Monday 28 July

Tuesday 29 July

Wednesday 30 July

Thursday 31 July

Friday 1 August

Saturday – Sunday, 2 – 3 August

Monday 28 July

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Computers cold comfort for students with little else
    by Michele Smart
    
    "Last week on a particularly cold winter's morning, I helped my six-year-old daughter get dressed for school. She left layered like a Russian doll, to survive not the chill of the playground but the arctic conditions of her classroom. She goes to our local state primary school and the heater in her classroom doesn't work.
    
    "Well, it works intermittently. Most of the time it just spurts gas straight into the classroom. I asked my daughter when she got home whether the heater had worked that morning. "No," she said. "It was cold, Mummy, but I got used to it."
    
    "That's good," I said, "because when I was a teacher I never got used to it."

    "Teacher retention, or the lack thereof, is a problem not only for the NSW Department of Education but for schools across Australia and indeed the Western world. There are some telling statistics. In NSW alone up to 40 per cent of teacher graduates will leave the profession in their first three years of teaching. This is a particular problem given the predictions by the NSW Teachers' Federation of a significant teacher shortage, as many teachers will retire in the next six years.
    
    "I was once a teacher in the state education system. I lasted 2½ years. It wasn't the salary that made me leave - I knew teaching wasn't going to make me rich. It wasn't the students - I worked in the western suburbs with refugees who could not have been more grateful for any help that came their way. Many aspects of my job were incredibly rewarding.
    
    "No, it was the small things that did it to me. The little irritations that chipped away at morale and made me resentful. Like when the ancient kettle stopped working in the English staffroom and it was impossible to get another - this after we failed in our fight to get an urn installed. It was the quibbles over how much photocopying I was allowed to do, the textbooks we could not afford or that my students had to share, the cost-cutting, the peeling paint, a leaking roof.
    
    "And preparing to enter the classrooms dressed like Douglas Mawson because of a lack of heating.
    
    "I will never forget the grand announcement that we were getting new office chairs for the staffroom. Despite the fact we were 12 cynical English teachers, we were touched. It meant something to us. Someone, somewhere had noticed us. We imagined ourselves leaning back at our desks or swivelling around in comfort.
    
    "We got the "upgrade". But the metal chairs that arrived were not new - they were ancient rusty relics that had been re-upholstered at the prison.
    
    "I remember us all laughing in disbelief. It was the same laugh I heard from my daughter's teacher when I talked to her about the heater in her classroom. "Oh, today I wore my coat until lunchtime," she said.
    
    "Before the election Kevin Rudd said Australia's chronic under-investment in education was a disgrace.
    
    "With a Labor government education will be the first priority for investment and reform," concluded the policy paper Education Revolution. But in the panic surrounding the global economic downturn and the teeth-grinding over where we are going to find money for carbon trading, everyone seems to have forgotten any talk about education. Apart from fretting about where we are going to find the money for the promised computer for every student.
    
    "But I say let's forget the computers. Let's splash out, on this freezing winter's day, and fix the heater in my daughter's classroom, and maybe her teacher - the young and dedicated Mrs Wilson - will stay for just one more year."

    Michele Smart was a teacher at Fairfield High School. She is now a mother and freelance journalist.

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
  • Keyboard kids losing art of handwriting
    by Gerard Noonan, Social Issues Editor
    
    "More than 150,000 students in years 11 and 12 at schools across NSW have a problem. Almost all are skilled users of computer keyboards. Most can easily outperform their elders when it comes to text messaging on their mobile phones.

    "But within the next year or so all of them will have to sit 15 to 20 hours of examinations for the Higher School Certificate, and the exams will be almost entirely handwritten. Unless they have a proven disability and cannot write on the day of the exam, the only acceptable exam paper is one handed up in an individual's handwriting.
    
    "The disjunction between the acquired skill of keyboarding and the need to handwrite exams has led some schools to incorporate handwriting lessons in years 11 and 12 as students find they have to relearn the art of using a pen and paper quickly - lost after years of using computers, laptops and mobiles.
    
    "The senior English teacher at Barker College, on the North Shore, Sue Marks, says she has had top students forced to do remedial courses to get their handwriting legible enough for HSC examiners to read.
    
    "Sydney Grammar will not accept typed essays in the later years of high school. The headmaster, John Vallance, says the school places a very strong emphasis on ensuring every student can write legibly.

    "Handwriting is an important expression of a student's personality, which is certainly not demonstrable through keyboarding," Dr Vallance said. "It's a skill this generation should not lose." ...

    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • In short
      
      “The first recommendation of the Twomey report is for the Minister for Education to provide an immediate and significant increase in teachers’ salaries.  The report says the increase will improve the relative position of teaching and other professions.  Mr McGowan is fooling himself and the public if he considers that 4.5 per cent over 15 months meets the Twomey report’s first and obviously most important recommendation.  Inflation will easily outstrip this “huge pay increase” and is in fact a pay cut, further reducing the status of the teaching profession.”
      
      Jenny Lodge, Kalamunda
      
      
      
• BBC News
  
  
  • Call to give schools pay opt-out
    
    "Schools in deprived areas should be able to opt out of national pay deals for teachers so they can attract better staff and pay them more, a report says.
    
    "The report by think tank Policy Exchange argues that extra funds for inner-city schools should be targeted at higher rates of pay.
    
    "It says that a national pay agreement discriminates against the recruitment needs facing more challenging schools.
    
    "Successful schools in richer areas can find it easier to attract staff.
    
    Attractive packages
    
    "Extra funding is already targeted at schools in deprived areas - but the report suggests that such money should be used for a more flexible approach to teachers' pay.
    
    "It says schools "should be able to opt out of the national pay agreement - levelling the playing field and boosting recruitment".
    
    "Although schools can already offer extra cash to staff through recruitment and retention allowances, Policy Exchange says these either tend to be given to everyone or no one at all.
    
    "Instead a range of competing, alternative pay structures are needed, it argues.
    
    "All schools that employ their own staff should be allowed to opt out of the national pay agreement and use their own model, as academies are already doing," it says.
    
    "Having more money, schools in challenging areas would be able to offer the most attractive packages, which could include incentives like smaller class sizes as well as higher pay."
    
    'Fast-track routes'
    
    "The report also suggested that low salaries and a lack of glamour was putting off good graduates from going into teaching.
    
    "It said four out of 10 would-be teachers who entered post-graduate training courses in 2005-6 had 2.2 degrees or lower.
    
    "Many undergraduates viewed social work or nursing as the profession most similar to teaching.
    
    "The report also argued that greater use of fast-track salary bands would attract better quality applicants into teaching.
    
    "There should also be a fast-track route to advanced skills teacher status, so that teachers do not have to move into leadership roles in order to access higher salaries.
    
    "The head of education at the National Union of Teachers, John Bangs, said the report took a "reductionist market approach" and completely missed the point of why most teachers went into teaching.
    
    "What teachers in tough schools need is not extra money, but a guarantee that they will be supported and that they won't lose their jobs because the school is threatened with closure or special measures as the result of a failure to meet some government target.
    
    "The reality is that teachers will work in tough schools if they are going to be with friends and work as part of a team," he said."
    
    From BBC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Op Ed: Stereotypes tell us nothing in uni debate
    
    Divisions between international and local students can be bridged.
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Degrees, points and getting a visa
      
      "The main reason international students want to study in Australia is not educational excellence or other spin from the universities.
      
      "A Graduate Careers Council of Australia survey (published in July) found that two-thirds of the international students plan to stay in Australia after graduating. The Australian degree gives them extra points in securing a permanent residency visa under the skilled immigration program. Hence they will put up with a lot to achieve their real objective.
      
      "However, in desperation, they put pressure on staff for passes. The staff are pressured by the administration not to fail too many because the students will turn to other universities.
      
      "This has been documented in interviews with academics in universities, who have said "international students often win appeals because failing large numbers would affect financial viability" and "I give them 51% to get then out of my hair".
      
      Peter Wilkinson, Essendon
      
      
      
      
• The Guardian
  
  
  • School curriculum changes criticised
    [Doesn't this sound familiar!  Web]
    
    Changes that will overhaul the school curriculum from September have been brought in too hastily, the head of research of a leading exam board has said.
    
    Tim Oates, of Cambridge Assessment, said diplomas, the government's new qualification for 14 to 19-year-olds, were among the reforms being hurried in without adequate preparation.
    
    
    
    
  • Teachers should learn on the job, urges thinktank
    by Jessica Shepherd
    
    "High-flying graduates should be encouraged to dip into teaching rather than commit to the profession for life, a right-wing thinktank has argued.
    
    "The Policy Exchange says would-be teachers should be given more opportunities to train on-the-job only, rather than on lengthy teacher training courses.
    
    "It also recommends schools opt out of national pay rules in England and lure the best teachers by offering them more money.
    
    "Undergraduate teaching degrees should be scrapped, it says. Those on the courses had "worse A-level scores than any other kind of degree except art".
    
    "The thinktank found teaching still has a "relatively low status". It asked 2,323 people how teaching compared with other professions status-wise.
    
    "Just over half of the 1,282 undergraduates polled said it was similar to social work and nursing. Only 4% said teaching had the same status as being a barrister. One in ten thought the profession had the same status as being a doctor.
    
    "Sam Freedman, co-author of the thinktank's report, More Good Teachers, said: "At the moment, teacher training and pay are designed for a career for life. Talented graduates and professionals are put off by the idea of spending another year in higher education to train and get further into debt, especially if they only want to teach for a few years. Equally the idea of having to stay in the profession for ten or 20 years to earn a decent salary is a massive disincentive."
    
    "The report was criticised by the Training and Development Agency for Schools.
    
    "Graham Holley, its chief executive, said teaching attracted high quality candidates. "We are interested in good teachers, not just good entry qualifications.
    
    "Teaching is already a graduate profession, and will increasingly become a Masters level profession," he said.
    
    "Teachers' pay has increased by nearly a fifth in real terms since 1997. But pay is not the only issue for people thinking of changing career to teaching. The figures back this up. Already around a third of people going into the teaching profession are career changers. Recent research showed that half of those considering a career change would consider a career like teaching."
    
    From The Guardian at link
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Govt to roll out 150 autism play groups
    
    The Federal Government has announced the rollout of 150 play groups for children with autism over the next four years.
    
    
    
  • NT Labor pledges Indigenous education funding
    
    Labor has made its first education announcement for the Northern Territory election, committing money to help get remote indigenous parents reading to very young children.
    
    
    
  • Indigenous education initiative launched
    
    A scheme to improve Indigenous education has been launched in Brisbane.

 

Tuesday 29 July

• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • Teacher pay rise significant, says Lance Twomey
    by Paul Lampathakis, education reporter
    
    "Former teacher shortage task force chairman Lance Twomey has thrown his support behind the new teachers' pay agreement.

    "In a significant boost for the deal, the respected academic, who was the architect of the recently released report into shortages in the profession, said the new provisions offered "significant'' pay increases.
    
    "And I would have thought that this is a good time to compromise with the (WA) Government, but continue to talk to them,'' Prof Twomey, a former Curtin University vice-chancellor, who has called for better pay for teachers, said today.
    
    "It looks like a significant pay increase and it seems to happen at different levels.
    
    "The entry level (salary) is high, there's no doubt about that. The pay for people straight out of university, in comparison with lots of professions, it's now way above.
    
    "In terms of the increase across the board, aimed at keeping people in the classroom and giving them professional salaries, they look reasonable to me.''
    
    "Teachers will vote within about six weeks on whether to accept the deal, which was agreed upon "in principle'' two weeks ago, by the Government and the WA State School Teachers' Union executive.
    
    "Under the new agreement - which the Government and the union say would make WA teachers the best paid in Australia - teachers would get from 15.85 per cent to 21.67 per cent extra pay, over the next three years.
    
    "Graduates' salaries, with allowances, would rise from $46,533 to $57,696 in that period, including graduate allowances.
    
    "School administrators would also get a 17.56 per cent pay rise.
    
    "Prof Twomey said he believed the deal was a "pretty good'' point for teachers to stop negotiating for this agreement.
    
    "You can go on with these negotiations for so long and everything runs out of steam,'' he said.
    
    "The community runs out of patience and you hope that these things get settled.
    
    "But if you (come to an agreement) well and the relationship is ok, you can continue to talk about other parts of it over time.''

    "If teachers voted to accept the deal, which would be effective from this month, it would replace the current enterprise bargaining agreement which ended in March, and it would stay in place until July 2011.

    "In the meantime, about 900 teachers are considering "wildcat'' strikes over the new agreement, according to union activist Marko Vojkovic.

    "Mr Vojkovic, a member of a group which led the charge against Outcomes-Based Education in WA schools, revealed in The Sunday Times on Sunday that teachers in 28 schools had decided last week to consider strike action not authorised by the union.

    "He said many more members would vote on such action soon.

    "This was because they were dissatisfied with the new agreement, which Mr Vojkovic described as amounting to only "cost-of-living pay increases'' for the next three years, in an already underpaid profession. [emphasis added]

    "But the union has called on teachers to be patient until they saw the full details of the deal, which would be sent to members within about a week."

    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    [I anticipate a fair number of reader comments on that article (same link).  Web]
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  

  • First chance for teachers to probe deal (page 10)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “Teachers will have their first chance tomorrow to question key elements of a new pay agreement which the State Government last week presented as a done deal.

    “The State School Teachers Union said it would use a forum for school union representatives to counter unofficial information which is being circulated by opponents of the deal.

    “The union’s executive has already endorsed the pay deal which will give teachers between 15 and 21 percent over three years, depending on their level of experience.

    “Teachers will vote by early September whether to accept the deal. A refection could prove to be a major embarrassment for the Government in the weeks leading up to a State election.

    “Teachers will not get full details of the agreement for a least another week. But opponents of the deal have already started campaigning against it, saying it is premature for union leaders to be promoting the agreement before members have had a chance to see the finer details.

    “Popular teachers’ websites have been flooded with negative opinions and unofficial information on how much money the agreement would put in teachers’ pockets. Critics say the deal is grossly inadequate and would result in some taking a pay cut. [emphasis added]

    “In retaliation, the union sent a four page document to schools yesterday outlining the increases in salaries and allowances it says teachers would receive.

    “SSTU president Anne Gisborne said she wanted to ensure members were not confused or misled and that they were receiving information from official sources.

    “Numerous “unofficial communications” were circulating inaccurate information, she said. For example, one unofficial document stated that the majority of teachers would get less than 16 per cent in the three-year agreement, when in fact most classroom teachers would receive an extra 17.56 per cent.

    “Having heard that was out there and it was inaccurate, I had sought to qualify the inaccuracy,” she said. “We’re just advising our members to wait until they get the full documentation and then they can give it all due consideration and make their mind up.”

    “Ms Gisborne refused to speculate on whether she believed teachers would accept or reject the agreement. If teachers do reject the deal, the dispute will go back to arbitration in the WA Industrial Relations Commission.”

    From The West Australian

     

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • Arrogant stance
      
      “I fully endorse the comments made by the PLATO organiser Marko Vojkovic regarding the state of disaffection among teachers with the latest offering from the Government.

      “In my view, this is because of two major reasons. First, the completely inadequate offer to teachers by the Department of Education and Training. It is barely above the cost of living index and definitely not in the spirit of the Twomey report that suggests immediate and significant pay rises for all teachers.

      “The second reason is the breathtakingly arrogant stance of our union for considering a pay rise in “principle” to an offer it actually hasn’t seen most of the details of and for not even bothering to check with the membership.

      “I am also intrigued why the president of WACCSO, Rob Fry, is canvassed to comment on the pay rise issue. Since when has WACCSO had any say in teachers’ salaries and working conditions?”

      Ross Paton, North Perth
      
      

    • Useless check

      “Today I received my Working with Children Check ID card in the mail. Attached was a letter stating that I was responsible for “urgently telling my employer in writing” if I am charged with a Class 1 or Class 2 offence while in child-related work and that I can find out what those offences may be by checking the website or calling the hotline.
      
      “Are they joking? I haven’t knowingly had any experience with people who commit offences against children, but I can be pretty sure that they are not the type to report themselves to their employers! Seems I just paid $50 and drove a one-hour round trip (my local post office was unable to process WWCC applications) for the privilege of owning a useless piece of plastic.”

      Jennifer Anderson, Mingenew
      
      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • Teachers urged to accept pay offer
    
    "The State School Teachers Union (SSTU) is stepping up its campaign to persuade teachers to accept the State Government's latest pay offer.
    
    "The union will hold a forum for teachers and union representatives tomorrow.
    
    "The executive of the State School Teachers Union is recommending its members accept an offer of pay rises between 16 and 22 per cent over 3 years.
    
    "The President of the SSTU, Anne Gisborne, says some members have complained about the deal, but some are basing their opinions on inaccurate information.
    
    "We have advised members of this yesterday and indicated to them, and called on them, to make sure that they have before them the full documentation from the union, from the official source, so they know that information is accurate," she said."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Weigh students to monitor obesity: professor
    
    A health expert has called on the State Government to launch a comprehensive program to monitor childhood obesity.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Pay deal matches Catholic schools to state
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Teachers in Catholic schools will get pay parity with their public school counterparts and greater support to deal with violent parents and students under a long-awaited new wage deal.
    
    "After months of industrial unrest, teachers in Catholic schools have brokered an agreement that will bring them into line with Victorian government schools, where staff are among the best paid in the country.
    
    "Under the agreement, next year graduate teachers will earn an annual salary of $52,570, a rise of about $6000, while those at the top of the classroom scale will earn $75,500, an increase of about $10,000.
    
    "Paid maternity leave will also increase from nine weeks to 14 weeks, and teachers will get access to long service leave after seven years.
    
    "But in a move that is likely to disappoint some staff, no improvements were made for class sizes in Catholic schools or face-to-face teaching hours, both of which are higher than in public schools.
    
    "Catholic school class sizes - which have an average of 22.4 students at the prep to year 2 level - will remain largely unchanged, despite the union pushing for classes to be capped at a maximum of 23 students in years prep to 2, 26 students in years 3 to 6, and 24 students in VCE.
    
    "The conditions for staff in Catholic schools do fall behind the conditions for staff in government schools - they have better scheduled class times, they generally have smaller class sizes, and a tighter cap around meetings and out-of-school activities," said Victorian Independent Education Union general secretary Deb James.
    
    "Catholic employers will need to be on notice that working conditions will have to improve in future, and fall more in line with our public school counterparts."
    
    "Catholic schools can also expect a crackdown on what some teachers say is a growing problem: abuse and harassment from parents, students and guardians.
    
    "Catholic employers have agreed to examine safety risks to staff as part of the agreement, with the union seeking tough new guidelines to spell out how teachers should deal with issues such as verbal threats from students, harassment via email, or physical violence from parents.
    
    "Other elements of the agreement - which is expected to be ratified by union members over the next two weeks - include:
    
    
    • A one-off payment of $2000 for principals; $1000 payment for most teachers; and a payment of $650-$900 for non-teaching staff.
      
      
    • The capacity to "cash out" up to 10 weeks of long service leave.
      
      
    • Increases in overtime penalties and meal allowances.
      
      
    • Principals to move to a revised salary scale, with increases between 18.84% and 37% over the life of the 3½ year agreement.

    "Catholic Education Commission of Victoria executive director Stephen Elder said he was pleased that an in-principle agreement had been reached with the union, which gave the sector pay parity with government schools.
    
    "Like the $2 billion wage deal struck with public teachers earlier this year, the Catholic schools deal includes average increases of about 15% for most staff."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    It's your power, use it
    by Condoleezza Rice
    
    "To get where I am, I never intended to be where I am. I started out life in Birmingham, Alabama. My mum was a schoolteacher. My dad was a high school guidance counsellor and a Presbyterian minister. From the time that I was about 3 1/2 years old, I was going to be a great concert musician, because my mother was a pianist, my grandmother was a musician, and my great-grandmother was a musician. I studied piano and I studied very, very hard, and went off to college to be a music major, studied for a couple of years..."
    
    Condoleezza Rice is US Secretary of State. This is an edited extract of speech to students at Perth's Mercedes College.
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Failed educational reforms are at heart of problem
      
      "Government controls on personal welfare spending, the subject of John Lyons’s investigation ("Cycle of despair in nation’s suburbs” and “Fix the system”, Inquirer, 26-27/7), will not rectify the problems caused by 30 years of failed educational reforms.
      
      "As a teacher, I often taught classes in which at least 30 per cent of the pupils were illiterate and/or innumerate. Nearly always they were the poorest 30 per cent. As a justice worker, more than 90 per cent of my clients came from the same pool. They were also almost exclusively male.

      "Reforms over the past three decades, inspired largely by the ALP and teacher unions, denigrated trades education and led to the closure of Victorian technical schools but also increased educational advantage for middle-class girls. I watched the social fabric of the Victorian public housing estates I worked in unravel, for example the Pines in Frankston and Doveton.

      "ALP feminists have never understood that the welfare of low-income women and their children is much more tightly bound to the employability of their men. As recent research has found, no matter how heavily the federal government subsidises childcare, low-income women are not the ones who finish their maternity leave, drop their kids off at an ABC Learning Centre and return to their jobs as advisers to Jenny Macklin."
      
      Andrew Humphreys, Narrawallee, NSW
      
      
      

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Note to self - dump pencil case
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "The days of aching fingers and sore arms from scribbling frantically to keep up with a fast-talking teacher are over for students at one Sydney private school.
    
    "Queenwood School for Girls, in Mosman, is installing voice-recognition technology into the school's 500 desktop computers.
    
    "It has been trialling the technology since April and is satisfied with its accuracy.
    
    "Teachers will use it to provide students with verbatim class notes from lessons. They will also use it to produce school reports from their spoken notes.
    
    "Senior students will use the computer's microphone to take study notes and to produce research assignments for the International Baccalaureate, an alternative year 12 credential to the Higher School Certificate. It requires students to complete a mini-thesis on a philosophical aspect of learning.
    
    "The deputy principal, James Harper, said although there was an obvious use for the technology by students with, say, a broken arm or dyslexia, senior students and teachers would use it more widely on a day-to-day basis.
    
    "It is allowing them to talk to the computer, rather than being limited by the speed of a keyboard," Mr Harper said.
    
    "Staff are using it for the half-year reports and we are trying to use it across the school."
    
    "The NSW Board of Studies is exploring the possibility of using computers in public examinations, but Mr Harper said his school was not using voice-recognition technology for that purpose - at least not yet.
    
    "The general manager of the Office of the Board of Studies, John Bennett, said the board could not afford to ignore the proliferation of technology when planning the future of external exams and anticipates computers will be used for some parts of selected exams within the next five years.
    
    "Today's students have never known a world without personal computers or the internet," he said in a recent board publication. "Now we are looking at the possibility of using computers more widely in public examinations.
    
    "Of course, issues such as access to the technology, equity, security and other implications for students and schools need to be thoroughly explored first."
    
    "Mr Harper said voice-recognition technology was helping extend the vocabulary of students who no longer needed to check the spelling of each difficult word they used in a dictionary.
    
    "Asked whether this could create lazy spellers, he said technology had already provided alternatives to manual spell checking through spell-checking software.
    
    "Chris Walsh, the IT manager at Queenwood, said his role was to keep the school at the forefront of innovation. "We are constantly looking at technology from all sources," Mr Walsh said."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • English Bac is latest exam choice
    
    A new English Baccalaureate, designed to help universities identify the very brightest students, has been approved by the exams watchdog.
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • New diplomas in chaos weeks before launch
    
    The Government's flagship new diplomas are in chaos just weeks before they are due to be introduced in the classroom as a substitute for A-levels.

    Scores of teachers have little clue as to how the diplomas should be taught, said Andrew Broadhurst, the chairman of Voice, the teachers' union formerly known as the Professional Association of Teachers, at its annual conference in Daventry.
    
    Similar story in The Guardian
    
    

Wednesday 30 July

• The West Australian
  

  • Teachers’ pay offer a good deal: Twomey (page 11)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “The academic who recommended that teachers be given big pay rises in a bid to overcome the teacher shortage said last night they should accept the State’s Government latest offer.

    “Former Curtin University vice-chancellor Lance Twomey said in his report to the Government last year that teachers should get immediate and significant” pay rises to bring them into line with other professions.

    “Professor Twomey said last night he thought the Government’s offer of between 15 and 21 per cent over three years was  “a good deal” and he was puzzled that teachers would consider rejecting it.

    “I just would have thought that this is a good time to say “yes”, he said.  “I suspect that they’ve got what they’re going to get in the short term and it might be a good move to settle down and talk with the Government about other issues in a less confrontational way.”

    “Disgruntled teachers at almost 30 schools have passed motions saying they would consider wildcat strikes if the Government did not “respond adequately” to the Twomey Report.

    “Professor Twomey said he was surprised by the threat of industrial action because he understood that State School Teachers Union leaders had reached an agreement with the Government.

    “We never put a money figure to it (in the report), we thought it needed a significant increase as soon as possible and from what I can see...it is quite a significant increase,” he said.  “It does mean that new graduates start with a very high starting income in comparison with other professions and well above many.  The teachers in the classroom now get a substantial increase in money as well.”

    “Doubts emerged two days after the agreement was announced about whether teachers would accept it.

    “Critics have begun a campaign to urge teachers to vote against the deal, forcing union president Anne Gisborne to issue a statement rejecting information contained in fliers circulating in schools, which she said was inaccurate.

    “Professor Twomey said the Government still had a lot of work to do to resolve problems with housing country teachers and providing more education assistants.

    “Asked if he believed the proposed pay agreement would solve the teacher shortage, Professor Twomey said: “I think it will help a great deal.”

    “Teachers will vote whether to accept the deal by early September.”

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • Stab in the back
      
      “I recently did some relief teaching in a school in WA, returning to the classroom after some 10 years teaching adults and teaching overseas.  I was appalled at how little control teachers are given over their classes and how much they have to run around catering to the whims of the Education Department.

      “To give an example: Two senior girls walked out of one of my classrooms without permission and I called them back.  They were then impertinent and insulting, but I remained courteous.  Then they both walked out anyway and went to the principal who came to me at recess and spoke to me.  She flatly contradicted my version of things.

      “One of the girls was head girl you see.  The principal made no mention of the fact that the girls had left without permission or justification, and did not see fit to explain why she had not sent them back to make their complaint at recess and to the head of the department, which would have been the normal course of things.

      “With this sort of stab in the back, it is clear that the principals are more and more becoming commissars for the Education Department."

      John Gariano, Nedlands
      
      

    • In Short
      
      "Do Messrs Carpenter, McGowan, Ripper and the silver city fat cats really think that high-quality graduates are so silly that they will look only at teachers' entry levels of pay and not beyond to what they can expect after 10 years? Don't they realise that if teaching conditions and pay were as good as teacher bashers make out, there wouldn't be a shortage? What sort of teachers do we want, the ones we have to pay for or the ones we want in front of our children?"
      
      
      
      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • Public schools allowing Christian sex ed
    
    "The Greens say the New South Wales Government needs to better control which groups have access to public school classrooms.

    "It has emerged that a Christian church-backed program is being taught as part of regular curriculum in some NSW schools.

    "The Choices of Life program, devised by the Presbyterian and Baptist churches, has been taught in human sexuality classes in at least three state primary schools and some high schools.

    "Greens MP John Kaye says the program pushes an anti-abortion and pro-abstinence message, and it is disturbing that it has been allowed into classrooms.

    "It's indoctrination of students, it runs counter to the demands of the Education Act that public schools instruction be strictly non-sectarian and secular," he said.

    "It also runs counter to the more than 80 per cent of Australians who oppose any restrictions on the rights of women to have abortion."

    "Mr Kayes says the anti-abortion, pro-abstinence message goes against the Education Act, which demands that public school instruction be secular.

    "The Iemma Government has lost control of who gets access to public school class rooms," he said.

    "Earlier this week, we had the Hillsong Church with its Shine program running in 20 public schools. Now we've got the Choice of Life organisation.

    "There needs to be far better regulation to stop groups getting access to public school classes when they haven't been appropriately vetted."

    "The Department of Education and Training says it will review the use of the Choices of Life program."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • Schools 'should have own police'
    
    Every school should have a dedicated police officer available to them to help cut violent crime, England's Schools Minister Lord Adonis has said.
    
    
    
  • Teacher recruitment advert banned
    
    An advert that claimed young teachers could earn £34,000 a year in England has been banned by the advertising watchdog for being misleading. The Advertising Standards Authority said the advert suggested a starting salary about £14,000 higher than the real one of £20,133 for outer London.
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Teachers TV: Policing challenging behaviour
    
    Video: Watch a science teacher looking to gain more control over the behaviour of her Year 10 class get a lesson in behaviour management from police trainer.
    
    
    
  • 'Incoherent' students being accepted for nursery nurse training
    by Jessica Shepherd
    
    "Students are being accepted on to childcare courses "unable to string a coherent sentence together", teachers warned today.
    
    "Colleges train nursery nurses with weak qualifications and poor social skills because their first priority may be to fill their places, Gail Holland, a nursery nurse from Leicestershire told the annual conference of teachers' union Voice.
    
    "We are increasingly finding that the educational entry level for trainees is abysmal, some are unable to string a coherent sentence together, let alone write one.
    
    "Is this because colleges are anxious to fill their place with little or no regard to the effect it will have on the next generation?" she asked.
    
    "Many new recruits lacked common sense, she said. "They do not appreciate that children regard them as a role model and that teaching is not just restricted to the 3Rs [reading, writing and arithmetic], but should include 'respect' for self, others and property." ...
    
    From The Guardian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Public servants to stop work
    AAP
    
    "Police will refuse to issue fines today for minor offences as part of a statewide day of action by NSW public sector workers.

    "Teachers, firefighters and other public sector workers will also put in place work and overtime bans, and hold stopwork meetings."And departmental staff will ban all communication with ministers or ministerial offices. Unions NSW has organised the protest against the Iemma Government's 2.5 per cent cap on all public servant wage increases."It says the cap is an insult to the 300,000 public sector workers and amounts to a pay cut because the 2.5 per cent figure was below inflation, which now stands above 4 per cent."At best, the [wages] policy is naive and stupid. At worst, it is insulting," said the secretary of Unions NSW, John Robertson."Workers will hold a rally in the city centre from 11am.

    "The Government has defended the wages cap, saying higher increases are available if savings can be made in other areas."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
  • Google enrolled for schools email deal
    
    Google has snatched what is believed to be its biggest single client in the world - the NSW Department of Education - away from its rival Microsoft to claim up to 1.3 million new users of its free email product.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • States must 'put up or shut up': uni chiefs
    
    The states have been told to "put up or shut up" when it comes to universities, with vice-chancellors warning governments to invest more in the sector or consider ceding power to the Commonwealth.
    
    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • To Speak Out Against the City’s School System, One Man Turns to the Power of Parody
    
    Nearly 50 New York City school principals were fired immediately in what Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein declared a “warning shot across the bow.” Blackwater USA was awarded a no-bid contract to take over school security. And a national education foundation offered a $100 million endowment to any university that established a degree in “high-stakes test-taking.”

    Those satirical news items, which appear on an education blog, are always slightly off-kilter, but several have seemed believable enough to prompt inquiries to the Education Department’s headquarters from parents and journalism students asking to follow up on a story they saw elsewhere.

  
  
  

Thursday 31 July

• The West Australian
  

  • Teachers’ pay deal ‘is in trouble’ as revolt brews (page 4)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “Teachers who emerged from a union forum last night claimed support was growing for a “no” vote against the State Government’s latest pay offer.
    
    “More than 120 influential school union representatives attended the forum, which State School Teachers Union leaders organised to counter unofficial information being circulated by opponents of the deal.
    
    “Teachers who spoke to The West Australian said the tone of the meeting was openly hostile, with many threatening to quit teaching if they were forced to accept the offer of between 15 and 21 percent over three years.
    
    "They said union leaders presented the case for a “yes” vote but no further clarification of the offer was provided for them to take back to their schools.
    
    “The agreement, key elements of which have already been accepted in principle by the union’s executive, will not be ready for distribution until next week. Teachers will vote by early September whether to accept it.
    
    “Flyers handed out to teachers at the meeting called on them to maintain their outrage.
    
    “Union activist Marko Vojkovic, the only representative prepared to be quoted, said he had asked SSTU president Anne Gisborne to have the pay offer audited independently by an accountant, but she had refused.
    
    “The deal is in trouble,” he said. “They’re not just going to strike, they’re going to quit, because they can’t afford to be a teacher.” [emphasis added]
    
    “Ms Gisborne said she thought there was some tension at the meeting because many teachers were extremely disappointed that the Government had not come back with a better offer.
    
    “I think that people were well prepared to listen carefully and weigh up the information that they needed to and I think everybody was appreciative of an opportunity to be able to hear the detail from the horse’s mouth,” she said.  [Glad it came from that end of the horse!  Web]
    
    “She conceded no further detail was released than was already available.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • Not enough
      
      “According to the Twomey report, a WA teacher on the top automatic pay scale currently earns $69,132 while the Victorian counterpart’s pay is $78,675. Thus, this large representative group of WA teachers would need an overnight increase of 13.81 per cent to be the best paid in the country, as has been reported in the media. The 15 to 21 per cent over three years falls woefully short of what is needed now.
      
      “Over the past five years, in real terms, the average weekly earnings of West Australians has increased by 31 per cent.  For teachers it has been a dismal 11.5 per cent. That’s a gap of 19.5 per cent. Teachers need their big catch-up effective immediately, not over three years at a piddling cost-of-living rate of 4.5 per cent a year that will keep them so far behind that recent high achievers will continue to avoid the profession."
      
      Les Tiede, Kingsley
      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • Teachers will accept latest pay offer: SSTU
    
    "The State School Teachers' Union (SSTU) has rejected claims the State Government's latest pay offer is on the verge of being rejected.
    
    "The executive of the SSTU is recommending its members accept a pay offer of between 16 and 22 per cent.
    
    "More than 120 teachers attended a forum to discuss the offer last night, and union activist Marko Vojkovic says many will reject the deal.
    
    "People were saying they were going to resign from teaching if this deal was accepted," he said.
    
    "He described the meeting as hostile, a claim that's been rejected by the President of the SSTU, Anne Gisborne.
    
    "She says some union members have already decided they are opposed to the deal, but she is confident the offer will be accepted once teachers see the full detail.
    
    "They will, I think, see the merits in this particular offer that's on the table," she said.
    
    Accept offer
    
    "The Minister for Education has urged teachers to accept the pay offer.
    
    "Mark McGowan says the full details of the offer will be released to the workforce next week.
    
    "What I would say to the workforce is your executive has endorsed it, the Government has endorsed it, it's the best of all the Australian states by a long way," he said.
    
    "[It's] far better than that accepted by Victoria, far better than New South Wales teachers are paid, it's a good deal, you should look at it closely and I hope you'll endorse it."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Teachers to strike on eve of election
    
    "The Education Union says Territory teachers will walk off the job next Thursday in protest against the continuing pay dispute with the Territory Government.
    
    "The Government's last offer of a 12 per cent pay rise for teachers - tabled on the last day of term - was officially rejected this week.
    
    "The union's Adam Lampe says union members feel deceived because the Government continued to negotiate with the union even though they were planning to call an election - the Government is now in caretaker mode with no power to resolve the pay dispute.
    
    "He says holding strike action two days before the election will send a very clear message to the Chief Minister. [emphasis added]
    
    "The Commissioner [for Public Employment] may not have known on the Friday that the election was going to be called on the Monday, but the Treasurer certainly did, and that certainly is not bargaining in good faith.
    
    "They are just mucking around and teachers are very upset."
    
    "Teachers will walk off the job for four hours.
    
    "But they say the strike can be avoided if the Labor Party publicly guarantees the long running pay dispute will be resolved..."
    
    Full story on ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • World wide web not even Tasmania-wide, education conference hears
    
    Tasmanian parents have raised concerns about the effects the state's internet black spots are having on children studying by distance.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Prep college urged to aid students
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "School-leavers who do not make the grades to get into university would attend new "preparatory colleges" to boost their chances of entering in the future, under sweeping proposals to be considered by the Federal Government.
    
    "In a submission to the Government's long-awaited higher education review, Australia's eight leading universities have called for a dramatic shake-up that would involve new types of tertiary colleges, HECS-style loans to help students pay rent, and performance payments for institutes that take on more disadvantaged students.
    
    "The Group of Eight proposal suggests an ambitious restructure of higher education, in which school-leavers who do not get the entry score for their preferred course could first attend a preparatory college as a stepping stone to university.
    
    "Adults who want to return to study, disadvantaged students or those with limited English skills would also get access to these new "transitional" schools.
    
    "What we've got to do is attract students who have diverse aspirations and help them to succeed — and that's a big challenge," Group of Eight executive director Michael Gallagher said.
    
    "The proposal from the Group of Eight — which represents such elite institutes as Monash, Melbourne and the Australian National University — will be submitted today to the Government review, which is expected to pave the way for the biggest shake-up of universities in years. Proposals include:
    
    ■ Providing students with five types of education after they leave school: preparatory colleges, TAFEs, polytechnic (technical) institutes, universities and research-based universities.
    
    ■ New federal funding arrangements in which universities would get "core" funding, but also performance-based payments if they can meet specific targets, such as helping more students from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed.
    
    ■ More government-funded scholarships, particularly for disadvantaged students.
    
    ■ Allowing students to take out income-contingent loans — similar to HECS — for rental accommodation.
    
    ■ An overhaul of student income support schemes such as Youth Allowance and Austudy, to ensure the aid goes to the most needy students and not those from affluent families, as is currently possible.
    
    "But the universities have not supported student calls to reduce the age of independence for Youth Allowance from 25 18, in fear that it would simply give aid to more people who lived off "the middle-class incomes of their families".
    
    "The more you do that, the less you really focus on the students who are in financial need," Mr Gallagher said.
    
    "National Union of Students president Angus McFarland disagreed. "The reality is so many students live in conditions of poverty and are struggling to meet the basic requirements of their course. Therefore there are benefits to a universal grant that can assist all students, as well as disadvantaged groups," Mr McFarland said.
    
    "The submission will be one of many considered over the next few months under the Government's so-called Bradley review of higher education.
    
    "The review panel, led by emeritus professor Denise Bradley, will make recommendations to Education Minister Julia Gillard by the end of the year."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Public service says a big 'No, minister'
    
    NSW ministers had their lifelines cut yesterday as public servants refused to provide crucial briefing papers to their offices.
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • School scarcities
      
      "Like most public school teachers, I have experienced no heaters, leaking roofs and lack of reading materials. What really floored me was the day my class changed classrooms and I had no desk. The general hand came to my assistance, saying: "It's your lucky day." He came in with a student's desk he had picked up by the side of the road during a council clean-up. It was filthy, covered with cobwebs and the wood laminate was peeling. Are there any other university-educated professionals who have to put up with that sort of thing?"
      
      

      Jenny Adolphe, Beecroft
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • Accord to welcome Chilean students
    
    Chile will pay to send up to 500 of its top university students each year to Australia for postgraduate education under a landmark agreement enabling long-term collaboration and exchange.

 

Friday 1 August

• The West Australian
  

  • Editorial
    Building firms must take some blame for huge wage demands (page 20)
    
    “If the WA building companies claiming to be shocked by the extent of wages claims by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union are prepared to mount a resistance, they had better be prepared for a long fight. Their previous acquiescence to the union's demand has strengthened its industrial muscle to a point where unskilled workers are earning six-figure annual pay packets.
    
    “Any attempt to resist the union's claim for a 21 percent pay rise over three years is likely to provoke protracted and bitter workplace unrest.
    
    “The bargaining power of the CFMEU is a result of booming building economy with State Government-funded capital works projects competing with private developments for workers. The rapid expansion of the mining sector adds further pressure.
    
    “The builders, in assessing whether to stand up to the union, may opt for simple pragmatism. They can accede to the union demands and hope to complete their projects on time and on budget. Or they can refuse them, and risk the expensive disruption of industrial action.
    
    “The pragmatic solution, however, gives more power to a union whose distasteful public comments, standover tactics and worksite thuggery have damaged the reputation of WA as a place to do business. Handing it victory in this wage claim will be hard t swallow.
    
    “The State Government struggles to find enough tenders for its major projects and has not been able to attract interest from outside WA. That is due in no small part to the actions of the CFMEU in this State.
    
    “The current claim would give WA's CFMEU members bigger pay rises than those awarded to their colleagues in NSW and Victoria.
    
    "Running alongside the union's wages claim is the complication that its top officials including secretary Kevin Reynolds and assistant secretary Joe McDonald, are fighting to save their jobs. Both will be opposed at the union election in October.
    
    “They will want to prove to members their worth at the negotiating table. And their challengers are hardly likely to suggest a tempering of the claims. The best that challenger Darren Kavenagh can come up with in this circumstance is to suggest that employers are reluctant to deal with the current leadership.
    
    “Many workers earning far less than an unskilled worker in the building industry, including those in essential services like teaching and nursing, will feel resentful that someone with no training can earn well over $100,000 a year. An array of extra allowances negotiated by the CFMEU over the years – including, curiously, a payment for working on a multi-story site – boosts earnings further.
    
    “They may wonder, with some justification, why they spent years at university gaining qualifications which will not see them rewarded nearly so well financially. [emphasis added]
    
    “The industrial strength of the construction workers is, of course, dependent on demand. While workers are hard to find and employers anxious to exploit the strong economy, wages will remain high. That will change, however, if the economy slows and building activity drops off.
    
    “But until it does, building contractors have little choice but to pay up. They might bleat about the extent of the pay rises but in the final analysis, industrial action will be far costlier.”
    
    From The West Australian

     

  • Scholarship aims for more teachers (page 10)
    by Gabrielle Knowles
    
    “The State Government has announced teaching scholarships of up to $60,000 to attract students.
    
    “The 220 scholarships will be worth between $15,000 and $60,000 and will be available next year, up from the 128 awarded this year. The Government has allocated $4.63 million for the 2009 scholarships, which are open to final-year teaching students who agree to work in remote, rural or difficult metropolitan schools.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • More spin

      “I'm sure that the money wasted on spin for the Fiona Stanley Hospital (Taxpayers' money wasted on spin, 30/7) pales into insignificance when compared with the money wasted on promoting the failed OBE fiasco.

      “Who can forget the full-page ads in this paper, complete with graphs, telling us that OBE was making WA and educational leader?

      “How much money was spent on spin for this disaster? More importantly, will anyone be held accountable?”

      Patrick F. Whalen, Yokine
       
      

    • In short
      
      “Professor Lance Twomey’s unbridled support for the Government’s offer that would see teachers’ salaries barely staying abreast of inflation prompts me to ask him: given that teachers’ pay scales have always been public knowledge, do you have sufficient character to reveal full details of your own (undoubtedly very handsome) salary offer, over say, the past decade by comparison to inflation? Perhaps the Premier might care to answer the same question.”
      
      Ray Jamieson, Willetton
      
      

    • Official line

      “I would like to clarify concerns raised by Jennifer Anderson (Useless check, Letters, 29/7) about the State Government's Working With Children checks. I agree with her that it would not be sensible to reply on the honest of offenders to report their criminal activity to employers. However, the scheme does not rely on criminals self-reporting.

      “A rigorous national criminal record check is conducted for convictions and charges. Under the Working With Children Act 2004, police and employers to also report offences to the Working With Children Unit – an important way to find to find out if a person in child-related work commits an offence of concern.

      “Penalties for not reporting certain offences include prosecution with five years imprisonment and a $60,000 fine.

      “Since the legislation was introduced, nearly 140,000 employees the self-employed and volunteers have applied for the WWCC which has helped us prohibit more than 50 people who may harm children from working with them.”

      Sandie van Soelen, dicrctor, Working With Children Screening, Department for Child Protection
      
      
      

• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • Scholarships offered to tackle teacher shortages [31 July]
    by Paul Lampathakis, education reporter
    
    "Teachers will get up to $60,000 in WA Government scholarships designed to attack staff shortages in key areas.
    
    "The 220 scholarships, which are worth $4.63 million in total, will range from $5000 to $60,000, and will be paid mainly to students in their final year of teaching studies.
    
    "They are designed to get teachers into shortage-stricken rural and remote schools, and fields such as such as maths and science.
    
    "The $60,000 will be available to 60 applicants who are willing to sign a four-year contract to teach in public schools..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    
    
  • WA paramedics pursue industrial action
    
    Paramedics have voted in favour of taking industrial action against St John Ambulance.
    
    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • House Acts to Overhaul College Loan Regulations
    
    Congress overwhelmingly approved an overhaul of the nation’s higher education law on Thursday, adding dozens of provisions and programs to help families with soaring college costs.
    

 

Saturday – Sunday, 2 – 3 August

• The West Australian
  

  • Teacher pay deal faces collapse (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “The teachers’ proposed pay deal was on the brink of collapse yesterday, with almost half the union’s governing body breaking ranks to reveal they do not support the agreement struck with the State Government last week.
    
    “More than a week after the pay offer was approved by the union’s executive and presented by the Government and union president Anne Gisborne as a fait accompli, seven out of 17 members of the executive have broken ranks to condemn it publicly.
    
    “In what could prove to be a major embarrassment for the Government in the weeks leading up to the next State election, the union rebels are urging teachers to seriously question the deal when voting starts this month.
    
    “The rebellion is also a kick in the teeth for Ms. Gisborne, who has been promoting the deal as a big win.
    
    “The Government has offered teachers pay rises of between 15 and 21 per cent over three years and annual allowances of between $3000 and $19,000 to those who teach in tough city schools and remote schools. Education Minister Mark McGowan says the deal would make WA teachers better pain than those in other states. [You’re sounding like a broken record, Minister. “Just one original thought per year” must be the new quota.  Web]    
    
    “But the seven rebels told The West Australian in a statement yesterday that the agreement would only keep pace with inflation.
    
    “We the following members of the SSTUWA executive would like to make it clear that we do not endorse the ‘agreement in principle’ that will form the document that members will eventually vote on,” the wrote. “Given the information we have been provided with so far, we do not think the agreement will attract talented people into teaching or stem the flow of teachers leaving the system.”
    
    “By speaking out, the rebels have also defied a resolution passed by the union executive requiring them to support the agreement publicly.
    
    “Ms. Gisborne said she had not seen the statement and had not been advised of any change of position. “And until I hear formally from executive I will not be offering comment,” she said. She was confident teachers would accept the deal when they saw the full detail and compared that with the conditions the Education Department had sought to impose.
    
    “A spokeswoman for Mr. McGowan said it was inappropriate for him to comment on an internal union issue.
    
    “But his office provided Treasury documents which it said showed the pay offer would exceed inflation forecasts for the next three years.
    
    “Under the agreement, a teacher’s pay at the top of the automatic progression salary scale would rise from $69,132 to $84,111 by 2011, an increase of 21.7 per cent, while a senior teacher’s income would go from $72,844 to $86,953, up 19.4 per cent. Almost half the workforce is in one of those categories.
    
    “Marko Vojkovic, who failed to become union president last year and who has led the campaign to vote “no” to the deal, said executive members were taking a principled stance.
    
    “It is further evidence now that the union will not be bullied into accepting any offer until the members have a say on it,” he said. [emphasis added]
    
    “Academic Lance Twomey, who recommended in a report to the Government last year that teachers be given big pay rises in a bid to overcome the teacher shortage, said this week he thought the latest offer was good.
    
    “If teachers reject the deal the dispute will go back to the WA Industrial Relations Commission for resolution.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    It’s time to address our decaying school system (page 20)
    by Zoltan Kovacs, Opinion Editor
    
    “If State school teachers accept the Government’s pay offer, it will be with a sense of grudging resignation by many to a hostile employer. If the Government believes that an acceptance of it latest offer after months on the industrial battlefield will help disarm education as an election issue, it may have misread the mood in many of its schools.
    
    “This is about much more than money. Let’s set aside the overused word crisis and note simply that there is a pervasive perception among many people who care about education that the State school system is in decay. It shows signs of becoming a safety-net service of last resort for parents who can’t get their children into private schools, particularly at secondary level. On top of that, there is an almost palpable sense of grievance from elements of the teaching service, which is evident in organised moves to resist the Government’s offer.
    
    “State schools are still doing their job reasonably well by many measures, but the good teachers who are responsible for that are increasingly burdened by having to deal daily with what are essentially social problems. They do so with the handicap of an anachronistically authoritarian and self-perpetuating education bureaucracy that has shown itself to be remote from the everyday realities of the problems that beset schools.
    
    “That is evident from, among other things, letters sent to the newspaper by teachers. Many have asked for their names not to be used because they fear retribution, which speaks volumes about their experience with the bureaucracy. Others, perhaps with a sense of having nothing left to lose, have been prepared more recently to put their names to their views. Some persistent opponents of the outcomes-based-education stuff-up (imposed on schools with something like totalitarian zealotry) over the past few years seem to have been particularly brave.
    
    “The complaints have been mostly about lack of support for teachers, or even acknowledgment of problems they face in doing their job. These include a worrying trend of assaults on and abuse of school staff, with more than 600 cases reported in the past year. On top of that, there are continuing complaints by teachers and parents about the poor condition of some school buildings.
    
    “Even if the number of teachers who are prepared to speak out publicly is small compared to the size of the teaching service, there is much anecdotal evidence that teachers in general feel undervalued, ignored and abandoned to their problems by their employer. The teacher shortage is not only a consequence of boom-time jobs being available but also must be seen as a measure of disaffection with the public school system. Furthermore, it is hardly surprising that those driven by bureaucratic intransigence into early retirement have happily resisted the blandishments and inducements of their former employer aimed to tempt them back to the classroom.
    
    “Columnist Tony Rutherford implied a couple of weeks ago that a solution might be for the Government to sack the education bureaucrats and start all over again with a reformed school policy. But, as he pointed out, the chances of this happening are too small to be reckoned.
    
    “Rather than embarking on a far-sighted mission to restore the standing of State education, the Government’s political imperative at the moment seems to be somehow to try to hold the whole thing together before the election. No doubt it will come up with some eye-catching education promises for the election campaign, possibly directed at trying to improve students’ behaviour and to offer teachers better protection.
    
    “However, what the State education system needs is a true and effective champion, driven not by the political exigencies of the moment but by an unwavering long-term commitment to improving the value and qualities of what schools offer. That would be in keeping with the traditional Labor view of public education as a key instrument of social equity.
    
    “Public education in WA has a history of exceptional service to generations of young people. If a Labor Government can’t be the education champion that sustains and improves on that tradition, are then people are entitled to wonder what its principles are.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  •  Letter to the Editor (page 23)
    

    • Make a Swap
      
      
      "Given the current industrial situation in the building and education industries, is there room for a work experience exchange to take place? Kevin Reynolds to the teachers' union and Anne Gisborne to the CFMEU.
      
      "Kevin seems to be very successful in gaining pay increases for his members and Anne appears to be very successful in continually having discussions, meetings and information sessions with her union. Based on past performance, the teachers could expect their higher wages claim to be met and Joe McDonald and his members could expect to expand their vocabulary, improve the elocution and maybe overcome Kevin07's objection to their membership of the ALP."
      
      
      Rod Bates, Ardros
      
      
      
      
  • Hale School adds ‘fat’ report cards to pupils’ academic achievements (page 19)
    by Cathy O’Leary
    
    “A Perth private boys’ school has started sending out fitness and weight report cards along with the usual academic reports for students in the first three years of high school.
    
    “Hale School principal Stuart Meade said yesterday that the school had used a recent semester report for boys in Years 8-10 to include for the first time details about a boy’s weight, height, agility and flexibility as part of his physical education assessment.
    
    “The boy’s statistics were compared with those of other students at the school and with the national average.
    
    “While some health experts have warned against “fat reports” for students, arguing it could stigmatise overweight children, Mr. Meade said the feedback from parents was that they welcomed the information.
    
    “We have been collecting this information over the years but this is the first time we have given it out to parents as part of the school report and it’s for boys in Years 8 to 10 who have compulsory physical education programmes,” he said.
    
    “The PE staff have been tossing this idea around for some time and the aim is to allow students to witness their growth and understand their strengths and weaknesses and areas for improvement.
    
    “It’s also about giving a clear picture to parents about their child’s growth and development which they can monitor over time. Some parents might have worried that their son was a bit heavy but then they might see he’s not compared to other boys.
    
    “I don’t see an issue in giving that information to parents and we don’t share it with anyone else.”
    
    “The mother of one Year 8 welcomed the report, saying it gave good information on a child’s health and fitness.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
  • Teacher used phone to film boys in toilet
    
    The principal of a Perth private boys’ school has spent much of this week informing shocked parents of the clandestine sexual activities of a former sports instructor who was secretly filming dozens of unsuspecting pupils in the school toilets.
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • "Green light" for teachers' deal
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "The teachers' pay deal is not in danger and details will be sent to members later this week, says the WA State School Teachers' Union president.
    
    "SSTU president Anne Gisborne said there was no truth in reports in other media that the agreement struck in principle between the union executive and the WA Government was on the "brink of collapse''.
    
    "And she said there was "no way'' the deal could be over-turned before teachers had had a chance to vote on it, which is expected to be finished within five weeks.
    
    "She did not know the identity of the seven executive members who had reportedly opposed the agreement, or even if there were seven.
    
    "We have a resolution on the table that stands,'' she said.
    
    "We have a further resolution on the table that indicates that executive members are supporting the conditions.''
    
    "She said executive members at a meeting on Friday and today had re-affirmed their support for the agreement offering teachers from 15.85 per cent to 21.67 per cent extra pay, over the next three years.
    
    "Graduates' salaries, with allowances, would rise from $46,533 to $57,696 in that period, including allowances. School administrators would also get a 17.56 per cent pay rise.
    
    "Education Minister Mark McGowan has said the deal - which was this week backed by former teacher shortage task force chairman Lance Twomey - would make WA teachers the best paid in Australia." [Yes, truly a broken record, Minister.  Web]
    
    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    Also post / view reades'r comments at that link
    
    
    
  • Bad start to school for 25pc (page 15)
    by Anthony Deceglie
    
    “Twenty-five per cent of WA children start school with major learning difficulties, a parliamentary inquiry has found.
    
    “The burden teachers and other students, but restructuring schools to address the situation will cost millions of dollars.
    
    “The Education and Health Standing Committee, chaired by Labor MP Tom Stephens, is investigating the adequacy and availability of health checks for hearing, vision, speech and motor-skill difficulties of children at pre-primary and primary schools in WA.
    
    “More than 30 submissions to the public inquiry were made by government departments, non-government organisations and individuals.
    
    “There is evidence from a whole range of professionals suggesting that a large cohort of young people heading to school have got significant learning difficulties and disabilities,” Mr. Stephens said.
    
    “Twenty-five per cent is the average figure that has been given.
    
    “This is a very worrying statistic showing up in the population.”
    
    “Mr. Stephens said the state’s economic boom was fuelling the crisis.
    
    “Many mums and dads are engaged in full-time work, with kids that are not being given the same parental support in those early developmental years creating a legacy that is going to throw enormous challenges on the WA community,” he said.
    
    “Those kids are now being delivered into the schools with learning difficulties and disabilities.”
    
    “Opposition spokeswoman for children Barbara Scott, who made a submission to the inquiry, said early intervention programmes for WA schoolchildren with learning problems were inadequate.
    
    “Some children with speech difficulties waited more than a year before seeing a speech therapist.
    
    “Schools have to accommodate children’s needs,” Ms. Scott said.
    
    “Every child who enters a kindergarten programme should be assessed by a professional.
    
    “Once the assessment is done, I would like to see rapid and increased intervention by the Government to provide intervention.”
    
    “Ms. Scott called for classes with fewer students.
    
    “If you have got a teacher with 30 kids and 10 of them have learning difficulties, then it is going to affect others,” she said.
    
    “Mr. Stephens said restructuring school environments would be necessary to cope with the rise in children with learning difficulties.
    
    “We literally will not be able to afford the professional help of speech pathologists and occupational therapist and school psychologists that these statistics demand,” he said.
    
    “We are going to have to find ways of restructuring our schools to pick up the deficit that industry and society is delivering. [emphasis added]
    
    “Our committee has the task of recommending some evidence-based responses to this issue.”
    
    “The committee’s findings are expected to be released next month.”
    
    From The Sunday Times
    
    
    
  • Skill's in for truants
    by Andrea Mayes
    
    "Improving literacy and attendance rates while developing multi-media skills are the aims of a new educational program in Broome.
    
    "Seventeen chronic truants, aged 11-14, are enrolled in the Alternative Education Program that started this week at the Goolarri Media studios.
    
    "In addition to literacy and numeracy, the students will be taught practical skills, including animation, TV and radio production and documentary making.
    
    "The students are from Broome primary and high schools, where attendance rates are below state averages..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Times
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Teachers warned against rejecting pay offer
    
    "The State Government is warning teachers they risk getting a worse pay deal if they reject the latest offer.

    "The government has agreed to pay increases of between 16 and 22% over three years.

    "The teachers' union executive, including its president Anne Gisborne, has recommended its members accept the deal, but some teachers believe it is insufficient.

    "If they reject the deal, the dispute will go back to the Industrial Relations Commission for arbitration.

    "The Premier Alan Carpenter says that would be a bad move.

    "The risk that the teachers run if they reject the offer and go back to arbitration is they could end up with something far less than what is on the table at the moment," he said."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Cosseted children taught to fail better
    by Jessica Shepherd
    
    Children in 100 Scottish schools to be given lessons on how to solve their problems themselves and accept disappointment
    
    "Teachers in Scotland are to toughen up their "mollycoddled middle-class" pupils with classes on how to cope with disappointment and failure, it emerged today.

    "At least 100 primary and secondary schools in Scotland plan to teach a course called Bounce Back from September."Pupils will be taught ways to accept and solve their problems themselves, rather than turn to their teachers and parents.

    "The course advises teachers to emphasise how characters in stories combat adversity.

    "Dr Toni Noble, a senior education lecturer at the Australian Catholic University and co-author of the course's textbook, said: "We can't protect young people from the stress of all potential adverse life events, but we as educators can make a significant contribution to their welfare and life-long learning by teaching them coping skills." ...
    
    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    
    

  • ¿ Puede leer este titular? Si no, esta es la razón...

    The headline says: Can you read this headline? If not, here is the reason… This week thousands of British schoolchildren will head off on foreign holidays – but, sadly, many won't be able to speak a word to the locals. Fewer and fewer pupils are studying foreign languages, and language teaching in our schools is in a dire state
    
    
    

  • Editorial
    Our language skills are a national embarrassment
    
    "If you ask schoolchildren why they prefer not to study a foreign language, they will generally answer that the subject is too difficult or pointless, perhaps adding the perennial juvenile complaint that it is 'boring'.

    "Astonishingly, the entire education system in England and Wales agrees. In 2002, secondary schools were relieved of the obligation to make students take at least one foreign language at GCSE. As a direct consequence, as a report in The Observer today shows, language learning is in crisis. The numbers of children sitting French and German GCSE are in freefall. That means fewer A-level candidates, fewer students taking language degrees and so fewer competent language teachers. Such declines are hard to reverse..."
    
    Full story in The Guardian at link

    
    

  • Kids need the adventure of 'risky' play
    
    A major study says parents harm their children's development if they ban tree-climbing or conkers
    
    
    

• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Routine makes a good student
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "The secret to the academic success of many Asian students starts in the home, with a study of schoolchildren suggesting a regular homework routine carries benefits into the classroom.
    
    "The research examined the study habits of three groups of Year 3 students and found that Chinese children spent more time on their homework, completed more work and did it on a more regular basis than Anglo or Pacific Island students.
    
    "The study by University of Western Sydney researchers and the NSW Education Department challenges the myth that Chinese students perform better at school because of a cultural disposition to study.
    
    "One of the authors, senior lecturer in literacy and pedagogy Megan Watkins, said the study habits learnt by these Chinese students in the home fostered a more disciplined approach to academic studies, which was evident in the way they approached their work at school.
    
    "Dr Watkins said these habits should be promoted in schools with all students.
    
    "It's possible to learn the habits of learning; these things don't just happen in high school, they need to be slowly learned," she said. "The primary years are an academic apprenticeship not only in the basic skills of literacy and numeracy but also bodily skills of application to work and independence in learning. It's not about turning kids into homework robots but teaching them to apply themselves to their work."
    
    "The study by Dr Watkins and associate professor in cultural studies Greg Noble says the focus in schools on the cognitive aspects of learning tends to ignore the physical habits required, such as sitting at a desk and even holding a pencil correctly.
    
    "There has been inadequate attention given to the ways educational attainment is founded on embodied capacities, such as productive stillness and quiet, which are crucial to sustained attention and application in intellectual endeavour," the report says..."
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australiana at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    One teenage boy says it all
    
    A new generation of indigenous boys and girls attending elite secondary boarding schools on scholarships around Australia hold the key to turning around entrenched disadvantage. They are, as the Cape York Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson describes it, being "swept along in the tide of high expectation". They are also inspiring and influencing more pampered classmates for the better.
    
    
    
    
• Newsweek Magazine
  
  
  • Lessons From Locke
    by Donna Foote
    
    The author spent a year embedded with Teach For America. Can its recruits really remake education?
    
    "Earlier this summer, Wendy Kopp flew round trip from New York to L.A. in one day. Kopp, the founder of Teach For America—the national teaching corps that recruits high-performing college grads to teach in low-performing public schools—wanted to personally welcome some 700 new recruits to summer boot camp. When she took the podium, the teachers-in-training started cheering before she could finish saying her name. Then it was rapt silence as she exhorted them to engage in the battle for educational equity, first as quality teachers, then as leaders of the systemic reform needed to close the appalling achievement gap between the richest and the poorest students. It was a rousing call to arms not unlike the one I heard the summer of 2005 when I began to follow four TFA recruits through their first year of teaching.
    
    "Today TFA is not only the postgrad destination of choice for many of America's top college seniors, it's also a magnet for reform-minded philanthropists. Despite a battered economy, TFA is on target to raise $110 million in fiscal 2008, a 40 percent hike over the previous year's record intake. The number of applicants has spiked to a record high—now 25,000 college seniors compete for the privilege of taking on one of the toughest jobs on earth. Among the candidates: 11 percent of seniors at Yale, 10 percent at Georgetown and 9 percent at Harvard. This summer, 3,700 corps members who were carefully culled for their leadership skills through TFA's data-driven, envy-of-Wall Street selection model underwent an intensive, five-week crash course in teaching. In a few weeks, they will begin their two-year classroom commitments..."
    
    Full story in Newsweek at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Age
  
  
  • School picks up on safety and kisses goodbye to drop-off traffic congestion
    
    After much discussion, a teacher suggested the Stop, Kiss, Drop method of depositing children at and collecting them from school. Based on a US model, the program sees parents drive into Ormiston, four cars at a time. The school's maintenance assistant, Daryl Feldman, directs traffic and a teacher opens each car's passenger door so the student can jump out after kissing her parent goodbye. Parents then drive off without having set foot out of the car, and traffic flows smoothly.
    
    In a little over half an hour, from 8.10am, the painless and efficient school drop-off is over.
    
    
    
  • Net blamed as 10,000 kids turn to crime
    
    About 10,000 Victorian children aged 10 to 14 have been cautioned by police, arrested or ordered to appear in court in the past year, as a surge in youth crime continues.
    
    Victoria Police say the escalation in juvenile crimes — ranging from break and enters to drug offences and assaults — is being fuelled by children's growing exposure to sexual and violent images on the internet.
    

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