schools.

    "We have been working with other members of the WAMG to strengthen the guidance for schools to stop this happening in future."

    "Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "Our own evidence shows that support staff are being used to teach children with the greatest needs and are being used to cover for teaching staff over long periods of time.

    "Too often, support staff are considered to be the low-cost option. It is quite clear to the National Union of Teachers that all staff who work in school teams need a proper definition of their responsibilities and proper pay and conditions".

    From The Guardian at link [and see the following story from BBC News]
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • Teaching assistant controls urged [plus reader comments at that link]
    
    
    
  • Minister attacks school selection
    
    Children's Secretary Ed Balls has attacked academic selection, saying pupils who miss out on grammar school places feel like failures.
    
    Personally, I think every child – no matter how thick – should be allowed to become a brain surgeon, if that’s their wish... providing they perform their “pracs” on their parents. [Sort of a belated Darwin Award.]  Web
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Mt Isa teachers consider legal action over lead levels
    
    "Queensland teachers are considering legal action over lead contamination in Mount Isa.

    "High levels have reportedly been found in a primary school in the north-west mining town as part of research commissioned by a law firm which is mounting a test case over the health impact on local children.

    "Steve Ryan from the Teachers' Union says the Education Department should be doing its own tests to ensure its members and students are safe at schools.

    "As an employer, Education Queensland has a responsibility under the Workplace Health and Safety Act, and if any of those responsibilities are being breached then the department certainly does run the risk of being sued for liability," he said."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• Pretoria News
  
  
  • Documentary highlights education collapse
    by Angelique Serrao
    
    "A film that followed four Grade 12 pupils through their final year has led to an outcry that South Africa's education system is in crisis and that something drastic needs to be done to save it.
    
    "Molly Blank, the director of Testing Hope: Grade 12 in the New South Africa, filmed the documentary in the Western Cape in 2006.
    
    "The pupils from Oscar Mpetha Secondary School are faced with the difficulties that are found in many townships all over South Africa. Many children go to school hungry, and gang culture lures many into its grip.
    
    "Amid all the hardship, a Grade 12 certificate stands out as the one hope, and there is enormous pressure from parents for children to pass the exams and lead their families out of poverty.
    
    "Despite being crowded 80 into a class and facing conditions in stark contrast to the former Model C schools, these kids work their butts off to pass their exams. They have big dreams.
    
    "Matric is the last ticket to life," said one.
    
    "I want to get the As - and then when I get the As, I'm going to be a doctor. That is what I dream of," said another.
    
    "But despite all their hard work and all the power and belief parents and teachers pour into them, it just isn't enough. The pass rate is 60 percent at the school, a big drop from previous years, and those who do make the grade don't find the money to study further.
    
    "The film was shown in Joburg on Thursday to education experts, teachers, principals, Department of Education officials and union members.
    
    "All expressed shock at seeing something that most knew all along: a dysfunctional education system that is failing the majority of our children.
    
    "In an article which ran in the Cape Times, an education specialist at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Graeme Bloch, explained how serious the problem is.
    
    "In matric, disparities remain: 39,4 percent of black candidates failed last year against 1,6 percent of whites. Exemptions for black students in matric in 2007 (10,9 percent versus 52 percent for whites) show that little has changed since 1991, when the figure was 10,8 percent.
    
    "Half of all black learners drop out. By any measure, 60-80 percent of our schools are dysfunctional, achieving poor education outcomes."
    
    "After seeing the film, a teacher said: "This school reflects exactly what is happening in my school. We had a pass rate of 80 percent and we dropped to 30 percent. There are some factors that are beyond your powers. If a learner tells you they have no electricity, what do you do?"
    
    "Professor Jonathan Jansen, of the University of the Witwatersrand, said: "There is nothing wrong with these kids - we are the ones who have failed them."
    
    "Jansen said he spent last week in schools in Soweto and saw the major problems which beset our schools: Teachers are absent; principals who may or may not be there; if teachers are there, they are not teaching; the school grounds are filthy; and schools are surrounded by "vultures - these grey-eyed young men looking for girls and drugs".
    
    "He said one of the major problems was a political culture that resisted any change.
    
    "The moment you suggest you want to change anything in a school, Sadtu (South African Democratic Teachers' Union) is there immediately.
    
    "The Sadtu congresses in the 1980s had people of integrity, but now we have thugs who look like they have just rolled out of a prison bed."
    
    "Jansen said the only way to change education was through political intervention and a national summit that signalled the urgency of education.
    
    "He added that the Department of Education must stop any new "confusing" policies from being implemented in the next five years." [emphasis added: and for "confusing policies" read "OBE"! Web]
    
    From Pretoria News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Oregon students set to get choice of graduation test
    by Julia Silverman [Associated Press]
    
    PORTLAND, Ore. -- "When Oregon education officials set out to devise a graduation testing requirement for high school students, they looked to other states for inspiration – on what not to do.

    "In neighboring California, dropout rates soared the first year the state required high schoolers to pass a test to get their diploma. In Texas, 40,000 disgruntled students were dispatched to summer school in 2007 after not passing the state test. And in Washington state, lawmakers simply canceled plans to require exiting students to pass a single, comprehensive math test, after fears surfaced that thousands wouldn't measure up.

    "We didn't think any one test should determine whether someone gets a diploma," said Duncan Wyse, vice-chairman of the Oregon Board of Education.

    "So board members chose a different route. This week, they approved a a plan that lets students pick from three options: a national test, state assessments or a local version, such as a student portfolio, to show colleges and employers they have mastered reading, writing, applied math and speaking skills. Passage on any one of the three, along with fulfilling course requirements, would guarantee a diploma.

    "The plan makes Oregon one of several states moving past the "one-size-fits-all" high-stakes testing that became commonplace in many U.S. high schools in the 1990s. In Pennsylvania, the Board of Education is considering a three-pronged approach similar to Oregon's plan, while in Maryland, students who can't pass the state tests could be allowed to do a senior project instead.
    
    "But some say such choices allow some students – and states – to take the easy way out..."
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    
    

• The New York Times
  
  
  • Does 8th-Grade Pomp Fit the Circumstance?
    
    In a speech last Sunday at a Chicago church, Barack Obama took on the pomp and purpose of these ceremonies. “Now hold on a second — this is just eighth grade,” he said. “So, let’s not go over the top. Let’s not have a huge party. Let’s just give them a handshake.” He continued: “You’re supposed to graduate from eighth grade.” Mr. Obama was wading into a simmering debate about eighth-grade ceremonies and their attendant hoopla. Do they inspire at-risk students to remain in high school and beyond? Or do they imply finality?
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • Students: Customers or learners?
    
    Should university students be seen as learners or customers?
    
    "While you might argue they are both, the dividing line between the two has become dangerously blurred. This was underlined by two news stories this week.

    "First there was the allegation from a senior academic that league tables have put universities under pressure to mark too leniently and to overlook plagiarism.

    "Second there was the whistleblower who claimed that degrees are being awarded to overseas students who lacked basic English language skills because of the lucrative nature of the foreign student market.

    "There was a third story, a few weeks back, on a related issue. This was the discovery that two university lecturers had urged students to exaggerate the scores they gave to their institution in the National Student Survey because, they claimed, everyone else was doing so.

    "There is a common theme to each of these stories: the pressures on academics to make sure that their universities are marketable to current and potential customers.

    "These pressures are understandable but must be resisted. They are understandable because it is bums-on-seats that determines the bulk of university funding, particularly at universities which receive little research funding..."
    
    Full story at BBC News at link
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Feature
    Lots of runs on the blackboard
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    The departing headmaster of Melbourne Grammar has been willing to fight for students to get the best possible education.
    
    "... Since he was appointed as Melbourne Grammar's 13th headmaster 13 years ago, Sheahan has become one of the nation's most controversial educators, with a tendency to speak out on issues most of his peers decline to discuss publicly.

    "He has unashamedly defended the resources and fees of elite private schools, and in the lead-up to the 2004 election, was one of the nation's most vocal opponents of Mark Latham's contentious "hit list" policy.

    "He has been one of the few Australian principals to drug-test his students, has openly criticised both sides of politics for underfunding schools (government and non-government) and has denounced Victoria's university ENTER-score system as a crude instrument that ought to be scrapped.

    "He argues VCE scores are not necessarily a good predictor of tertiary success and believes all students should have access to shorter generalist courses at university before having to choose a specialist degree and navigate the rigorous ranking system..."
    
    "In March, in defence of his school's controversial policy of drug testing students, he said: "The idea is one of salvation, rather than damnation. We actually have the child's interest at heart. I know it might sound as though we're fairly brutal, but we're not. We believe that kids lead much more productive lives without drugs, and if we can help them get on the straight and narrow, that's all for the good." ...
    
    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Sometimes grammar rebels have a cause - youse know what I mean?
    
    At the risk of inviting tersely worded letters from readers, I would like to pay tribute to the renegades of our society, the outlaws who buck the system and break all the rules - of grammar.

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

This page last updated 11 August, 2008 11:49 PM