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The
Top Education News Stories from 2009
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Daily news updating concluded on 26 April 2009 Of particular note from 2009: [There
is] an unwillingness among education bosses to take notice of people
who do the job of teaching and arrive at their conclusions through experience,
not social theorising. The
proposed national science curriculum risks sending science education
backwards, with the nation's deans warning the course is beyond the
skills of most teachers and fails to provide a grounding in "real science". Independent
expert review of the Curriculum Framework There
has already been too much experimentation with education rather than
a concentration on the basics, as shown by the flawed piece of social
engineering that comprises outcomes-based education.... [Having abolished
levelling] The Government should now act on its election pledge and
deliver an independent audit of the OBE framework so another system
can be put in place. At
last, common sense has prevailed and the discredited system of levels
used to assess students’ achievements is to be abolished...
There is now reason to hope that the department will abandon its fanciful
theories about education and direct its attention to its job of meeting
the practical needs of students, teachers and parents. Levelling
Abolished The anecdotal evidence is that classroom teachers battle to get civil responses to their queries of an authoritarian Education Department and that many are put through the anguish of protracted uncertainty in the annual allocation of teaching jobs. The Education Department has agreed to refrain from disciplining two WA teachers who refuse to write end-of-term school reports and say they've been bullied. Australia should consider developing a national certificate to replace the VCE and other state-based secondary school qualifications, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says. Teachers are being threatened wit the sack for refusing to write school reports and the issue threatens to turn into strike action. Teacher and parent groups fear moves to publish numeracy and literacy exam results will turn classrooms into “test preparation factories”, with the emphasis moving from educating students to beating other schools. There is plenty of evidence of many homes routinely defaulting on the education alliance. Schools are used to being blamed for society’s ills and having their curriculums loaded with courses ostensibly designed to overcome them – and then being accused of not paying enough attention to the basic skills. Surely, the time had come for society to focus on its rightful expectation of parents. From violent parents to excessive homework, from unruly pupils to the plight of special needs children, teachers will this week switch their focus from traditional concerns of pay and conditions to the state of teaching in UK classrooms. Up to 600 teachers in WA could lose their jobs next year when the number of students in Year 8 nearly halves, the teachers’ union says. [There is] an unwillingness among education bosses to take notice of people who do the job of teaching and arrive at their conclusions through experience, not social theorising. Primary school principals have condemned the national science curriculum for failing to focus on scientific knowledge and skills, describing its low expectations of primary teachers and students as insulting. The focus of education shifted from acquiring knowledge to socially engineering citizens. Dogmatists never let the evidence get in the way of ideology, and they don't come much more dogmatic than critics of NSW Education Minister Verity Firth. Literacy teachers are planning a subliminal campaign to undermine phonics as an approach to teaching reading by subconsciously linking it with the idea of failure. The proposed national science curriculum risks sending science education backwards, with the nation's deans warning the course is beyond the skills of most teachers and fails to provide a grounding in "real science". Students must not be sold short on traditional disciplines. Independent expert review of the Curriculum Framework Levelling has been denounced by people with far greater understanding of assessment than Mr Detiuk. Levelling has been abhorred by most teachers, parents and students. WA children are starting school without knowledge of basic words, according to Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan and Education Minister Liz Constable. There has already been too much experimentation with education rather than a concentration on the basics, as shown by the flawed piece of social engineering that comprises outcomes-based education.... [Having abolished levelling] The Government should now act on its election pledge and deliver an independent audit of the OBE framework so another system can be put in place. Advanced mathematics is disappearing from public school classrooms, leaving students able to learn only basic maths, because the few qualified teachers are being snapped up by the private sector. There are unmistakable signs that classroom teachers are fed up with what many of them call “edspeak”, the stilted, jargon-ridden language they are obliged to endure from the education bureaucracy. Graffiti, text messages, beer can labels [and perhaps toenail cuttings?] are more important than Shakespeare, says the Australian Association for the Teaching of English in a submission to the National Curriculum Board. At last, common sense has prevailed and the discredited system of levels used to assess students’ achievements is to be abolished... There is now reason to hope that the department will abandon its fanciful theories about education and direct its attention to its job of meeting the practical needs of students, teachers and parents. An education lobby group says a decision to scrap a key component of Outcomes Based Education will restore credibility to Western Australia's education system. Levelling Abolished Unless the curriculum is rewritten to reflect maths' fun and beauty, its future is doomed... The simple fact is, many of those responsible for mathematics education do not know sufficient mathematics to do the job. The anecdotal evidence is that classroom teachers battle to get civil responses to their queries of an authoritarian Education Department and that many are put through the anguish of protracted uncertainty in the annual allocation of teaching jobs. Australian school children are coming out of schools not knowing that doing a calculation with pencil and paper is the way to learn mathematics... As a mathematician and a parent, I do not understand why Australians must tolerate an education system that is inferior to that in America or Britain. There are too many fads, fashions and ideologies in education - postmodernist claptrap, things like learning styles and categorising students in various ways Practitioners of the ancient art of teaching that roll their eyes as they sarcastically mention the term Silver City and imply that perhaps this government department is filled with bureaucrats who are cut off from the realities of grassroots school administration and the challenges that are daily faced at the classroom coalface. Every school in the country will get up to $200,000 from the Rudd Government to fix classrooms, libraries, gyms, toilets and tuck shops. Building the Education Revolution:
New and upgraded buildings in every Australian school Levels are an abomination. If a similar system had been introduced in medicine or engineering, people would be dying and buildings falling over. A new school year gives Dr Constable the chance to assert her influence. She should start by fulfilling the Government's promise to abandon levels as a method of reporting. The debate over levels has been characterised a sold dinosaur teachers resisting change. In reality its a clash between those who rely on anecdotal, subjective judgments and those who prefer objective, empirical data. This ridiculous clinging to the "levels" is evidence that authority and planning has been in the hands of a powerful and deluded minority who will never admit that the OBE and CoS experiment is a disaster. More Letters on DET: The Uncaring Employer How much does Australia value education? The short answer is less than almost any comparable nation Spending on Australian public school buildings and equipment is about $1000 a student less than it is in Britain and the US, and an extra $2.2 billion a year would have to be spent to start closing the gap. Nearly four months after coming to power the State Government has not followed through on assurances made before and after the election that is would abolish the contentious “levels” at the heart of outcomes-based education assessment. National Curriculum Board head Barry McGaw will spearhead an international project to devise a new method for assessing school students, measuring the skills they possess rather than their ability to memorise facts. [WA Nationals leader Brendon] Grylls said about $600 million from the Royalties for Regions scheme had already been allocated to provide better housing for regional employees. A large part of that money would be spent on housing for country teachers. The first point to be made about Rudd's revolution is that while the rhetoric sounds good employing, as it does, conservative slogans such as accountability, academic rigour, school choice and back to basics implementation has failed. |
This page last updated 29 April, 2009 0:56 AM
