Monday 23 March

Tuesday 24 March

Wednesday 25 March

Thursday 26 March

Friday 27 March

Saturday – Sunday, 28 – 29 March

Monday 23 March

• The Australian
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Ideology is rooted among Whitlam-era appointees
      
      "The literacy debate is wrongly framed as being about methods of teaching.
      
      "It is about teacher education academics defending their patch ("Hidden ideologues control our teaching”, 21-22/3).
      
      "There would be roughly 100 academics who are responsible for educating our primary teachers.
      
      "In order to qualify to teach, all our primary teachers trained in the past three decades have had to absorb and regurgitate the pet ideologies of the reading methods academics who were their temporary overlords.
      
      "How did education faculties get so unbalanced with whole-language proselytisers? Timing.
      
      "The whole-language theory emerged just in time to ride the wave of new young appointees into universities with the rapid expansion under the Whitlam government in the early 1970s.
      
      "They have been slowly working their way up the system, and are now grey-haired and hold professorships."
      
      Anne Tennock, Ferny Grove, Qld
      
      
      
    • "I teach science at The Meadows Public School in Seven Hills, NSW.
      
      "My students will readily tell you the difference between a gnomen and a gnat ("Science curriculum an insult”, 21-22/3).
      
      "They are quite capable of telling you all about the trajectory of the Earth and they will prove their argument by drawing each others’ shadows, on the understanding that you already know about the properties of magnets and the use of the compass. They have engaged in activities to show why a submarine sinks and why a helicopter rises.
      
      "I can only assume that when the National Curriculum Board refers to block play they are referring to what we scientists call the building blocks of life ... cells, DNA etc.
      
      "If so, I readily agree with the committee. We don’t touch this stuff till the Kindergarten kids, described above, reach Year 3."
      
      Brian McKeown, Seven Hills, NSW
      
      
      
    • "To not teach children phonics when learning to read is on a par with teaching numeracy while saying just guess the values of each numeral."
      
      Roy D Wells, Burnett Heads, Qld
      
      
      
    • "I am so glad that Brian Cambourne has been unmasked. He is one of the many in academe and the education bureaucracies using the universities and education systems to bring about their subversive political vision of Australian society, through indoctrination.
      
      "They control, directly and indirectly, every branch of the education system.
      
      "They are shielded by academic freedom and their academic or bureaucratic status. They have no mandate for what they are doing.
      
      "They have succeeded because of the capitulation of the universities and politicians to the politically correct factions that dominate education.
      
      "They have to be challenged and defeated. Julia Gillard and the state education ministers should have this as their highest priority."
      
      Jim Wilson, Beaumont, Vic
      
      
      
      
  • Billions to go to remote Aboriginal areas
    
    Twenty-six of the nation's largest remote Aboriginal communities will be targeted to receive billions of dollars in new federal funding as part of the Rudd Government's push to close the gap between blacks and whites.

    In a dramatic policy shift, these communities will receive almost all of the government funds set aside for new housing and the upgrading of municipal services such as health clinics and schools.
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Muslim students' difficult demand
    
    Later today, members of the RMIT University Islamic Society will protest on the city campus against what they believe is an injustice. It is a protest that the university believes to be both unnecessary and unfortunate. At the heart of the issue is how public organisations in Australia satisfy the sometimes conflicting demands of civic secularism and religious groups.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • The Monday Education Section has now been updated and contains nine articles, including:
    
    
    • Gillard urged to ban league tables
      by Dan Harrison, Canberra
      
      "Teachers and principals are calling for new laws to prevent the media ranking schools in "league tables" based on student test results.
      
      "Before a meeting of the nation's education ministers later this week, professional organisations have written to federal Education Minister Julia Gillard and her state and territory counterparts demanding assurances that data collected as part of a push for greater transparency in the schools system will not be misused.
      
      "The letter, signed by 15 groups including the teacher unions and principals' associations for public, independent and Catholic schools, says: "We write to strongly urge you to take legislative action prohibiting the creation and publication of league tables."
      
      "One signatory, Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos, said schools had no problem with being accountable, but there was no evidence league tables improved outcomes.
      
      "Mr Gavrielatos said the tables would increase inequality, as parents deserted schools that were seen as low quality and high-scoring schools took only the best-performing students. He said that a decade ago NSW had introduced laws banning league tables, which should be adopted nationally.
      
      "Australian Secondary Principals Association president Andrew Blair said league tables would lead to a "narrowing" of curriculum, as schools focused on teaching the content of standardised tests.
      
      "The intent of ministers is not to have simplistic school-by-school comparisons," Mr Blair said. "So we say, put your money where your mouth is — let's be rigorous in school performance comparison, but make certain that it is illegal for the media or other parties in Australia to produce league tables based on simple narrow performance data."
      
      "Under the Federal Government's promised "new era of transparency", all schools will be required to provide information about their workforce and financial resources, student population and performance, as a condition of federal funding.
      
      "The details are being negotiated by the Commonwealth, states and territories.
      
      "A spokeswoman for Ms Gillard said the changes were aimed at lifting school performance and better targeting resources, and would allow comparisons of schools with nearby schools and those serving similar student populations elsewhere.
      
      "The Rudd Government is not interested in simplistic league tables which rank schools according to raw test scores, and these will not be a product of the new framework," she said.
      
      "A Victorian Government spokesman said: "We do not support meaningless league tables but do support giving rich data to enable people to make informed choices."
      
      From The Age at link
      
      
      
    • Benchmark call in funding debate
      by Caroline Milburn
      
      "Constant squabbling between public and private schools about funding could be defused if governments defined what a good education costs and applied it to every student, according to a leading educator.
      
      "Professor Tony Vinson says the bitter arguments that have characterised debate for decades about how much government funding each sector should get overshadowed the more important issue of what it costs to give each child an effective education.
      
      "We should de-emphasise whether Catholic schools or independent schools are getting more or less than anyone else," he says. "Our first responsibility should be that all of our children are in education programs that are adequately resourced."
      
      "Professor Vinson chaired a 2002 inquiry into public education that recommended state and federal governments should estimate the minimum cost for a student to get a decent education. After the inquiry a working party developed a costing formula. It concluded an extra $2.5 billion a year had to be spent by state and federal governments to achieve the education goals they had set for all schools.
      
      "That analysis by the working party is on a shelf somewhere in the federal government waiting to be picked up," says Professor Vinson, who will speak at a landmark forum on public education to be held at Canberra's old parliament house on Friday. "At the time there was no dissension about its conclusions. But it was ignored because it meant governments would have to spend significantly more money on educating children."
      
      "The national forum will be the first time peak groups representing teacher unions, parents, and primary and secondary principals in government schools have gathered to discuss the future of public schooling. The groups want to discuss their concerns about funding and other issues in the lead up to the Federal Government's review of school funding in 2010-2011.
      
      "Professor Vinson is an emeritis professor at the University of NSW and honorary professor of education and social work at Sydney University. He says a review of how much money governments spend on education is urgently needed. The establishment of a minimum benchmark funding figure for each student would allow governments to prioritise which schools needed extra resources. "Adequate investment remains unfinished business for our public education system," he says.
      
      "It's always going to be a political issue if a school has more funds available to it than the level of the benchmark figure but it will just mean the school is not going to be a top priority for the government. A benchmark will never expunge the heat out of the arguments about `Where's my share?' but it will ensure that all Australian students, wherever they go to school, are involved in adequately funded programs."
      
      "Other speakers at the two-day forum will include the human rights lawyer and author Geoffrey Robertson QC and the federal Education Minister Julia Gillard.
      
      "The current school funding model, introduced by the former Howard government, has attracted wide criticism because of the way it deals with private schools. Funding for private schools is based on the socio-economic status of the district where a school's students live and does not take into account other income to the school such as fees or bequests.
      
      "Public schools are funded by state governments on a per-student basis, with little reference to levels of socio-economic disadvantage. Teacher unions and other critics argue the system is unfair because it does not accurately measure need, especially in elite private schools, where many students come from wealthy families regardless of their residential address.
      
      "Angelo Gavrielatos, federal president of the Australian Education Union, says the forum will discuss the challenges facing public education, including ways to replace the postcode funding model. "As a nation we need to ask ourselves some serious questions about what our commitment is to universally accessible, secular, public education," he says.
      
      "The forum is being organised by the Australian Education Union, the Australian Council of State School Organisations, the Australian Government Primary Principals Association and the Australian Secondary Principals Association."
      
      From The Age at link
      
      
      
    • Op Ed
      The riches of learning
      
      Schools must maintain a diverse, balanced curriculum.
      
      
      
    • Op Ed
      Starting early
      
      How much homework should young children be given?
      
      
      
  • Editorial
    Freedom fades when you can't say what's banned
    
    The Government is compiling a list of banned websites, and now information about what is banned is to be banned, too. What is to prevent governments from abuse of such a system?
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Feature
    The man who transformed a school system
    
    Brother Kelvin Canavan knows how to get a message across - to pupils, prime ministers and popes.
    
    "As head of the Catholic Education Office in Sydney for 22 years, Marist Brother Kelvin Canavan has dealt with 12 NSW education ministers and 10 directors-general of education.
    
    "At a federal level, he has influenced prime ministers and been successful in helping secure about $3.4 billion in annual funding for Catholic schools.
    
    "He has been credited with raising the performance of students in literacy and numeracy tests well above the state average. From 1998 to 2007, literacy achievement for year 3 and 5 students in the Sydney Archdiocese increased by about 14 per cent and about 8 per cent for numeracy after performance benchmarks were set and teachers retrained.
    
    "The proportion of students in Sydney Catholic schools who achieved above the state average in the HSC rose from 51 per cent in 1995 to 61 per cent last year.
    
    "The number of year 12 students who achieve results of more than 90 per cent in a subject has more than doubled in the past eight years.
    
    "Despite a 10 per cent fall in the total school-age population between 1976 to 2006 across the 25 local government areas covering the Archdiocese of Sydney, Catholic school enrolments in the area increased about 6.5 per cent..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Whole language approach to literacy reaps rewards
      
      "As one who taught many a struggling child to read, I bridle at Miranda Devine's denigratory labelling of Brian Cambourne as the "godfather" of whole language learning ("The crazy politics of learning to read", March 21-22).
      
      "Cambourne has produced a wealth of impressive evidence to substantiate his advocacy of holistic approaches to literacy. He is one of many dedicated literacy leaders who rightly emphasise the centrality of meaning in learning to read and that excessive emphasis on fragmented decoding achieves only limited results. Such reductionism can produce "readers" who are able to decode print, but who seldom go near a book.
      
      "Whole language advocates are not averse to teaching phonics; they teach embedded phonics as one strategy among many necessary to help children with reading problems. How many times must it be said that almost all schools teach phonics thoroughly?
      
      "MULTILIT, or Making Up Lost Time In Literacy, is a program aimed primarily at low progress readers. It is demanding in terms of time and resources and there are question marks about the persistence of some reading gains made. Like more holistic approaches, it also recognises the importance of reading interesting material to and with children, building up sight word competence, linking spelling and writing with the reading program and so on.
      
      "To characterise whole language advocates as those who think "children learn to read naturally just by being exposed to books" is insulting. It fails to recognise the wide acceptance of whole language emphases on skills being taught in context, literacy across the curriculum and quality literature at all levels of the reading experience.
      
      "Well-implemented whole language approaches, far from being discredited, are preferable to those that treat reading in isolation and splinter the complex process of becoming literate."
      
      Ron Sinclair, Bathurst
      
      
      
    • Balanced reading works
      
      "I have a daughter in year 3. She loves reading and can do so because of the balanced approach her teachers have adopted, as is required in NSW. Such an approach is very successful. Last year 95 per cent of year 3 students in NSW met the standard for reading in national literacy testing.
      
      "I therefore do not follow the logic of Miranda Devine's support for mainstreaming extreme phonics in her comments on a proposed NSW trial of different approaches to teaching reading ("The crazy politics of learning to read", March 21-22).
      
      "The trial will target students reading well below the level of their peers. As it has been described by Devine, what can it have to say about the broader question of how best to teach reading? The study is not dealing with how students who can read have learnt to do so. The evidence of what works for most students is already in, their parents seeing and hearing the success of a balanced approach every night.
      
      "Finding ways to better support underperforming students is certainly necessary. But our children are not well-served by the denigration of what works for most."

      Mark Howie, President, English Teachers Association (NSW), Leichhardt
      
      
      

• The Guardian
  
  
  • Teaching Primary schools lack male teachers
    
    More than a quarter of primary schools in England do not have a single male teacher, according to figures revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.
    

Tuesday 24 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Maintaining services amid budget cuts ‘challenging’: education chief [late update: online only]
    by Jessica Strutt
    
    "Education Department director-general Sharon O’Neill has told an Upper House inquiry it would be “challenging” to implement a 3 per cent budget cut without affecting frontline services.
    
    "Ms O’Neill also revealed that the department would be $17 million short of the savings that the State Government demanded in this financial year. The Government has demanded that the department save $335 million over four years.
    
    "But Ms O’Neill said she hoped the department could make up the savings shortfall during coming years.
    
    "Under questioning, Ms O’Neill told the inquiry that the department would be $50 million over its budget for this financial year. She acknowledged there was an increasing demand in student growth, with an extra 5500 students.
    
    "That rise would be difficult in the context of budget cuts, Ms O’Neill told the inquiry."
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    Similar story on ABC News; related story in The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
    
    
    
  • Most school year repeaters have eye on 'good' TEE
    by Tiffany Fox
    
    "High school students preparing for their TEE are the most likely to repeat a year as parents try to maximise their child's chances of reaching university.
    
    "Department of Education and Training figures show that almost 300 of the 474 students who repeated a year last year were in Years 11 and 12 compared with just 15 from Years 8 to 10.
    
    "Duncraig Senior High School principal Graeme Smith said he expected the number of Year 11 and 12 students repeating would increase as the financial situation worsened and students placed more value on a university degree.
    
    "But he warned simply having a second go at the course would not guarantee success at exams and students also had to change their study habits.
    
    “It is not a common decision, but if there are not the jobs available for young people then we are going to see that repeating Year 11 becomes more a realistic option,” Mr Smith said.
    
    “Repeating aids their maturity, and it is the organisational and study skills they develop the second time through that will help them, rather than their familiarity with the course work.”
    
    "Duncraig student Nikola Ristich repeated Year 11 this year after a part-time job and preoccupation with playing paintball and computer games saw his grades drop to the point where he would not meet the minimum requirement to attend university.
    
    "The 17-year-old, who aimed to be a Royal Australian Air Force pilot, said it was a difficult decision but repeating was worth it when the other option was to give up on his dream job. Not only had his grades improved, but he was studying more difficult subjects successfully.
    
    “Before I would find it hard to study, but now I don't have a problem because I understand the seriousness of it,” he said. “I thought I could do it if I put my mind to it.”
    
    "After Years 11 and 12, the next biggest group of repeaters was pre-primary with 55 students and kindergarten with 31. Year 8 had the lowest number of repeaters with just five students.
    
    "The figures did not include students who repeated a year after changing schools.
    
    "Department evaluation and accountability director Alan Dodson said the decision on whether a student repeated was made by the child's parents.
    
    "It was likely the greater number of repeating students in pre-primary was because of guidelines which allowed children to enter pre-primary at 4 ½ years old, but not start year 1 until 6 ½.
    
    “The reasons students repeat a year can range from the maturity of the child to how they fit in socially and academically,” Mr Dodson said.
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • In Short
      
      "Police are assaulted and tougher new laws are imposed, making us more like a police state, a few hoons burn out here and there and a speed humps are placed al over the place, annoying the majority; anti-social yobbos and drug and alcohol-fuelled teens cause havoc, and once again the majority cower in their homes and are made to suffer and live in fear.
      
      "Where did this all start? For my money, it all began in earnest 10 to 15 years ago when discipline went out the window in schools and the PC brigade and social engineers took over. Good job folks! I see aggro every day on buses and trains and on the streets at night. Where Perth was fun and free 20 years ago, it is now dull at best, scary at worst. People nowadays seem to have no patience, are arrogant and selfish and, worse, violent. Heaven help us."
      
      A Morovich, Winthrop
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Bad choice: teachers slam new exam format
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Multiple choice questions will feature in history examinations in the NSW Higher School Certificate for the first time from next year, following a review to bring consistency to exams and reduce student stress.
    
    "Students sitting ancient and modern history for the NSW HSC from 2010 will face five to 10 multiple choice questions testing their comprehension of a given source.
    
    "A similar move is being considered as part of a revamp of the HSC English exam, which the board is still finalising.
    
    "In history, the board is proposing to replace the first five questions of the exam that deal with compulsory content.
    
    "The questions, each worth only one or two marks, are designed to assess students' comprehension of a given source such as a map or written recollection of an event.
    
    "In the 2007 HSC modern history exam, the first question required students to look at a map from World War I of the German offensive and Allied counter-attack and name one of the towns regained by the Allied forces in July and August 1918.
    
    "Multiple choice examples provided by the board rework the question to ask: which town was regained by Allied forces in July and August 1918? (A) Amiens; (B) Reims; (C) Soissons; (D) Verdun.
    
    "The board spokeswoman said the existing questions were forms of objective response questions, such as multiple choice, for which there was only one answer.
    
    "The review of the HSC looked at ways of reducing student stress and giving clearer directions, as well as bringing greater consistency between subjects.
    
    "The spokeswoman said most other exams already included multiple choice questions, and it was best practice to provide a variety of question styles to test students in different ways.
    
    "History and English teachers oppose the inclusion of multiple choice questions in the HSC, arguing it is an inappropriate method for assessing knowledge and skills in their subjects.
    
    "History Teachers Association of NSW president Beatriz Cartlidge said the board was ignoring the views of the profession, which "flatly rejected" the concept of multiple choice questions.
    
    "Ms Cartlidge said multiple choice was useful for the simple recall of facts, or in maths and science where there was one right answer. "But history is about perspectives and different interpretations. It's about testing those views and working out which ones are most legitimate."
    
    "In its submission on the HSC changes, the English Teachers Association of NSW said its members met the suggestion of multiple choice questions with "horror". [emphasis added]
    
    "Teachers believe this mode of testing can sometimes disadvantage more capable students who notice subtle nuances that are often not catered for in this style of response," president Mark Howie said in the submission.
    
    "Knowledge and understanding are identified through their expression, which ... is as important as the information imparted."
    
    "Ms Cartlidge suggested the motivation for including multiple choice, which can be marked quickly by machine rather than by hand, was to cut costs.
    
    "She said it was unprofessional to change the exam requirements of a course for which students were already studying.

    "Here we are a term into a course that students have chosen based on the syllabus and exam that were current, and teachers are still unable to tell them what the exit exam will be," she said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Wielding academic power
      
      "Jim Wilson’s comments about the unmasking of those in the academic and bureaucratic establishment who are using the education system to promote their political views, are apt indeed (Letters 23/3).
      
      "I suspect that it is only a matter of time before lawyers find this to be a fertile ground for class action litigation. After all, a deficiency in education is a lifetime disability. And when such a disability is the consequence of the reckless or negligent action of others, there are likely to be grounds for personal grievances."
      
      Philip Temple, Zilzie, Qld
      
      
      
      
• The Age
  
  
  • Teachers warn on history lessons
    
    History teachers say the planned national history curriculum is "far too ambitious", too crammed with content and contains unrealistic expectations about what students can be taught, especially at primary level.
    
    Similar to the 18 March article in The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
  • Internet provider shuns filter trial
    
    Australia's third-largest internet service provider [iiNet] yesterday announced it would not participate in the Federal Government's trials of an internet filter, saying that to do so would conflict with its "corporate social responsibility".
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Aboriginal uni course proposed
    
    All university students and staff will be required to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture under proposals to be considered by the Federal Government. As part of the strategy, it will be compulsory for all staff, including bureaucrats and teachers, to undertake the course.
    
    
    
  • Heckler
    No lingering! Pack them off to school
    
    When it was time for me to go to school, I was just sent. No umming and aahing, no big decisions, no aghast comments of "But she's an April birthday!" could be heard from my mother's mouth or those of her friends. It just wasn't a topic. Your kid is turning five? Oh well, off to school then.
    
    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • Strip-Search of Girl Tests Limit of School Policy
    by Adam Liptak
    
    Safford, Arizona — "Savana Redding still remembers the clothes she had on — black stretch pants with butterfly patches and a pink T-shirt — the day school officials here forced her to strip six years ago. She was 13 and in eighth grade.
    
    "An assistant principal, enforcing the school’s antidrug policies, suspected her of having brought prescription-strength ibuprofen pills to school. One of the pills is as strong as two Advils.
    
    "The search by two female school employees was methodical and humiliating, Ms. Redding said. After she had stripped to her underwear, “they asked me to pull out my bra and move it from side to side,” she said. “They made me open my legs and pull out my underwear.”
    
    "Ms. Redding, an honors student, had no pills. But she had a furious mother and a lawyer, and now her case has reached the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on April 21.
    
    "The case will require the justices to consider the thorny question of just how much leeway school officials should have in policing zero-tolerance policies for drugs and violence, and the court is likely to provide important guidance to schools around the nation..."
    
    Full story in The New York Times at link

 

Wednesday 25 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Education, Health fail on 3pc cut
    by Jessica Strutt
    
    "The Education Department will fall 17 million short of its 3 per cent savings cut target this financial year, a parliamentary inquiry was told yesterday.
    
    "Department director-general Sharyn O'Neill revealed her agency's budget had already blown out by $50 million. She told an Upper House subcommittee the department would achieve about $29 million of nearly $46 million savings that the Government demanded this year.
    
    "Director-general of health Peter Flett revealed last week that is department would only achieve about half of the $60 million in savings it was expected to find this year and would blow its budget by up to $230 million.
    
    "Health and education account for half of the State's $18 billion budget and their failure to achieve the cuts will put great pressure on Treasurer Troy Buswell's first budget in May.
    
    "Ms O'Neill told the inquiry it would be challenging to implement a 3 per cent cut because the majority of the budget related to front-line services, which the Government had promised would not be affected.
    
    "She said most of the savings would be achieved through cuts to programs, reductions in operational budgets and shedding staff through natural attrition and not filling vacancies at central and district offices.
    
    "Shadow treasurer Ben Wyatt was concerned Ms O'Neill had told the inquiry just two new schools would be built next year, while there would be an extra 5500 public school students this year. He said the Government had lost control.
    
    "Under-treasurer Tim Marney said he was confident agency officers had the ability to implement the cuts but not necessarily that they had the will.
    
    "Department for Child Protection director-general Terry Murphy revealed his agency had a forecast budget deficit of $9.5 million this year but was on target to meet its cuts.
    
    "Mr Buswell yesterday announced the State Supply Commission would merge with the Department of Treasury and Finance."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Students up as the economy shrivels
    by Guy Healy and Andrew Trounson
    
    "School-leavers are opting for security and vocational disciplines that lead directly to careers, with law, business, teaching, engineering and science recording strong, and in some cases dramatic, increases in enrolment.
    
    "In what appears to be a recessionary response, 15 universities - including five members of the Group of Eight, three technological universities and four regionals - also report an average increase of 6.5per cent over last year across all disciplines.
    
    "On early figures, applications and enrolments in education have recorded an average 20.4 per cent increase, according to the country's deans of education.
    
    "Nationwide it appears that teacher education has either held steady or increased, and in some cases increased dramatically, although the really dramatic increases have typically been on a small base," Australian Council of Deans of Education president and Monash dean Sue Willis told the HES.
    
    "Rural education will receive a boost with applications for education up in rural institutions such as Charles Darwin, James Cook, Charles Sturt and La Trobe, Professor Willis said.
    
    "In what will be seen as a welcome response to skills shortages in the national priority discipline of engineering, undergraduate enrolments are about 12per cent higher than last year.
    
    "At 20 per cent higher than last year, full-year engineering enrolments for overseas students heave reached the highest level in recent years, Australian Council of Engineering Deans president and Adelaide University dean Peter Dowd told the HES.
    
    "William Ford, law dean at UWA and president of the Council of Australian Law Deans, said enrolments at the established law schools had risen 5 per cent to 10per cent on last year.
    
    "Professor Ford said law schools were "bending over backwards" to stand by offers amid a strong rise in acceptance rates.
    
    "But this year's surge meant it was likely to be even more difficult to get into law next year as schools adjusted their offerings to cope with increased demand, he said.
    
    "Robert Norris, dean of science at Monash and president of the Australian Council of Deans of Science, said that strong preferences had translated into strong enrolments, with acceptance rates holding or improving.
    
    "Medical Deans Australia president and University of Tasmania dean Allan Carmichael said all medical places on offer across the country had been taken up, despite significant increases in new places.
    
    "University of Queensland dean and Australian Business Deans Council president Tim Brailsford said demand for business was stronger across the sector this year, especially in postgraduate courses.
    
    "Demand in some UQ business programs such as MBAs was up by 30 per cent, he said.
    
    "Despite 500 new early childhood places this year, most institutions that offered the discipline reported they had filled their places, Professor Willis said.
    
    "Universities Australia chief executive Glenn Withers told the HES he was heartened by the student response demonstrated by the figures, especially in disciplines necessary for national reconstruction.
    
    "In difficult times school leavers will seek the security of university degrees. We know the income and employment opportunities are strong for graduates," he said.
    
    "Dr Withers said the lucrative alternatives that had been available in the mining boom had faded.
    "We have been expecting enrolments to increase, and within that we would expect the less risky and more vocational degrees to be favoured, and the early signs are that's exactly what's happening," he said.
    
    "In Queensland, where there have been a series of high profile mass lay-off rounds in mining, Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre spokeswoman Pat Smith said there had been "an incredible number of late applications". There had been a 35 per cent increase in applications after the deadline, with universities still enrolling well after O-week, she said.
    
    "QTAC had noted a decrease in the number of people deferring this year, as the appetite for the popular gap year wanes.
    
    "In Victoria, despite a 6 per cent rise in undergraduate university applications, offers were flat at 52,942 as a 5.6per cent increase in offers for commonwealth-supported places failed to fully offset the scrapping of fee-paying domestic courses."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Row brews on student expulsions
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "The Brunby Government is facing growing dissent over contentious plans to reduce the number of days principals can suspend unruly students.
    
    "In a move schools say will make it harder to discipline children, the Government wants to cut the amount of time students can be suspended to a maximum of five consecutive days, rather than the current 10. Principals say they will also have less power when it comes to expulsions, by being required to justify their decisions with the Education Department — and effectively seek permission from their regional director before a student is removed from school.
    
    "In an embarrassing rebuff, almost 150 principals passed a motion at a secondary schools conference last week condemning Education Minister Bronwyn Pike and her department over the guidelines.
    
    "But with government figures showing there were almost 16,400 suspensions issued in Victorian schools between January and August last year, Ms Pike said it was too simplistic to merely suspend or expel troubled students.
    
    "The Government wants to keep children from ending up in juvenile justice centres, so schools are instead being encouraged to intervene early, set up "student support groups" for children most at risk and forge stronger links with welfare agencies.
    
    "We understand there are challenging students in the system but we don't back away from working together with schools to support them educating these young people. (We want) to give them the best chance in life by keeping them engaged in schools," Ms Pike's spokesman, Cameron Scott, said last night...."
    
    Full story in The Age at link

 

Thursday 26 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Slip of the tongues at schools
    by Tiffany Fox
    
    "More WA students are turning their backs on studying a foreign language in their final years of high school despite the language course being compulsory for almost the entirety of their school life.
    
    "Curriculum Council figures show the number of students studying a language at TEE level last year fell 9 per cent from the previous year and that number has plunged almost 22 per cent since 2003, even though it has been compulsory for schools to offer language courses since 1998.
    
    "Overall, figures dropped from 1134 students in 2007 to 1033 last year with TEE French and Indonesian suffering the biggest loss of students.
    
    "Japanese and advanced Chinese courses fared well amid a major push from the Federal Governments encouraging schools to boost the number of Australians studying Asian languages.
    
    "University of WA education associate dean Alexandra Ludewig said the decline in student numbers was a damning assessment of the lack of importance many schools put on foreign languages.
    
    "Though all schools taught language, there was nothing in the curriculum guidelines ensuring the course was offered in a consistent and systematic way.
    
    "She said some students had been forced to study a different language every six months as teachers left of changed schools, while others were forced to take lessons outside of school hours.
    
    "Dr Ludewig said UWA had a record number of applications to its language units last year by students who had been unable to study their language of choice at high school.
    
    "There is still not a systematic and co-ordinated approach to offering a language in many schools, which in any other subject would not be tolerated," Dr Ludewig said.
    
    "Students are seeing the value of a language as part of their tertiary studies... but schools still regard languages as a lower priority than other subjects."
    
    "WA Council of State School Organisations president Robert Fry said the decline showed that forcing schools to offer languages was impractical unless there were adequate resources to ensure schools could retain specialist language teachers.
    
    "The lack of continuity made it difficult for students to appreciate the value of a foreign language.
    
    "One of the challenges for the State in general is to train and maintain language teachers in the school environment," Mr Fry said.
    
    "Students really need to be able to decide early in life what language to study and the earlier they start the more likely they are to become fluent."
    
    "Association of Independent Schools WA deputy director Ron Gorman said he expected the d emand for Asian languages at high schools would rise as a result of Federal Government initiatives promoting the value of a second language."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Teachers, principals defiant on rankings
    by Tiffany Fox
    
    "WA teachers and principals have thrown their support behind calls for laws preventing the creation of controversial "league tables" based on student test results.
    
    "WA Secondary Schools Executive Association and the Catholic Education Office this week added their voices to other professional organisations demanding assurance that data collected as part of push for greater transparency in the schools system would not be misused.
    
    "The letter, signed by 15 national groups, including teachers unions and principals associations for public, independent and Catholic schools, strongly urged Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard to take "legislative action prohibiting the creation of league tables".
    
    "As a condition of the Federal Government's funding plan, all schools will be required to provide information about their academic performance, student population, financial resources and workforce.
    
    "WA Secondary School Executives Association president Rob Nairn said there were concerns that raw data collected by the Federal Government on schools' performances could be used by third parties, such as media outlets, to create controversial league tables.
    
    "He said the information should be used for schools' planning and improvement but it should not be allowed to create unfair comparisons between different schools.
    
    "The association's board would decide this week whether to formally add its support to the letter.
    
    "Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard said that while the group would honour the provisions of the funding agreement, it was essential that any comparison of schools was based on more than academic results.
    
    "WA Education minister Liz Constable said she understood the groups were concerned but the data provided just one piece of information about a school that shuold not be taken in isolation.
    
    "These comparisons provide only a surface view of what schools are about,: she said.
    
    "Ms Gillard confirmed last year that the Federal Government would not publish school league tables based on raw scores of students in national reading, writing and maths test.
    
    "It would instead scale the results to reflect each school's socioeconomic status and student mix."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Teaching dream comes true for mum, daughter
    by Dale Miller
    
    "There was a time when Julie Lander though she would never realise her dream of becoming a teacher, let alone achieving her goal with one of her daughters.
    
    "But on Tuesday Mrs Lansder, 48, and her 22-year-old daughter Marissa Johnson graduated from Murdoch University with teaching degrees after four years of study.
    
    "The graduation ceremony at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre completed a remarkable career change for the mother of four, who chose to leave her work in business management to become a mature-age student after attending a university open day with her daughter in 2004.
    
    "Mrs Lander, of Kalgoorlie, said teaching was a passion she had had since she was four but one she had been discouraged from pursuing at an early age. She said her daughter had been keen to study and pushed her to give the career change a go.
    
    "It was very, very tricky but without the support of her family I wouldn't have been able to do it because they were really good at pulling together as far as home things went such as cooking and cleaning," Mrs Lander said.
    
    "If it wasn't for that I would have probably burnt out by the end of second year."
    
    "Mrs Johnson, who studied secondary teaching in Perth at the same time, said she was exceptionally close to her mother.
    
    "The pair exchanged notes and encouraged each other, particularly during their final year at university at a time when Mrs Johnson was planning her wedding around full-time study and teaching practicals.
    
    "Both have found teaching positions in Kalgoorlie since completing their degrees, with Mrs Lander starting at St Mary's Primary School in January. Her daughter is teaching social studies and English at nearby John Paul College.
    
    "Mrs Johnson said she had loved every moment of sharing the university experience with her mother and encouraged others to become qualified teachers.
    
    "We really need country people to go and learn teaching and go back home because we really need the teachers that are going to stick around, more for the kids' sake than anything," she said."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Students take their call for funds to the streets
    by Jayne Rickard
    
    "University students rallied in Perth yesterday as part of a national call for greater financial support for tertiary students.
    
    "The National Union of Students launched the Australia-wide rallies in a bid to address escalating living costs, deregulation of university places and voluntary student unionism.
    
    "More than 50 students gathered at Wesley Church in Perth yesterday in a passionate and colourful effort.
    
    "NUS WA president Luke Villiers said students were demanding "radical reform" within the higher education sector.
    
    "The entire income support system needs radica reform," he said. "What we want to see is an increase in the payments and a flat rate which isn't affected by how much you work."
    
    "According to the Real Estate Institute of WA, the average house rental price in Perth nearly doubled over the past five years. But weekly student allowance only increased $50, to $371.40 over the same period."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Teaching Twitter could become a class act
    by Stephen Hutcheon
    
    "British schoolchildren may soon be studying the tweets of Ashton Kutcher along with the sonnets of Shakespeare.
    
    "A leaked Government report due to be released shortly, recommends that British primary school teachers be given much more flexibility in deciding what lessons to teach.
    
    "And while it emphasises the continued necessity of teaching traditional subjects such as spelling, history and arithmetic, it also recommends that students be taught about online media and instructed about web-based skills including how to use a spell checker.
    
    "The report, which was cited by The Guardian newspaper, is part of a Government initiative to radically overhaul the primary school curriculum.
    
    "One of the key proposals recommends that students be taught about online phenomena such as the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and the micro-blogging site Twitter.
    
    "The report would require "children to leave primary school familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication. They must gain 'fluency' in handwriting and keyboard skills, and learn how to use a spell checker alongside how to spell".
    
    "Twitter is a two-year-old service that allows you to broadcast - or "tweet" - 140-character text messages to the world. Among its many devotees are politicians and entertainers, including actor Ashton Kutcher, who is ranked as the world's fifth most "followed" Twitterer.
    
    "The plans were condemned by John Bangs of the National Union of Teachers.
    
    "It seems to jump on the latest trends such as Wikipedia and Twitter," he told the newspaper.
    
    "In Australia, NSW HSC students were this year able to opt to take a course in studying Wikipedia - marking the first time in this country that the study of the online encyclopedia had been formally included in a syllabus.
    
    "Wikipedia, which ranks among the world's most visited sites, was listed by the NSW Board of Studies as a prescribed text for an elective course in the English syllabus for 2009-2012.
    
    "The website is one of a number of "texts" - a choice that also includes a book and a movie - that students can choose to study in an elective called the Global Village, a course examining how the world's communities communicate and interact.
    
    "Founded in 2001, Wikipedia is now available in more than 260 languages and attracts about 700 million visitors annually. The English editon alone contains more than 2.8 million articles.
    
    "Wikipedia is maintained by volunteers from all over the world and anyone with an internet connection can create and edit articles and publish them on the site.
    
    "However, because the site allows authors and editors to use pseudonyms, the system is open to abuse, vandalism and a selective telling of history that reflects an author's bias."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
  
  
  • School tests could fail students: educator
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "A former head of the NSW Board of Studies, Gordon Stanley, has warned Australian education authorities against following the British example of overtesting students and setting performance benchmarks because they narrow the curriculum.
    
    "In the UK, testing has really got out of hand," said Professor Stanley, who left Australia a year ago to take up the directorship of the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment. He has not yet been replaced at the Board of Studies.
    
    "In Australia for a short break, Professor Stanley said he hoped the nation would not copy the mistakes of Britain and the United States, where schools had been drowning in more than 6000 pages of new curriculum guidelines since their distribution last year.
    
    "He said national tests in literacy and numeracy that were introduced last year for years 3, 5, 7 and 9 should not be used simply to rank schools but results should be used to rapidly diagnose and remedy any learning problems they identified..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

 

Friday 27 March

• The Australian
  
  
  • Razor gang hits $7bn university funding
    by Dennis Shanahan, Political editor
    
    "The federal Government's plans for a $7 billion revamp of higher education have been recast in the face of economic reality, with the increased funding now expected to be staggered over several years.
    
    "Julia Gillard has been considering the new funding in line with the recommendations of the Bradley review, claiming the Howard government had underspent on the sector for 13 years. But the Education Minister and Acting Prime Minister yesterday admitted the Government had been mugged by economic reality in the budget process.
    
    "Ms Gillard said the global financial crisis was "pounding the budget" and it was "only responsible" to consider the price tag of the higher education reforms and promises.
    
    "You've got to work through all the dollars and cents in the budget, and we're in that process now," she told Sydney's 2GB radio yesterday.
    
    "It is understood Ms Gillard is already negotiating to stagger the timing of the promised funds to universities aimed at boosting the number of graduates by 330,000 as part of the budget process.
    
    "Priority is also being given to university funding that helps create jobs and builds Australia's capacity and productivity to move more quickly out of a recession.
    
    "Higher education is just one of many big-spending areas to be ravaged by the impact of the global financial crisis and the Australian recession on the May budget..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
  
  
  • TAFE path to assist government degree target
    by Guy Healy
    
    "A big expansion of degree-granting TAFEs was more likely to help achieve ambitious Rudd government degree targets than the proposed 20 new teaching universities, a leading vocational education expert said yesterday.
    
    "Griffith University senior lecturer in vocational education Leesa Wheelahan said the Government's integration of vocational and university education was a breakthrough for post-secondary learning. She predicted a substantial expansion of the present 10 degree-granting TAFEs.
    
    "I can't see how the Government can meet its expansion target of 40 per cent of 24 to 34-year-olds with a degree without involving TAFE," Dr Wheelahan said.
    
    "The idea that you have a university campus in every small regional town is ridiculous and not feasible; but TAFE is in most tiny towns, or accessible to them."
    
    "As universities adopted new credit pathways from vocational education, Dr Wheelahan said the Government's integration push could help achieve its expansion targets. The Bradley review, from which the Government's degree target was drawn, called for an extra 22,000 graduates by 2018.
    
    "Dr Wheelahan said Universities Australia's new credit arrangements were helpful in promoting student transfer, but TAFE students' access to elite universities remained constrained.
    
    "Integration is a good idea because under the current architecture we have two systems reporting to two different levels of government, with different funding, quality assurance and governance."
    
    "TAFEs had moved beyond offering degrees in niche areas and were offering degrees in business, commerce, engineering, building and music, she said.
    
    "Universities Australia chief executive Glenn Withers told the HES that universities backed the degree target as essential to national recovery, but they were still underfunded on a per-student basis.
    
    "Universities alone should not be seen as the sole solution, because we believe a vibrant tertiary sector across all post-secondary education is appropriate to deliver the target," Dr Withers said.
    
    "University of Melbourne professor of higher education Richard James said it was too early to say whether policy settings would encourage integration.
    
    "The potential of TAFE infrastructure and pedagogical capacity to help meet the degree target needs to be explored before any plans for new universities or new campuses are considered," he said.
    
    "But whether the new policy settings, in particular the research requirement, will allow this development, it's too soon to say."
    
    From in The Australian at link
    
    
    
  
  
  • Scholar or student, but not both, says author Mark Lopez
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Students must choose between being a good scholar or a good student as commentator and author Mark Lopez says the school system rarely encourages them to be both.
    
    "Before an address to the Sydney Institute last night on teaching history, Dr Lopez said students who decided to pursue high marks had to be prepared to sacrifice opportunities to develop their intellect and creativity.
    
    "Dr Lopez said the biggest problem was teacher quality, as they were marking arguments they failed to understand, or were contrary to their own ideals, as wrong.
    
    "A tutor to high school and university students for the past 18 years, Dr Lopez has published his insights on teachers and schools in two volumes of The Little Black Schoolbook, which provides students with tips on how to get straight As at school and university.
    
    "Dr Lopez said assessment across the humanities was subjective, reflecting the opinion of a particular teacher on a particular day. Students wishing to get high marks had to reflect the teacher's bias in their essays.
    
    "While Dr Lopez did not believe the national curriculum, parts of which will be introduced next year, would make any difference, his fellow speaker at the institute, historian and author Anna Clark, said it was an opportunity to overcome some problems with history teaching.
    
    "Dr Clark said a co-ordinated approach to teaching history in the school years would avoid students repeatedly studying the same topics.
    
    "While curriculum writers were often tempted to focus less on fact, concentrating instead on teaching students historical skills and "understanding", Dr Clark said content was crucial.
    
    "I don't think you can have historical understanding without facts on the one hand and interpretation skills," she said. "You have to know the facts about the past before you can make interpretations."
    
    "Dr Clark said the history debate, which had become quite acrimonious with the intervention of former prime minister John Howard, had developed to allow for differences of opinions. This was partly because of the different approach taken by the Rudd Government and partly because of public debate surrounding a national curriculum.
    
    From in The Australian at link

 

Saturday – Sunday, 28 – 29 March

• ABC News
  
  
  • Minister defends numeracy, literacy focus [27 March]
    
    "The WA Education Minister says the Government is not trying to artificially increase scores in national testing by asking teachers to focus on specific content.
    
    "All public school students in years 3, 5 and 7 take part in the national testing held in May each year.
    
    "The State School Teachers Union says teachers are being forced to focus on certain areas which are contained in the national testing... so WA students perform well in 2009.
    
    "The Education Minister, Liz Constable, says the Government is trying to improve literacy and numeracy across the board, not just in test scores.
    
    "It's an attempt to give every child the best opportunity in terms of their literacy and numeracy and that's what our emphasis is on," she said.
    
    "The Opposition's Education spokeswoman Michelle Roberts says it is a desperate attempt by the Government to improve WA's scores.
    
    "What the Education Department should be doing is supporting those schools where there are children who are having difficulty with learning," she said.
    
    "You don't actually need the test to know where those schools are and where those kids are that need the extra assistance."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Gillard canes carping lobbyists
    by Justine Ferrari, Education write
    
    "Education Minister Julia Gillard carpeted the public education lobby yesterday for allowing a culture that accepted the underachievement of children and urged it to concentrate on implementing government reforms instead of carping about side issues.
    
    "Addressing the Public Education Forum last night, Ms Gillard reaffirmed the Government's commitment to transparent reporting of school performance despite objections from the teaching profession.
    
    "She made no apology for the Government keeping an election commitment to maintaining the flawed model of private school funding ahead of a planned review, which the public school lobby has attacked as unfair.
    
    "I would strongly counsel that now is not the time to be diverted from the relentless implementation of our current broad and deep reform agenda," she said.
    
    "Ms Gillard said 2009 must be about delivering the "mammoth and urgent" building programs for schools, implementing national partnerships to improve teacher quality, literacy and numeracy, and combating disadvantage. Teachers should work to ensure these programs "make the leap from being words on the pages of intergovernmental agreements to active reforms in the classroom".
    
    "Delivering this reform agenda involves working together to confront hard truths and overcome a status quo that has accepted the underachievement of some children for far too long," she said.
    
    "The Public Education Forum is being held by the Australian Education Union with the Australian Council of State School Organisations, Australian Government Primary Principals Association and Australian Secondary Principals Association.
    
    "International human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson will officially open the forum today.
    
    "A group of 15 associations representing teachers, principals and academics from the government, Catholic and independent school sectors wrote to all education ministers last week calling for legislation banning the compilation of league tables from school performance data.
    
    "Whilst we are appreciative of (the ministers') desire to put in place a structure and process to allow for a longitudinal analysis of school and system performance, on behalf of our students and school communities the profession requires assurances that the misuse of this data will not occur," it says.
    
    "But Ms Gillard said the Government would not resile from its commitment to transparent reporting of student and school results.
    
    "While public scrutiny might make all of us uncomfortable from time to time, so it should," she said.
    
    "We serve the public. We are accountable to the public. And we can't shield ourselves from public scrutiny. Nor should we.
    
    "The legitimacy of a publicly funded education system must flow from public confidence and trust in it, and from the extent to which it is able to demonstrate quality and improvement." [emphasis added]
    
    "Naming three public school principals who had challenged the status quo and transformed schools with disadvantaged children, Ms Gillard said their work proved "disadvantage is not destiny".
    
    "These principals have shown that massive improvements are possible in every school," she said.
    
    "That is why I am unapologetic about my commitment to a new era of transparency."
    
    "Ms Gillard said she understood concerns about the misuse of school performance data and the misleading picture that resulted from league tables of raw scores, but the nation's education ministers were working to address the issue.
    
    "They are important issues that can be dealt with, but to focus only on these issues is to miss the larger point," she said."
    
    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Learning what works
    
    Publicly ranking schools is essential to improve education
    
    "Julia Gillard had bad news for education unionists and their allies in a speech last night - schools exist to serve students, parents and the community as a whole, not apparatchiks and ideologues intent on using classrooms to protect their own interests and advance their own ideas. As Justine Ferrari reports in The Weekend Australian, the Education Minister made a case for standard performance measures comparing similar schools in different communities. Without such data, Ms Gillard said, "How can we ever be confident that we are applying the right resources and learning strategies to achieve the best results for every child?"
    
    "It's an argument everybody who believes in equality of opportunity endorses. When schools are not publicly compared, poor performers stay hidden, failing teachers keep their jobs and curricula that leave students ill-educated remain in place.
    
    "But the education establishment less dislikes than loathes the idea of publicly available tables that rank schools. Earlier this month, a collective of union and subject associations demanded Ms Gillard make them illegal. Union chiefs argue that parents would want to pull children out of poor performing schools if league tables existed. You can see their point: this would be very bad for the people in charge of bad schools. Even worse, it would mean public school parents would be able to ask hard questions. But what would be bad for education officials would be good for students and parents. If the unions want a fight over league tables, Ms Gillard should oblige - children's rights are at stake."
    
    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Police probe 190 sex claims a year
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "Teachers and staff are being investigated every second day for child abuse, including sexual assault, in WA schools.
    
    "At least 190 complaints against mainly teachers were referred to the Police Child Abuse Unit in the 18 months to December 2008.
    
    "The Education Department refused to reveal how many teachers were charged or dismissed over the allegations, claiming the information was not easily accessible.
    
    "But the department confirmed police investigated sexual assault, inappropriate physical and verbal behaviour, downloading pornography and inappropriate relationships, among others, in the 280 school days from July 1, 2007 to December 11 last year.
    
    "Rob Fry, president of peak parent group the WA Council of State School Organisations, said the figures were disturbing.
    
    "He said parents who suspected something wrong with their child should talk to school authorities, particularly if a child was fearful of a teacher or was behaving abnormally.
    
    "Mr Fry said parents should be actively involved in their school and be in constant contact with their teachers to get to know them.
    
    "If there is a bad egg in the bunch and parents are strongly involved with their school, it will become evident,'' he said.
    
    "One bad egg was one too many, even though the percentage of teachers offending was low, Mr Fry said.
    
    "At the end of the day, we're putting a lot of trust in our teachers,'' he said. "Apart from parents, they are the ones who are with the child the most and are having a significant influence on their development.''
    
    "Education Department professional standards and conduct executive director Paul O'Connor said the establishment of the Standards and Integrity Directorate in late 2006 had provided a specialist child-protection unit.
    
    "Strong working relationships have been established with agencies such as the WA Police, the Corruption and Crime Commission, the Ombudsman, the WA College of Teaching and the Department for Child Protection to facilitate better information exchanges,'' he said.
    
    "A department spokesman said the department carried out its own investigations and could penalise employees even if police did not charge them.
    
    "This was because the level of proof needed by the department was far lower than for police.
    
    "But WA State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne said while schools needed to protect children, the investigation figures were still only allegations until people were proven guilty.
    
    "She warned teachers could be easily targeted with false accusations.
    
    "Ms Gisborne said some teachers would have offended, but the vast majority of WA's 40,000 government and non-government teachers would not have.
    
    "Parents should be comforted by the fact that teachers were required to have a police clearance to work with children."
    
    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Smile at your peril
    by Phil Haberland
    
    "Recent stories tell of accountants having to double as pseudo- psychologists to dissuade clients from jumping off a cliff.
    
    "Idle stockbrokers are trying to explain to the wives of their investors why their husband's wealth has disappeared, why the superannuation fund has been halved, why the western suburbs home must be sold and why a state high school education will not really impact badly on their children's future.
    
    "Glum days, indeed.
    
    "So I thought it churlish when I heard that the Federal Government had been criticised for spending $992,000 on putting 100 staff from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and 200 teachers from government, independent and Catholic schools through a week-long workshop on the issues of happiness, positive psychology and their direct links to increased workplace productivity..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
  • Lock up killers, teach kids to drive - Road Safety Survey
    
    Drunk-drivers who kill should be charged with murder and road rules should be a mandatory subject in WA schools, say frustrated WA motorists.
    
    More details on the survey
    
    Editorial on the survey
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • State limits school student suspensions to five days
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Principals will not be allowed to suspend unruly students for more than five consecutive days, after the State Government refused to back down on plans to overhaul disciplinary procedures in schools.
    
    "Education Minister Bronwyn Pike yesterday announced new suspension and expulsion guidelines for schools, which will reduce the amount of time students can be suspended for bad behaviour.
    
    "Despite a backlash from schools, the Government will cut the amount of time students can be suspended to five consecutive days, down from the current 10. The maximum number of suspensions that can be issued each year will also be cut to 15 per student (down from 20), while principals seeking to expel a student will also be required to justify their decision with the Education Department, which will have the final say.
    
    "Principals say the changes reduce their autonomy and are a sign the Government is "going soft" on school discipline. [emphasis added]
    
    "Ms Pike said that principals would still have the power to suspend and expel, but would also have more support to find better alternatives to help keep students in school.
    
    "We can't give up on young people just because they're problematic, because if we do that then those young people lose out in life and all of the community pays the price down the track," Ms Pike said.
    
    "We have issues at the moment with young people and violence, attacks in nightclubs, binge drinking, and this is partly about promoting self-respect and respect for others among young people to counter that, starting in our schools."
    
    "The new suspension and expulsion procedures will take effect from the beginning of third term this year. By the start of next year, all schools will also be expected to develop a policy outlining expected student behaviour and the type of support offered to them."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    Personally, I think all the "little darlings" who assault teachers or dynamite the school should go spend a week with the minister!  Web
    
    
    
    
  • Study links school entry delay to poor performance
    
    Parents who delay enrolling their children into prep could run the risk of them underperforming and becoming less motivated by the time they reach high school. A new study of 3700 secondary students has found that holding back children could be more of a hindrance than a help, challenging the trend in which some parents delay school entry if they think their child is not ready.
    
    Similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald and ABC News
    
    
    
    
  • Sex-case school under investigation
    
    A country Victorian high school is being investigated by the State Government over its knowledge of horrific sexual abuse that led to a teenage student killing her stepfather... The Age revealed in January that a homicide squad detective considered the school "reluctant" to help. A teacher and former school counsellor knew of suspicions of the abuse, according to witnesses in the girl's committal hearing, but had not told police at the time. The teacher and counsellor have since given statements to police.
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Heed the message
      
      "I refer to your article on Heathdale Christian College's refusal to have a Muslim student teacher (The Age, 25/3). I am a teacher of Jewish faith who has been teaching for almost 40 years in state and Jewish schools, and Christian schools of several denominations. In every one, students met a variety of teachers, all of whom supported the prevailing religion of the school. They showed students that tolerance and understanding different religions and cultures is an important value.
      
      "In my Jewish school the literature teacher was a Catholic, which enabled students working on books with a Christian theme to gain extra insight. When students studied The Chosen by Chaim Potok, Jewish English teachers did likewise.
      
      "At Christian schools, I learnt the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus' message seems to be simple: each individual, no matter their race or religion, makes a vital contribution. It is a message the governing bodies of some Christian schools could heed."
      
      Peter Marks, Caulfield North
      
      
      
      
• The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald [online only]
  
  
  • Teach human rights: QC
    by Anna Patty
    
    "Australian students should be taught human rights as a school subject, Geoffrey Robertson, QC, says.
    
    "The human rights lawyer and former Epping Boys High School student yesterday addressed a national public education forum in Canberra where he spoke about the introduction of human rights in the British school curriculum. The 12-week citizenship course will be compulsory in all British schools from 2011 and be taught in two to three periods a week.
    
    "Mr Robertson said the departments of justice and school education had evaluated a trial of the new subject in Hampshire and found it helped energise students and improve their behaviour. It also helped improve their self-confidence. Teachers reported it had made their jobs more enjoyable.
    
    "Among the course tasks, students were asked to consider a fictional set of school rules that included statements such as "teachers may hit students at any time", "students must convert to the head teacher's religion", "teachers can go through students' bags at any time and examine their property" and "anyone who criticises the new rules will be punished".
    
    "Students were also encouraged to call talkback radio programs and write letters to the editor to develop their ability to think critically about world events.
    
    "Mr Robertson said the new course would form a solid basis for teaching students about values. He was critical of the approach former education minister, Brendan Nelson, had taken with posting value statements on school walls..."
    
    Full story in The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Teachers call for 35-hour cap on working week
    
    Teachers in England are set to renew calls for a 35-hour cap on their working week with up to 20 per cent of their timetable reserved for marking and preparation.

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This page last updated 31 March, 2009 1:00 AM