Monday 30 June

Tuesday 1 July

Wednesday 2 July

Thursday 3 July

Friday 4 July

Saturday – Sunday, 5 – 6 July

 

Monday 30 June

• The West Australian
  

  • Schools pay consultants to hire staff (page 19)
    by Keryn McKinnon, FOI Editor
    
    “State schools are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants to help them find staff, prompting the teachers' union to call for a return to a central transfer system so the money can be better spent on educational programs.

    “Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal seven schools spent nearly $40,000 on human resources consultants last year to help them hire staff.

    “But the true cost will be significantly higher because the Department of Education and Training refused to disclose the expenditure for all 460 schools allowed to select their own teachers because it claimed the FOI request was too big and would take too much time to process. 

    “Mandurah Senior College spent $22,000 on consultants to help recruit staff in 2007. It was by far the biggest spender of the seven schools whose spending details were released.

    “Churchlands Senior High School spent $5118 on consultants and Sev­enoaks Senior College paid out $2437.

    “DET acting human resources exec­utive director John Serich said yester­day the department tried to be as flexible as possible to ensure all schools had quality teachers.

    "Principals make decisions that are best for their schools," he said. "This includes the choice of opting to select their own staff and the manner in which they go about this. They can hire and pay for external consultants approved by DET."

    “Mandurah Senior College's con­sultant bill was big because it was fill­ing 26 positions.”To support the process and to ensure that the recruit­ment process was conducted in a timely manner, external human resource consultants were employed," he said.

    “State School Teachers Union presi­dent. Anne Gisborne was shocked schools were spending so much on recruitment when the staffing direc­torate at head office should be assist­ing them at no cost.

    "The time and energy and resourc­es and cost involved in schools run­ning their own merit selection process is the reason why the management of staff should be at a central level,” she said.

    “Under the department's merit selection policy, two-thirds of the State's 769 schools are allowed to recruit staff outside the central trans­fer system.

    “Ms Gisborne said the two-tiered system meant that in a time of teacher shortages, schools were competing against each other for staff. It also meant that hard-to-staff schools had to spend more money on consultants to help hire teachers because they had a big staff turnover.

    “But WA Secondary School Execu­tive Association president Rob Nairn said principals supported local selec­tion because it enabled schools to hire teachers that best suited the needs of their students.

    "The issue is whether the money could be better spent somewhere else," Mr Nairn said. "I think $3000­$4000 in terms of recruitment, and if you are looking at value for money, 1 would think it is money well spent.”

    “WA Council of State School Orga­nisations president Rob Fry said there was merit in schools selecting their own staff. But he was concerned money was being spent on staff selec­tion from school budgets when the department already had a central staffing directorate.”

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • The Columnists: Paul Murray

      “Congratulations to Paul Murray, for his expose (26/6) of Education Minister Mark McGowan's smokescreen tactics with the Twomey report. As Murray suggests, Mr McGowan is either ineffectual or incompetent. There is, however, another even more alarming possible explanation. Perhaps the State Government has given up on public education and no longer cares?

      “After all, every student who deserts Government schools for the private sector represents a cost saving to the State. Where is the Government response to the Twomey report? Deafening silence and zero dollars is the response so far. Are we witnessing the terminal decline of a once great public education sector?

      Ken Wadley, Leeming
      
      

    • “Paul Murray's column about Mark McGowan's belated release of the Twomey report misses the real crux of the issue. Our education system is careering toward enormous teacher shortages and Mr McGowan's refusal to release the Report in a timely fashion is just another indication that the Government has no intention of addressing the crisis in any meaningful way.

      “Never mind the current anger and disillusionment of teachers - people need to be asking who, if anybody, is going to be teaching their sons and daughters mathematics or science or English in three or four or five years' time. Every West Australian should be outraged by the Carpenter Government's appalling disregard for the education of our State's children.”

      Les Pearce, Bunbury
      
      

    • What Super-boom?

      "We are told by Premier Alan Carpenter that we are experiencing a "super boom", the boom of a lifetime.

      “In summer time we are told, at our expense, not to use our air-conditioners because of a shortage of electricity.
      
      “We are told, at our expense, not to use too much water and we are on permanent restrictions because of the shortage.
      
      “The hospital and health crisis is no better and no closer to being resolved than when the Liberal Party held office.
      
      “Our teachers, nurses and police officers are treated with indifference and are underpaid.
      
      “Our rates of taxation are among the highest in the country, yet we are considered the economic powerhouse of Australia.
      
      “Housing affordability is beyond the reach of the average "working family".
      
      “In winter we are told, at our expense, not to use gas and electricity for heating because of a shortage.
      
      “And finally we are not told not to go fishing on our summer holidays because there is a shortage of fish, but we are allowed to buy it a hugely inflated price.
      
      “Does anybody really believe we are doing well?”
      
      Tim Bailey, East Fremantle
      
      
      

• BBC News [too good to omit !]
  
  
  • Review as expletive gets marks
    
    "An exam board is to review its marking guidance after one of its top examiners gave marks for a script which contained only a two-word sexual expletive.

    "The Times reported that Assessment and Qualifications Alliance chief examiner Peter Buckroyd gave a pupil two marks out of 27 for an English GCSE paper.

    "He is quoted as saying the candidate had demonstrated more skills than one "who doesn't write anything at all".

    "AQA said this was not in line with its guidelines, which would be clarified.
    
    "The pupil is reported to have written "fuck off", and would have had another mark for adding an exclamation point..."
    

    Full story at BBC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • How Costa put squeeze on Rudd
    by Phillip Coorey, Chief Political Correspondent
    
    "The Rudd Government has been embarrassed by revelations that it was advised to make a $245 million secret deal with NSW to avoid "a big political problem" and secure support for its election promise to give computers to high school students.

    "The deal - to be "hidden" from the other states - was proposed to combat threats by the NSW Treasurer, Michael Costa, to scuttle the Commonwealth's computers-in-schools program unless he got the extra money to cover costs linked to installing the computers, such as internet connections and electricity bills.
    
    "Papers obtained by the Nine Network show Mr Costa made the threat in a recent letter to his federal counterpart, Wayne Swan. They also reveal Mr Swan's advisers urging him to offer NSW the secret sweetheart deal.
    
    "The Rudd Government is resisting this advice along with the Costa demands, which could mean a showdown before a meeting of federal, state and territory leaders in Sydney on Thursday.
    
    "In his letter to Mr Swan, Mr Costa said: "In the absence of a firm commitment from the Commonwealth to fully fund these costs, the state is unable to participate in round one of the [scheme]."
    
    "The program will ensure every student from years 9 to 12 has a computer. But when Mr Rudd announced the $1 billion fund, he forgot to factor in costs such as broadband connections, installing powerpoints and power bills, so the states demanded extra funds.

    "A briefing note prepared by advisers for Mr Swan on June 19 said the issue threatened to derail the premiers' meeting and that NSW "is the only known and major obstacle on this front".

    "It makes most sense to kill the issue by making a separate side deal with NSW," the advice says.

    "It recommends keeping the other states in the dark: "To ensure that the deal remains hidden and seemingly unrelated to CoAG [the Council of Australian Governments], it would be best if the side deal involved a specific capital project in NSW. You should recommend the [Prime Minister's Office] pursue such an option with [Morris] Iemma's office."

    "The advice warns that while the Commonwealth held the pursestrings "the states have the capacity to hurt our promise to end the blame game and to deliver key election commitments". [emphasis added]

    "An email sent on Saturday from Rod Glover from the Prime Minister's Office to Mr Rudd's chief of staff, David Epstein, and other senior advisers says that without NSW, round one of the computer rollout would not proceed. And that would be "a big political problem" for the Commonwealth. But it says Mr Costa's demand is unreasonable and would lead to the other states wanting more money. It recommends Mr Rudd speak to Mr Iemma by last night and a resolution be found by today.

    "The federal Opposition Leader, Brendan Nelson, said last night: "Michael Costa has exposed Kevin Rudd and his computers-in-schools policy for the fraud that we have known it to be for some time."

    "But Mr Swan said there was always "robust debate" before a premiers' conference. The documents were internal staff notes only. Mr Costa's spokesman said: "We're continuing negotiations over the details of this package."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    Similar story in The Australian
    
    
    
    
  • The myth of today's troubled children
    by Adele Horin
    
    "Children are just as well-adjusted as their counterparts of 20 years ago and, if anything, better behaved and less anxious - at least to their parents. But teachers appear to have a different view.

    "Research published today by the Australian Institute of Family Studies compares two studies of children two decades apart, and found that, in both the 1980s and the first decade of this century, the "great majority" of young children were happily adjusted..."
    
    "But today's teachers were more likely than those of the 1980s - and more likely than today's parents - to report six- to seven-year-old children had conduct problems or were hyperactive. [emphasis added]

    "About 8 per cent of today's children were hyperactive, teachers reported, compared with about 6 per cent in the 1980s; about 3 per cent were disobedient, compared with 1.6 per cent in the 1980s; and 3.5 per cent fought with other children, compared with 2.9 per cent in the 1980s.

    "The report, Do Australian Children Have More Problems Today Than Twenty Years Ago?, says teachers today may be more aware of these problems than teachers of the 1980s and more willing to report them. But the authors say changed behaviour, perhaps due to less regulated classrooms, may also be a factor.

    "The authors said it was unusual in this type of research for teachers to report more problems in children than did the parents. The report is published in the institute's journal, Family Matters, and based on the Australian Temperament Project, which has followed people to age 25, and the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children."

    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    Similar story in The Australian
    
    
    

  • Students slice into virtual patients
    
    A world-first surgery simulator, invented by the CSIRO and Melbourne University, allows medical students to practice operations with unprecedented realism.
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Opposition attack McGowan's $650k office revamp
    
    "The Western Australian Opposition has criticised the Education Minister's spending on his office, including a $650,000 refit in 2006.

    "Opposition Spokesman for Education Peter Collier says it is hypocritical of Minister Mark McGowan to spend the money on his Governor Stirling Tower office, when more funding is needed for state schools.

    "The new figures detailing the spending came from parliamentary questions put to the State Government.

    "Mr Collier says this will further exaggerate the rift between Mr McGowan and teachers.

    "Now at that stage we are talking about an enormous amount of improvements to a raft of staff rooms across the length and breadth of Western Australia and the number of schools that are in desperate need of repair," he said. [emphasis added]

    "You've got the Minister for Education spending this huge amount of money on this plush office space."

    "Mr Collier says Mr McGowan's explanation for the refit is not good enough.

    "Because he had an expanded Ministerial role he needed expanded office space but quite frankly what we are talking about here is the impression that it gives to the community at large and particularly teachers."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Carpenter to roll out computers in schools program
    
    "Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter says the State Government will roll out the Federal Government's $1 billion computers in schools program.

    "Some states and territories have demanded more money for the running costs of the scheme, including software, insurance and the rewiring of classrooms."Mr Carpenter says he discussed funding concerns with the Prime Minister at the last Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting and is now confident that the state can implement the program.

    "What we've got now in Western Australia is a clear understanding from the Federal Government that our capacity to implement the project will be taken into consideration, and the speed at which this project is rolled out, and I think we're going to manage this OK," he said."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Rudd called to admit computers program flawed
    
    "The Federal Opposition says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd must admit his election promise to give a computer to every senior high school student is flawed.

    "The New South Wales Government is demanding millions more in extra funding from the Commonwealth before it backs Mr Rudd's plan.

    "There is even talk within the Federal Government that a secret payment could be made to convince New South Wales to sign on.

    "Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says it is time for Mr Rudd to admit his plan will fail.

    "Why should the Australian taxpayer have to pay $245 million in a secret side deal with a Labor mate in the state of New South Wales, because Mr Rudd won't admit that he got it wrong, that he hadn't costed putting these computers into schools," he said."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • NSW signs up to school computer rollout
    
    "The Federal Government says New South Wales has signed on to the first round of its computers in schools program.

    "The New South Wales Government is the last to agree to the $1.2 billion program which will give every student in years nine to 12 access to a computer.
    
    "The Federal Government has been under pressure today over revelations the state was demanding an extra $245 million to pay for associated costs like insurance, re-wiring classrooms and software.
    
    "There was also talk within the Federal Government that a secret payment could be made to convince the state to sign on.
    
    "Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson earlier said it is time for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to admit the plan will fail.
    
    "Why should the Australian taxpayer have to pay $245 million in a secret side deal with a Labor mate in the state of New South Wales, because Mr Rudd won't admit that he got it wrong, that he hadn't costed putting these computers into schools," he said.
    
    "New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma defended his Government's demand, saying it was reasonable.
    
    "What NSW has been doing, like every other state, is pointing out to the Commonwealth that one, we are very happy to co-operate with the Commonwealth in rolling out its computer in the school program, [and] two, there are flow-on costs to the states and seeking resolution of that issue," he said.
    
    "Prime Minister Kevin Rudd earlier described the row as the normal argy bargy associated with negotiations.

    "But state and territory leaders have signalled that when they meet Mr Rudd on Thursday, they will be seeking assurances about more funding for the extra costs associated with later rounds of the program."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Bligh 'happy to negotiate' computers in schools program
    
    "Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says she is happy to keep negotiating with the Commonwealth over its computers in schools program.

    "The New South Wales Government is threatening to pull out of the deal unless it gets an extra $245 million to pay for installation costs.
    
    "Queensland received only 6 per cent of the computers in the first roll out."Ms Bligh says funding issues will be discussed at the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting this week.
    
    "I'm determined to make sure that every Queensland child in our classrooms gets the benefit of those Commonwealth computers," she said.

    "We won't be paying any more than we need to for them, but that'll be the subject of negotiation."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Govt calls for $900k per year for school computer rollout
    
    ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr says the Government will need $900,000 a year to fund future rounds of the Federal Government's computers in schools program.
    
    
    
  • Computers in schools: Underfunding 'exposed'
    
    "The Federal Opposition says documents have exposed underfunding in the Federal Government's computers in schools program.

    "Documents have come to light showing New South Wales Treasurer Michael Costa had told his federal counterpart they will not take part unless NSW gets an extra $245 million.

    "Opposition education spokesman Tony Smith says that confirms his view that the Federal Government plan does not pay to run the computers.

    "All the way long we've said there wasn't enough money to make the computers work in schools," he said.

    "Principals have been screaming from the roof tops for seven months, the Labor states have been saying at each COAG meeting since December there weren't the funds to actually make the computers work and without them the computers would simply be sitting at boxes in schools."

    "Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says the Government will reach agreement with all states over funding for the program at this week's COAG meeting.

    "We recognise that there are on-costs so we decided at the last COAG meeting to engage in a discussion with all of the states about an additional contribution which would recognise that expense," he said.

    "Computers in schools is a very big program and a very important program which goes to the core of our education revolution.

    "The first tranche of computers in schools is providing computers for something like 896 schools and we've spent something like $116 million - $56 million of that will go to NSW."

    "But Mr Smith says the state governments do not have enough money for the running costs.

    "For months we've been saying there wasn't enough money to actually make the computers work and for seven months Kevin Rudd has decided to cover up the problem rather than fix the problem," he said.

    "He was more worried about election day and the popularity of his promise.

    "He was never making sure the computers would actually work in schools."

    "Mr Costa is not commenting on the claims he threatened to scuttle the computers in schools program.

    "It has also been revealed Mr Swan was then advised to make a separate deal with New South Wales and keep the other states in the dark.

    "A spokesman for Mr Costa will not confirm the letter and only says negotiations are continuing.

    "The NSW Government says it is continuing negotiations with the Federal Government over the details.

    "Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's office says it is still committed to the plan."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • PM plays down computers for schools conflict
    
    Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has denied the computers for schools program is in trouble and says the Government is committed to its implementation.
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Nelson pressures PM over PC promise [late update: online only]
    
    Brendan Nelson has demanded Kevin Rudd reveal whether he is paying "hush money" over a pledge to put a PC on every high school desk.
    
    
    
  • NSW threat over school computers just argy-bargy, says Rudd [late update: online only]
    
    Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has dismissed as argy-bargy a threat by the NSW Government to not allow computers to be installed in every school because of funding pressures.
    
    
    
  • Don't leave us in the states' hands, technical colleges plead
    by Andrew Trounson
    
    "Australian Technical Colleges have urged the Rudd Government to rethink plans to abolish their funding, arguing the states have shown little interest in supporting an apprenticeship program devised by the former Howard government.

    "The colleges claim their model of delivering apprenticeship training to students is more efficient than the federal Government's replacement scheme in which secondary schools can apply for funding to offer their own training centres.
    
    "Our preference would be to remain funded at a commonwealth level because the state response has been less than desired," Nigel Hill, chairman of the Australian Technical College Association told The Australian.
    
    "At a time when 40 per cent of first-year trade apprentices are dropping out and exacerbating skills shortages, the Rudd Government has allocated $2.5billion over 10 years for schools to establish trade training centres.

    "The Government is also spending $1.9billion over five years to provide 630,000 new training places, including 85,000 apprenticeships..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Guardian
  
  
  • Physics teachers dying out in some state schools, report says
    by Polly Curtis, education editor
    
    · Dramatic fall in applicants to training courses
    · General science GCSE 'puts off the specialists'
    
    "Applications to physics teacher training courses have fallen dramatically, according to a report which suggests that the traditional physics specialist is disappearing from some state schools.

    "The number of applications dropped 27% in the last year, and retiring physics teachers now outnumber new recruits by 26%. Half of teachers have only a GCSE or A-level in the subject despite being expected to prepare pupils for university, said Alan Smithers, professor of education at Buckinghamshire University, who led the research.

    "The figures suggest that independent and high-scoring state schools have a near monopoly on physics teachers with the best degrees in the subject. The report also finds that:

    · Applications to teacher training courses overall have fallen nearly 10% since last year, with physics the worst affected, according to figures from the Graduate Teacher Training Registry;

    · The shortage of physics teachers is most acute in low-performing secondaries without a sixth form or specialist status in the sciences, and a quarter of schools have no specialist physics teachers;

    · Half of admissions tutors to teacher training courses believe changes in the GCSE curriculum to a general science course which focuses more on teaching science through topical issues such as global warming have deterred potential specialist teachers.

    "The report's findings come amid widespread concerns about physics education following a spate of closures of university departments, fuelled by a drop in numbers of students applying for places..."

    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    Similar story on BBC News
    
    
    
  • Exams 'bore brightest and fail weakest'
    by Anushka Asthana, education correspondent [The Observer]
    
    Experts urge a new look for 'divisive' teenage education with a single English baccalaureate
    
    "Education for teenagers in England and Wales is in crisis, leaving the brightest bored and unchallenged and causing the weakest to flee GCSEs and A-levels like refugees.
    
    "That is the damning assessment of two influential academics from the Institute of Education who will publish a report this week calling for a complete overhaul of the English examination system for 14- to 19-year-olds.."
    
    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    
    
  • University admissions: State school pupils to get controversial boost
    
    Universities will this week be told they can adopt controversial admissions procedures which make lower offers to pupils from struggling state schools because they show greater "potential" than applicants who have been intensively tutored at private schools.

 

Tuesday 1 July

• The West Australian
  

  • PM’s computer pledge faces $750m blowout (page 11)
    by Andrew Probyn
    
    “Kevin Rudd faces having to find an extra $750 million to implement his key election promise to give all high school students computers, after State premiers demanded the Federal Government cover the set-up costs associated with the $1 billion pledge.

    “With the issue threatening to derail Thursday’s Council of Australian Governments meeting in Sydney, the Prime Minister, who has made a virtue of his commitment to all of his election promises, said the demands were just part of the “normal argy-bargy” of Federal-State negotiations.

    “But documents obtained by the Nine Network show the Government was advised at the weekend to make a secret $245 million payment to NSW to secure its support for the rollout of computers to students from Years 9 to 12 to “avoid a problem”.

    “A briefing note to Treasurer Wayne Swan from his advisers says: “To ensure that the deal remains hidden and seemingly unrelated to COAG, it would be best if the side deal involved a specific capital project in NSW.”

    “The illuminating four-page advice to Mr Swan, apparently left behind in Channel 9’s studios by Mr Swan, apparently left behind in Cannel 9’s studios by Mr Swan or one of his staffers after the Treasurer was interviewed by Ellen Fanning on Sunday, warns that the States had the capacity to “hurt our capacity to end the blame game and to deliver key election commitments”.

    “It would be a mistake to assume that we completely hold the upper hand in COAG,” it says.

    “Although Mr Swan insisted yesterday he never contemplated taking the advice, other States made it clear they were not prepared to subsidise Federal Labor’s election promise by paying for broadband connections, extra power points, higher power bills and improved security.

    “The Federal Government should not expect the States to pay for the implementation of the Federal Government’s policies,” Premier Alan Carpenter said yesterday.

    “If the $245 million being demanded by NSW is extrapolated nationally – and assuming all high schools are of equal need – the Federal Government would face a bill of $750 million for WA.

    “Last month, 38 WA schools shared 3064 computers as part of the $116 million first phase of Labor’s election pledge, necessitating the State to stump up $345,000 for set-up costs.

    “NSW, which has one of the most rundown and neglected education sectors in Australia, got 64 per cent of the funding, followed by Victoria on 17 per cent. WA received just 4 per cent, mainly because it has spent more on school computers over the years than other States.

    “Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson said Mr Rudd must assure voters that he was not paying “hush money” to State Labor governments.

    “Are there any other side deals being done with the taxpayers’ chequebook with Labor States in order to keep them quiet?” Dr Nelson said.

    “Mr Rudd said: “This is just normal argy-bargy associated with a negotiation with States and Territories to get good things done.” WA Education Minister Mark McGowan said COAG had agreed that implementation costs would be considered by treasurers when new specific purpose payments were decided at the end of the year.”

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Students swear by English exams (page 31)
    London

    “British high school students are being awarded marks for writing obscene phrases on their English exams because it shows at least some ability to convey a message.

    “A chief examiner responsible for training other markets said yesterday that the phrase “f... off” deserved some marks.

    “Peter Buckroyd said the phrase met the requirements for minimum marks – that students demonstrated some simple sequencing of ideas and some words in appropriate order.

    “Mr Buckroyd, a chief examiner of English for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, the biggest of three examination boards, said he had given a pupil two marks out of a possible 27 for using the phrase.

    “It would be wicked to give it zero because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for – like conveying some meaning and some spelling,” he said. “It’s better than someone that doesn’t write anything at all. It shows more skills than somebody who leaves the page blank.”

    “Mr Buckroyd is responsible for standards in General Certificate of Secondary Education exams sat by 780,000 students aged 14 to 16 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

    “He had told other markers to follow his lead – even if “f... off” was the only thing written on a paper. He used the example to teach examiners the finer points of marking.

    “It elucidates some useful points – it shows some nominal skills but no relevance to the task,” he said.

    “Ofqual, the British Government examinations regulator, did not condemn Mr Buckroyd’s approach.

    “We think it’s important that candidates are able to use appropriate language in a variety of situations but it’s for awarding bodies to develop their mark scheme and for their markers to award marks in line with that scheme,” a spokesman said.

    “However, an AQA spokesman said markers should contact them if swear words were used in an inappropriate manner. He said: “If a candidate’s script contains, for example, obscenities, examiners are instructed to contact AQA’s offices, which will advise them in accordance with Joint Council for Qualification guidelines. Expletives in a script would either be disregarded or sanctioned.”

    “Other examining bodies said their marking schemes would not reward such language.

    “An Edexcel spokesman said: “If the question was ‘Use a piece of Anglo-Saxon English’, they may get a mark, but if they had just written ‘f... off’, they may get sanctioned.

    “If it was graphic or violent they may get no mark for that paper.”

    “The JCQ, which represents exam boards, said examiners had to report inappropriate, offensive or obscene material in papers and the awarding body must investigate.

    “If malpractice is identified, the awarding body will decide on the appropriate sanction, which could include loss of marks or even disqualification,” a spokesman said.”

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Computer deal will be paid for: Iemma
    
    "New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma says he signed up to the Federal Government's computers in schools program because there was an agreement ongoing costs would be met.

    "NSW had been demanding an extra $245 million from the Commonwealth to pay for associated costs like insurance, re-wiring classrooms and software.
    
    "Under the scheme, every student in years nine to 12 will be given access to a computer.
    
    "Mr Iemma says the state will receive $56 million in round one of the program.
    
    "What has happened in discussions with the Commonwealth is a process for those costs to be tested," he said.
    
    "Any additional funding to be considered, so there is compensation to the state and we can make this program more effective."
    
    "He is confident future costs will be addressed.
    
    "I'm confident that we've got a process now that will test the data," he said.
    
    "The Commonwealth has wanted the data tested. They've said ok the states have raised the issue of on costs, what are the elements that make that up?
    
    "We've got to prove our case [and] I'm very confident we can."
    
    "But the Opposition's education spokesman, Andrew Stoner, says he is worried the State Government signed up to the program without securing the federal funding it had previously asked for.
    
    "We've got a Government in disarray in NSW, no full-time education minister, a treasurer who hasn't budgeted for these computers," he said.

    "The latest is that they've kissed and made up, but show us the money."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Neal, Della Bosca refuse police interviews
    
    Federal MP Belinda Neal and her husband, New South Wales MP John Della Bosca, have refused to be interviewed by police over the Iguanas nightclub incident.
    
    
    
  • Della Bosca must face police: Iemma
    
    New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma has ordered suspended Education Minister John Della Bosca to be interviewed by police over the Iguanas nightclub incident, even though the MP had earlier refused.
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • Teacher fee deadline looms
    
    "The WA College of Teaching says about 350 teachers are paying a controversial $70 registration fee each day.
    
    "PerthNow revealed more than a week ago that more than 2500 teachers had not paid.
    
    "WACOT is threatening to deregister those who don't pay the amount by Thursday, raising concerns that this will exacerbate the teacher shortage.
    
    "The college's director Suzanne Parry would not provide the latest figures of teachers who had not paid, but she said that about 350 teachers had been paying each day.
    
    "Dr Parry said she was confident that all those who intended to teach next term would pay.
    
    "She said the ones who would not pay were teachers who had either left WA, or the teaching profession.
    
    "Non-financial members have been advised in writing that if they do not pay by 4pm on July 3 , that deregistration will be effective from 4pm on July 4 ," Dr Parry said.
    
    "It will be a costly and time-consuming process for them if they need to re-register.
    
    "The College Board has urged those who haven't paid to do so promptly so as to minimise the disruption that deregistration would cause in our schools. "
    
    "Meanwhile, the Education Department submitted an enterprise order to the Industrial Relations Commission on Friday, in early steps towards arbitration of the long-running teachers' pay dispute.
    
    "The order contains the department's proposal for teachers' pay and conditions, which the commission will consider. Under the order, teachers would get payrises of between 8.16 per cent and 12.09 per cent over two years.
    
    "But WA State School Teachers' Union President Anne Gisborne said it could be more than three months before the union and the department were in commission hearings where both parties put forward evidence for their own enterprise orders. [emphasis added]
    
    "The commission took over arbitration of the pay deal last month because the WA Government and the union could not reach agreement after more than eight months of wrangling.
    
    "The union is pushing for a 20 per cent-plus pay rise over three years.
    
    "It also wants smaller classes, more preparation time for primary teachers and "appropriate'' administration time for principals and their deputies.
    
    "The Government's last offer, which it withdrew, was nearly 14 per cent, rising with allowances and other factors."
    
    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    
    
  • Aussies paying five times more to download software
    
    So much for the "global village" - Australians are being charged up to five times more to download the same products as customers in the US.
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • States fall into line and back computer deal
    
    The NSW Government last night backed down and signed up to the commonwealth's $1.2billion computers-in-schools package, saving the Rudd Government from an embarrassing delay to a key election promise.
    
    Similar stories in most daily newspapers
    
    
    
• Fraud-accused college was at top of funding queue
  
  A college under investigation for defrauding more than $3 million from the federal and West Australian governments was among the first recipients of Labor's computers-in-schools program.
  
  
  
  
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Official: some A-level subjects are harder than others
    
    A-levels in maths and science are far harder than in subjects like media studies, large-scale research commissioned by the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society has found. The findings put a question mark both over the value of A-level grades and the Ucas points system, which determines university places for thousands of students every year. Ucas gives the same point score for every subject.
    
    Similar story on BBC News
    
    





• The Age
  
  
• Highly evolved: how Darwin has survived the test of time
  
  When Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was announced at a scientific meeting in 1858, there was surprisingly little fanfare. The head of the group that hosted the meeting even described the year as one without any "striking discoveries" for science.

  But today - exactly 150 years on from that announcement - the event is being remembered as the beginning of a scientific revolution, kicking off more than a year of events celebrating the impact of Darwin's work.
  
  
  

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Change in parents, as well
      
      "Your report says that parents today do not generally perceive that their children have serious conduct problems, yet teachers do ("The myth of today's troubled children", June 30).
      
      "As a teacher since 1973 (retired one year ago), I have seen a generation of children. In my experience, children are now generally more disruptive and violent, but modern parents do not acknowledge this, due to the cult of preciousness and encouragement of egocentricity that has evolved.

      "If a child was disobedient or violent in the 1970s and '80s, generally a discussion with the parents would result in a workable solution.

      "Now, more frequently the parents inform the teacher that the child's misbehaviour is someone else's fault, or that the teacher is picking on them. Not all parents are this one-eyed, but unfortunately many are."

      Lynda Beck, Rozelle
      
      

Wednesday 2 July

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers stick to course bans (page 12)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "The teachers’ union has ignored advice from the State’s industrial umpire and refused to lift its ban on the implementation of new Year 11 courses in 2009.
      
    "The WA Industrial Relations Commission last week recommended the State School Teachers Union lift its ban, but no formal orders were issued.
      
    "The union’s executive resolved at the weekend not to lift the ban, affecting more than 30 courses starting in 2009. But it agreed to vary the ban just for this week to allow specialist senior teachers who are helping other teachers implement the new courses to continue their preparations.
      
    “We didn’t agree to lift the ban, but we agreed to lift the application of the ban to teacher development centre activities for this week,” SSTU president Anne Gisborne said yesterday. The union has not gone back to the commission.”
      
    "The union is surveying teachers to find out what their extra workload will be if course planning goes ahead and whether they believe curriculum documents and teaching resources are ready for the courses to be introduced to Year 11 students next year. Teachers have until Friday to respond to the online survey.
      
    "Education Minister Mark Mc-Gowan ordered the Department of Education and Training to take the union to the WAIRC for the fifth time this year over its directive to halt planning and preparation for all courses to be introduced in 2009.
      
    "He called on Ms Gisborne to resign her position on the Curriculum Council but she refused.
      
    "Yesterday, a spokeswoman from Mr McGowan’s office said: “The matter is before the commission and we will await the outcome.”
      
    "The union argues that under its ban on unpaid overtime since the start of the year, teachers do not have enough time to prepare lesson plans and assessments for the new courses.
      
    "Many new courses, including chemistry, geography and literature, have been postponed twice because of teachers’ concerns about outcomesbased education assessment and lack of detailed content.
      
    "The Curriculum Council, which is in charge of introducing the senior school courses, says all new Year 11 courses have been finalised and approved for implementation next year. Only the new courses would be counted towards the WA Certificate of Education, which is required for university entrance.
      
    "Independent and Catholic school chiefs have said delaying the courses in State schools while allowing them to go ahead in private schools would be unworkable."
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Students back teacher on pay (page 50)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    “Students at Narrogin Senior High School missed classes for two hours yesterday on the second day of pro­tests in support of teachers' demands for better pay and conditions.
    
    “About half the school's 120 Year 12 students spent the first two hours of the school day yesterday and on Monday protesting at the front of the school.
    
    “Year 12 prefect Paul Pivac, 17, said students would do the same every day this week, culminating in an all-day protest on Friday. The sit-in had been planned for the past few months.
    
    “Even though a ban on unpaid overtime by the State School Teach­ers Union had resulted in students missing excursions and events such as Country Week, the biggest school sporting event in W A, Paul said Narrogin students backed the teachers' demands. "We think they're entitled to demand more money for their pro­fession," he said.
    
    “Narrogin principal Tim Martin said students were well behaved and wearing school uniform but he had asked them to reconsider the decision to protest.
    
    “He said while students had offered support to teachers' pay demands, he believed the protest was mainly because they had missed out on Country Week, which started today.
    
    "I empathise with them," he said. "Country Week is a major issue in their lives, particularly for the Year 12s who didn't go last year.
                                                
    “Students were also concerned they would miss out on their gradu­ation ceremony and dinner, but Mr Marlin said they would go ahead, though they may have to be held during school hours instead of at night.
    
    “Younger students from: Years 8 to 11 who tried to join the protest were sent back to class. "We had a talk to them and said this is really a  Year 12 issue, because the Year 11s can go (to Country Week) next year," he said.
    
    “Country Week, which runs until Friday, was scaled back dramatical­ly this year as a result of the pay stoush between the State Govern­ment and teachers.

    “Only 27 schools are participating this year compared with 39 last year. The number of students tak­ing part was also reduced from about 3000 to 1500 with the State's biggest high schools among those pulling out of the 81-year-old event because of the union directive ban­ning unpaid overtime.”

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Scottish teachers head to WA regional areas
    
    "The Department of Education has recruited 50 Scottish teachers to work in regional schools in Western Australia.

    "The department says it now has more than 150 overseas teachers available to begin work in rural schools next year.

    "Already 63 overseas teachers have been sponsored on 457 visas to work in Western Australia.

    "Most have come from the United Kingdom."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Oppn slams Govt Catholic school funding 'blunder'
    
    "The Victorian Government has accused the Opposition of making a major blunder in its funding announcement for Catholic schools.

    "Two years out from the next state election, the Opposition has got on the front foot by pledging almost $400 million for Catholic education in Victoria.
    
    "Liberal leader Ted Baillieu says the funding would be rolled out over four years.
    
    "We have to ensure that we have the best education system in Australia," he said.
    
    "But Labor MP Jacinta Allan has accused Mr Baillieu of making a major blunder in his policy document, which states funding will commence in the middle of next year.

    "The next state election is not due until November 2010, representing a $90 million mistake."

    "Ms Allan says the Government is in the middle of delivering its own education agreement and would not match the Liberal's offer.."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Gillard to copy UK teacher campaign
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "The Federal Government plans to emulate a British recruitment campaign that has been credited with boosting its ailing number of teachers.

    "Australia faces a looming teacher shortage, with half the profession approaching retirement within the next 10 years.
    
    "The Minister for Education and Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said yesterday she had been inspired by the success of the British campaign that carried slogans such as "Those who can, teach" and "Use your head: teach".
    
    "She credited the drive with helping to make teaching one of the most popular graduate career choices since its introduction in 2000. The campaign sparked a reported 49 per cent increase in inquiries from prospective teacher graduates in its first year.
    
    "Ms Gillard said she would look at introducing a similar program to encourage the "best and brightest" of university graduates to enter the teaching profession.
    
    "The UK has made remarkable progress in taking the selection of teaching right up to the top of the pops for people in the UK," said Ms Gillard after she had addressed the City of London Corporation.
    
    "I am exploring the possibility of similar campaigns in Australia, combined with measures to help ensure that the best teachers are able to teach in the most challenging and rewarding locations.

    "There is a lot for Australia to learn from these programs. We believe that there is nothing more valuable you can do for your nation than go into teaching and we want to reinforce that."

    "Ms Gillard declined to commit to improving teacher salaries to improve the profession's status.
    
    "However, she has indicated that she favours a system of performance pay for quality teachers that is linked to a broad range of measures. This would be negotiated with the states and territories as part of a new national education partnership. [emphasis added]

    "We want to make sure that excellent teachers are valued," she said yesterday.

    "The Howard government's model of performance pay was rejected by teachers and Labor because of its strong link between student results and teacher pay increases.

    "Angelo Gavrielatos, the president of the Australian Education Union, said federal and state governments had been full of platitudes when it came to the issue of increasing teacher numbers.

    "The best advice for the Government and the minister is that with respect to strategies aimed at attracting and retaining teachers, what is required is a competitive professional salary for teachers and an appropriate level of recognition and respect for the profession by our elected leaders," he said.

    "That is demonstrated by recognising the importance and value of teachers and adequately funding our public schools.

    "For far too long we have had nothing more than platitudes."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    For P---'s sake, what's in a name?
    by Alan Marel
    
    "The English language is being slowly and stealthily destroyed. Not, as you might imagine, by the lazy, the ignorant or the ill-educated, but by the legal system worldwide.

    "We have been instructed that only beverages from Champagne and Burgundy may be referred to as such. I can buy "parmesan-style" cheese but real parmesan must originate from one specific region only. The thin edge of the wedge appeared last month with reports of the legal attempt in Greece to prevent anyone but those born on the island of Lesbos from calling themselves lesbians. Don't these people have anything better to clog up their courts with?

    "If this latest action is successful, where will it all end? Children arrested in the playground for giving another child a Chinese burn that did not originate in China? And what will become of crockery? Certainly china no more. We'll need to rename brussels sprouts, English muffins, french fries and kiwi fruit (again), Afghan hounds, frankfurts, chelsea buns, scotch and so on. The list is enormous, and don't think it stops there..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    

    • Computers alone not enough
      
      "I applaud the provision of more than 200 computers for our local high school ("NSW folds in computer dispute", July 1), but I am concerned they will become a white elephant if neither the state nor federal governments offers continued funding. Where will they be securely stored? Who will be responsible for their installation on the school network and the variety of curriculum-specific software? Who will maintain them? Do schools have a qualified staff member whose sole job is IT? What about further training for teachers to be able to incorporate IT into lessons?

      "Providing hardware is not enough. Education is an investment. It costs. The sooner both governments provide the funds for the real support of the digital education revolution, the better."

      Sharon McGuinness, Thirroul
      
      
      

• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Image boost vow on schools by Bronwyn Pike
    by Karen Collier
    
    "Education Minister Bronwyn Pike yesterday vowed to correct an impression that government schooling was a system of last resort.

    "She said too many people had lost confidence in public schools, and pledged to rebuild faith in the system.
    
    "Ms Pike's candid admission follows a boom in enrolments at private schools in Victoria and nationally over the past decade.
    
    "She said it was unfair to cast government schools as poor cousins or a last resort.
    
    "A lot of people think the public system is the system you go to when you can't afford the private system," Ms Pike told the Herald Sun.
    
    "I would like parents to feel they have a genuine choice, not a default choice."

    "Her pledge to restore confidence came ahead of the release of a key report setting out the state's education agenda for the next five years.

    "The education blueprint will focus on fostering a culture of excellence across all schools, and boosting the performance of struggling pupils..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Bradley warns of 'brave' changes
    by Andrew Trounson
    
    "Denise Bradley has put the federal Government on notice that her review of higher education is considering sweeping and brave changes to the sector that may require substantial political will if they are to beimplemented.

    "At a Monday night seminar where the vice-chancellors of Canberra and Melbourne universities canvassed the need for universities to specialise and merge, as well as a greater role for market forces, Professor Bradley said the review panel had "a mind to be brave".

    "But in a clear message to Education Minister Julia Gillard, Professor Bradley said that, should the panel be courageous, there would be "the second question on whether people are willing to take it forward".

    "There is concern about political will coming up (from our consultations)," she told the seminar at the University of Melbourne on Monday night.

    "She said the Government faced a potential political minefield and noted that the architect of the present system, former federal education minister John Dawkins, had needed to rely on considerable threat and charm to get his reforms through.

    "Some of us who were here 20 years ago are aware of the massive personal effort that John Dawkins put into that, and the mix of charm and threat that he used; largely threat, but he could be charming when he wanted to," Professor Bradley said.

    "Earlier she told HES that the panel's consultations with the sector were throwing up plenty of complaints but few solutions.

    "The consultations are suggesting that people are ready to talk about change but it would be true to say that people are bit better on problem definition than they are on solution finding at the moment," Professor Bradley said..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    See related story in The Age
    
    
    

  • Industry keen on market-oriented VET
    
    Moves to overhaul the TAFE sector nationally in line with contentious market-oriented reforms proposed in Victoria gathered pace yesterday.
    
    
    
  • Unlock creativity in hard sciences
    by Guy Healy
    
    "Norman Jackson spent eight years searching for minerals in the deserts and mountains of Saudi Arabia as a geologist before he became a professor of higher education at the University of Surrey in Britain.

    "The transformation of his career probably owes a lot to his belief that professional practice, even in scientific fields such as engineering and medicine, relies on hidden creativity.

    "Professor Jackson, co-editor of Developing Creativity in Higher Education: An Imaginative Curriculum, was in Brisbane last week for a Queensland University of Technology forum.

    "Being able to inquire productively, being able to find out the things you need to find out to do the things you need to do, is now being resurrected in the context of how we prepare learners," Professor Jackson said.

    "Not for just their first job -- which is what we have been doing for a long time in higher education -- but for 10, 20 years down the line, when the jobs they will end up in are probably jobs they will create themselves, that don't exist at the moment and (use) technologies that haven't been invented yet and the problems they will be addressing have not been imagined, so how canwe prepare people for that sort of world?" ...
    
    Full story in The Australian at link

    
    
  • Quality reforms 'may harm research'
    
    Researchers have expressed serious concerns over the federal Government's proposed research performance exercise, warning key measures will not be accepted and that it risks downgrading cutting-edge research.
    
    
    
• School takes its first carbon footstep into the future
  
  Sydney's St Ignatius College Riverview is going further than planting trees and picking up rubbish in an effort to save the environment.

  The school is the first Australian user of innovative software that uses smart metering to track, manage and report on energy use.

  
  
  
• The Age
  
  
  • Homeless crisis at top university
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "The Rudd Government is facing pressure to boost income support for tertiary students, as Victoria's most distinguished institution — Melbourne University — reveals that hundreds of its students are homeless due to rising living costs.

  "The head of the Government's higher education review, Denise Bradley, has signalled she will urge an overhaul of schemes such as Youth Allowance and Austudy, amid complaints that they are either too hard to qualify for, or insufficient to live on.

  "She revealed the push as the vice-chancellor of Melbourne University, Glyn Davis, said 440 students were in effect homeless, "hot-bedding" with relatives or friends because they could not afford their own residence.

  "Painting a grim picture of student life, Professor Davis said a recent analysis found the majority of students were studying part time, with many working more than 20 hours a week to cope with rising living costs..."
  
  Full story in The Age at link

 

Thursday 3 July

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Alston (page 20)


© The West Australian

 

• Number of teachers facing ban kept secret [Front Page]
  by Bethany Hiatt

  “WA’s teacher registration body has refused to reveal how many teachers face being banned from the classroom for failing to pay their compulsory annual fee, which is due by 4pm today.

  “Teachers face instant suspension when the school term ends tomorrow if they haven’t paid the $70 fee to the WA College of Teaching.

  “The registration issue could have a big impact on schools, with the State’s teacher shortage meaning there are already no relief teachers in store to replace those who may be suspended.

  “Two weeks ago, WACOT warned that more than 2000 teachers faced the prospect of deregistration for not paying their fee, which was due in March. But director Suzanne Parry yesterday refused to divulge the number who still had not paid, saying the figures were changing constantly.

  “We are not going to release those figures while schools and the college are still working on contacting people,” she said. “We’re also processing a high volume of people who have written to us to let us know they need their registration cancelled because they are no longer teaching or are no longer in WA.”

  “Dr Parry said the number of teachers who had not paid had fallen significantly in the past two weeks. It was now a small percentage of WACOT’s 45,000 members. She was confident schools would have enough teachers when classes resume next term.

  “Teachers must be registered with WACOT to be able to teach in WA. Those who let their membership lapse are barred from classrooms until they go through a time-consuming and expensive process to rejoin.

  “In 2007, hundreds of teachers refused to pay their annual fee until the last minute in protest over the long delay of an election of 10 teachers to the college board.

  “This year, Dr Parry said a small group of teachers had taken the opportunity to protest because they were disenchanted with the profession, curriculum changes and the pay dispute with the Government.

  “Shadow education minister Peter Collier said teachers were using non-payment of WACOT fees as a symbol of their frustration with the way Education Minister Mark McGowan had mismanaged the education portfolio.

  “Anger within the profession has reached fever pitch among teachers,” he said. “I don’t think that they have an issue against WACOT, I think it’s a professional statement against the Department of Education and Training and the Government.” Mr McGowan said.  Mr Collier was running down public education and refusing to come clean on whether the Opposition would accept the teachers union’s list of demands in the pay dispute.

  “Mr McGowan said schools were waiting on advice from WACOT as to how many teachers failed to register by the deadline.

  DET deputy director-general Margery Evans said: “Parents can be reassured that there will be no disruption in public schools arising out of the possible deregistering of teachers by WACOT.”

  “Association of Independent Schools of WA deputy director Valerie Gould said principals were pressuring those teachers who had not paid to do so.”

  From The West Australian
  
  

  
  
• Op Ed
  School computer plan must extract the digital (page 20)
  by Paul Murray

  “The half-baked nature of Kevin Rudd’s election promise to put a computer in front of every senior high school student is becoming increasingly apparent.
  
  “A $1 billion headline-grabbing poll commitment, used to counter the Liberal Party’s bombshell tax cuts pledge in the first week of last year’s campaign, is rapidly becoming a $2 billion face in reality.
  
  “And for that $2 billion, there is no guarantee of any improvement in education standards.“In fact, the Rudd Government has at no time sought to make a case explaining the benefits of giving all Year 9 to 12 students access to their own computer.
  
  “There is an absolute dearth of international research supporting such a move. This is another of Mr Rudd’s “symbolic” gestures that resonate well with the public, but don’t stand up to scrutiny.
  
  “Just as ominous as the lack of a supporting case is Mr Rudd’s decision to throw an extra $750 million into the project this week when the States refused to pick up the costs of implementing the scheme.
  
  “The Treasury has been treated as a bottomless pit. And the way in which the extra money came to be paid to the unhappy States is murky indeed.
  
  “Documents carelessly left behind in a Channel 9 studio on Sunday by Treasurer Wayne Swan – not the first time he’s been caught out like that – show the Government was advised to make a secret $245 million payment to NSW to silence its opposition before the Council of Australian Governments meeting today.
  
  “A briefing note to Mr Swan said: “To ensure that the deal remains hidden and seemingly unrelated to COAG, it would be best if the side deal involved a specific capital project in NSW.”
  
  “The advisers warned that the States’ refusal to pay for broadband connections, extra power points, higher power bills and improved security had the ability to “hurt our capacity to end the blame game and to deliver key election commitments”.
  
  “Mr Swan says he never contemplated taking the advice to hide the payment. That is irrelevant. That a senior government officer felt comfortable making that sort of unethical advice to the Treasurer is alarming. In fact, it deserves investigation, if not by the Auditor-General, then a parliamentary committee.
  
  “But back to the major issue: the spending of $2 billion on a grand gesture.
  
  “There is no evidence of performance benefits for students on the “Digital Education Revolution” website set up by the Federal Department for Education to sell this policy.
  
  “In a list of Frequently Asked Questions there’s nothing like: Why are we doing this? There is no evidence showing that in certain countries student performance increased by a measurable amount after there was uniform access to computers.
  
  “The only bit of research available is the Partnerships in ICT Learning Study, which, it should be said, was heavily influenced by the Australian Council for Computers in Education, hardly a group without an iron in the fire.
  
  “The purpose of the PICTL study was to demonstrate good-practice approaches to embedding Information and Communication Technology (ICT) throughout the educational experience of pre-service teachers, teachers and teacher educators,” the report says.
  
  “However, some of its statements make you wonder what we’ll get from $2 billion.
  
  “The situation in Australia appears similar to the US and Europe,” the report says. “There is evidence of some enhancements and developments to the learning process, but the teaching profession at large remains sceptical.
  
  “Also, despite positive opinions being offered by proponents of ICT there are limited documented profound improvements across the curriculum in the areas of learning or teaching.”
  
  “So why are we spending the money? The report does give a glimpse into the sort of psychobabble on which the Rudd decision was based.
  
  “This excerpt comes from a section headed “NSW – evidence of success” and reports on computer learning programs undertaken with teachers: “Teachers reported using new strategies to record more holistic assessment in classrooms after the experience of the project. There was evidence of teachers’ determination to set new personal teaching-related challenges and to accelerate their own professional journey. A shift in concerns was noticed from implementation issues and whether ideas were practical to teachers being excited about the potential of rethinking their own practice. There were signs of development of a new culture in professional practice and conversations.”
  
  “That is so-called evidence of success. Have a go at this waffle about “success” in WA: “A number of teachers in school setting created a momentum for activity or extending activity. It was established that whole-of-school approaches have the most potential to shift school momentum and generate a culture of reflective dialogue about using ICT in a school setting.”
  
  “There is precious little hard international evidence that giving every student a computer can be economically justified.
  
  “A recent study from the decidedly left-wing London School of Economics found some improvement in English and science, but “for mathematics, the impact of ICT on test scores is very close to zero”.
  
  “So, unlike previous economic studies, this research finds evidence of a positive casual impact of ICT investment on educational performance in primary schools,” the report said.
  
  “As it admits, that study is at odds with most of the available international research.

  “So just what did Mr Rudd use to frame his now $2 billion policy?”

  From The West Australian
  
  
  
  
• Universities seek big rise in money (page10)
  by Andrew Tillett

  “WA universities will demand a big increase in funding including being allowed to set their own fees today when they meet a federal panel examining the future of the country’s higher education system.
  
  “Two days of talks begin in Perth between the panel and senior academics from the WA, Curtin, Edith Cowan and Murdoch universities.
  
  “The universities say they will struggle to maintain their quality of education and research without a radical overhaul in how they are funded.
  
  “UWA is set to propose a five-point plan to let it to compete with international institutions.
  
  “Registrar Peter Curtis said it wanted the Federal Government to give universities greater autonomy to set course fees, decide what subjects they would offer and the number of places.
  
  “Mr Curtis said that if universities could set their fees, they could recruit the best teaching and research talent. Scholarships would be made available for poorer students and other universities could set lower fees to offer a more basic education.
  
  “The university is being asked to be internationally competitive but at the moment it is being shackled,” he said.
  
  “Curtin University acting Vice-Chancellor Robyn Quin said it wanted more money for its regional campuses, which were more expensive to run.

  “Edith Cowan University Vice-Chancellor Kerry Cox and Murdoch University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Jan Thomas said the Government needed to index annual grants by the full consumer price index.”

  From The West Australian
  
  
  

• SSTUWA Media Release
  
  
  • Government Submission An Insult!
    by Anne Gisborne
    
    
    Negotiations in the WA Industrial Relations Commission (WAIRC) over the wages and conditions for teachers over the next two years will be long, drawn out and bitter, according to the President of the State School Teachers’ Union of Western Australia (SSTUWA) Ms Anne Gisborne.
     
    “After receiving the Twomey Report it appears that the Government and the Department have done their very best to ignore most of the recommendations and headed down a path that will see the status of teaching fall, the teacher shortage getting worse and the children of Western Australians receiving a poorer level of education,” she said today.
     
    Ms Gisborne said that it would apply to Government schools and private schools because private schools invariably follow the benchmark set by the State system.
     
    “At a time of crisis in education, this Carpenter Government has missed an opportunity to step up to the plate and hit a home run on behalf of public education, students and the W.A. community and economy. Rather, it appears to want a prolonged tussle in the mud … an approach which the Union believes will be detrimental to teachers and administrators working for DET,” she said.
     
    “The Department’s submission to the WAIRC fails to address the issues of workload but rather dramatically increases it,” said Ms Gisborne.
     
    “On top of the current workload teachers would be forced to attend extra weekly staff meetings, participate in 15 hours of professional development, undertake voluntary duties such as schools camps and stay in their classrooms for an extra 15 minutes each day,” she said.
     
    “All references to work-life balance have been removed, nothing is offered in relation to class sizes, all references to a career path have been removed and significant clauses relating to inclusion, behavior management and other factors have been stripped,” she added.
     
    “The submission by the so-called Labor Government is nothing more than a recipe for an increase in the bitter divide between teachers and their employer, a massive increase in the teacher shortage and the resulting drop in educational standards in this State,” said Ms Gisborne.
     
    The Union has appointed one of the nation’s preeminent QC’s Mordy Bromberg to handle its case in the WAIRC.
    
    From SSTUWA at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • 800 WA teachers pay fees on last day
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "Nearly 800 teachers appear to have paid registration fees today in the face of a 4pm deadline that could have cost their jobs and left schools struggling.

    "The deadline for the controversial $70 registration fees was 4pm today.

    "Teachers who haven't paid will be deregistered by the WA College of Teaching from 4pm tomorrow.

    "WACOT director Suzanne Parry still refuses to reveal how many teachers have yet to pay from the more than 2500 who had not paid about 12 days ago, as revealed by PerthNow.

    "Dr Parry said it would be some days before WACOT got the final figures. So any numbers she released now would not be "meaningful''.

    "I can tell you that today we took more almost 600 phonecalls,'' Dr Parry said. "We also received 200 emails.

    "The majority of those were payments.

    "We don't believe that anybody who needs to be teaching Monday fortnight (Term 3) is not going to be able to do so.''

    "Dr Parry, who previously indicated that WACOT was receiving about 350 payments daily, today said that the history of last minute payments in past years and this year's last minute surge made her confident that most teachers would pay.

    "She said WACOT would release final figures when it was "absolutely certain of our position''.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan has previously confirmed that if WACOT deregistered teachers, the Education Department and other employers were obliged by law to stop them teaching.

    "On June 21 Dr Parry confirmed that more than 2500 teachers had not paid their fees, but said at the time that considerably fewer than 2000 were still in WA schools.

    "But PerthNow also revealed at the time that some WA schools faced shortages of up to 11 teachers because groups were not paying in protest.

    "Teachers had said that pockets of eight to 11 teachers at individual schools were not paying their fees because they were "p....d off with the way public education is being handled by this Government'', including the pay dispute.

    "WACOT director Suzanne Parry said on June 21: "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.''

    "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.

    "There are another nine board members appointed by the WA Education Minister." [emphasis added]
    
    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    
    

  • Parents warned of bitter schools battle [based on the union media release, above]
    by John Flint
    
    "WA's teacher's union today foreshadowed a "long and bitter" battle with the Carpenter Government over wages and conditions.

    "The State School Teachers’ Union was responding to the Education Department's submission to the WA Industrial Relations Commission, which is acting as umpire.
    
    “The Department’s submission to the WAIRC fails to address the issues of workload but rather dramatically increases it,” said union president Anne Gisborne.
    
    “After receiving the Twomey Report it appears that the Government and the Department have done their very best to ignore most of the recommendations and headed down a path that will see the status of teaching fall, the teacher shortage getting worse and the children of Western Australians receiving a poorer level of education,” she added.
    
    “At a time of crisis in education, this Carpenter Government has missed an opportunity to step up to the plate and hit a home run on behalf of public education, students and the W.A. community and economy.

    "Rather, it appears to want a prolonged tussle in the mud … an approach which the Union believes will be detrimental to teachers and administrators working for DET,” she said.
    
    "Referring to the Education Department's submission to the WAIRC she said:

    “On top of the current workload teachers would be forced to attend extra weekly staff meetings, participate in 15 hours of professional development, undertake voluntary duties such as schools camps and stay in their classrooms for an extra 15 minutes each day.
    
    “All references to work-life balance have been removed, nothing is offered in relation to class sizes, all references to a career path have been removed and significant clauses relating to inclusion, behavior management and other factors have been stripped.
    
    “The submission by the so-called Labor Government is nothing more than a recipe for an increase in the bitter divide between teachers and their employer, a massive increase in the teacher shortage and the resulting drop in educational standards in this State," Ms Gisborne said. 
    
    "The Union has appointed one of the nation’s preeminent QCs, Mordy Bromberg, to handle its case in the WAIRC."

    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • PM pressured to reveal computer roll-out extra costs
    
    The Federal Opposition is demanding that the Prime Minister use today's meeting with premiers and chief ministers to explain what extra costs will be involved in his computers in schools program.
    
    
    
  • Secret ballots considered over education changes
    
    "Tasmania's Education Union is ramping up its campaign for more information about the State Government's proposed changes to post year 10 education.

    "The union is considering holding a secret ballot to gauge whether members have confidence in the Tasmania Tomorrow reforms.

    "Next year, four Tasmanian colleges will start operating as joint academies and polytechnics.

    "But the Education Union says the majority of TAFE and college members around the state believe implementation of the reforms should be delayed until 2011.

    "The union's state president, Leanne Wright, says members are concerned about how the reforms will affect their conditions.

    "At regional meetings this week, a motion was moved for members not to be involved in any decisions about future placements.

    "They want to know exactly where they stand and what they're getting themselves into before they make a choice or are told where they'll be going," said Ms Wright.

    "The union also wants a risk management plan released immediately. The union's executive will decide next week whether to hold a secret ballot."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • E-learning literacy program showing promise for Indigenous students
    
    A university study in the Northern Territory has found web based educational software is helping Indigenous students with English language literacy.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
• Op Ed
  Equality in education is a dying concept
  by Kenneth Davidson
  
  The Rudd Government has picked up where Howard left off.
  
  "The education revolution promised by Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard during last year's election campaign wasn't meant to be taken seriously.
  
  "According to international comparisons by the OECD, the outstanding characteristic of the Australian education system is that it rates very highly in terms of efficiency as measured by overall literacy and numeracy skills (fourth out of 30 countries) but rather poorly in terms of equity (18th out of 30 countries).
  
  "The Rudd Government's education policy is a seamless continuation of the policies of the Howard government. In 2006, the then education minister, Julie Bishop, said the education debate had "moved on from questions of resourcing. The new frontier in education reform in Australia is about teacher quality and curriculum … ideologues who have hijacked school curriculums are experimenting with the education of our young people from a comfortable position of unaccountability, safe within the education bureaucracies".
  
  "This was "dog whistle" politics, reminiscent of the $20 million "run for cover" campaign in 2000 designed to drive people into private health insurance.
  
  "But is Bishop's comment any different to the statement by Education Minister Julia Gillard in a speech to the Association of Independent Schools in May: "I believe it is time we got beyond the public versus private debate that has blighted our education debates for so long and replaced it with a debate about the quality of education and how we can guarantee every child, no matter how rich or how poor, gets the best education possible."
  
  "While Gillard isn't as crass as Bishop, the message is designed to skate over an inconvenient truth — the poorest can get an education that approximates to that of the rest of the community only if the state schools on which they depend are properly resourced, thereby making these schools an attractive alternative to the children of the middle-class. The creation of a two-tier health system is bad enough; the creation of a two-tier education system is incompatible with a modern, multicultural society.
  
  "But like Bishop, Gillard plays down resourcing and exclusivity as the key factors behind parents choosing private education: "I think it is because many people see the independent sector as having a strong commitment to the kind of qualities that parents know instinctively are important to their child's education … the right curriculum, strong standards, quality teaching, good leadership and necessary resources. As I said, that is true of non-government schools, it is also true of many excellent public schools, which do not always benefit from the same favourable assumptions."
  
  "The imputation is clear. The Rudd Government education "revolution" involves continuing with the unfair funding arrangements of the Howard government. Why? This can be explained by a simple political calculus, which suggests that the Government has more votes to lose than to gain by a level funding playing field as operates in most OECD countries. This is where private schools receive public funding only on the condition that their total spending per student is no higher than for government school students.
  
  "It is not to denigrate government schools to point out that they educate most of the "at risk" students. It is irrefutable that each dollar spent on these schools will generate a much bigger pay-off in economic and social terms than a dollar spent on non-government schools, which are already better resourced than government schools..."
  
  Full story in The Age at link
  
  
  
• Coalition's $400m to Catholic schools
  by Farrah Tomazin
  
  "Victorian Catholic schools would get a funding shake-up under a Victorian Coalition government, as principals warn they are being forced to increase fees and cut student programs to cope with state shortfalls.
  
  "In an early election pledge, Coalition leaders Ted Baillieu and Peter Ryan yesterday promised an extra $400 million to boost Catholic teacher wages and help needy students if they win government in 2010.
  
  "The plan comes as Premier John Brumby faced growing anger from the church — including Archbishop Denis Hart — over lack of money for Catholic schools in the May budget.
  
  "Principals told The Age that this, coupled with years of underfunding from the state, meant parents and students would have to make up the shortfalls. "We will have to reduce programs and raise fees, there's no doubt about it," said Jim Sheedy, principal of St Mary's Primary School in Williamstown, where annual fees are currently around $1200..."
  
  Full story in The Age at link
  
  
  
• Letter to the Editor
  

  • "That hundreds of University of Melbourne students are experiencing homelessness (The Age, 2/7) is of great concern but, unfortunately, not a surprise. A forum held last year highlighted problems faced by disadvantaged students. In particular, indigenous Australians and low socio-economic status students require financial assistance. The eligibility criteria for Youth Allowance for rural students is too rigid and has created a barrier for those who contemplate study.
    
    "Research has shown that, due to lack of decent income, many tertiary students work excessive hours or in dangerous industries such as sex work. A significant number even go without food.
    
    "Federal Government allowances for students should be above the poverty line. In reality, this is not the case. In an equitable society, all young people should be supported to have equal opportunity to access tertiary education."

    Mark Zirnsak, director, justice unit, Uniting Church, Victorian and Tasmanian synod

    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Aussie diamonds a clue to life birth
    
    Ancient diamonds from the rugged rocks of Western Australia are about to trigger a modern scientific explosion.
    
    Australian, Swiss and German researchers claim the rocks contain tantalising evidence that life began 4.2 billion years ago, just a geological blink after the formation of Earth 4.5 billion years ago.
    
    
    
  • Op Ed: Voters want Rudd to sort out states
    
    Australians feel badly let down by their state governments, particularly in NSW, and would welcome commonwealth intervention to sort out problems such as hospitals...
    
    Asked whether the federal Government should step in where there is an important issue not being solved by state governments, 79 per cent agree and only 17 per cent disagree.
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Schools of thought: teach children philosophy, experts urge
    by Anthea Lipsett
    
    "Children of all ages should study philosophy in school to develop their critical thinking skills, education experts said today.
    
    "Academics suggest that, rather than start off with Socrates, teachers use common classroom disputes to help children learn about abstract philosophical principles such as fairness, morality and punishment. They give the example of apportioning blame for spilling paint
    
    "The book Philosophy in Schools, edited by Dr Michael Hand of the Institute of Education and Dr Carrie Winstanley of Roehampton University, puts forward several arguments for including philosophy in the school curriculum.
    
    "Critical thinkers are people who reason well, and who judge and act on the basis of their reasoning," Hand says.
    
    "To become critical thinkers, children must learn what constitutes good reasoning and why it's important - and these are philosophical matters.
    
    "Exposure to philosophy should be part of the basic educational entitlement of all children."
    
    "In philosophy, the quality of arguments and the meanings of words are under constant scrutiny.
    
    "Winstanley said teachers could use popular books to initiate philosophical discussions. For example, Where the Wild Things Are could lead into debates on the existence of monsters, and why the main character's mother sends him to his room without supper.
    
    "Winstanley said: "Better than any other subject, philosophy teaches children how to assess reasons, defend positions, define terms, evaluate sources of information and judge the value of arguments and evidence."
    
    "Philosophy also allows younger children to engage in discussion and argument even before they know very much.
    
    "Children could grasp questions such as, 'Is it fair for a teacher to keep everyone in because someone has lost the scissors?' Winstanley said.
    
    "In one class, discussing heroism, eight-year-olds had raised the example of firefighters in the 9/11 attacks unprompted, she said. Older pupils in secondary schools could look at the concepts in more depth and learn about the philosophers that had studied them.
    
    "In knowledge-based subjects, discussion is dominated by the children with the most facts at their fingertips.
    
    "Because philosophical questions cannot be settled by factual evidence, discussion doesn't get derailed by missing knowledge or closed down by the introduction of new information."
    
    "The book also includes essays on the role of philosophy in teaching controversial issues, such as abortion, conceptual analysis in the primary classroom, and the place of philosophical thinking in moral and religious education.
    
    "It also covers the idea of philosophical intelligence, philosophical themes in children's literature, philosophy and the adolescent's search for meaning, and the connection between philosophy and wisdom."
    
    From The Guardian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Unfilled teaching posts have risen by 23% in a year
    by Sarah Cassidy, Education Correspondent
    
    "Schools are in the grip of their worst staffing crisis for years, with of a 23 per cent rise in the number of unfilled teaching jobs. There are 2,510 vacancies across the country, latest figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families show.

    "The shortfall is being blamed largely on a shortage of maths and science specialists, but there is also the "demographic timebomb" of older teachers leaving the profession faster than they can be replaced. Just over half of all headteachers are expected to retire within four years. At the same time, the number of trainee teachers has fallen.

    "The number of vacancies in nursery and primary schools has risen by nearly 32 per cent since this time last year, from 210 to 870. In secondary schools, the figure is up by 21.5 per cent, from 1,210 to 1,470. Special schools are trying to fill 170 posts. The situation is worst in London, where 1.1 per cent of teaching posts are vacant, compared with the national average of 0.7 per cent.

    "John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, urged the Government to improve recruitment, saying: "Schools are finding it particularly difficult to recruit maths and physical science teachers. The situation is not as bad as four or five years ago, but staff recruitment is still a major issue for schools – particularly those in challenging areas." ...
    
    Full story in The Independent at link
    
    
    

• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Rhee Seeks Tenure-Pay Swap for Teachers
    by V. Dion Haynes
    
    Giving Up Seniority Would Boost Salary If Benchmarks Met
    
    "D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is proposing a contract that would give mid-level teachers who are paid $62,000 yearly the opportunity to earn more than $100,000 -- but they would have to give up seniority and tenure rights, two union members familiar with the negotiations said yesterday.

    "Under the proposal, the school system would establish two pay tiers, red and green, said the union members, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential. Teachers in the red tier would receive traditional raises and would maintain tenure. Those who voluntarily go into the green tier would receive thousands of dollars in bonuses and raises, funded with foundation grants, for relinquishing tenure.

    "Teachers in the green tier would be reviewed yearly and would be allowed to continue in their jobs only if they passed an evaluation and boosted students' test scores, the union members said.

    "Under Rhee's proposal, raises to the green tier would be more than the 19 percent increase over five years she is proposing for all teachers, the union members said.

    "They said teachers are opposed to giving up seniority and tenure, no matter the size of their raise, and probably would reject such a proposal.

    "You may be trading off your future, your tenure, your job security," a union member said. "When you trade that, it seems to me you're not getting much." ...

    Full story in The Washington Post at link

 

Friday 4 July

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers riled by State’s bid for extra hours (page 17)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “A State Government plan to force teachers to stay at school an extra 15 minutes day, attend compulsory staff meetings once a week and do 15 hours of extra training a year has angered teachers, who say the moves will inflame the stand-off between the union and education chiefs.

    “The State School Teachers Union says the proposals are in a submission to the WA Industrial Relations Commission from the Department of Education and Training on what it is seeking in arbitration to replace the enterprise bargaining agreement which expired in March.
    
    “SSTU president Anne Gisborne said the department’s submission would dramatically increase teacher workloads by about 160 hours a year, a claim which the department disputes.

    “She said all references to work-life balance had been stripped from the proposed enterprise order. Nothing had been offered to reduce class sizes, she said, all references to a career path were removed and a significant clause on managing disruptive students was gone.

    “In the face of a claim that is about workload, then this is a pretty strange approach to take,” she said. “On top of the current workload, teachers would be forced to attend weekly staff meetings, participate in 15 hours of professional development, undertake voluntary duties such as run school camps and stay in their classrooms for an extra 15 minutes each day.” [emphasis added]

    “Ms. Gisborne said most teachers arrived at school well before classes started and remained longer than 15 minutes after school. But they would object to compulsory demands that they stay after school for a prescribed time.
    
    “The submission by the so-called Labor Government is nothing more than a recipe for an increase in the bitter divide between teachers and their employer, a massive increase in the teacher shortage and the resulting drop in educational standards in this State,” she said.
    
    “However, she welcomed the department’s offer of an increase in allowances for teachers working in remote schools.
    
    “Department acting human resources director John Serich said it application included pay increases ranging from 8 to 12 per cent over two years as well as increases in allowances to applicable city and regional schools of up to $22,000 a year.
    
    “The order does not include any increase to the current 6½ hours a day teachers are required to spend at school,” he said. “The order includes two days of professional development a year for teachers to be undertaken during the 12 weeks of annual student vacation.”
    
    “Mr. Serich said the order sought to maintain existing class sizes.

    “Ms. Gisborne said the union had four weeks to lodge its counter claim. Teachers have demanded pay rises of more than 20 per cent over three years.”
    
    From The West Australian

     

  • WACOT to be reviewed (page 17)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    “Teachers who believe their beleaguered registration body is inadequate can put their views to a State Government review into its effectiveness.

    “A day after The West Australian revealed the WA College of Teaching was refusing to say how many teachers could be banned from classrooms for non-payment of their annual $70 registration fee, Education Minister Mark McGowan said he would launch a statutory review into the body.

    “Teachers face instant suspension today if they had not paid their fee by 4pm yesterday. That could exacerbate the teacher shortage in two weeks when the next school term starts.

    “Mr. McGowan said the vast majority of teachers paid their fees. He would not comment on the effect non-payment could have on schools until the number of teachers who failed to register was known next week. Under the WACOT Act, the Government must review the effectiveness of WACOT’s operations and the need for it to keep functioning.

    “Mr. McGowan said he had directed the Department of Education Services to carry out the review, which would include submissions from teachers. “I want to make sure that as part of this review, the views of the public and private school teachers are thoroughly and completely canvassed,” he said. He expected a report within four to six months. [But don’t hold your breath waiting for the results to be made public. Web]

    “Shadow education minister Peter Collier said Mr. McGowan was trying to appear as though he was acting to avert a crisis when in reality the review was always going to happen. “It’s a requirement of the Act,” he said. “He’s trying to put a positive spin on it.”

    “WACOT director Suzanne Parry welcomed the review and said she hoped it would allow them to request necessary changes to the legislation.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • Anything would be nice

      “There are none so blind as those who will not see. In desperately seeking reasons for teachers’ resistance to paying WACOT’s compulsory membership fee, the organisation’s director, Suzanne Parry (Number of teachers facing ban kept secret, 3/7), offers up disenchantment with the profession, curriculum changes and the pay dispute with the Government by way of explanation.

      “That little effort earns her an F grading. Let me suggest to her the principal reason is the dissatisfaction not of Dr Parry’s “small group of teachers”, but of almost the entire teaching body with the performance of WACOT.
      
      “This is a group which profess to have the interests of teachers at the core of its raison d’être, yet we’re waiting to hear even the slightest peep from Dr Parry and company concerning the current education situation, and specifically Mark McGowan’s proposal to downgrade qualifications for entering the teaching profession to an almost non-existent standard.
      
      “It would have been nice if she had come out with this as an act of good faith prior to threatening teachers with dismissal from the profession for non-payment of college fees. In fact, if would be nice if she came out with anything at all!”

      [Actually, WACOT’s response to the 3-month Dip Ed proposal has been on its home page, and PLATO’s Breaking News, for a couple of weeks now. Web]
      
      Ray Jamieson, Willetton
      
      

    • Now it’s clear

      “A quick Google search (as recommended by the previous minister for education) tells me that Joseph Goebbels’ Ministry of Propaganda was the biggest organization in the nazi regime and occupied palatial accommodation in Berlin. The need for Mr McGowan’s expensive office expansion seems clearer now.”

      Richard Ewing, Eaton

      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • NSW logs on to school computer deal at 11th hour
    by Sid Maher
    

    "Kevin Rudd has cleared the way to pay states for the extra cost of installing computers in schools and other election promises after months of agitation from the premiers.

    "The communique from yesterday's Council of Australian Governments meeting included an agreement for extra funds as part a new round of specific-purpose payments to be negotiated at the end of the year.

    "The federal Government acknowledged in March that it should be responsible for funding its election commitments. States have argued that a number of its election promises would create additional costs for them.

    "The move follows a concerted effort by NSW Treasurer Michael Costa to obtain a $245 million top-up to fund support costs associated with Labor's computers in schools program.

    "NSW last night agreed to take part in the scheme at the 11th hour after his demand was revealed.

    "NSW had wanted the funds in addition to $56 million it was slated to receive out of the first $116 million tranche of the $1billion scheme, under which the commonwealth will supply computers in schools for all students in Years 9 to 12.

    "Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan said earlier this week that he was working with the states towards "sorting out some allocation".

    "The move had followed complaints that the Rudd Government wanted them to fund its election promises by providing computers without paying associated installation and maintenance costs."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Opinion
    Rethinking training for remote teachers
    by Anita Painter
    
    "At the 12-month review point for the federal intervention, it is time to rethink how we approach teaching Aboriginal children in remote areas. We need to develop a program that is designed for our kids, not only in curricula but also in how we train our teachers.
    
    "The Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments are putting a lot of funding into education and hopes for the future. However, a lot of programs and curricula have been developed over the years. Some have worked and some haven't. If we are going to get better educational outcomes for Aboriginal children we need to make sure we do not make the mistakes of the past.
    
    "I have seen a lot of new teachers come in over the years, and when they come to a remote community, it is like they are thrown in the deep end. They don't know what to do and they get confused. Before coming to communities teachers need to learn how to act and behave, culture way. Because they are not trained in appropriate behaviour or in how communities work, sometimes teachers make mistakes.
    
    "This can occur even in the way they dress. Western people dress with half of their body shown. If you work in a remote Aboriginal community you've got to be properly covered. If a woman shows her body she is thought of as disrespectful. Aboriginal people have different rules that we must abide by, especially in terms of traditional culture. For example, you could not wear a bikini in front of your cousin, brother, or any man, not even your husband. This wasn't made for us.
    
    "This is the kind of information that needs to be given to new teachers in remote communities. Teachers need to understand and learn the Aboriginal worldview if they are going to be successful in teaching Aboriginal children.
    
    "Remote community teaching skills should be a part of university teacher training. This should be formal training, so that people become qualified and get a certificate. To do this properly, it would take four years or more, but if we can't do this, community training should be incorporated into current teaching programs.
    
    "This training needs to be done in remote communities - the skills and knowledge that teachers need to get cannot be obtained in a university environment.
    
    "When teachers come to a remote community they have to live in that community, and they need to learn the rules of that place. They need to learn things as simple as where you can walk. In town you can walk in any public places, but in communities private places such as ceremony grounds often won't have signs, but some will and it will cause a lot of trouble for a teacher if they don't follow the rules..."
    
    Anita Painter is the teaching principal at Barunga school, 90 kilometres south-east of Katherine in the Northern Territory.
    
    Full story on ABC News at link
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • Australian children adopt American accent
    by Robyn Ironside
    
    "As if following the fashion and food fads of Uncle Sam was not enough, young Australians are increasingly adopting a US twang in their everyday speech.
    
    "University of Queensland linguistics expert Roly Sussex said that as the most impressionable group in society, teenagers were very susceptible to imitating what they saw as being "snazzy or powerful".
    
    "It's called the prestige model," Professor Sussex said. "Prestige is a very powerful motive and they (teenagers) will go with the pronunciation that belongs to the most impressive context.
    
    "At the moment and this has been the case for some time now, that's American English.
    
    "They see or hear these things being used by people like on MTV for example, and think 'gee, I want to be like that'."
    
    "He said one of the most notable differences in pronunciations was the emphasis put on the first syllable of a word..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Student cheats outsource their work to India
    
    Computer science students are farming out their course work to cheap programmers in countries such as India, and university staff admit they are powerless to detect and prevent the practice.
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • Call for better 'global literacy'
    
    A large slice of England's children may be left "globally illiterate" because schools are not educating them about the wider world, a charity claims.
    
    
    
  • Call for sex lessons at age four
    
    Children as young as four should be given compulsory sex education, two leading sexual health charities say.
    
    Similar story in The Guardian
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Rhee to Fire 250 Teachers Who Missed Certification Date
    
    D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced yesterday that she plans to fire 250 teachers and 500 teacher's aides who were unable to meet a June 30 deadline to obtain certification [to teach]. The school system traditionally has had a large number of uncertified teachers and teacher's aides, and for years had struggled to meet requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law that all educators have a credential.

 

Saturday – Sunday, 5 – 6 July

• The West Australian
  

  • 600 attacks on teachers, staff (page 16)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    “Teachers and other school staff were assaulted or abused more than 600 times in WA State schools in the past year, fresh figures have revealed.

    “The Department of Education and Training said 568 physical and verbal assaults by students on staff were reported between July last year and Jun this year, of which 480 were physical attacks such as shoving, kicking or threatening staff with a chair or ruler and 88 were cases of verbal abuse.

    “There were another 52 cases of parents attacking school staff, including five physical assaults.

    “The department said the new figures showed there had been a 14 per cent reduction in the number of physical assaults by students on staff in the past 12 months. There were 45 assaults by parents between July 2006 and June 2007.

    “Resilience expert Maggie Dent, who gave the keynote address at a WA College of Teaching seminar for new teachers on Thursday, said she was concerned that universities were not adequately preparing teachers to cope with badly behaved pupils.

    “She said violent behaviour had escalated in schools across Australia because of changes in society. Children were socially inept and lacking emotional understanding because of the faster pace of life.

    “We’ve structured their lives so much that a lot of them are just bundled off to day care and aren’t able to have other adults around to help them grow in some of these competencies like being patient, waiting, learning to lose and learning to take turns,” she said. “So they’re actually socially struggling before they get to school and emotionally more wound up by our world that is just so driven and fast.” Ms. Dent told teachers they had more chance of being able to teach violent and abusive students if they could develop emotional connections with them.

    “State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne said the real figures were likely to be much higher because many assaults were not reported.

    “She said the department had to do more to protect teachers and provide safe workplaces. Apart from having to endure being bitten, kicked, spat at or sworn at, some teachers had chairs thrown at them or knives pulled on them this year.

    “In some schools teachers had to patrol playgrounds in pairs.

    “Dealing with a constant barrage of verbal abuse was also difficult. 

    “But department deputy director-general Margery Evans said it took a firm stance on violent incidents in its 770 schools. Many of the assault figures included multiple incidents involving the same student.

    “Each year we provide more than $16.5 million to run behaviour management and discipline strategies and each of our schools is required to develop a school-wide behaviour management programme,” she said.

    “Individual student management plans were developed for those with particularly violent behaviour. Schools could suspend or exclude students where appropriate.

    “The department had also set up three trial behaviour management centres to remove violent secondary students from their schools and five centres for primary school students.”
    
    From The West Australian

     

  • Wait on banned teacher numbers (page 16)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    “WA’s teacher registration body says it will have no idea how many teachers are likely to be barred from schools for failing to pay their compulsory annual fee until next week.

    “Teachers who did not pay the $70 fee to the WA College of Teaching by Thursday afternoon had been warned they would be suspended yesterday.

    “Two weeks ago WACOT warned that more than 2000 teachers faced deregistration for not paying their fee, which was due in March. But on the eve of the deadline, director Suzanne Parry refused to reveal how many people were yet to pay the fee.

    “Yesterday, she said details on the final number of people who had failed to meet the deadline would not be available until Tuesday at the earliest. Time had to be allowed to clear cheques and to process all the requests for cancellation of membership from teachers who were no longer working in schools.

    “Because so many people left it to the last minute we’ve got a bit of a backlog,” she said.

    “It is illegal for teachers to work in WA schools if they are not registered with WACOT. Suspended teachers have to undergo an expensive process to rejoin.

    “The registration issue could have a big impact on schools next term because few relief teachers are available to replace teachers who may be suspended. But Ms. Parry said she was confident schools would not be affected.

    “Some teachers told WACOT they were withholding payment because they were disenchanted with the profession and the current pay dispute.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Mandurah Coastal Times
  
  
  • Little Monsters Rule
    by Phil Hickey
    
    
    "Teachers at Mandurah High School are being punched and sworn at, and students are being sent from classrooms in droves, according to an employee who posted comments on the internet.
    
    "The comments were posted less than a month ago on a Yahoo7 message board by a teacher new to the school and updated as recently as June 30.
    
    "The Mandurah Coastal Times spoke to the teacher last Thursday and confirmed the origin of the blog. The teacher's identity has been withheld on request.
    
    "The teacher also claimed many Year 10 students did not know what an essay was and said the level of illiteracy and maths ability was appalling.
    
    "I cannot believe how bad it is here," the teacher said.
    
    "I've been hit and punched, sworn at 20 times a day for trying to do my job - it's shocking."
    
    "Nothing can really be done. It's hard to expel a student and after a few days away, they're allowed to come back to the school to do it all over again."
    
    "The teacher also revealed that staff were defying the administration by not accepting certain children into classes.
    
    "I simply won't keep little monsters in my classroom who are going to fight, swear and destroy the learning environment for everyone else," the teacher said. "I've been sending them to the office in droves but it seems that the strategy is reaching an end as the administration is insistent that somehow I have to keep them in my classroom."
    
    "An Education Department spokesman said it would not be making any comment in relation to the message board.
    
    "We will not be responding to anonymous blogs on websites that cannot be verified," the spokesman said.
    
    "However, the teacher said he thought it was important for the public to know what is going on at the school.
    
    "I have only been at Mandurah High School for a short time but already I have experienced a number of very violent incidents," he said. "It simply cannot continue and there are certain policies that must be changed to protect teachers and students."
    
    "Mandurah High School Principal Dianne Clayton also refused to make any comment in relation to the issue.
    
    "She said she was aware of the website but she refused to say whether she had spoken to the teacher and whether any action would be taken.
    
    "I am more interested in raising the public profile of the school in a positive manner," Ms Clayton said. "It would not be appropriate for me to comment on an anonymous blog."
     
    From The Mandurah Costal Times
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times
  

  • School hunt costs packet (page 10)
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    “More than $330,000 has been spent by the State Government on recruitment agencies since January to find just 32 teachers.
    
    “Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier said WA Government figures also showed that of 71 interstate teachers recruited up to May 31, 13 per cent had resigned.
    
    “Of 67 overseas teachers recruited to May 31, 15 per cent had quit.
    
    “Mr. Collier said the TAFE sector was also in trouble with a shortage of more than 80 full-time lecturers from a total of only 1834.
    
    “He said the “bleak picture of waste” was illustrated by the Government’s figures in a parliamentary standing committee, where one recruiter supplied 30 teachers at a cost of $317,790.
    
    “Another supplied two teachers at a cost of $16,915.
    
    “Mr. Collier said the cash would have been better spent improving teachers’ pay and conditions.
    
    “The minister must stop wasting money…and start planning properly for the future of education,” he said, adding the Government should endorse recommendations of the Twomey report to stop teacher shortages worsening.
    
    “But Education Minister Mark McGowan said the recruitment drive by his department had been a “great success”, with 258 overseas, interstate and agency recruited teachers.
    
    “He calculated the recruitment cost $5275 a teacher.  With locally recruited teachers for 2009, the cost fell to $3617, he said. At June 30, there were 83 full-time TAFE lecturer vacancies.

    “Meanwhile, WA College of Teaching director Suzanne Parry said all teachers currently working in WA had paid a controversial $70 fee due on Thursday.” [emphasis added]
    
    From The Sunday Times

    
    
    
  • Girls' college in drug drama, car accident
    Exclusive: by Paul Lampathakis, education reporter
    
    "Police are investigating allegations of drug use by students from an elite Catholic girls' school, which has resulted with several pupils being expelled.

    "Officers have confirmed the claims involve ecstasy use among Year 12 students from Iona Presentation College, Mosman Park.
    
    "Parents alerted police to their fears after a car crash last Saturday, in which a 17-year-old was so badly hurt she had to be put into an induced coma. It followed an all-night rave in Joondalup..."
    
    "This newspaper was told that three students were expelled from Iona on Monday morning over allegations involving ecstasy at the rave.
    
    "But it is not known whether they had been passengers in the car that crashed. Another seven students were reportedly suspended.
    
    "We had phone calls from concerned parents,'' one western suburbs police officer told The Sunday Times on Friday. "We were told it (the drug) was ecstasy.'' ...
    
    "Iona principal Margaret Herley did not contact The Sunday Times after this paper approached the school for comment on Friday.
    
    "Teachers and staff said they could not discuss the events and only Ms Herley was authorised to speak to the media.
    
    "In May, Ms Herley controversially said she would consider scrapping school balls because they distracted students from school work and encouraged ostentatious displays of wealth."
    

    Full story in The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    There's an election in the air
    by Joe Spagnolo, chief political writer
    
    "If you haven't got the message yet, a state election is just around the corner.

    "Transport and health visions released by Premier Alan Carpenter and Health Minister Jim McGinty in the past seven days are more evidence that an early election is more than media-generated hype.
    
    "Both visions look and sound good. Train lines to Yanchep, a new high-speed train service to Bunbury, a new publicly owned children's hospital alongside Sir Charles Gairdner, a new women's hospital -- it all sounds great. Let's hope we all live long enough to see them or use them.
    
    "Bear in mind that the State Government has battled to deliver other big infrastructure projects on time and on budget.
    
    "And it has had to shelve others, like the Northbridge Link. Throw in the skills shortage and the fact that Labor has already committed itself to a $26.1 billion capital works program over the next four years.
    
    "So forgive me for holding back on the trumpet fanfare and streamers.
    
    "It's going to be one hell of a wait before the scissors cut the ribbons on these projects.
    
    "Not one shovel of dirt has been turned on the much talked about $1.07 billion outdoor stadium or the $1.76 billion Fiona Stanley Hospital."
    
    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 77)
    

    • “How much longer can the struggling taxpayer afford the luxuries we bestow on our overpaid state politicians? Reports in TST (June 29) highlighted some of these luxuries.

      • Pollies feast on $7 steaks” – prices in the parliament dining room are a disgrace.
      • The refit of Mark McGowan’s office for $666,000.

      “Also with parliament rising for the winter break, many will be jetting abroad on junkets at our expense.

      “One has to question the usefulness of state governments.”

      John Falconer, Mt. Claremont
      
      
      

• The Brisbane Courier Mail
  
  
  • School bullies out of control
    by Ryan Heffernan and Ainsley Pavey
    
    "Bullying is now rife in Queensland schools, with more than 70 students suspended every day for assault.
    
    "Some attackers are as young as five, an investigation by The Sunday Mail has found.
    
    "One in six students has at some stage been a victim, new research shows, putting our school system among the worst for bullying of any country in the developed world.
    
    "And the problem is growing, with latest Education Queensland figures revealing a 15 per cent jump in suspensions for "physical misconduct" in just one year.
    
    "State Education Minister Rod Welford yesterday admitted anti-bullying campaigns were not working.
    
    "He said the Government would have to change its programs to stem the rising level of violence among younger children.
    
    "We need to intervene . . . and early," the minister said.
    
    "The evidence that shows school bullies are defying attempts to control them comes as a cluster of school violence videos were posted last week on the internet..."
    
    Full story in The Brisbane Courier Mail at link [includes links to some quite graphic videos]
    
    
    
    
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • A teacher still stark in middle
    by Ean Higgins
    
    "Standing just 160cm tall and weighing 49kg "on a good day", primary school teacher Lynne Tziolas would not seem much of a match for the juggernaut of the NSW Department of Education.

    "But the DET chose the wrong target when it tried to hold back sexual liberalism by trying to get rid of her in May after she appeared nude in Cleo magazine and talked about her sex life. The department has been stung, progressively back-stepping until it finally buckled and reinstated Tziolas's teaching rights after a few weeks of embarrassing headlines. The DET also did what bureaucracies rarely do: admitted it issued untrue statements when it said it had not tried to gag her from speaking to the media. And it did the unheard of: it apologised for doing so.
    
    "Whatever you think of her stance, Tziolas beat the department and its army of spin doctors with selective use of the media, an eloquently expressed honesty and a determination not to be silenced or crushed.
    
    "I did not appreciate the feeling of coercion into compliance," Tziolas says.
    
    "The Tziolas saga raises questions about a state government department's preparedness to defend its actions at all costs. But it goes to the line in the sand between a teacher's right to a perfectly legal private life, whether or not someone objects to any part of it that becomes public, and a government's responsibilities to maintain the moral integrity of the profession..."
    
    "But are teachers in some special category? If the parents of students in Narraweena, a quiet residential suburb of average income, are a representative sample, it's a question that deeply divides middle Australia.
    
    "Michelle Carroll, whose daughter Sasha is at the school, thinks it outrageous for Tziolas to have gone public with her sex life. "It's definitely an overstepping of teaching ethics," Carroll says. "Those comments in Cleo were definitely not the sort of thing that should be talked about in the schoolyard. It's things parents should discuss with their children." ...
    
    "Inquirer sought the view of teachers by posting a question on the website of Plato, the lobby group established by traditionalist educators opposed to the new-age, left-leaning, outcomes-based education.

    "Most respondents expressed anger that the issue was even taken up by the media, saying, in the words of one, "It's got nothing to do with teaching ethics; was she standing in front of a class at the time?" But one respondent said: "I wouldn't want to work on the same staff with her."

    "One teaching union official privately said he regarded Tziolas's appearance in Cleo as probably not unethical but unwise, suggesting it could lead to controversy and reluctance of principals to engage her..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Rudd must resist union' push for higher wages
    by Peter Switzer
    
    "The latest wage figures show pushy workers aren't driving inflation, at least for the present.

    "However, any demands by the unions for greater pay justice for the workforce would have to be met by the Rudd Government with: "Not now, darling."

    "Amid the economic and financial challenges facing Australia and the global economy, lateral thinking is needed from governments, business and even unions.

    "The threat from higher oil prices and the new world it will usher in means everyone has to think about business differently.

    "Competitive businesses and economies will have to turn a threat into a challenge.

    "Smart thinkers from around the world crystal-balling the future of business argue that adapters to the new high price of oil will lead the eventual recovery.

    "And timing is the key.

    "Certainly, Kevin Rudd owes the union movement for taking up the Work Choices challenge by spending big-time on ads that helped to drive the anti-Howard backlash at the last election..."
    
    "The recent Victorian teachers' wage rise has raised concerns and with Labor governments ensconced in all states and territories, there are fears of more general pay rises. Fortunately, wage pressures are yet to show up..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Cheaper books in imports shake-up
    
    Cheaper books are one of the benefits promised by competition reforms announced at COAG, with the federal Government considering lifting restrictions on imports.
    
    
    

• The Daily Mail
  
  
  • Parent outrage as staff instruct pupil to replace absent teacher
    
    A school has sparked outrage among parents by letting one of its own pupils teach classes to help ease a staff shortage. A sixth-former has been running German lessons for first year pupils aged 11 and 12 for at least the past six weeks.
    
    
    
  • A top examiner awarding a pupil marks for writing '*** off' leaves only one verdict on the education system...'expletive deleted'
    
    "Surely, you think despairingly, this has just got to be a spoof.
    
    "A candidate was awarded marks in his GCSE English exam for writing 'F*** off' on his paper as a gratuitous profanity.
    
    "Perhaps the examiner was making a pointed comment about standards of incivility among the young.
    
    "Maybe he mistook this exam script for an art installation at Tate Modern.
    
    "But no, this was no spoof. It was all too genuine.
    
    "The candidate's expletive earned marks for accurate spelling and for conveying a meaning successfully.
    
    "Ye gods. It's not just that this pupil was rewarded for unacceptable and oafish behaviour.
    
    "No, the real issue is that education standards have now fallen to such rock-bottom level and examiners' expectations are so low that they actually find achievement in spelling that four-letter word  -  which surely does not leave a great deal of room for error.
    
    "Nor was the examiner, Peter Buckroyd, some aberrant teacher with a nose-stud and an attitude problem.
    
    "He is the chief examiner for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance - and has instructed fellow examiners to mark expletives in exactly the same way.
    
    "Let me quote you precisely how this important educationist explained his decision to record a level of achievement in the expression of this expletive.
    
    'It would be wicked to give it zero,' he said, 'because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for - like conveying some meaning and some spelling.
    
    'It's better than someone that doesn't write anything at all. It shows more skills than somebody who leaves the page blank.'
    
    "So this is what our once glorious education system has come to  -  that if a child writes anything at all on a sheet of paper, examiners are so pathetically grateful, they will award him marks.
    
    "What next - prizes for children who scrawl obscene graffiti on the school wall on the grounds that they too are ' conveying meaning and some spelling'?
    
    "Bonus points in an exam for the candidate who manages to write his name?" ...
    
    "Is it any wonder that this country's administrative class can no longer run the proverbial whelkstall.
    
    "There is only one way to deal with this. That is to remove the power and control of the education elite and transfer that power and control to parents instead.
    
    "That means some kind of voucher system for schools.
    
    "It means removing teacher training from teacher training institutions, which should be shut down.
    
    "If it is not true that 'those who can't do, teach', it certainly is true that 'those who can't teach, teach the teachers'.
    
    "And it means scaling down the Departments of Children, Schools and Families and Innovation, Universities and Skills which, even when they had ' education' in their titles, have done nothing but harm for decades.
    
    "Britain's education system? Expletive deleted." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Daily Mail at link

    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Poverty should not be a rite of passage
    by Fiona Launder
    
    "Homelessness among the tertiary student population is not a new phenomenon. It is merely reaching higher and higher levels, as rising rental prices edge greater numbers of students out of the market. Students often become temporarily homeless at the end of a semester or between leases. Many of these students are forced to "hot-bed", as it is called by Professor Glyn Davis — sleeping in shifts in a single bed, or on friends' couches (The Age, 2/7).
    
    "Nor is this problem unique to the students who seek accommodation in the city centre. There is a housing squeeze in Clayton and the surrounding area that has resulted in many students coming to my office with housing difficulties. This shortage appears to have put the greatest pressure on the group of students who can cope least with it: those from a rural area or from low-income backgrounds..."

    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Teachers fed up with instability [6 July: online only]
    by Sarah Price, Education Reporter
    
    "Six hundred teachers will protest outside NSW Government headquarters on Tuesday to demand stability in the education ministry, which they say is rudderless and in limbo.

    "The NSW Teachers Federation annual conference, which begins today, will not hear from the education minister.
    
    "President Maree O'Halloran said she had stopped issuing invitations because education was a "revolving door" portfolio and it was never clear who would be in the hot seat.
    
    "I've been the president for 6½ years [and] we've had six ministers," she said. "I can't even smile at them and form a relationship with them and they're gone."
    
    "Minister for education and training John Della Bosca was stood down by Premier Morris Iemma last month for his role in the Iguanas nightclub affair. Attorney-General John Hatzistergos is acting in the role.
    
    "Fortunately for us, we had not invited him [Mr Della Bosca] to speak," Ms O'Halloran said.
    
    "One of the reasons I haven't invited them any more is that you can never guarantee who's going to be in there."
    
    "The last minister who held the ministry for longer than 21 months was John Aquilina, who was in the role from April 1995 to November 2001.
    
    "John Watkins took over from Mr Aquilina, followed by Andrew Refshauge, Carmel Tebbutt and Mr Della Bosca, until he was stood aside. Mr Hatzistergos was appointed acting Education Minister, in addition to his other portfolios.
    
    "As well as Tuesday's protest - teachers and principals will gather outside Governor Macquarie Tower, where the Premier and ministers have their offices - teachers will also consider further industrial action over controversial staffing arrangements brought in by Mr Della Bosca.
    
    "The arrangements give principals greater control in choosing teachers but the federation says the system disadvantages remote and hard-to-staff schools as it dismantles the transfer system, which rewards teachers for working in hardship posts.
    
    "In May, teachers went on a 24-hour strike over the issue and Ms O'Halloran said more action was expected."We're likely to be taking industrial action in August because they can't discuss the issue with us," she said. [emphasis added]
    
    "Every time you turn around there's a new minister. I don't see how this is acceptable for the children of NSW. The education portfolio is now in limbo. The portfolio deserves better than what the Government is giving it."
    
    "A spokeswoman for Mr Iemma said the Government's commitment to public education was "absolutely clear and undeniable".
    
    "In this year's budget, the Government allocated $11.8 billion to our education system - a 5 per cent increase on the previous year," the spokeswoman said.
    
    "NSW students consistently perform among the best in the nation and internationally, with a recent OECD study ranking NSW 15-year-olds among the best in the world in reading, maths and science.

    "The rigorous NSW Higher School Certificate is the nation's gold standard leaving credential, with last year's results the best ever."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald online at link
    
    
    
  • Selective schools offers come with a benchmark
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Primary school students seeking entry to selective high schools will now receive details of their mark and how it compares to others around the state along with their notice of acceptance.
    
    "More than 13,300 year 6 students sat the selective entry test this year, a 4 per cent increase on last year's candidature.
    
    "Of this year's hopefuls, 3,522 students gained places and are receiving offers through the post and email for entry to year 7 at a selective high school.
    
    "Until now, students received only official notice of either an offer or rejection. Parents who took the initiative could seek out their children's results in the test.
    
    "From this year, all parents will be notified of their child's score alongside the top mark, which was 267.11 out of 300. The average score for all state candidates was 180.66 out of 300.
    
    "Parents will not learn the cut-off marks for individual schools until they are published on the NSW Department of Education's website early next year.
    
    "The acting NSW Minister for Education, John Hatzistergos, yesterday said a score out of 300 was calculated by using school assessment scores in English and mathematics and test results for reading, writing, mathematics, and general ability.
    
    "For the first time this year, the outcome advice of the selective high school placement test provides parents with the profile score achieved by the student."
    
    "The Government is establishing 600 more selective high school places in regional NSW and south-western and western Sydney, taking the number of selective places to about 4100.
    
    "Community consultation about which schools will get new places will run over the school holidays in the next two weeks.
    
    "The NSW Secondary Schools Council, representing state principals, is critical of the new places, saying schools that miss out risk being disadvantaged.
    
    "High schools earmarked for new places include Parramatta, Blacktown Girls and Boys, Wyong, Grafton and Armidale.
    
    "Two months of consultation will confirm the location of the new places, to be available from 2010. A virtual classroom will also be created for talented students in remote areas.
    
    "In a recent email to his members, the president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Jim McAlpine, said he favoured the virtual classroom approach because "students from all parts of NSW should be taken into account, not just those who are geographically privileged".
    
    "The virtual selective school proposed by this region seems to offer the best model for supporting students regardless of their geographic location," he said.
    
    "A former head of the Department of Education's selective schools unit, Bob Wingrave, has given cautious support for new places in areas such as northern NSW, but said there was a danger extra places threatened to water down the selective program."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Principal sues parent over inflammatory email
    
    A Sydney primary school principal is suing for defamation a parent who allegedly criticised her in an email sent to other parents.
    
    
    
• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • Key subjects taught by unqualified high school teachers [4 July]
    by Bruce McDougall, Education Reporter
    
    "Thousands of high school students are being taught by teachers with no specialist training in key subjects such as maths and science.

    "A shock survey of 976 secondary teachers across western NSW has revealed 229 are teaching subjects in which they have no formal qualification.

    "The problem is rapidly becoming a fullblown crisis with national research showing about 25 per cent of all Australian science teachers do not have a science qualification.
    
    "About one quarter of maths teachers do not have a major in maths and almost ten per cent have not studied any university maths at all, data collated by the Federal ALP shows.

    "In communities across NSW the teacher supply issue is reaching boiling point with more staff walkouts planned next term, parent protests and an Education Minister lost to the Iguana-gate scandal.

    "The Rudd Government, admitting the country has a critical shortage of maths and science teachers, is desperately trying to increase numbers studying the core subjects at university.

    "We know that we are critically short of maths and science teachers now," Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link
    
    
    

  • Rural revolt at teacher crisis [3 July]
    by Bruce McDougall, Education Reporter
    
    "Public high school pupils have missed up to 400 lessons this year due to teacher shortages as the Iemma Government brawls with Kevin Rudd over the cost of the education revolution.

    "The dispute between NSW and the Prime Minister is irrelevant to frustrated parents who have taken to the streets in open revolt.

    "They are furious that the Government has been unable to provide full-time music and maths teachers, or a regular supply of replacements for absent staff at Condobolin High in western NSW.

  "In a scenario teachers say is commonplace, they are regularly forced to combine classes into larger groups to work in the library or even the playground when casuals cannot be found to cover absences..."
  
  Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link

   

• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Rhee Deploys 'Army of Believers' [Education insanity not confined to Australia... Web]
    
    Rikki Hunt Taylor is filled with fire and educational jargon. When the Takoma Educational Center's new principal describes her vision for the school, she promises "a data-driven culture" and teachers committed to "differentiated instruction."
    
    
    
    
• The New York Sun
  
  
  • Study Sought Of Test Score Gains in N.Y. [3 July]
    by Elizabeth Green
    
    "A top adviser to the state Education Department is pushing Albany education officials to scour their test results for possible score inflation.
    
    "So far, state officials are not biting.
    
    "The adviser, Howard Everson, a psychometrician at Fordham University who is chairman of the state's Technical Advisory Group and also advises the federal government on its testing regime, said he is confident that New York's tests are not getting easier, as some have speculated in the wake of large test score gains this year.

    "But Mr. Everson said he is concerned that the rises in scores could partially reflect an inflation phenomenon, in which practices at the school level make test scores rise regardless of whether true learning has occurred.
    
    "Practices can include teaching test material to the exclusion of other topics; "gaming" to get around rules by, for instance, giving students extra time, and outright cheating.
    
    "I feel very comfortable that the tests have not gotten easier," Mr. Everson said in an interview this week. "I don't feel comfortable in saying to you and anybody else there's no such thing as score inflation. There are certain practices that are going on by school leadership; teachers; curriculum specialists — a whole range of folks whose jobs are in some ways on the line."

    "He added: "So are they doing inappropriate things to raise students' scores? Well, it's likely that some of them are." ...

    Full story in The New York Sun at link
    
    
    
• News.com
  
  
  • Parents sending kids to school in nappies
    
    
    • Kids being sent to school in nappies
    • Education officials having to act on problem
    • Have produced a toilet training factsheet

Children as old as five are being sent to school in nappies because their parents cannot be bothered to toilet-train them.

The problem has become so widespread that Education Queensland is drawing up a toilet-training factsheet amid calls from teachers' groups that nappy-wearing children be banned from attending school.

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All media quotations, photographs and cartoons © their respective publishers

This page last updated 11 August, 2008 11:50 PM