Comet Bay College and Ellenbrook Secondary College extension [Wyatt / Constable] [Seems Dr Liz has developed a Ravlich/McGowan style by not answering the question when answering the question]

Closure of the Ravensthorpe mine – support for teachers, students and parents [Mitchell / Constable]

‘No school, no welfare’ [Johnston / Constable]

Seems the WA government is waiting on the Commonwealth Government’s “Building the Education Revolution National School Pride Program” [Lenin and Mao must be smiling] before approving maintenance expenditure. [Saffioti / Constable]

Report on the Balga Works Program [Watson / Mills / Ravlich / Collier]
Well worth a look!
“The committee tried extraordinarily hard to get to the bottom of it all. As Hon Giz Watson said, we had great difficulty penetrating the walls that were put up by the Department of Education and Training and its personnel, who were at a very senior level. They were extremely obdurate in providing us with information.”

Increased competition for Training Providers [TAFE in a contestable market] [Ravlich / Collier]

TAFEWA Governance and Accountability [Ravlich and Collier go tit-for-tat as to who has visited more TAFE colleges and more often]

Ljil again has a rant about Dr Liz. Not what you would like your students to witness but she does make some relevant claims amid the rant.

Urgency Motion – The opposition accuses the government of not having a plan to deal with the effects of the economic downturn on just about everything, including education

Chance has a go at Collier for stating teachers should be paid what they want.

Cost of providing rent free accommodation to teachers in regional areas estimated at around $7 million per annum over the next 5 years.  [Well worth the cost relative to potential benefit!] [Ravlich / Collier]

School attendance trial – Cannington region.  [Hon Liz Watson asks 24 questions!] [Watson / Collier]

Edith Cowan University Museum of Childhood [Seems worth a look at the museum] [Day]

Funding for TAFE training places. Buswell comments on the ALP’s plan to combat job losses. [Ripper / Buswell]

DET central office staff to reduce by 5% over the next 12 months as part of the 3% ‘efficiency drive’ [page 8]. [Wyatt and others]

Education and the 3% efficiency issue. Many, many comments. [Wyatt and a cast of thousands!] But look for this one [page 43]:

Mr T.R. BUSWELL: That is a good question, and I thank the member for it. I can provide the following advice. First, I draw the member’s attention to page 7 of the Government Mid-year Financial Projections Statement. Under the parameter changes, the member will notice a $35 million allocation in 2008-09 for the teachers’ EBA, an election commitment. My advice from Treasury officials is that the reason it is not listed as requiring a drawdown on the Treasurer’s advance account is that it was offset against efficiency dividend savings. But, clearly, to link back to the point raised by the member for West Swan, that may not be the case if the efficiency dividends are not realised.

Ljiljanna Ravlich has a rant at Peter Collier but does ask a valid question

More on asbestos in government school buildings [monitoring and maintenance procedures] [House and others]

Sue Ellery [Labor minister in Carpenter Government] lauds the new government’s handling of education since elected. Includes Peter Collier's comments on levelling and behaviour management; not so complimentary about Ljiljanna Ravlich! Worth a look even if longwinded. [scroll down to pages 8 and 15]

Review of OBE / Curriculum Framework budgeted at only $20 000 [Talbot / Collier], but the DET Annual Report to cost $179,000 !

Incident at South Perth PS. [McGrath and others] Worth a read!

Debate on the 3% cut and poor treatment by DET to recent teacher graduates seeking a job with DET [Quirk and others]  Worth a look

More on the 3% cut. From 2001-2008, an 11% increase in teachers and a 74% increase in clerical staff in the public service [Nahah / Buswell]

Matt Benson-Lidholm Lauds Labor’s contribution to education in regional WA [Should have been a very short speech!]

Asbestos in government school buildings [House]

Peter Collier speaks on TAFEWA related legislation change  Worth a look

Curriculum Framework Review: Statement by the Education Minister

2,268 public servants employed by DET [Ripper / Constable] And who employed them over the past several years of Government, Mr Ripper?

DET spend $179 000 to produce 2007/08 annual report [Ripper / Constable] Ditto

DET leases or owns 803 motor vehicle s [Ripper / Constable] Ditto

Teachers – stress support [Roberts / Constable]

DET has 19 websites [Ripper / Constable]

John Forrest SHS – FTE staff/student ratio 2009 = 1:11.6 [Baker / Constable]