Monday 8 December

Tuesday 9 December

Wednesday 10 December

Thursday 11 December

Friday 12 December

Saturday – Sunday, 13 – 14 December

Monday 8 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Bid to raise WA teacher profiles (online only)
    
    "A campaign to raise the status of teaching in WA government schools begins today.
    
    "Education Minister Liz Constable said it was important to reward teachers financially, while highlighting the vital role they played in the lives of students.
    
    “The advertising campaign illustrates the long-lasting influence teachers have on students and how they make a difference in their everyday lives,” she said.
    
    "The $350,000 campaign marks the beginning of a strategy to raise the status of the teaching profession, recruit new teachers, retain current teachers and promote the diversity of public education.
    
    “A range of remarkable schools, teachers and students feature in the campaign, including the talented musicians of Hamilton Senior High School who performed the music featured in the advertisements,” the Minister said.
    
    “It is essential to recognise real work being done by real teachers across our State.
    
    “The campaign includes television, radio, cinema, outdoor and web-based advertising and will run throughout the coming year.”
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Poor migrant skills just one issue facing WA school in 2009 (page 20)
    
    “Increased pressure from and influx of non-English-speaking children in State schools is just one of the problems the WA Education Department before the start of the next school year.
    
    “An apparently unforeseen consequence of the number of workers attracted to WA under the 457 work visas is a sharp rise in the number of children with poor English skills. It was short-sighted of the Federal Government to implement its overseas worker plan without recognising fully t he potential problems the scheme might create.
    
    “The need for such a scheme is not in question: WA's economy was being strangled by a lack of skilled workers and those who answered the call have helped reduce the shortfall.
    
    “But in attempting to solve one problem, the Government has created another which must be addressed before it becomes a further disincentive for teachers deciding whether to return to the classroom next year.
    
    “It is easy to see the impact on teachers and school resources of so many children with poor English skills. South Perth MLA John McGrath, for instance, says that Como Primary School, in his electorate, 50 children out of 270 have special English needs.
    
    “Colin Barnett says the number of such children in WA has increased by 30 per cent. The Premier supports an inquiry into the issue. He should set one up quickly, or risk more disruption when school resumes.
    
    "Schools are obliged to do all they can to ensure than the children of overseas workers are able to participate fully in Australia's education system. At the same time, however, it is only possible for teachers to meet the needs of all students if there is adequate support for those needing more help.
    
    “One likely result of the slowing WA economy is a reduction in the demand for temporary overseas workers. However, since the 457 visa entitles a worker to stay in Australia for up to four years, the problem of children with poor English skills will not disappear overnight.
    
    “The economic downturn may also result in a growing number of parents leaving the private sector in favour of State Schools. It has been reported that the only two public schools in the western suburbs are bracing themselves for a wave of new enrolments.
    
    “Any increase will put further pressure both on staff and resources, and will require still more fortitude from teachers only beginning to emerge from the rigours of the outcomes-based education debacle and the prolonged battle over a new pay deal.
    
    “It has become common in WA for the start of each academic year to be marred by confusion over staffing and, more recently, by a shortage of teachers. That problem should be eased by agreement on a pay scale which makes the State's teachers the best paid in the country.
    
    “The Education Department must work hard over the next two months so that 2009 starts smoothly. It must ensure that children who need additional instruction in English are able to get it, without disrupting the normal classroom activities.
    
    “Most importantly, it must convince doubting teachers that the tortured days of OBE are over and that as a result, WA's State school classrooms are a more productive place in which to work.
    
    “And that teachers themselves are a valued resource.” [emphasis added]
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
  • Motivating students lands Hamilton SHS teacher extra $100k (online only)
    by Aleisha Preedy
    
    "Hamilton Senior High School teacher Rosinda Seara collected $100,000 when she was crowed the Premier’s Teacher of the Year this morning.
    
    "Mrs Seara has dedicated 21-years to the school and is credited with finding new ways to motivate students beyond the classroom.
    
    “I believe in taking students out of the classroom and so we have been on 18 excursions this year,” Mrs Seara said.
    
    “I search for subjects that interest my students and I give them challenging tasks that are linked to real world skills.”
    
    "The win comes after Mrs Seara was selected as deputy tour leader for the Premier’s ANZAC Student Tour to the Western Front next April.
    
    "Other winners of Premier Colin Barnett’s Teacher of the Year awards include Judy Williams from Albany Senior High School, Ian McDonald from Challenger TAFE and Lynley Juboy from Looma Remote Community School.
    
    "Several schools were also awarded including, Esperance Senior High School for literacy, Parkfield Primary School for numeracy, Greenmount Primary School and Westminster Primary School for science and Campbell Primary School was named WA Innovative School of the Year.
    
    "Tuart College principal John Anderton was named WA Principal of the Year."
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (pages 22-23)
    
    
    • In short
      
      “While a national curriculum has appeal and merit, the Rudd Government has shown itself to be morally corrupt, indeed bankrupt, in holding independent schools to ransom by requiring them to agree on its contents, sign unseen.
      
      “This is especially so given WA's recent experience of the unfortunate shambles wrought by the local education boffins. It remains to be seen whether our kids, having been scorched in the frying pan of WA's Curriculum Council, will be cast into the fire by Canberra's education bureaucrats. It should be highly unsettling to all Australians when their government behaves in this way.”
      
      John Maloney, South Perth
      
      
      
• The Age
  
  
  • School fees rise to $29,000
    
    Some private school fees will soar to almost $29,000 next year — increasing by almost three times the rate of inflation — despite the Senate approving $28 billion for private school funding until 2012.
    
    
    
  • Students face racism, exploitation
    
    International students with jobs are being paid less than Australians, face discrimination when applying for rental properties and are treated "less favourably" by teachers, an inquiry has been told.
    
    
    
    
• Associated Press / Yahoo News
  
  
  • Obama education pick sparks conflict
    by Libby Quaid, AP Education Writer
    
    WASHINGTON – "President-elect Barack Obama has not signaled what he will do to fix the country's failing schools, but his choice of education secretary will say a lot about the policies he may pursue.
    
    "Debate is simmering among Democrats over whom Obama should name.
    
    "Teachers' unions, an influential segment of the party base, want an advocate for their members, someone like Obama adviser Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University professor, or Inez Tenenbaum, the former state schools chief in South Carolina.
    
    "Reform advocates want someone like New York schools chancellor Joel Klein, who wants teachers and schools held accountable for the performance of students.
    
    "Thus far Obama has avoided taking sides, saying things that reassure the competing factions. Obama has said, for instance, that teacher pay should be tied to student achievement, which reformers like, but not solely based on test scores, which teachers like.

    "He's a wise man," said Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, chuckling. "He left himself some room to maneuver." ...
    
    Full story at AP / Yahoo News at link
    
    
    

• UK Overhaul of Primary Schooling
  
  
  • BBC News
    
    
    • Themes replace subjects in review
      
      Six themed "areas of learning" should replace individual subjects in England's primary schools, a government commissioned review argues. This would free up teachers' time and allow them to focus on new areas such as pupil well-being, modern languages and the use of computers, it argues. The report by government adviser Sir Jim Rose says children should be better prepared for life outside school.
      
      
      
  • The Guardian
    
    
    • Scrap history lessons in primary, says study
      
      Traditional lessons in history, geography and science should be removed from the primary curriculum and children taught their essential content through cross-curricular themed classes, the biggest inquiry into primary schooling in a generation will report today.
      
      
      
    • Experts caution against themed classes
      
      Removing traditional lessons may cause erosion in specialist knowledge, say historians
      
      Dr Andrew Foster, vice-president of the Royal Historical Society and chairman of its teaching policy committee, said: "The move to more flexibility and project work is welcome but there's a concern generally that from primary up to age 11 will not be discipline-based which will raise problems. "Our concern is that the developments will lead to an erosion of specialist knowledge of the discipline of history, which is happening at both ends of the education spectrum with the introduction of the 14-19 diplomas which are squeezing history, geography and other subjects in all sorts of ways."
      
      
      
  • The Independent
    
    
    • Schools told reading is top priority
      
      A drive to improve reading standards which includes encouraging parents to read to children will be outlined today in the most far-reaching review of primary schooling in 20 years. Evidence shows that children from the poorest homes hear only 13 million words by the time they are aged four, 32 million words less than children from affluent households. The figure, given to the government-ordered review of the primary school curriculum, has prompted a campaign to ensure parents spend more time talking to their children and that children struggling to read get more help.
      
      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Aboriginal kids 'risk losing identity'
    
    Aboriginal children are not receiving an education that enhances and promotes their Aboriginality, according to one of the nation's first indigenous school principals. In a keynote speech at the opening of an international indigenous education conference in Melbourne, Colin Bourke said Aboriginal children needed to be educated "as Aborigines as well as Australians".
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Yunupingu’s legacies
      
      "You're right. Mandawuy Yunupingu is a great songman and a two-ways educator, a rock star, a diplomat and a warrior ("Songline fades for treaty man Mandawuy”, 6-7/12).
      
      "His fight for his life goes on at the same time as the battle for his language rights. Northern Territory Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Employment, Education and Training, Minister for Indigenous Policy and Minister for Arts and Museums Marion Scrymgour’s ill-advised decision for four hours of compulsory English instruction will kill the last nine bilingual programs in the Territory. They teach children using traditional Aboriginal languages and English.
      
      "These programs include the successful one at Yirrkala school, where Mandawuy was a ground-breaking principal fighting for two-way curriculum change and fighting for structural change to empower the Yambirrpa School Council. He is a warrior for Aboriginal language rights and for cultural rights.
      
      "Wouldn’t it be great if Mandawuy could know that his grandchildren will learn in Gumatj, his language, as well as in English during their time at school. Mandawuy is a great Australian. A true Maralitja man."
      
      Trevor Stockley, Flying Fish Point, Qld
      
      
      
    • Chaplains and schools
      
      "The stories of chaplains having generated miracles in schools made me laugh, until I read that federal government money was still being used to fund their positions ("School chaplains ‘worked miracles“‘, 6-7/12).
      
      "What is this funding actually achieving for students? If the Government wants more counsellors available for schools, it should fund counsellors, not religious preachers.
      
      "The Rudd Government should act immediately to cancel this bizarre scheme introduced by the Liberal government."
      
      Brad Ruting, Castle Hill, NSW
      
      
      
    • "Hugh Wilson’s well-organised push to purge Christianity from public schools sadly ignores the good work chaplains, motivated by Christian love, are doing in schools.
      
      "Thousands of public school communities have enlisted the help of Christian chaplains, and the reality is that while Chaplains don’t actively proselytise, the unique spiritual nature of their position will be evident in what they do. Military Chaplains in both world wars were in a similar position, but received more tolerance and respect for their selfless service than those determined to undermine school chaplaincy will ever allow.
      
      "In the past Wilson has gone to great lengths to discredit, including waging a persistent campaign of complaint to Toowoomba principals aimed at ridding schools of chaplains and volunteer Christian workers. Perhaps what Hugh Wilson needs is an intense session with a chaplain."
      
      Jim Wallace, Australian Christian Lobby, Deakin, ACT
      
      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Preschools to receive $21m state injection
    
    The State Government will spend $21 million on creating 10,500 extra preschool places and will soon finalise details of an agreement with the Council of Australian Governments that would provide all children with access to preschool in the year before school.
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Computer plan revolutionary
      
      "I was astonished to note that in the "Your Voice" survey results (Letters, December 6-7), only 9 per cent saw the provision of computers to keep as an "education revolution". As someone who remembers public secondary school days of having to pay rental on textbooks and return them to the school at the end of each year, I see government giving computers to every senior high school student to keep as revolutionary. And no, I'm not as old as you think!"
      
      Russell Mills, Redfern

 

Tuesday 9 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Schools suffer as visa influx grows (page 11)
    by Jessica Strutt
    
    "The number of children in State schools with poor English skills whose parents are on foreign work visas has almost doubled in the past year, sparking further fears about the burden they put on the public education system.
      
    "Education Department figures released yesterday reveal 1615 non-English speaking children or students with special needs belonging to workers on temporary 457 visas are in public schools, up from almost 870 last year.
      
    "Debate on the need for a parliamentary inquiry into the issue was triggered last week when Liberal MP Mike Nahan criticised the Federal Government for failing to fund schools adequately to deal with the huge burden such children placed on them.
      
    "The figures released to The West Australian reveal that in the years before 2005, there were only two or three children with special English needs belonging to 457 visa workers in State schools but in 2005 that figure rose to 112.
      
    "In 2006, the number increased to 326 and has risen dramatically each year since.
      
    "Premier Colin Barnett said last week he would support a parliamentary inquiry, telling Parliament there were about 800 such students in WA schools.
      
    "But data compiled by the Education Department in the past week shows that number has almost doubled in the past year.
      
    "Independent MP Janet Woollard, who chairs the Lower House education and health committee, will push for a Federal parliamentary inquiry into the “serious problem” of the Commonwealth failing to provide adequate funding to schools to cope with the burden by children of foreign workers.
      
    "She said it appeared to be more common in lower socioeconomic areas and was a Commonwealth issue which caused problems for most States.
      
    "Dr Woollard said she would write to Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard and Immigration Minister Chris Evans, asking them to initiate a parliamentary inquiry.
      
    "She said inadequate funding to schools meant these children might not be getting the special help they needed to bring their English skills up to scratch.
      
    "The additional strain they placed on schools was also unfair on other students, who could be missing out as teachers struggled to cope with the added burden of having special English needs children.
      
    “(These schools) need support for the children who are either going to the schools with no English or with minimal English,” she said.
      
    “The difficulty for the children who are already there is that the teacher is almost trying to run two curriculums within the classroom — one to try and help those children who have no English and another for children who… are not having difficulties with English.”
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Community pressure prompted teacher payment: dad
    
    A father accused of trying to bribe his son's primary school teacher says there is a lot of pressure in the Chinese community for children to gain entrance to selective high schools.
    
    
    • Inquiry hears allegations of cash for classes
      
      A Sydney public school teacher has told a corruption inquiry the parents of a student handed her envelopes containing wads of cash in the hope it would secure their son a place in a selective high school.
      
      
    • Cash for classes mum 'didn't realise it was wrong'
      
      A Sydney mother accused of trying to bribe her son's primary school teacher to help him get into a selective school says she did not know it was wrong to pay teachers.
      
      
      
  • Attendance-welfare payment link discriminatory: education body
    
    The Federal Government plan to link school attendance to welfare payments is discriminatory, according to a peak Northern Territory education group.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • School in clear over teaching creation
    
    A Christian school that teaches a biblical view of creation in science classes has been cleared of breaching state curriculum requirements for the teaching of evolution.
    
    
    
  • Facebook scandal shames students
    
    A Facebook network of senior students from two of Sydney's most elite private schools have offended the Jewish community with anti-Semitic slurs.
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • School funding myths
      
      "Margaret Gunter (Letters, December 5), is as wrong about independent schools as about Catholic schools. All independent schools account for every dollar of income and expenditure. Summaries of this information are generally available on their websites, as part of detailed annual reports.
      
      "No independent school excludes students on the grounds of disability or ethnicity. Such discrimination is illegal. Many parents of children with disabilities will choose government schools, however, as the choice of a non-government school will deprive the student of many thousands of dollars of state government funding.
      
      "Nor are independent schools "highly subsidised by the taxpayer". Each student in a non-government school costs the taxpayer between 30 per cent and 70 per cent of the cost of a student in a government school - a saving running into billions of dollars."
      
      Michael Layden, Ashfield
      
      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Divorces cost kids year in schooling
    
    Divorces cost children about a year of schooling and the damage is increasing over time, a new study has found. The multi-country research, published in the journal Comparative Sociology, found that Australian children -- especially those at high school -- fared worse in educational terms than their Canadian or US peers when parents split. Their high school education was cut short by about a year, compared with just under 11 months for those in North America. By comparison, losing a parent through death cost about six months of education in all three countries.
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • 'Report cards' would rate schools
    
    "Parents, school staff and governors are being asked their opinions on proposed "report cards" rating English schools.
    
    "The ratings - a letter or "traffic light" symbol - would assign an overall score based on a range of factors.
    
    "The government says these might include test results and pupils' well-being and the views of parents and children.
    
    "Schools Secretary Ed Balls aims to cut the "detective work" parents must do to get information on a school, and warns that the card "won't pull its punches".
    
    "The report cards were first announced in October, as national tests for 14-year-olds in England were scrapped following the Sats marking "shambles"..."
    
    Full story at BBC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Tests threaten reform of curriculum, teachers fear
    
    Plans for a radical shake-up of the primary school curriculum will flounder unless ministers order a review of the national curriculum tests for 11-year-olds, teachers' leaders warn.
    
    Related stories in The Guardian [below]
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Comment
    Instilling a love of learning
    
    Let's have two and a half cheers for the interim report for the Rose review, which is attempting at last to lift some of the rigid constraints on primary teaching. It's intensely frustrating that some of the media – the Today programme, for example – is seeing the review through the tired old lens of progressive versus traditional teaching. That isn't the issue. What matters is how we engage and inspire children at primary level so that they emerge as curious, thoughtful, confident, knowledgeable learners. There is a mass of evidence now to show that the current curriculum too rarely does that, and it's what Sir Jim Rose is trying to address.
    
    
    
  • Review of Sats in primaries urged
    
    Ministers should put the Sats system of testing primary pupils under review to help free schools to teach more in depth, according to the government's chief adviser on primaries.
    
    
    
  • Watch clips from the top 10 school movies
    
    Excerpts and trailers from each one of Teachers TV's top 10 Great School Movies, as voted for by the public, in reverse order
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Saving a fortune
      
      "Your front page (8/12) tells readers "what you will pay in 2009" in school fees. The message I read is "what I will save". I will be contributing my time and energy and paying a small voluntary financial contribution to my children's local state school in 2009.
      
      "I plan to continue with this approach until year 12 and so do a growing number of educated parents in my local community. Imagine that, we're saving up to $500,000 per family, according to your estimates."
      
      Fiona Hehir, South Melbourne

 

Wednesday 10 December

• The Australian
  
  
  • Doesn't add up: Borat kids beat Aussies in maths and science
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Australian school students are being overtaken in international tests by countries traditionally scorned for their poor educational standards, including England, the US, Russia and the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.
    
    "The Trends in International Maths and Science Study released early today shows that Year 8 science students in Australia have slipped in ranking, falling about 12 points over the past four years.
    
    "The only improvement was among Year 4 maths students, whose scores rose 17 points over the past four years and 22 points since 1995, with Year 8 maths and Year 4 science scores relatively unchanged.
    
    "By contrast, Year 4 maths students in England jumped 57 points over the past decade, while their US peers rose 11 points in the past four years.
    
    "These improvements have occurred at a time when England has introduced a national curriculum and testing regime, and the US has embarked on national testing and demanded greater accountability of schools.
    
    "The English and US results serve to support the direction of the Rudd Government's education agenda, which also aims to introduce a national curriculum and combine national testing with greater transparency and accountability of schools. England has also introduced a successful campaign to improve the status of teaching in the community and attract a better calibre of graduate into the profession, a challenge Australia is yet to tackle.
    
    "TIMSS has been conducted every four years since 1995, testing maths and science knowledge among Years 4 and 8 students. The most recent was held last year among more than 425,000 students in about 60 countries.
    
    "The Australian TIMSS study, conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research, tested more than 8000 students in about 500 schools around the nation.
    
    "ACER chief executive Geoff Masters said the study underlined the challenge Australia faced in its maths and science curriculum and in keeping students engaged in the subjects.
    
    "I think it's more to do with teaching and how do we continue to prepare and develop teachers, particularly in science," he said. [emphasis added: That's right, Geoff, blame the teachers, not the dumbed-down curriculum!  Web]
    
    "One school successfully enticing students into science is the Marist Regional College in Burnie, northwest Tasmania, which has five of the 16 finalists in the nation's most prestigious school science competition.
    
    "Under the direction of research co-ordinator Ann Bourke, students Savannah Holwill, Luke Fletcher, Hannah Younger, Storm Holwill, and Cat Gaggin earned berths in the finals of the BHP Billiton Science Awards in 2009.
    
    "The students, from Years 7 to 10, designed their own experiments into the capability of different soils to act as a carbon sink, the effect of different fertilisers in growing algae in waterways, if biosludge is an effective fertiliser and how aluminium, linked in urban myths to Alzheimer's, might be absorbed by the body.
    
    "The college science co-ordinator, David Buchanan, said the secret to the school's success was the integration of a traditional science course with a research program that allowed students to apply what they had learned.
    
    "You can't get kids to do this sort of stuff when they're in a knowledge vacuum," he said. [emphasis added]
    
    "The TIMSS test is drawn from the common curriculum studied in all countries and is a traditional assessment of factual knowledge.
    
    "The top achievers in TIMSS include Australia's Asian neighbours Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.
    
    "While Australia performed at or above the international average, it had a much lower proportion of students scoring at an advanced level.
    
    "In Year 4 science, for example, 36 per cent of Singaporean students achieved an advanced benchmark compared to 10 per cent of Australians.
    
    "While comparisons between states are difficult because of the different years at which high school starts, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania recorded significant improvements in Year 4 maths.
    
    "Tasmania also had the highest proportion of high achieving students in Year 4 science with 14 per cent in the highest band.
    
    "The report says countries that had improved on their already high scores had undertaken systemic and curriculum reform. It calls for greater attention to be given to the Australian curriculum in maths and science in the beginning years of high school.
    
    "The static nature of achievement in Year 4 science ... suggests that there is a case for finding ways to increase science expertise in schools ... and for implementing curricula that highlight the science of the phenomena that students encounter in their lives," it says.
    
    "Australians tended to score worse in physics and chemistry and in algebra and geometry.
    
    "While most high school maths teachers and three-quarters of science teachers felt well prepared to teach their subjects, the report suggests this confidence might be misplaced. In some areas, the performance of their students was not correspondingly high."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    Similar stories in The West Australian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and ABC News
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Wake-up call to education chiefs
    by Kevin Donnelly
    
    "The results of the TIMSS 2007 mathematics and science tests represent a wake-up call to those in charge of Australia's education systems.
    
    "Not only are our students in the Second XI in terms of results, the level of performance has flat-lined since 1995.
    
    "Notwithstanding the years of curriculum upheaval and change, the additional millions spent and the promises of both major political parties at state and federal levels to lift standards, Australian students are still underperforming when it comes to TIMSS.
    
    "Today's results also fly in the face of arguments made by the Australian Education Union, the Australian Association for the Teaching of English and the Australian Curriculum Studies Association, who claim there is no crisis and that talk of falling standards on these pages is a media beat-up.
    
    "The need for action is underlined on noting Australia's failure to get a significant number of students to perform at the top or advanced benchmark level in terms of results. So much for cultivating the high achievers.
    
    "What's to be done? While not always a silver bullet, the first step should be to identify the characteristics of stronger performing education systems and to learn from their success.
    
    "While some indicators, such as the Confucian ethic and a strong family commitment to education associated with many Asian countries, are difficult, if not impossible, to copy, research has identified much of value.
    
    "Ludger Woessmann, in his analysis of international tests, concludes the most successful systems embrace accountability, autonomy and flexibility at the school level and support a well-funded non-government school sector.
    
    "The consensus is that achievement has little to do with spending more.
    
    "Instead, competition between schools, academically based external examinations and freeing schools from overly centralised and bureaucratic control are all indicators of success.
    
    "Much of Kevin Rudd's education revolution is justified by the need to raise standards and to strengthen Australia's performance internationally.
    
    "At the level of rhetoric, improved accountability, a more rigorous curriculum, rewarding better performing teachers and supporting choice in education all sound impressive.
    
    "As to how effective the Rudd Government's education agenda is and whether the next set of TIMSS results show an improvement, only time will tell." [emphasis added]
    
    Kevin Donnelly is author of Dumbing Down and has completed a number of curriculum benchmarking projects for state and federal governments
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • School blames TV for anti-semitism
    
    The principal of an exclusive Sydney boys' school has blamed popular TV shows such as Summer Heights High and South Park for encouraging "derogatory, non-politically correct" humour, after some students allegedly posted anti-Semitic comments on Facebook.
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • The role of knowledge
      
      "If Craig Emerson ("Ideas the engine of new growth”, Opinion, 8/12) is correct and ideas really are the greatest gift parents can give their children (being more important than knowledge), then his description of Einstein’s thought experiment where he imagined himself riding on a light beam would lead all readers to the same understanding that Einstein himself found. But it doesn’t. In fact, it is not at all clear how imagining riding a light beam can lead to the breakthrough that was relativity.
      
      "However, if people also had the knowledge of electromagnetic wave propagation that Einstein had developed over years and years of deep study and reflection, then the thought experiment suddenly highlights an important inconsistency which then leads on to the breakthrough.
      
      "Ideas are important, but without a sound and extensive knowledge they are unlikely to occur in any meaningful way. Real breakthroughs come from people with knowledge that is deep enough for them to question the knowledge itself, and who are then brave enough to challenge accepted wisdom. Emerson is doing no one any favours by downplaying the role of knowledge."
      
      David Walker, Somerton Park, SA
      
      
      
      
• The West Australian
  

  • Aussie kids fall behind in maths and science (page 7)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    “Australian students have slipped further behind those from other leading countries in maths and science, an international study has revealed.
    
    “The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, involving Year 4 and Year 8 students from 59 countries, to be released today, shows the relative performance of most Australian students has not improved.
    
    “Countries such as the US and Britain have made big improvements.
    
    “We've slipped in relation to a number of other countries that are now performing better,” Australian Council for Educational Research chief executive Geoff Masters said yesterday.
    
    “Even though Australian students performed above the international average, except in Year 8 maths where they were on the average, the results have revealed a significant decline in Year 8 science levels since 2003 and no progress in Year 8 maths of Year 4 science. There was a slight improvement in Year 4 maths.
    
    “Asian nations such as Singapore and Hong Kong topped all other countries in the tests. Ten countries, including Slovenia and the Russian Federation achieved significantly higher scores than Australia in Year 8 science.
    
    “More than 8000 Australian students from 457 schools took part in the study in late 2007. It also showed the gap with indigenous students has widened.
    
    “At State level, WA Year 4 students performed significantly worse that their peers in four states in maths and worse than three States in science. But there was no significant statistical difference among the States in Year 8. Australian boys generally outperformed girls at maths and science at each year level, bucking the international trend for girls to out-perform boys.
    
    “Professor Masters said the proportion of Australian students who achieved advanced international benchmarks fell well short of the number of students in leading Asian nations reaching the top levels.
    
    “For example, just 9 per cent of Australian students achieved the top benchmark in Year 4 maths, compared with 41 per cent in Singapore and 40 per cent in Hong Kong.
    
    “The results showed Australia was doing a good job of educating students to and average standard. “However, we need to ask ourselves, in an increasingly competitive global economy, is average good enough?” Professor Masters said.
    
    “Year 8 students' level of science knowledge was not as high as it was a decade ago, he said. Urgent reform of the primary and junior secondary science curriculum was needed.
    
    “The teaching of mathematics in the junior secondary years also deserves attention, particularly in the areas of algebra and geometry where Australian students performed quite poorly,” he said. [emphasis added]
    
    “Australian Science Teachers Association president Peter Turnbull said Australia lagged behind the top-performing nations.
    
    “He said the study also revealed that only 46 per cent of Australian Year 4 teachers felt well prepared to teach science topics, compared with the international average of 54 per cent.”
    
    From The West Australian

     

  • Friends to aid of accused principal (page 19)
    by Jessica Strutt and Yasmine Phillips
    
    “Friends of former principal of the year Merv Hammond have set up a support group and website in a bid to raise $250,000 to help him fight 15 counts of corruption over his involvement in the failed $2 million taxpayer-funded Balga Works Program for disadvantaged youth.
    
    “The website provides a glowing account of Mr Hammond's 43-year teaching career, describing him as a “visionary, if somewhat unorthodox change agent”.
    
    “Mr Hammond, 65, who retired as a principal of Balga Senior High School in October 2006, has been charged with the misappropriation of school funds in relation to the program after a 10-month police investigation. The trial is to start in the District Court in February.
    
    “Police will allege that in 2004 and 2005, while he was the school's principal, he unlawfully funnelled about $400,000 to private companies associated with the operation of the program.
    
    “The program at Balga Senior High School gave education and shelter to troubled youth, many of whom were involved in the juvenile justice system.
    
    “A damming parliamentary inquiry earlier this year found much of the responsibility for the failures of the program and the poor administration of Balga Senior High School lay with Mr Hammond.
    
    “The website calls on people to donate to the Friends of Merv Hammond Organisation which it says has been formed “to provide financial and moral support to Merv in his legal battle for justice”.
    
    “Mike Bromilow, a former director of communications to former Anglican Primate and Archbishop of Perth Peter Carnley, who chaired the organisation's board, said the website was launched last month and the cause had already received donations.
    
    “To run this, never before implemented (Balga Works) program, necessitated complex and sometimes unorthodox strategies,” the website says. “Merv's strategies were often unorthodox and some may say risk-taker in his problem-solving … but always with the best interests of students in his mind.”
    
    “The website contains “testimonials” from high-profile supporters, including one from former Education Department director general Peter Browne, the brother of Liberal Party powerbroker Noel Crichton-Browne.
    
    “A parliamentary committee report last year recommended that the State Government pay compensation to all former employees on the program because many had not received their outstanding wages and superannuation.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• US and UK reporting on TIMSS results
  
  
  • The Washington Post
    
    
    • Scores on Science Test Causing Concern in U.S.
      
      
  • The New York Times
    
    
    • Math Gains Reported for U.S. Students
      
      
  • BBC News
    
    
    • England's pupils in global top 10
      
      
  • The Guardian
    
    
    • English pupils get better at maths and science - but enjoy them less
      
      
    • English pupils shoot up international maths table
      
      
  • The Independent
    
    
    • Dramatic improvement in science and maths
      
      
      
      
• AEU
  
  
  • International maths and science test results highlight funding needs
    
    New results on Australian student performance in maths and science highlight the need to increase overall school funding, said the Australian Education Union today.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Cash lands pushy parents before ICAC
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "A Sydney father accused of bribing his son's teacher to help him get into a selective high school yesterday described the film character Forrest Gump's mother as a hero for sleeping with a teacher to help her son gain entry to a school.
    
    "The Independent Commission Against Corruption yesterday heard that on August 5 Qinghua Pei wrote the first of two notes to Westmead Public School teacher Jodie-Lee Pearce, pleading with her to help his son, whom he regards as a budding scientist, to gain entry into Baulkham Hills or Sydney Boys selective high schools.
    
    "In particular, the boy, a year 5 student in a class for gifted and talented children, needed help with English comprehension.
    
    "Wrapped inside the first of Mr Pei's letters, reluctantly delivered by his son's mother, Xiaodong Lu, was a thick wad of $50 notes that amounted to $2000, the inquiry was told.
    
    "In the second, which Mr Pei delivered on October 28, was $500. The note said the boy "has great ambition to become a scientist". "First he must go to a good selective school. According to his performance at trial tests at Pre-uni College and their assessment he is like to make Baulkham Hill School or Sydney boys school."
    
    "In light of this, Ms Pearce was asked to give Mr Pei's son, whose name has been suppressed, "favourable consideration in school assessment and report"...
    
    "Ms Pearce told the hearing she reported the matter to her principal immediately after discovering large amounts of cash inside the letters Ms Lu and Mr Pei had given her.
    
    "There was no suggestion Ms Pearce had acted inappropriately. She had discovered the cash only after it had spilled from the envelope..." [emphasis added]
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Money would be better spent on public schools
      
      "Supporters of private schools such as Michael Layden (Letters, December 9) continually spread the myth that they save taxpayers' money. But in economic terms their subsidy is inefficient.
      
      "He may be correct that in actual dollars private schools save taxpayers, but the SES funding model wastes public money by subsidising choice. The issue is what will give the taxpayer a greater rate of return:
      
      "$1 extra for private schools or $1 extra for public schools? What are the savings made by educating children so that they are not on welfare, but work and pay tax, versus children who are likely to work in a high-skilled vocation similar to their parents?
      
      "If we want economic efficiency, it is time to look at a funding model that does not subsidise choice, when many parents cannot afford this choice."
      
      Mark Jones, Watson
      
      
      
    • "Yes, Michael Layden, it may cost the Government less to have children educated in private schools now. But it is at the cost of continually increasing divisions between rich and poor, fundamentalist Christian and secular, Muslim and non-Muslim, Catholic and Protestant, Jewish and non-Jewish, and other causes promoted within private schools. It will be cheaper in the end to have well-funded government schools and a less divided society."
      
      Bill Kierath, Bathurst

 

Thursday 11 December

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor (page 20)
    
    
    • No chance for new curriculum
      
      “Your report (Aussie Kids fall behind in maths and science, 10/12) should be ringing alarm bells in the minds of all educators, but in particular, those charged with the development of the national curriculum.
      
      “Primary and secondary education in WA is ever so slowly emerging from the worst period in its history in terms of curriculum development. The past 10 years have seen this process hijacked by bureaucrats who have little experience or affinity with what happens in a classroom. And now education systems throughout the country have been forced to sign up for a national curriculum that has yet to be devised. When you closely examine the make up of the advisory boards for the particular curriculums, you will see the names of many of the usual suspects, those perennial refugees from the classroom.
      
      “The thing that is blindingly obvious to classroom practitioners, and this seems to escape the minds of those theoreticians locked away from the rigours of day-to-day teaching, is that there is no need to “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to curriculum development. All that is required is to look around the planet and see who is doing things best. Once discovered, adapt the practice of that jurisdiction to suit our particular needs and, hey presto, you have a good curriculum.
      
      “Singapore has been leading the pack in terms of science and maths curriculums for years. It is a five-hour flight from Perth and its curriculums are freely available on the internet. The biggest problem is the get the “educrats” in charge of curriculum development here to admit that the content-free, process-driven dross they have served up for the past 10 years has been ad abject failure. The “we can create something new and better” syndrome is well entrenched in our curriculum development processes in this country and I fear there is little chance of the national curriculum being simple, sensible and practical.”
      
      Greg Williams, Bicton
      
      
      
  • Federal funds win PM a footy team
    
    “… Mr Rudd also announced $10 million to support Clontarf academies, which use football to promote education and employment among indigenous youths.
    
    “The money will be rolled out over four years to give an additional 700 students access to the Sporting Chance program.
    
    “The additional funding represents the first stage or a long term commitment by the Government to helping the Clontarf Foundation expand its network of academies throughout Australia,” Mr Rudd said.
    
    “The Clontaf Foundation, which originated in Perth, operates 23 academies in 18 locations in the Northern Territory and WA.”
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Aussie students slipping in maths and science: Gillard [online only update: 10 Dec]
    by Samantha Maiden, Online political editor
    
    "Australian students are falling behind in maths and science before they reach high school and a national curriculum is the key to improving results, Education Minister Julia Gillard warned today.
    
    "The Trends in International Maths and Science Study released early today shows that Year 8 science students in Australia have slipped in ranking, falling about 12 points over the past four years.
    
    "It finds students are being overtaken in international tests by countries traditionally scorned for their poor educational standards, including England, the US, Russia and the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.
    
    "While Ms Gillard noted today that Australian students' results were significantly above the average in maths and science at Year 4, she said they only achieved at the average in Year 8 maths.
    
    "Of particular concern was the widening gap in the results of indigenous and non-indigenous students at the Year 4 level,” she said.
    
    "This 2007 study makes it clear that Australian students are falling behind in maths and science. The Rudd Government is determined to reverse this deeply concerning trend.
    
    "The Government has established the interim National Curriculum Board to develop a national curriculum for all students from K to Year 12 by the end of 2010, including for mathematics and the sciences.
    
    “The introduction of a world-class national curriculum is critical to lifting standards in every Australian school."
    
    "The Government has also announced plans to slash HECS fees for maths and science students who go on to work in related occupations including teaching.
    
    "From January 1 next year, contributions for new students in maths and science will be reduced. For a new full-time student, this could mean a reduction from $7412 to $4162 in 2009. [emphasis added]
    
    "Last week Ms Gillard deftly managed a Mexican standoff over the national curriculum in the Senate, where Liberal senators had raised concerns over linking $28 billion in schools funding to the implementation of the plan.
    
    "While the Coalition championed a national curriculum in government, citing falling maths standards from state to state and families who move between regions for work, they have recently raised concerns that schools should not have their funding linked to a new curriculum until it is finalised.
    
    "But they ultimately backed down after the peak lobby groups for independent and Catholic schools urged the Coalition to vote for the legislation and end uncertainty over next year's funding."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Writer Dorothy Porter was bigger than poetry
    
    Dorothy Porter was yesterday remembered by friends and colleagues as the woman whose sensual, frank and fast-paced verse novels put poetry on to the bestseller lists.
    
    
    
  • Children's sports coaches not vetted
    
    Hundreds of coaches paid by taxpayers to work with children after school have been exempted from criminal history checks for their first six months on the job.
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Scots College apologises
      
      "I’m writing in response to recent media reports concerning some former Year 12 Scots College students’ alleged anti-Semitic comments on Facebook ("TV shows blamed for anti-Semitism at top school”, 11/12). The college’s ICT network does not allow students or staff access to Facebook and investigations have concluded that the material is in no way connected to the college and its ICT systems.
      
      "It’s saddening that Scots College’s reputation is tarnished and that our Jewish community is offended by reported postings over which the college has no control. The college unreservedly apologises for the offence and hurt that the disrespectful behaviour and derogatory comments made by some of our former students may have caused to the Jewish community. The college does not condone derogatory views of any nature against any culture or religion. They are in diametrical opposition to our Christian standards and ethos of respect and tolerance.
      
      "We will be addressing this vigilantly with those involved once their involvement has been confirmed. They will be made to understand that even though they may have had no intentions of racial hatred, this kind of disrespectful behaviour is unacceptable and impacts negatively on the community. Their rights to Old Boys Union membership will be under review.
      
      "It’s our challenge as educators, parents and a community in the modern world of online social networking and satirical TV comedies whose humour is based on racial and derogatory slurs, to foster core values of compassion, tolerance and respect for students to return to, as they explore the boundaries between right and wrong."
      
      Dr Ian Lambert, Principal, The Scots College, Bellevue Hill, NSW
      
      [See the Op Ed on this topic in today's Age]
      
      
      
    • "I don't know which is worse, the characterisation by the students of their reprehensible anti-Semitic behaviour as jolly japes, just part of an “in joke”, or Principal Ian Lambert’s excuse that their behaviour reflects the values they get from South Park and Summer Heights High. He could have added, “via Cronulla”.
      
      "Exactly what values does the school inculcate for the large fees it charges? It would be a safe bet that these unsavoury youths, obviously convinced of their own innate superiority, hold equally disgraceful views about other minority groups, or indeed anyone who is not part of their narrow privileged circle."

      Mira Toglin, Penrith South, NSW
      
      
      

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Selective schools test shown as vulnerable
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "The highly competitive selective schools entry process has been shown to be open to corruption, an inquiry has been told.
    
    "The Independent Commission Against Corruption is deciding the fate of two parents who gave $2500 to a Westmead Public School teacher to help their son get into a selective high school.
    
    "Peter McGhee, representing the boy's mother, Xiaodong Lu, told the inquiry weaknesses in the selection process had been exposed. "There are real possibilities for teachers to increase gradings and stay under the radar of the principal. It certainly is an issue when there is a gift given to a teacher," he said.
    
    "In a statement to the inquiry, the teacher, Jodie-Lee Pearce, said: "I believe the money was given to me so I would ensure that [the year 5 boy's] grades were sufficient for him to pass the selective schools test."
    
    "Brian Chudleigh, deputy chairman of the NSW Public School Principals Forum, acknowledged a teacher could influence a student's selective schools entry score, a third of which was made up of school assessment. "It depends on how removed the principal is from the process," he said.
    
    "Magda Pollak, manager of selective high school and opportunity class placements for the Department of Education, provided a statement to the inquiry which said the principal had responsibility for providing scores ranking selective school applicants.
    
    "While the principal may delegate any or all of these tasks to teachers or year co-ordinators, it is the principal who signs the application form," she said.
    
    "A parent from Killara contacted the Herald yesterday to say she was surprised her son was not asked for identification when he sat the selective schools test at North Sydney Girls High this year. "I'm sure there are a few year 7 or 8 students who have taken the test for Johnny or Susie in year 6," she said.
    
    "Mr Chudleigh agreed this may be possible. But a spokesman for the department said "a number of security measures" were used to ensure the child sitting the selective placement test was the student seeking admission."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
  • Students prop up flagging tourism
    
    International students are increasingly propping up a flagging tourism industry, as overseas tourists caught in the global credit crunch stay away.
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Roles for school counsellors in reducing prisoner numbers
      
      "I have been a school counsellor in the NSW public education system for more than 30 years. Early in my career my boss, a kind and thoughtful mentor, reckoned that if I saved one person a year from going to jail, I would have earned my salary - which was then about the same as the annual cost of keeping a prisoner in jail. That cost now is $73,000 ("Plan to arrest high rates of return", December 8), while a school counsellor at the top of the salary scale earns just over $75,000.
      
      "Counsellors work to improve life outcomes for students with learning and behaviour problems, mental illness and many social difficulties. If there was an increase in the number of counsellors that students, schools and parents could access, the benefits might not be discernible before the next election, but they would be years down the track when the number of prisoners was reduced, saving the state millions of dollars.
      
      "School counsellors in NSW have been trying to improve their career structure, conditions and salary in discussions with the Department of Education, in order to increase recruitment, and improve retention rates, but to no avail.
      
      "Many school counsellors will retire in the next five years as we are older on average than classroom teachers, leaving large gaps in the ability to provide an efficient statewide service. This will probably be reflected in years to come in an increase in the number of prisoners."
      
      Mila Yates, Valentine
      
      
      
    • A lesson in double standards
      
      "Kristin Moore's apparent outrage (Letters, December 10) at the scandal involving elite private schools speaks more about their good name than any want of values. The delight displayed by those opposed to non-government education at adverse media coverage of those schools is evidence of a glaring double standard. During my 13 years in the public education system, I was often dumbfounded when the discovery of drugs in a private school led to public outrage; in my school, drug abuse was a daily reality that had long ceased to raise concern.
      
      "The heightened expectations imposed upon private schools reflects their higher standards and should not be used to denigrate their legitimacy."
      
      Marcus Coleman, Kingston (ACT)
      
      
      
    • "Josh Shrubb (Letters, December 10) demands that the schools condemn, investigate and mete out "consequences" for members of the Facebook group. But why should a school be accountable for actions of its students on the internet, outside school hours? And why should these young people face summary discipline at the hands of school administrators who have nothing to do with the matter? The furore highlights an appalling double standard imposed by the public, both on young people and on independent schools. Those who are concerned should contact the Anti-Discrimination Board, rather than whinge about the failure of schools to act as around-the-clock nannies."
      
      James Sin, Eastwood
      
      plus three more Letters on that topic
      
      
      
    • Chinese reject bribery
      
      "Qinghua Pei and Xiandong Lu say they were told by members of the Chinese community that they should pay teachers to help their son get into selective schools, and that getting into those schools is "more important than having a house" ("Cash lands pushy parents before ICAC", December 10).
      
      "That does not reflect the views of the vast majority of the Chinese community. If this proves more than an isolated incident, we will work with other organisations to correct any misconception by recently arrived immigrant parents."
      
      Anthony Pang President, Chinese Australian Forum, Turramurra
      
      
      
    • Creation goes bung
      
      "OK. This year let the Creationists have their fun with "z-sequential" fireworks, exploding "sun-pods" and thunder-sound effects ("A sparkling preview of the $5 million harbour fireworks show", December 10). But next year, could the Evolutionists be accommodated with a simple theme? All we ask for is the word "bullshit" to be spelled out in plastic letters 10 metres high across the Harbour Bridge. To represent the big bang, one double-bunger would be acceptable."
      
      Max Fischer, Scarborough
      
      
      
      
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Games can have a serious role to play
    
    People have been saying for years that it was about time that computer games grew up. All that awesome technology being wasted on escapist fantasies - why couldn't it be used to generate interest in learning maths or something? Well, whisper it quietly, it might be starting to happen.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Op Ed
    The Holocaust began because words of hate went unchallenged
    
    Anti-Semitism often comes from the most unlikely source, such as Australian teenagers at two prestigious private schools who thought it was a "big in-joke" to create a Facebook site called "Jew Parking Appreciation Group" — described as an activity that occurs at "Bellevue (Jew) Hill". The site was established and managed by students from Sydney's Scots College and by one from Kambala School for Girls. It was linked to another network set up and run by Scots College students with postings such as "Support Holocaust denial", "Jew Rats", "F---- Mercedes Jews" and a link to another internet address called "F--- Israel and Their Holocaust Bullshit".
    
    
    
  • Hairdressing cut may leave colleges stranded
    
    Hairdressing and cookery are expected to be removed from the list of occupational skills in short supply in Australia — a move that would affect migration rules and have widespread ramifications for the international education industry.
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Snobbery, bigotry? Not at my school
      
      "As a fan of Catherine Deveny, I hope she is seeking to provoke rather than inform in her attack on private schools (Comment & Debate, 10/12). The simple fact is that the vast majority of people who send their children to private schools are working-class people who choose these schools for reasons other than snob value.
      
      "Also, the Government pays for 70 per cent of the education of a child at a private school and 100 per cent for the education of a child at a state school. In short, parents who send their children to private schools subsidise state school children. If every private school closed tomorrow, the state system would collapse without a massive injection of funds from the Government to educate the hundreds of thousands of children who would flow into the state system.
      
      "It is true that there is a strong element of snobbery at some private schools, which, as a teacher, I find repulsive. However, Catherine needs to visit some ordinary families of students who attend ordinary private schools. Her belief that private schools are all about snobbery and bigotry is simply wrong."
      
      Peter Farrar, Brighton East
      
      
      
    • Spare us the bill, thanks
      
      "We love Catherine Deveny because she says what we think but rarely say. Good on Catherine for challenging the elitism that is embedded in our education system. As The Age fills with articles about riots in countries whose citizens don't have enough to eat, private school girls nearby attend tanning salons, have their nails done and jet off to Bali for their end-of-year party.
      
      "It's great that the values they learn for $20,000 a year are so profound. If people want to pay for this type of elitism I, like Catherine, are all for it but spare the taxpayer the insult."
      
      Louise Steb, Essendon
      
      plus three more Letters on that topic at that link
      
      
      
    • Garrett on song
      
      "Congratulations to Federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett on his decision to retain the Australian National Academy of Music for another year at the South Melbourne Town Hall. It takes great courage to reverse a decision, especially one announced so dogmatically.
      
      "Mr Garrett had misread the strength of support for the academy and waiting for it to go away didn't work. It may be a turning point for the minister, who has had an unsteady year."
      
      Graeme Lee, Fitzroy

 

Friday 12 December

• The Australian
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Blame it on the curriculum
      
      "The irony of Australia’s poor showing in the latest Trends in International Maths and Science Study tests begs a comment ("Doesn’t add up: Borat kids beat Aussies”, 10/12). Fifteen years ago Australia was ranked well above the US. Then, at the same time the US got rid of its touchy-feely Outcomes Based Education, Australia welcomed it with open arms. Now we trail the US. Coincidence? I think not. The saddest part is I am sure none of those who took us down that path will ever be held accountable."
      
      Patrick Whalen, Yokine, WA
      
      This Letter also appeared in today's The West Australian
      
      
      
    • "Why the surprise about “Borat kids” beating Aussie kids in science? For the past decade we have had a political agenda that has pitted private schools against public schools. Millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money has been funnelled to the former and anybody questioning this policy has been accused of being jealous of the aspirational middle-class. As a result, we have probably ended up with a two-tier school system which will have difficulty competing against countries with a more universal system."
      
      Michelle Kerr, Asquith, NSW
      
      
      
    • "It doesn’t surprise me that Australian students are slipping behind the rest of the world in science and mathematics. Before we start blaming the teachers and state education departments, we should sheet most of the blame to the Parents and Citizens groups. For many years they have worked hard to bloat (and I mean bloat!) the curriculum with their “feel good”’ subjects which could be easily taught by parents. There is a limit to the amount of time students can be expected to devote to their studies, and more and more subjects mean less time per subject."
      
      M.C. Riches, Balmoral, Qld
      
      
      
    • Kids who share their pencils are doing better than us
      
      Four 'late addition' Letters from 11 December
      
      
      
      
• The Brisbane Courier Mail [11 December]
  
  
  • Gobbledygook rules in schools
    by Kevin Donnelly
    
    "A new inquiry into Queensland's dumbed-down education system is likely to be a whitewash.
    
    "Those familiar with the British TV comedy Yes, Minister and the political contortions of the central character Jim Hacker will appreciate the bind Premier Anna Bligh finds herself in with education.
    
    "Take the knee-jerk reaction to Queensland's appalling results in the 2007 TIMSS Year 4 mathematics and science tests – where Queensland is near the bottom when compared with Australia's other states and territories, having gone backwards since the 1995 test.
    
    "Given that the ALP has been in government for 10 years, with Bligh as education minister for nearly five, it's not a good look to admit that the present Government is at fault and that all those reviews, inquiries, curriculum changes and millions spent have failed to raise standards.
    
    "The solution? Be decisive, admit the problem and, you guessed it, announce yet another review.
    
    "With an election in the wind, what better way to put the issue on the backburner and to hope that concerns will disappear.
    
    "Unfortunately, there is a limit to just how far public credibility can be stretched.
    
    "If all the Government's previous attempts to raise education standards and strengthen outcomes have failed, then why should this initiative be any different?
    
    "Scepticism about the review's motives and doubts about its effectiveness can only increase on noting Bligh's choice of the researcher to carry out the task. Professor Geoff Masters, head of the Australian Council for Educational Research, is on the public record as defending Australia's adoption of outcomes-based education (OBE) – best illustrated by his letter of support for Western Australia's extension of OBE into Years 11 and 12.
    
    "In the letter, titled What outcomes do we want?, Masters argues that criticisms of OBE are misplaced and attacks those who favour "a return to traditional classrooms in which teachers were given a syllabus to teach" and "the onus for successful learning was squarely on the students themselves".
    
    "Over the past 10 to 15 years of curriculum development in Australia, especially in Queensland, it should be noted that OBE has led to falling standards and a dumbed-down curriculum.
    
    "OBE is a new-age and politically correct approach.
    
    "Teachers become guides by the side; failure is banned as it is bad for children's self-esteem; and literature drowns in postmodern gobbledygook where SMS messaging and graffiti are centre stage with Shakespeare and David Malouf.
    
    "While many parents and teachers are worried about children leaving primary school illiterate and innumerate, and many students enter university incapable of writing a grammatically correct essay, Masters is also on record as suggesting that there is no crisis.
    
    "Writing in The Australian in November 2005, Masters argued: "The conventional wisdom (is that) standards in Australian schools are plunging and that this supposed decline is due to an outcomes focus being adopted by Australian schools.
    
    "Neither claim is supported by available research." [emphasis added]
    
    "Clearly, Masters is a strong supporter of the status quo in education.

    "This is yet another review for which we already know the outcome."
    
    Dr Kevin Donnelly, author of Dumbing Down, in 1996 undertook a review of the Queensland education system for the then education minister Bob Quinn.
    
    From The Brisbane Cuurier Mail at link
    
    

  • Poor teachers to blame for kids' bad marks says Education Minister
    
    Education Minister Rod Welford says Queensland's ailing school system is linked to the incapacity of our universities to attract quality teachers. Mr Welford has signalled trainee teacher standards need urgent attention.
    
    Related story in The Brisbane Times
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Higher education review recommends university mergers
    
    Curtin University in Perth has not rule out a merger with another institution in the wake of a Federal Government-commissioned review into Higher Education.
    
    Related story in The Australian
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Objections to Islamic school overruled
    
    An Islamic school catering to more than 1000 students in Sydney's south-west has been approved, despite thousands of objections by locals.
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Don't blame Summer Heights High for turning kids into racists
    
    If there's anything worse than the casual flip teenage racism of the students at elite eastern suburbs schools who set up the "Jew Parking Appreciation Group" on the social networking site Facebook, it's the avoidance of responsibility by the Scots headmaster, Ian Lambert. He said: "The sad reality about this banter and limitless virtual expression is part of the sarcasm and humour that students pick up in today's entertainment, particularly South Park and Summer Heights High." Are we clear? It's not the school's fault; it's not the students' fault. It's the fault of the internet; it's the fault of TV.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Here's my formula: values for money
      
      "As expected, Catherine Deveny's latest attack on private schools (Comment & Debate, 10/12) attracted a range of responses, including slippery assertions about how parents who send their children to private schools subsidise state school children — supposedly performing the noble civic duty of relieving a stretched public system of excess demand that it doesn't have the capacity to meet. Give them all a medal.
      
      "Not many champions of private education, however, address Deveny's objection that many private schools tend to operate as social, single-gender/religious ghettos that arguably encourage intolerance, inequity and social apartheid.
      
      "Perhaps the only way around this perception is to directly tie Government funding for all schools to the implementation of state and federal goals, recently adopted through the Melbourne Declaration (The Age, 6/12), that students become more well-rounded citizens by the time they finish their secondary education.
      
      "Before holding out their hands for government funding, let all schools show how children in their care are imbued with a sense of self-worth; exhibit personal values and attributes such as honesty, resilience, empathy and respect for others; and share a commitment to bridging the gap between rich and poor."
      
      Peter Kartsounis, Footscray

 

Saturday – Sunday, 13 – 14 December

• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Voucher plan could polarise campuses, cause political woes
    by Andrew Trounson and Luke Slattery
    
    "Proposals to deregulate university student flows with a voucher-like system appear set to polarise the sector and potentially cause political headaches if freer competition drives some universities to merge.
    
    "Yesterday The Australian reported the Government's long-awaited Bradley review of higher education is set to recommend a shift away from the centralised allocation of government-funded places by granting students an entitlement they could take to whatever university would admit them.
    
    "Supporters say the move would promote competition and diversity.
    
    "But critics warn that deregulation could produce a mismatch between what students demand and what the economy needs.
    
    "It could also encourage providers to invest only in higher-demand and low-cost courses.
    
    "While student vouchers could potentially provide students with greater flexibility and choice, there are concerns about the likely unintended consequences of a student-centred funding system," said Lenore Cooper, director of the Innovative Research Universities group that represents six universities.
    
    "These include South Australia's Flinders University and Western Australia's Murdoch University, which policy analyst Gavin Moodie said could be at risk of losing out under a voucher system if larger state rivals Adelaide University and University of Western Australia sought to expand.
    
    "The proposal from former University of South Australia vice-chancellor Denise Bradley, which is expected to be released next week, could resonate with Canberra..."
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    • Universities to merge in major overhaul as Bradley review recommends vouchers [late 12 Dec online update]
      
      Universities will be merged, a national voucher system introduced and incentives given to enrol students from low socio-economic backgrounds under recommendations being considered by the Rudd Government.
      
      
      
  • Push for bush to have a national university
    
    Australia's biggest university could be created if a merger of regional universities recommended by the Bradley review of higher education is adopted. Two regional universities, Lismore-based University of Southern Cross and Bathurst-based Charles Sturt University, have already announced they will merge, and USC vice-chancellor Paul Clark told The Weekend Australian yesterday that more than 70,000 students could attend the new institution if a third university joined them.
    
    
    
  • Aboriginal teens taught in primary schools
    by Natasha Robinson
    
    "Aboriginal teenagers are still attending primary school in homeland communities in northeast Arnhem Land, where outstations are denied permanent teachers and students are taught to lower standards than white children at urban schools.
    
    "Mapuru homeland school, near Elcho Island at the northeast tip of Arnhem Land, is petitioning the Northern Territory Government to allow it to become an independent Christian school, after years of requests for authorities in Darwin to provide a permanent teacher fell on deaf ears.
    
    "The school, which has between 50 and 60 students regularly attending class, teaches only to preschool andprimary school levels, despite students as old as 16 being enrolled and attending classes.
    
    "Fly-in teachers attend the school three days a week. The assistant teacher who works at the school, Jackie Nuluwidi, has taught there for almost 30 years, but is yet to be provided training as a qualified teacher.
    
    "Mr Nuluwidi and fellow assistant teacher Roslyn Malngumba told The Weekend Australian at Mapuru this week that they had been asking the NT Government for years to properly fund their school, which compared with indigenous schools in larger towns, achieves almost 100 per cent attendance.
    
    "The NT Government's review of outstation services this week completed its two-week consultation process, with Patrick Dodson and NT Education Minister Marion Scrymgour touring the Territory and holding discussions on how much support the Government should offer about 500 outstations.
    
    "For years, the commonwealth and NT governments have badly neglected homelands, where about 10,000 people live. Infrastructure is crumbling, rubbish is not collected, and there are sanitation problems..."
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Govt urged to recruit to fill expected teacher shortage
    
    The Australian Education Union says remote schools in the Northern Territory will be hit hardest by an expected shortage of teachers in 2009. The Union's Territory secretary, Adam Lampe, says... it will continue to be difficult to fill the quota of specialist English and Maths teachers for urban middle schools, but outlying Indigenous communities will be the hardest hit by the shortage.
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times
  

  • Mark of Approval (page 15)
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    “Dozens of students have had their school reports re-done after The Sunday Times revealed last week that children were getting the wrong results.
    
    “The Education Department confirmed that computer malfunctions in recent weeks meant that grades and teacher remarks were inputted against the wrong names for students from at least one high school, five primary schools and one remote community school.
    
    “Applecross Senior High School teacher this week also found that some Year 11 results were attributed to the wrong students.
    
    “An Education Department spokesman said at Applecross incorrect Year 11 reports were initially printed, but not sent out.”
    
    From The Sunday Times
    
    
    

• WA Today
  
  
  • Teachers bigger bullies than pupils
    
    A recent study of Catholic education teachers found 97 per cent had been bullied and up to 50 per cent of public school teachers had been bullied by co-workers.
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Age
  
  
  • Religion in schools to go God-free
    by Michael Bachelard
    
    "Victorian state primary school students will soon have an alternative — religious education lessons taught by people who do not believe in God and say there is "no evidence of any supernatural power".
    
    "The Humanist Society of Victoria has developed a curriculum, which the State Government accreditation body says it intends to approve, to deliver 30-minute lessons each week of "humanist applied ethics" to primary pupils.
    
    "Accredited volunteers will be able to teach their philosophy in the class time designated for religious instruction. As with lessons delivered by faith groups, parents will be able to request that their children do not participate.
    
    "Victorian Humanist Society president Stephen Stuart said: "Atheistical parents will be pleased to hear that humanistic courses of ethics will soon be available in some state schools."
    
    "But the body that accredits Victoria's 3500 Christian religious instruction volunteers, Access Ministries, says humanism is not a religion and so should not be taught in religious education time..."
    
    "Humanist Society education director Harry Gardner said he had designed a course to be taught from prep to year 6 called "Applied Ethical Education — Humanism for Schools". It covers subjects such as the art of living, the environment, philosophy, science and world citizenship. The curriculum is likely to be submitted for approval next year.
    
    "Dr Gardner, a former CSIRO research scientist, said his course adopted the "honesty ethic of science (that is, not fudging results)" with the intention that children would be inspired to think for themselves.
    
    "If accredited for use in schools, the Humanist Society of Victoria envisages that the volunteer teachers would develop a comradely relationship to the regular religious instructors in adjacent rooms," he said..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Age at link
    
    
    • The God allusion
      
      Christmas highlights the fact that the role of religious education in government schools is still up in the air.
      
      
      
  • High schools 'could be sued' over sunburnt kids
    
    Students up to year 12 could be forced to wear hats on campus under a new push to curb soaring skin cancer rates and prevent schools being sued by pupils who develop the disease. The head of the Victorian Principals Association says schools are receiving complaints from parents whose children were sunburnt at school events where shade options were limited.
    
    
    • Editorial
      We know about the risk of baking in the sun, don't we?
      
      There is a good case for the sun-smart policies adopted by primary schools to be extended to secondary students, who otherwise are tempted to abandon the common-sense practices they learned as young children. Only 13 per cent of Victorian secondary schools have adopted comprehensive policies to protect against skin cancer, such as insisting on hats for school days or sport, scheduling outdoor events for early morning or later afternoon and including a sun-smart message in the curriculum. Implementing such a policy requires effort and commitment, and a willingness by teachers to wear hats and sunscreen too when outdoors. It is worth it, because the risk is real.
      
      
      
      
• The Age [Saturday]
  
  
  • Model of a modern major uni
    by Farrah Tomazin and Miki Perkins
    
    "... The Melbourne Model is a US-style teaching system where students do a broad undergraduate degree, followed by a more specialised graduate course...
    
    "Part of the Melbourne Model's strength is that students, at the age of 17 or 18, don't always know what they want to do with their lives. By opting for a general degree first, and specialising later, they have more time to make that decision.
    
    "But more than one year since the university launched the most audacious transformation in its history, the question of whether the model is working, attracting enough students, and whether it's been worth it, is a moot point.
    
    "The vision was always an impressive one: give students a wide-ranging undergraduate education followed by specialised postgraduate studies. If all goes according to plan, they will graduate with an edge — enhanced research skills and a globally recognised qualification that may one day rival the great universities of the world: Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge.
    
    "But while student demand has increased in arts, science and commerce, first-preference applications have fallen overall from 10,580 applications last year, to 9771 this year, partly because popular courses such as medicine no longer exist for first-year students.
    
    "Students complain that the interdisciplinary "breadth" subjects — ones they must take outside their main area of study to broaden their academic experience — are often either overloaded or lack depth..."
    
    "But despite the "stresses and strains", the shift has been worth it, [vice-chancellor Glyn Davis] says.
    
    "It's a change that no one has ever tried before, so the whole thing has been a challenge," says Davis. "But I was just delighted that there was a whole cohort of students who wanted to give this a go. They came in this year, knew they were choosing something different — and they stayed.
    
    "Staff at the university were also willing to give it a go, and people have put in a huge amount of effort to make it work. It was not without its stresses and strains, but we end the year feeling that what we're trying to do is really important to us, and important to others." ...
    
    "Sought-after programs such as law, medicine, education, engineering and nursing have been redeveloped as graduate courses — usually master's degrees and sometimes as doctorates — for those who complete one of the six "new generation" degrees first.
    
    "And new interdisciplinary "breadth" subjects — some with elaborate names such as "Generating the Wealth of Nations" and "Poetics of the Body" — have been invented to allow students to foray into areas outside their main degree.
    
    "But university lecturer Ted Clark says that, while the model provides educational advances and broader choices for students, the university has attempted the biggest curriculum overhaul of any first-tier institution — without the necessary resources. Teachers are being asked to teach completely new programs while "teaching out" others. Workload is increasing, and job cuts had an impact on the overall "good will" of staff.
    
    "I think people are finding the reality of the model much more difficult than how it was initially portrayed," says Clark, the university's National Tertiary Education Union president.
    
    "Workload intensification is the major problem, and it seems to be the case across the universities that all faculties are looking at ways of reducing their staffing profiles for 2009 and 2010 because of the lack of funds to carry on these programs and to teach these things.
    
    "It's still playing out, but it doesn't seem to be completely straightforward to everyone as to how this is going to work." ...
    
    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    
  • Unis celebrate major infrastructure boost
    
    Universities will get hundreds of millions of dollars for infrastructure and make campuses more "student-friendly", as the Federal Government prepares for the biggest shake-up to the sector in decades.
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Values worth paying more for
      
      "Peter Kartsounis (Letters, 12/12) demands that religious and private schools prove their ability to inculcate virtues such as self-worth, respect for others and concern for the poor.
      
      "Well here's how my daughter's Christian school does it, Peter. They do it by teaching that all people are made in God's image and are therefore equally valuable to him regardless of how much money they have, or where they come from, or how they look, or whether they are straight or gay.
      
      "They teach that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness and that we have no right to look down on other people who think differently. They teach that one day God will judge us for how we have acted towards our fellow humans and that real life is to be found in following Jesus and learning to share his love for others. That's not so bad, is it?
      
      Andrew Moody, Blackburn South
      
      
      
    • Nature or nurture?
      
      "Interesting to watch the debate raging over public versus private education again. I attended a private school as a boarder for six years, because of the remote location of my family's farm. Then I became a primary school teacher and taught in the public system. All children should have a financial allocation for their schooling no matter what school their parents choose to send them to. Surely that is a democratic right.
      
      "The allegation that private schools create certain types of people fascinates me. Nature versus nurture needs to be considered. I would contend that my personal traits have developed as a result of all the factors impacting on me during my impressionable years — the parenting, social interactions in and out of the school environment, my years at university and the societal norms of the '70s.
      
      "Add to that mix my distinct personality and I am the person I am now — working in the community sector (not as a school teacher) by choice. The social and religious ghetto mentality did not stick to me and I am not a unique specimen."
      
      Kerrie Spinks, Southbank
      
      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Our kids in worst class of bullies [14 Dec online only]
    
    Bullying in Australian primary schools is in the worst category in the world, a new study of education standards has found. In the Trends In International Mathematics And Science Study, which surveyed schools in about 40 countries, more than a quarter of Australian year 4 students said they had suffered bullying. The results have alarmed child-health experts and education bodies, which have been running strict anti-bullying programs in schools over the past six years.
    
    
    
  • Hand-outs welcome, but they will not be enough to fix universities
    by Yuko Narushima
    
    "Universities in NSW received $245 million yesterday to spend on building projects and will split another $1 billion with tertiary institutions across Australia to improve campus facilities such as libraries and lecture theatres.
    
    "But the money announced as part of the Federal Government's infrastructure package will only go some way towards paying for a backlog of maintenance work required at universities, estimated to be worth as much as $2 billion nationally.
    
    "The University of Sydney was the big winner, receiving $95 million to build a Centre for Obesity, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease, as part of a life sciences precinct. The University of NSW was awarded $75 million for a building for carbon capture research and analysis of energy policies. At Macquarie University, a world-class "hearing hub" received $40 million. It promised to bring together researchers in cognitive sciences and hearing services.
    
    "Another $35 million was given to the University of Wollongong for a training and research centre.
    
    "Together, the NSW projects received more than half of the $580 million promised to the country through the Education Investment Fund.
    
    "However, a discussion paper prepared for the Bradley Review of higher education in June said some universities were unable to afford maintenance, let alone build facilities.
    
    "There is a large range in the extent of deferred maintenance in the sector, with several univerities showing deferred maintenance of over 10 per cent and one at over 20 per cent," the paper said. "Some estimates put the backlog as high as $2 billion."
    
    "Universities and TAFEs received a one-off payment of $500 million each to bring facilities up to speed with 21st century technology."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
  • Parent who bribed teacher buckled under peer pressure
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Qinghua Pei worked as a surgeon in China, but gave up the struggle to assimilate to mainstream life in Australia. He was determined to send his son to a selective school, so he offered the boy's teacher $2500 to encourage her to help.
    
    "The step backfired, making the parents the subject of a corruption inquiry. After the Independent Commission Against Corruption held its public inquiry this week, Mr Pei spoke of the pressure he has felt within the Chinese community to ensure his child attended a selective school.
    
    "It's big. It's like even more important than a house," he said. "Some children are going to four coaching schools at [the] same time. I'm from China and cannot assimilate to the mainstream very well. I love him. He likes study. He likes a good education."
    
    "Of the 295,300 public high school students in NSW, about 23,000 are in selective schools - about 7.8 per cent.
    
    "Larissa Treskin, the principal of the state's leading selective school, James Ruse Agricultural High, said she was disappointed to hear his comments. She was also critical of parents who put their children through excessive coaching.
    
    "Parents who hot-house their children with lots of coaching are not doing their child a service," she said. "These children usually struggle in selective schools, have low confidence and self-esteem and tend to become anxious, or in some cases, depressed.
    
    "Parents love their children, but to act in this way is to deny them a childhood. They are better off encouraging their child to play an instrument and develop an interest in dance, drama and visual arts."
    
    "The irony was that the pressure some parents place on their children was having the reverse effect by making them feel socially isolated.
    
    "Janet Milne, a child and family clinical psychologist, said she had conducted educational assessments for a "small but significant" number of children of Asian background.
    
    "She said some of the children were not encouraged to display emotion publicly and were put under enormous family pressure at examination time "with the result that some have been seen to engage in bizarre stress relieving behaviour once they have finished their exams".
    
    "I saw one incredibly gifted young man who had excelled at a prestigious school who had a very significant nervous collapse after he completed the HSC brilliantly," she said.
    
    "My experience is that some Asian children are incredibly stressed.
    
    "Some of the children seem to have no down time, everything is timetabled."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • No need to be selective when all should excel
      
      "The selective schools bribery case before the Independent Commission Against Corruption is sad and instructive ("Selective schools test shown as vulnerable", December 11). We must ask why so many parents are desperate to secure a selective school place for their children. The fear of missing out dominates their conversation for years before high school entry.
      
      "The NSW Government has to bear responsibility for this debacle. Another 600 selective places will be available in several more schools in 2010. The Department of Education's newsletter recently said these additional places created a "wonderful opportunity for the state's smart students". With 37 secondary public schools now fully or partially selective, should we be asking: just how selective is selective?
      
      "Finland, which has topped the international testing of literacy and numeracy in OECD nations for 15-year-olds for 14 years, has no selective schools. I defy anyone to prove the teaching in selective schools is superior to that in non-selective schools.
      
      "Each year our top year 9 and year 10 students leave to take up a place in selective public schools or very well resourced private schools for years 11 and 12. They sit in comprehensive schools on waiting lists for years, but this is never disclosed until the magic offer is made.
      
      "Every few years the Government creates another few hundred selective places, without considering the impact on comprehensive schools. Despite being marginalised, we will continue to do our best for all our students, regardless of their abilities.
      
      "The Government and the department can demand better literacy and numeracy scores, and better HSC results, from comprehensive high schools, or they can keep adding more selective places and encourage moral panic among parents. But they cannot continue to do both."
      
      Judy King Principal, Riverside Girls High School
      
      
      
      
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Mighta knowen yous effected by langwidge (page 20)
    by Zoltan Kovacs
    
    When some people who have powerful influence on what is taught in schools seem to have little interest in grammar and spelling on in promoting the study of literary classics, that message [how we use language matters] should be spread as widely as possible.
    
    Full story in The West Australian: well worth a look.
    
    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • Uncertainty on Obama Education Plans
    
    As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to announce his choice for education secretary, there is mystery not only about the person he will choose, but also about the approach to overhauling the nation’s schools that his selection will reflect. Will he side with those who want to abolish teacher tenure and otherwise curb the power of teachers’ unions? Or with those who want to rewrite the main federal law on elementary and secondary education, the No Child Left Behind Act, and who say the best strategy is to help teachers become more qualified?

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This page last updated 21 December, 2008 0:01 AM