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Breaking
News: Week of 14 August 2006
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Saturday – Sunday, 19 – 20 August
- The West Australian
- Op Ed
Year 12 results need a common standard (page 16)
Academic assessment should not vary by region, Geoff Masters argues
This is a slightly edited version of the Op Ed entitled "Oh, for scores without borders" that appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday, 10 August
- Full-time kindy gets backing (page 9)
by Bethany Hiatt
"A proposal to push all four-year-olds into kindergarten five days a week has some merit, WA's peak parents association said yesterday.
"Last week, the WA Primary Principals' Association put forward a controversial plan to end the existing system of voluntary kindergarten and pre-primary attendance that would almost triple the amount of time children as young as three and a half would spend at school.
"WAPPA president Colin Pettit, who put forward the proposal as part of a submission to a State Government review of literacy and numeracy, said research showed that children had a greater chance of academic success if they took part in quality pre-school programs.
"The WA Council of State School Organisations, which represents parents and citizens groups at State schools, said the issue of a compulsory schooling age was likely to polarise opinion.
"There might be some parents who say the earlier the better and then they can get back to work," president Rob Fry said. "But then there are a lot of parents who do like to have their children at home in their early years as well."
"Mr Fry said the proposal had educational merit but Government authorities also had to consider how to fund an increase in kindergarten resources if children's contact hours were to jump from 11 hours a week to 30. "And as long as the pie is not going to be carved thinner to fund it," he said."
From The West Australian
- Podcast lectures a net gain for UWA, students (page 11)
by Bethany Hiatt
"A timetable clash has not stopped University of WA student Melanie Perkins from taking the subjects she wanted – she just alternates attendance at weekly lectures and listens to the one she missed on her iPod.
"UWA is leading the field in podcasting, in which lectures are recorded and distributed on the internet. Using UWA's Lectopia system, students can download lectures and listen to them at any time on computers, iPods or mobile phones.
"The institution's home-grown ingenuity has revolutionised the way time-poor students approach their studies, helping them juggle work, family commitments and lectures.
"Lectopia is now used in 13 Australian universities, including Murdoch and Curtin, netting about $600,000 in licensing income for UWA so far. It is poised to roll the system out to Britain and ivy-league US universities by the end of this year.
"Project director Mike Fardon, who has been working on the system since the university first started recording lectures for country students in 1999, said UWA recorded 400 lectures a week and had an average 11,000 internet hits a week.
"It updated its system earlier this year to access new podcasting technology, making iPods invaluable.
"Mr Fardon said fears that podcasting would replace lecturers had proved unfounded, with no drop in attendance since it was introduced.
"Most students worked part-time and podcasting allowed them the flexibility to catch up when they needed to.
"Ms Perkins, 19, said she listened to lectures while travelling on buses and trains between UWA and Duncraig.
"The second-year communications and commerce student said she mostly used Lectopia to revise her notes before exams.
"If I haven't understood a concept I can just go back and get it straight from the lecturer," she said."
From The West Australian at link
Story in today's Melbourne Herald Sun on using iPods in Victoria K-12 schools.
- The Australian
- Spark needed to keep kids keen on science
by Justine Ferrari
"School L science courses are designed for future scientists, alienating most students, who come to view the subject as irrelevant and unimportant."Jonathan Osborne, chairman of science education at King's College in London, will tell a conference today that the way the subject is taught in schools creates students who are poorly educated about science and ambivalent towards it.
"The conference, to be opened in Canberra today by federal Education and Science Minister Julie Bishop, is being held by the Australian Council for Educational Research to examine ways of improving science teaching and arresting the decline in science students.
"Professor Osborne says scientific knowledge is presented to students as "a body of authoritative knowledge which is to be accepted and believed".
"But this approach is flawed and harmful, limiting students' understanding of science. "It oversimplifies and misrepresents the practices and processes of science, providing an education that fails to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to understand or interpret contemporary accounts of science, scientists and their findings," he says.
"Its failure to develop any understanding of the nature of science beyond naive empiricist notions leaves the majority poorly education about science."
"Professor Osborne says science curriculums should not only teach scientific facts but also foster understanding of methods and process, awareness of the context and achievement of scientific culture, and the ability to analyse the risks and benefits of scientific developments.
"Science is one of the greatest cultural achievements of Western society, if not the greatest," hesays.
"Teaching science needs to accomplish much more than simply detailing what we know. As well as teaching what we believe to be true in science, there is a need to address why we believe it to be true."
"ACER chief executive Geoff Masters said the clear theme of the conference was the need for a radical overhaul of school science curriculum..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Teach Aboriginal history warts and all, urges Carr
by James Madden
"The true history of Aboriginal nomadic life before 1788 should be an essential part of the history syllabus in Australian schools, even if it includes "unattractive features" of indigenous existence before white settlement."Former NSW premier Bob Carr said yesterday that political correctness had resulted in much of Australian history being edited out from classroom teachings, to the detriment of students.
"We've got to be careful of any attempt to romanticise Aboriginal life before 1788," Mr Carr told ABC radio.
"History shouldn't be an uplifting civic narrative - it should have controversy, and confusion, and argument, and bloodshed."
"Mr Carr will take part this week in the Howard Government's summit on the teaching of the subject to school students..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Letters to the Editor
- For English, take Latin
"Winston Churchill would be hard pressed to learn anything about the structure of the ordinary English sentence in a secondary school English classroom today (Letters 12-13/8). Students tell me they learn much more about English in my Latin classes."
Don Barrett, Spring Hill, Qld
"As a supervisor of postgraduate university students, it is difficult to forgive those who believe that teaching English grammar and spelling is of low importance. The ability to express thoughts clearly and unambiguously in writing has largely vanished from the Australian academic landscape, despite the fact that precision in written communication is essential in many professions.
"The use of language by broadcasters and, dare I say, many journalists, encourages young people to use cliche phraseology that is frequently vague and ambiguous. Many do not even understand what "ambiguous" means.
"Education ministers in all states (no point talking to the federal one) should think carefully about how poorly their next crop of election statements and proposals will be understood. But, sadly, the consequences of poor education this year won't influence voters' comprehension for the next few elections. So I guess I'm wasting my time with this letter."
Keith Gregg, West Perth, WA
Complete Letters to the Editor of The Australian at link
- The Melbourne Age
- Families pay $143m for state school education
by Chee Chee Leung
"Victorian families will pay more than $143 million this year for their children's education at public schools, with some schools getting more than $1 million from parents."Figures obtained by The Age reveal the state's 1600-odd government schools have budgeted to collect more than $76 million in subject charges, which include voluntary contributions.
"Groups representing parents, teachers and social welfare advocates say the figures show the State Government is under-funding public education.
"They said schools in poor and rural areas had the greatest difficulty raising money from families, which compounded disadvantage across the system..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- Letter to the Editor
- Listen to those who are doing the teaching
"The people who have called the Australian history summit this week are correct about one thing: the amount of Australian history currently taught in schools is declining and this is a cause for some concern. Nevertheless, there is a major flaw in the composition of this forum: of the 23 experts invited to take part, only two or three are in a position to know for certain what is actually going on in history classes across the nation because they are practising history teachers."Many of the key players, including politicians, academics and education bureaucrats, seem to be working from a basis of preconception and myth. With little or no reference to specific courses, they have made a raft of negative generalisations about what they presume students are being taught in their history classes. The popular perception of the history classroom seems to be one full of vague, left-wing and ideologically driven courses that lack specific facts or a chronological framework, but still manage to brainwash students with an unrelenting litany of the horrors of our past — all designed to make students ashamed of who they are.
"The problem is that few of the people who are grandstanding with such confidence on this issue have actually spent time in a school history classroom. Any teacher who actually works with students, day after day, would be aware that this perception is very far from the truth. Australian history courses vary from state to state, and indeed from school to school, but an examination of the commonly taught courses would show that Australian history is still generally taught as a loosely chronological narrative with a framework of facts and dates upon which an examination of themes and issues is built. We would be doing students a great disservice if we simply filled them up with a list of uncontested dates and facts, without setting these in context and encouraging them to consider competing opinions and think about such questions as why change occurs and what consequences flow from events and actions.
"Moreover, although some facts and dates are sufficiently verifiable to be accepted as true, the reality is that much of history is contested and open to interpretation and reinterpretation in the light of new information and changing attitudes and values. Forty years ago, for example, most Australian history courses and texts began with the discovery of Australia by Captain Cook. Today's courses and texts invariably begin with an examination of the culture and lifestyle of indigenous Australians, prior to European arrival. Cook, Phillip, the squatters and explorers are still there, they have simply moved further into the book.
"If academic historians are constantly re-examining the past, then school students also deserve to be exposed to a range of explanations and evidence. This is not, as some critics have suggested, a recipe for sloppy and simplistic understandings in which any view is acceptable. Good history teachers — and there are plenty of them at work in our schools — know how to guide students in the evaluation of evidence and the development of theories. Even at junior secondary level, students are encouraged to examine primary documents and to ask such questions as who said/wrote it?, what was the intended audience? and how reliable is it?
"The inclusion in this week's summit of a significant number of practising history teachers from across all three systems and from every state would do much to ensure that the discussions that take place are grounded in reality. Only then would this meeting have a chance of being genuinely productive."
Geraldine Carrodus, Brighton
Complete Letters to the Editor of The Melbourne Age at http://www.theage.com.au/letters/
- The Northern Territory News
- Punishing parents 'will never work'
by Emma Gumbleton
"The Australian Education Union has slammed tough penalties for schools and parents to make kids stay in the classroom.
"NT Education Minister Syd Stirling has flagged steps to combat rock-bottom school attendance, such as funding cuts."His department is drafting possible punitive sanctions.
"But Mr Stirling conceded it would be a difficult task.
"Union secretary Alan Perrin said the Government should use the powers it already has to take action against parents of truant students -- before considering more unreasonable punishments.
"That's never going to work," he said.
"We're dealing with the lowest income group of people, so people who are dependent on the welfare system.
"If you fine someone for not sending their kid to school, they can't pay and people are going to be going to jail for that."
"Mr Perrin said the Government should consider an electronic database to ensure students did not fall through the net.
"He said in remote areas, families could pack up and move and their children did not get a chance to settle in at a new school.
"Every community school should have a list of schools where kids from that community will go -- and that school should then make sure it has a linkage with that school.
"We've got tremendous electronic capability to do this," Mr Perrin said."
From The Northern Territory News at link
- The Melbourne Herald Sun
- Students' details sent overseas
by Milanda Rout
"Details from thousands of literacy and numeracy tests sat by Victorian schoolchildren are being sent to China to be checked.
"Names, schools and gender on the state's AIM tests are reviewed electronically overseas before tests are marked in Victoria."More than 190,000 schoolchildren in year 3, 5 and 7 sat the compulsory tests this month.
"The exams test English and maths and compare progress against national benchmarks.
"Security was tightened around the tests after pupils were given access to questions before last year's exams.
"A Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority spokesman said the marking of AIM tests was contracted out to Pearson Assessments and Testing, a company based in Nunawading.
"He said Pearson had then subcontracted data checking to another company, which did the checking in China..."
Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
- Pupils hunt in pods
by Milanda Rout
"iPods are being handed out rather than confiscated in Victorian classrooms in a radical trial.
"Students as young as five are plugging in the trendy MP3 players to improve literacy and help study English, science and technology."The government scheme bucks the trend of schools banning the players after rising thefts and claims they were distractions in class.
"Prep to Year 12 pupils in 10 state schools are using iPods to download information podcasts from the internet, store work and keep journals..."
Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
- The Sydney Daily Telegraph
- Schools in crisis over mentally ill
Special investigation by Bruce McDougall
"Schools are reporting a flood of mentally ill children, with some as young as five displaying symptoms of extreme anxiety disorders, bizarre phobias, depression and drug-related defects."An increasing number of primary students are harming themselves or threatening to do so at school, prompting principals to say hundreds more psychologists are needed..."
Full story in The Sydney Daily Telegraph at link
- The Independent
- Universities may seek 18 'A grades' for popular courses
by Richard Garner, Education Editor
"Britain's brightest young people will need up to 18 A grades at A-level for the most popular university courses under a radical shake-up planned next year."Universities are to be allowed access to students' individual grade passes for all six of the modules that go towards a full A-level.
"The move is planned by exam boards after admissions tutors said they could not pick the best talent for popular courses such as law and medicine now so many A-level scripts were being awarded A grades..."
Full story in The Independent at link
- The Canberra Times
- Minister may face legal action by schools lobby group
by Tamara Glumac
"The Save Our Schools lobby group has accused ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr of failing to meet statutory obligations to provide parents with statements listing reasons for proposed school closures..."
Full story in The Canberra Times at link
- The Adelaide Advertiser
- Doctors urge bus belt safety
by Michael Owen
"Concerned doctors are urging parents to target school principals in the campaign for compulsory seatbelts on school buses.
"The Australian Medical Association has drafted a form letter, available on its website, that it is asking parents to send to their school to put pressure on education and transport authorities to fit bus seatbelts."It also wants schools to hire only seatbelt-equipped buses for excursions with students.
"Following a meeting of the group's Road Safety Committee late last week, the AMA, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Pedestrian Council of Australia joined forces in calling for parents, teachers and community members to "actively campaign to ensure buses used to transport children are fitted with appropriate seatbelts"...
There is even a form letter to send to your child's principal on their website.
Full story in The Adelaide Advertiser at link
- ABC News Online
- Committee reviews student visits to Canberra
"A parliamentary committee has begun a review of how to make Canberra more accessible to students."Committee chairman, federal Liberal MP Peter Lindsay, says one of the main concerns is access for primary and secondary students from rural and remote areas.
"He says at the moment most student visitors come from metropolitan or regional New South Wales..."
Full story in ABC News Online at link
- The West Australian
- Inside Cover (page 2)
Holiday pollie a lesson to all
"While his fellow pollies spent the winter escaping to warmer climes or on junkets, shadow education minister Peter Collier was traipsing through the blackboard jungle.
"The former chalkie spent a fair swag of the past six weeks checking out more than 40 schools across the State.
"Pete, who used to be head of history and politics at Scotch College, even managed a few days teaching at his old school. "It was a great opportunity to get back into the classroom before the OBE comes in and do some decent teaching," said Pete, who spent 15 of his 23-year career at Scotch.
"After some of the vitriol from the other side of the chamber it was actually quite refreshing to be called Sir again."
"The Year 12 students had plenty of questions, including the old curly one.
"They asked me how I got on with the Education Minister," Pete said.
"I said we used to get on OK, but I told them she would probably have a different view now."
"At one stage the Liberal MLC told his class that Greens MP Giz Watson was a top parliamentary performer, describing her as one of the most intelligent and articulate people he'd ever met.
"They couldn't believe that I was pouring accolades on someone from another party," Pete told IC.
"And, being Scotch kiddies, they were "astounded that the Liberals would negotiate with the Greens."
From The West Australian
- Full-time kindy bid sparks a warning (page 16)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Forcing children as young as 3 ½ into full-time kindergarten would deprive them of a real childhood and lead to developmental problems in later life, a leading child psychologist warned yesterday.
"Consulting psychologist John Cheetham was horrified at a proposal to make kindergarten and pre-primary programs compulsory and full-time, put forward by the WA Primary Principals' Association. He said that many parents would use kindergarten as de facto child-care centres because they cost less.
"He said too many children were growing up without enough time to bond with their parents, going from child care to kindy to school. "I think it's a very unfortunate trend in our society and I'm concerned about its long-term effects," he said.
"Under the WAPPA proposal, the number of hours children spend at kindergarten would nearly triple, from 11 hours a week to 30.
"A 3 ½-four-year-old has a concentration span of about 15 minutes, so a six-hour day is a long, long day," Dr Cheetham said. "They need to have rests, they need to have freedom and they don't need to be tied to a routine."
"Four-year-olds needed to develop a strong sense of security in their own family before they could be secure in the outside world. And children who did not built good family connections were more likely to develop depression in their teenage years.
"This is just cheaply funded day-care," he said. "I think a lot of people would grab at that opportunity. But whether that is in the best interest of their child is the debate."
Child-care centres charge an average of $50 a day, compared to just $60 a year – or about 30¢ a day – that public schools request in voluntary contributions for children attending kindergarten and pre-primary.
"Parents picking up children from kindergarten at Subiaco Primary School yesterday said they did not believe attendance should be compulsory or full-time.
"Allie Kakulas said people did not place enough value on the education children received from their parents. "They have that one-on-one time with you and just to send them away breaks my heart," she said. "They are so little for such a short period of time."
"Martin Liston said his son would love to attend kindergarten more than two days a week but five days would be too much."
From The West Australian
- The Australian
- School payout for boy's reading failure
by Ewin Hannan
"A mother has won a confidential payout from a top private school for failing to teach her son how to read properly."In a case that raises questions about the extent to which schools are liable for what they teach, the Melbourne mother reached a settlement with Brighton Grammar School yesterday after alleging the school breached the Trade Practices Act.
"Yvonne Meyer, who cannot discuss the confidential deal, took action against the school because she believed it had failed to deliver on its promise to address her son Jake's reading problems.
"Ms Meyer claimed Jake, now aged 13 and in a private secondary school, made it all the way to Year 5 without being able to read properly.
"Until then, he had been guessing and memorising words..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Op Ed [on the above news story]
Look-and-guess teaching not acceptable
by Kevin Donnelly
"To date, concerns about fads such as whole language and fuzzy maths have focused on government schools. But yesterday's case at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal between a parent, Yvonne Meyer, and Brighton Grammar School shows the debate about standards should also include private schools."Ms Meyer, a member of last year's federal inquiry into literacy teaching, took Brighton Grammar to the tribunal claiming the school had failed to properly identify and remedy her son's reading difficulties because of an over-emphasis on teaching the whole-language approach.
"As last year's federal evaluation of Australian primary school curriculums demonstrated, the Government-sponsored curriculum in Victoria, which schools are expected to follow, is weighted towards the whole language, or look-and-guess approach.
"Not enough attention is paid to teaching children the relationship between letters and sounds, and combinations of letters and sounds represented by phonemic awareness and phonics.
"The 2005 federal inquiry into the best way to teach children how to read concluded that the phonics approach was vitally important and that schools should evaluate their programs in the light of research proving that whole language, by itself, is insufficient in teaching children how to read.
"Meyer versus Brighton Grammar School is also significant as it raises the issue of to what extent parents and students should be able to hold schools accountable for their performance.
"With some private school fees ranging from $15,000 to $20,000 a year, it is only natural that parents expect standards to be met and for schools to structure their teaching and learning in the light of what works and what is considered the most effective practice.
"In the US, there have been a number of cases where parents have taken schools to court, arguing that they have failed in their duty as professionals.
"While such cases are extremely rare in Australia and should only be used as a last resort, yesterday's proceedings at VCAT prove that non-government schools will be under increasing public scrutiny and pressure to perform."
Kevin Donnelly is the director of Melbourne-based Education Strategies
From The Australian at link
Op Ed
Richard Allsop: The whole world must be the story
In history classes, Napoleon should rate more than Edmund Barton
"Even the most hardened summit-sceptic would have to acknowledge that the calling of this week's history summit has already produced a number of positive outcomes..."
"By its stated aim to return to the "essential facts, dates and events that every student should know", the summit has also brought in to the open those historians who actually wear their lack of knowledge of any historical facts as a badge of honour. Thus, La Trobe University history research fellow, Clare Wright, appeared in The Age patronising the "ordinary folks (who) take their knowledge claims extremely seriously". It may not have occurred to Wright, but the "ordinary folks" have actually worked out that acquiring "knowledge claims" (presumably this is academic jargon for facts) can actually be fun."Wright claims virtue for being the product of "a thoroughly post-modern education, schooled to seek and interpret a multiplicity of voices, competing narratives and diverse texts". Yet, in reality, a historian who interprets history without a grasp of the facts is akin to an architect trying to design a building without any understanding of what facts actually make the building stand up.
"Among all the positives the summit will produce, however, there is still some cause for concern. Speaking on ABC radio recently, Education Minister Julie Bishop said: "Australian history should be a critical part of the school curriculum, it should at least be a stand-alone subject, and compulsory to say Year 10. I think we should have a great deal of pride in our nation's history, and to ensure we have more informed citizens, they need to have a greater understanding of our nation's past."
"The Minister is correct that history should be a critical part of the school curriculum, but should this be solely Australian history? There is no doubt a need to address, as Gregory Melleuish has done in the paper he has prepared for the summit, the perennial complaint about Australian history that it is not interesting because it lacks the wars, violence and revolutions of other countries..."
Richard Allsop is a research fellow of the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne.
Full story in The Australian at link
- Letter to the Editor
- "On behalf of all teachers, I thank Judith Wheeldon for describing so succinctly the complex job of teaching ("It's a proposal without any merit", 12-13/8)."
Susan Cole, Ulverstone, Tas
Complete Letters to the Editor of The Australian at http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/index/0,,21223,00.html
- The Melbourne Age
- Critical mark for history summit
by David Rood
"A national summit on history teaching in schools has been criticised for not including enough history teachers and being "stacked" with academics and commentators."Melbourne University historian and meeting participant Kate Darian-Smith said the event should have a greater number of history teachers who understand the reality of the history classrooms.
"Three of the 23 participants invited to Thursday's meeting are now teaching.
"Professor Darian-Smith said that while professional historians could make a valuable contribution, "a lot of them will be talking about curriculum and teaching when they are teaching in a very different context or not teaching at all".
"The reality is the decisions of the summit need to be implemented through teachers," she said..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- The late-updating "Monday" Education Section of The Melbourne Age has 17 education-related stories – too many to abstract here. Well worth a browse.
- Op Ed
Heed history teachers, not the ideologues
This week's summit is a chance to form a new charter for history, writes Stuart McIntyre.
"Twenty-two historians, educators and friends of history will meet in Canberra on Thursday for a summit on Australian history. The declared purpose is to revive the subject in our schools, give it a secure place in the curriculum and ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn about their country's past. Few would question such objectives."But is that all? Some historians are troubled by an aphorism from ancient history. Roughly translated, it warns to beware of Canberrans bearing gifts. The summit has been convened by federal Education Minister Julie Bishop following a call by Prime Minister John Howard on Australia Day for a "root-and-branch renewal of the teaching in Australian history in our schools".
"The Prime Minister's call came in an address lauding "The Australian Achievement", and he could not resist the temptation to congratulate his Government for redefining it. Thus he rejoiced that "the divisive phoney debate about the national identity" had been "finally laid to rest", and then set out his own position in that very debate.
"His call for "a structured narrative" of Australian history to replace what he described as the present "fragmented stew of 'themes' and 'issues' " seemed to betray a belief that only one story can be told and that it should be drilled into all young Australians.
"It is therefore hardly surprising that the choice of the 22 participants has attracted considerable comment..."
Stuart Macintyre is Ernest Scott professor of history at Melbourne University.
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- Letter to the Editor
- That's accountancy, Mr Carr, not history
"Bob Carr's entry into the debate over the teaching of Australian history (The Age, 14/8) is unhelpful on two counts:
"First, it is an inaccurate characterisation of the way academics approach pre-colonial indigenous society. During my history degree studies I have not come across one historian who purports to say that Aboriginal life was peaceful and without fault. In any case, this argument comes dangerously close to Cook's Enlightenment ideas of the "happy, ignorant savage".
"Second, Carr's comments fall into the same line of argument as Professor Blainey's balance-sheet approach to writing Australian history. It is based on a simplistic presumption that we can neatly organise all our historical events into good and bad pigeonholes, and that the good pigeonhole is overflowing while the bad one gets all the attention from the postmodern elites.
"Rather, the essence of writing "good" history is to faithfully rearticulate the past, working within acknowledged limitations of today. In practice, this means engaging with the myriad of intertwining "rights" and "wrongs" with a commitment to representing the past as truthfully as we can.
"This kind of academic exercise is only hindered by confining approaches which suggest that a balance sheet can be drawn up at the end. That's accountancy, Mr Carr, not history."
Emily Millane, Box Hill North
Complete Letters to the Editor of The Melbourne Age at http://www.theage.com.au/letters/
- The New York Times
- Essay
How to Make Sure Children Are Scientifically Illiterate
by Lawrence M. Krauss
"Voters in Kansas ensured this month that noncreationist moderates will once again have a majority (6 to 4) on the state school board, keeping new standards inspired by intelligent design from taking effect.
"This is a victory for public education and sends a message nationwide about the public’s ability to see through efforts by groups like the Discovery Institute to misrepresent science in the schools. But for those of us who are interested in improving science education, any celebration should be muted..."
"The chairman of the [Kansas] school board, Dr. Steve Abrams, a veterinarian, is not merely a strict creationist. He has openly stated that he believes that God created the universe 6,500 years ago, although he was quoted in The New York Times this month as saying that his personal faith “doesn’t have anything to do with science.”“I can separate them,” he continued, adding, “My personal views of Scripture have no room in the science classroom.”
"A key concern should not be whether Dr. Abrams’s religious views have a place in the classroom, but rather how someone whose religious views require a denial of essentially all modern scientific knowledge can be chairman of a state school board.
"I have recently been criticized by some for strenuously objecting in print to what I believe are scientifically inappropriate attempts by some scientists to discredit the religious faith of others. However, the age of the earth, and the universe, is no more a matter of religious faith than is the question of whether or not the earth is flat.
"It is a matter of overwhelming scientific evidence. To maintain a belief in a 6,000-year-old earth requires a denial of essentially all the results of modern physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology and geology. It is to imply that airplanes and automobiles work by divine magic, rather than by empirically testable laws..."
Full story in The New York Times at link
- Other articles on the evolution debate in the US
The Evolution Debate: Complete Coverage (11 articles)
Did Humans Evolve? Not Us, Say Americans
- The Canberra Times
- Girls turned off by boys' own curriculum
by Elizabeth Bellamy"The content of school science curriculums was turning girls off the subject at a time when the number of students pursuing these disciplines was in freefall, education academics have warned.
"Addressing the Australian Council for Educational Research annual conference in Canberra yesterday, council research fellow Associate Professor Barry McCrae said recent international research had shown girls were more likely to hold negative attitudes about science taught in schools..."
Full story in The Canberra Times at link
- The Guardian
- Is the gold standard looking tarnished?
The usual outcry about A-levels is about to erupt. Could the critics be right? By John Crace and Rebecca Smithers
Full story in The Guardian [and several related stories] at link
- Read any great software lately?
Alan Johnson stresses the value of a good book, but schools prefer to buy computers. Chris Arnot reports
Full story in The Guardian at link
- Op Ed
Canon fodder
by Stephen Moss
It's madness to force-feed the classics to teenagers - it could put them off reading for life
Full story in The Guardian at link
- The Independent
- A-levels should be scrapped, says think-tank
by Richard Garner, Education Editor
"The Government is being urged today to execute a U-turn and scrap A-levels - by one of Tony Blair's favourite think-tanks."A paper published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) calls for the exam to be phased out and replaced by a British-style baccalaureate, to encourage more students to stay in full-time education after they reach the age of 16..."
Full story in The Independent at link
- Everything you need to know about science: A bluffer's guide
"According to the CBI, the British economy is suffering as pupils spurn science in favour of easier subjects. But it's not too late to catch up - try our refresher course..."
Full story in The Independent at link
- The Washington Post
- Wired, Aglow and Ready For Class
Backpacks Get a Makeover for the IPod Age
by Ylan Q. Mui
"The latest in wearable technology comes with built-in cellphone microphones and remote iPod controls. It is outfitted with electroluminescent piping, originally designed for military use. It might even have solar energy panels."And it is invading a school hallway near you.
"Backpacks, the quintessential back-to-school basic, are going high-tech. Retailers say the innovations are a reflection of students' increasingly digital lives: Textbooks are on CDs. Laptops are replacing dead-tree notebooks. Homework is stored in a flash drive. It was only a matter of time before the backpack got upgraded as well..." [Questions: Are lightning rods an optional extra? Do they short-out when it rains? Web]
Full story in The Washington Post at link
- Washington Post's Back to School Week
- The Melbourne Herald Sun
- Mother Goose worth a gander
by Cheryl Critchley
"Good communication is essential for children to develop strong language skills.
And what better than rhymes, songs and stories to get them started?"Taralye oral language centre for deaf children's new Parent-Child Mother Goose program uses all three.
"The free program for parents and children under two years develops communication and relationships.
"Teachers Margaret Charlton and Jenny Tuck teach parents rhymes and songs, which lead naturally to holding, touching and bouncing.
"All local children are welcome, but the program is particularly good for those with special needs.
"Mother Goose was developed in Canada to enhance parent-child relationships and the child's language skills..."
Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Squeeze on TAFE leaves skills in short supply
by Harriet Alexander, Higher Education Reporter
"TAFE students are graduating without the technological knowledge they need because the institutes are not equipped to keep up with changes in the workplace, an inquiry into the education system shows..."
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- The West Australian
- State acts on sex abuse crisis – by targeting whistleblower (page 9)
by Jessica Strutt
"A school teacher who blew the whistle on sexual abuse of children in a remote Aboriginal community has been threatened with disciplinary action over the disclosure and could be fined $5000."The Education Department has threatened high school teacher Peter Gadeke with disciplinary action because he emailed The West Australian on May 22 from a school computer about the rape of a young boy by an older boy.
"The department alleges Mr Gadeke breached Section 242 of the School Education Act by releasing information about the sexual assault, which is deemed to be confidential.
"Under the Act, Mr Gadeke, who was told of the sexual assault, faces a fine of $5000.
"The Opposition yesterday hit out at the Government over its persecution of Mr Gadeke, saying it wanted to keep the extent of sexual abuse in remote Aboriginal communities hidden from the public.
"Opposition Leader Paul Omodei said it was clear the Government was over-reacting because it had been embarrassed over its failure to tackle issues facing remote Aboriginal communities in WA. He said the public had a right to know what was going on in indigenous communities and the Government should not try and “sweep things under the carpet”."Police have charged a 12-year-old boy over a sexual assault on a nineyear-old boy in the community on April 29.
"Since The West Australian visited the community in early June and revealed the sexual abuse and cannabis problems plaguing the town, police also have charged a 13-yearold boy over a sexual assault on a seven-year-old boy on July 14.
"On June 3, The West Australian published two reports on incidents in the community, in one of which an Aboriginal spokesman said the community was being destroyed by sexual abuse and cannabis.
"Mr Gadeke was not quoted in the reports and he refused to comment yesterday.
"Public Sector Standards Commissioner Maxine Murray said public interest disclosure legislation existed to protect whistleblowers, but in order to be protected a person would have to lodge a disclosure with the appropriate authority.
"She said because Mr Gadeke had made the disclosure outside of the legislation, it would be harder for him to be protected.
"Education Department executive director human resources Alby Huts refused to comment on the matter, saying that all disciplinary matters were dealt with in confidence and it was not appropriate to discuss the circumstances of individual cases.
"In another move, Indigenous Affairs Minister Sheila McHale yesterday announced that the Department of Housing and Works was reviewing the housing needs at Jigalong after The West Australian revealed that up to 27 people were living in each house in the remote Aboriginal community." [And where is the union? Web]
From The West Australian at link
- … and then turns its guns on Opposition visits to State schools (page 9)
by Bethany Hiatt
"The State Government has demanded to know of shadow education minister Peter Collier's school visits, prompting accusations it is trying to intimidate staff from having contact with the Opposition.
"All education district directors were sent an email from the Education Department yesterday saying that staff from the office of Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich had requested the names of all schools that Mr Collier visited recently.
"Directors had to submit school names by lunchtime today but were not told why the names were required or what action would be taken if they did not comply."Unfortunately many of our public schools have not followed the correct protocol and have not notified their district director (of Mr Collier's visit)," the email said. [emphasis added]
"It referred to an article in The West Australian's Inside Cover section, which said Mr Collier had recently returned from visiting schools across the State.
"Mr Collier, who toured about 30 schools in the weeks that Parliament was not sitting, said he believed the Government was trying to intimidate State school principals."He said he was horrified to hear of the demand from Ms Ravlich's office because he had written and verbal permission from her former policy advisor Lance McMahon to approach principals directly.
"I am in no doubt that these actions will make principals extremely reluctant to welcome me into their school," he said.
"Ms Ravlich is on leave. A spokeswoman said the request to remind principals of correct protocol was made after a Labor backbencher asked whether the Minister's office was aware Mr Collier had been to schools in his electorate.
"The spokeswoman said the email was not meant to be intimidating and principals would definitely not face any disciplinary action. But she did not know why the department had requested the names of all schools that had breached protocol.
"A principal of a northern suburbs primary school said the move would intimidate school principals and was "utterly Stalinist in its execution".
"What next? An email asking principals to report if they have read Inside Cover?" he said. [emphasis added]
[So Lil "is on leave" and the only thing her department worries about is "protocol". How utterly pathetic! And we wonder what, if anything, Lilly was doing to benefit education in WA during her “6-week holiday”! Web]
- History row could cost WA millions (page 15)
by Bethany Hiatt“WA could miss out on millions of dollars in school funding if it does not agree to Federal Government plans to introduce Australian history as a separate, stand-alone subject in high school.
"Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop may consider withholding funding in the four-year funding cycle which starts in 2009 if States do not fall in line with her plan to make Australian history a critical part of the curriculum.
"WA receives $3.2 billion under the current agreement. Negotiations for the next agreement start year next year.
"The Federal Government tied the current agreement to conditions such as a requirement to include A – E gradings on school reports.
"During the recent furore over outcomes-based education, Ms Bishop said she would consider WA's refusal to slow OBE implementation when negotiating the next funding agreement. [emphasis added]
"Tomorrow, she is holding a meeting of historians and education leaders in Canberra which is expected to make recommendations on what and when students should learn Australian history.
"In WA, history is not compulsory in Years 11 and 12. Students from kindergarten to Year 10 now study history as part of society and environment."
From The West Australian
- Letters to the Editor
- "I am appalled that the WA Primary Principals' Association would even consider, never mind recommend, that pre-primary attendance should be compulsory and longer (Full-time kindy gets backing, 14/8). This is not a time when formal learning should be forced on young minds..."
"Instead of putting pre-primary children into more formal education I would insist on mothers of young children staying at home full-time until their children are at least five years old. People who say they need to work should learn to live within their means and stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. My husband and I lived very basically and went without things until our three children were in their teens and we could afford to move to our present address. It seems this generation is incapable of doing this."
Faye Blythe, Dalkeith
- "I am the mother of a three-month-old daughter and it was with horror that I read your report about the proposal for full-time kindy for four-year-olds. Was the WA Primary Principals' Association research conducted on children who were in full-time education and did it take into account the social effect of taking children away from their parents for such an extended period? I consider this proposal to be a vote of no confidence in parents."
Belinda Kennedy, Mandurah
- "I think someone is missing the point when it comes to the growing illiteracy among our young people. The answer is not to send them to school practically before they are out of nappies but to facilitate a parent being able to be at home for them until they are emotionally old enough to attend school and when they return from school at the end of the day. The important time of the day in any child's learning phase is reinforcing what they have learnt at school with a parent..."
"The formative years are so important. Why are we not learning the bitter lessons from the difficulties being experienced by this generation of young people? They are being left to fend for themselves at far too young an age. More schooling is not the answer – the answer is knowing you are loved and cared for and giving parents the time and financial freedom to express this."
Caroline Rushforth, Ellenbrook
Complete Letters to the Editor in The West Australian
- The Australian
- Private schools to curtail promises
by Ewin Hannan and Justine Ferrari
"Principals of independent schools have declared that no school can promise to teach every child to read, as lawyers warned that a landmark court case would send "alarm bells" through the private education system."Principals said the case - in which a mother won a payout from a private school for failing to teach her son to read properly - would force independent schools to wind back their marketing to avoid being sued by unhappy parents.
"The Australian revealed yesterday that Melbourne mother Yvonne Meyer received a confidential payout from Brighton Grammar School after alleging the school breached the Trade Practices Act.
"Ms Meyer, who claimed the school failed to deliver on its promise to address her son's reading problems, said yesterday that schools should be held accountable.
"I would like parents to know that if they think there is a problem they're probably right and they can do something about it," she told The Australian.
"But Leonie Trimper, president of the Australian Primary Principals Association, which represents the heads of government and non-government schools, said no school could promise to teach every student to read..."
"Lawyer Michael Magazanik from law firm Slater & Gordon said the legal settlement should concern private schools..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- The Australian's Higher Education Supplement online has 13 articles today, including these two:
- $237,000 uni course as degrees keep up with mortgages
by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
"Students will be charged the same as an average home mortgage - $220,000 - to secure full-fee degrees at several universities from next year."University of NSW vice-chancellor Fred Hilmer said yesterday the fees were fair, even though students will pay up to $237,000 for a combined bachelor of arts and medicine.
"Is it worth that much? It clearly is because some people are prepared to pay it," he told The Australian last night.
"The figures are revealed in the 2007 edition of the Good Universities Guide, which confirms that UNSW, the University of Melbourne and Bond University will charge more than $200,000 for medicine degrees.
"Despite John Howard's 1999 pledge that "there will be no $100,000 degrees under this Government", over 100 degrees now cost more than $100,000. .."
Full story in The Australian's Higher Education Supplement at link
Similar story in The Melbourne Age
Similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald
Also similar stories in other daily newspapers.
- Ethics draft provokes anger
by Bernard Lane
"Australia's most ambitious attempt to regulate research ethics has been sharply criticised by medical scientists as a flawed exercise in micromanagement and a potential health hazard."Researchers took particular offence at a reference in the draft national ethics code to Nazi scientific experiments in concentration camps.
"It would be equivalent to discussing the benefits of electricity and talking only about the electric chair," molecular geneticist Bob Williamson said, speaking on behalf of the Australian Academy of Science.
"Other scientists agreed, saying the draft National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research failed to strike the right balance between the tremendous social good of medical research and often overstated concerns about privacy, consent and risk..."
Full story in The Australian's Higher Education Supplement at link
- The Melbourne Age
- Litigation warning as private school settles complaint over child's literacy
by David Rood and Chee Chee Leung
"A settlement between a leading Melbourne private school and a parent who said her child had not been taught to read properly could result in increased litigation between parents and schools, a principals group has warned."Brighton Grammar School reportedly reached a confidential settlement this week with a parent who was unhappy with her child's literacy level.
"Yvonne Meyer won the settlement after taking the school, whose annual fees reach more than $17,000 in the secondary years, to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal..."
"The president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, Andrew Blair, said there was a strong possibility the case could lead to an increase in litigation between parents and schools, including those in the government system."The government sector is not immune. People can argue their taxpayer dollars are being used to provide education in this state and they want quality and guarantees from it," he said. "Just because you don't pay the level of fees (of private schools) does not mean you are not entitled to quality assurance."
"The Education Department said it could not comment.
"The Australian Education Union's Victorian president, Mary Bluett, said schools could become wary about claims in their promotional materials.
"The Association of Independent Schools Victoria said while parents had a reasonable right to expect schools to provide a good education, education was a partnership between the school, parent and child..."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link – Also similar stories in other daily newspapers.
- ABC News Online
- Graduate salaries higher in Qld, WA
"The latest rankings of Australia's universities show the salaries of graduates in Queensland and Western Australia are overtaking those in New South Wales."The Good Universities Guide ranks higher education providers on a number of factors.
"When it comes to getting a job and getting paid well, New South Wales has been the leader for years.
"But the guide's Richard Evered says that is now shifting.
"The top 16 places in the country are no longer held by the New South Wales institutions," he said.
"Mr Evered thinks it is a sign the New South Wales economy is slowing.
"The increased salaries for graduates in Queensland and Western Australia are mainly because of the resources boom.
"The guide has also shown that, on average, entry marks for universities have dropped by an average three or four points across the country..."
Full story in ABC News Online at link
- USA Today
- 3 states prepare for rules requiring more classroom spending
"... Texas is one of three states that will soon require schools to spend at least 65% of their budgets on direct classroom costs such as teachers and textbooks. Several other states also are moving toward adopting the measure. The idea was to spend more money on children without raising taxes..."
"Internet retail millionaire Patrick Byrne, founder of the political group First Class Education, kickstarted the movement and wants the so-called "65 percent solution" to be implemented in all 50 states by the end of 2008.It's now required in Georgia, and Louisiana school officials are working on a similar requirement. Petition drives and television ad campaigns have led to ballot referendums this November in Colorado and Oklahoma. Efforts for 2008 ballot referenda are underway in Washington, Arizona, Missouri and Kansas.
"Instructional materials such as laptops and field trips are considered classroom costs under the most widely accepted definition. Transportation, counselors and nurses are not."It's simply criminal that superintendents are making well above $200,000-a-year, driving Lexuses and BMWs, when teachers are paying for pencils and paper out of their own pockets," said Tim Mooney, spokesman for First Class Education..."
Full story in USA Today at link
- The Adelaide Advertiser
- New buses yes - current buses no
by Michael Owen, Xanthe Kleing and Anna Vlach
"The State Government has refused to fit seatbelts to existing school buses, but will spend $220,000 a year to fit all new buses with seatbelts.
"At the current average of 11 new buses a year, it will take the Government about 30 years to replace its fleet of 300 buses not fitted with seatbelts."Seatbelt safety on a further 300 privately-owned buses will be addressed "as their contracts come up for renewal"...
Full story in The Adelaide Advertiser at link
Editorial
School bus rule just not enough
"At first glance, yesterday's announcement by the State Government that all new school buses will be fitted with seatbelts was reassuring.
"After days of procrastination, it seemed the Government was finally listening to sensible, conservative groups like the Australian Medical Association and school principals and acting to improve the safety of children on school buses."But the reality is the announcement by Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith was little more than a political pea-and-thimble trick..."
Full editorial in The Adelaide Advertiser at link
- New York Radio Station 1010 WINS [15 August their time]
- NJ Education Dept. Releasing Teacher Report
"TRENTON, N.J. -- Education Department officials in New Jersey Tuesday are slated to release results of a survey on the percentage of teachers who are considered highly qualified."Those teachers must have a bachelor's degree, a certificate and documentation of expertise in each subject taught.
"The report is required under the federal No Child Left Behind act.
"States were supposed to have 100 percent of core classes taught by highly qualified teachers by this fall. However, the federal government gave them an extension."
From New York Radio Station 1010 WINS at link
Two "Off-beat" stories from the U S of A
[look for this colour and font for future off-beat stories on quiet news days...]
- The Caledonian-Record, St. Johnsbury, Vermont USA [15 August their time]
- Cut Education Spending To Solve Property Tax Increases
by Jeanne Miles
"The spiraling property tax rates are caused by overspending on education..."
"Vermont has the third highest level of spending for education in the country, Pelham said, with an annual budget of $1.2 billion. That is 36 percent above the national average."The ratio of students per teacher is 10.9 to 1. The national average is 15.7 students per teacher, Pelham said. Between 1997 and 2006, the number of students has decreased by 9 percent, yet the number of teachers has increased by 8 percent..."
Full story in The Caledonian-Record at link
- WKYC-TV, Cleveland, Ohio USA
- School district changes sex education policy [15 August their time]
Associated Press
"CANTON, OHIO -- The Canton Board of Education says abstinence isn't working.
"So, the board has voted to expand sex education following the revelation that 13 percent of Timken High School's female students were pregnant last year."The new program promotes abstinence but also will teach students who decide to have sex how to do so responsibly."
Full story at WKYC-TV at link
- The West Australian
- Editorial
Premier should ban oppressive bully tactics (page 20)"The Carpenter Government is showing disturbing signs of increasing authoritarianism, if not oppressiveness. It seems to have developed a mind-set directed at penalising or suppressing people who draw attention to issues that might cause it political embarrassment or discomfort – rather than fixing the problems thus identified.
"For example, a teacher has been threatened with disciplinary action and could be fined $5000 for blowing the whistle on sexual abuse of children in an Aboriginal community. The threat came from the Education Department after the teacher sent an email to this newspaper from a school computer about the rape of a boy by an older boy. Police have laid charges over sexual assaults in the community.
"Clearly, the overriding issue for all right-thinking people was that children were in jeopardy in that community. Disclosure of conditions there was self-evidently in the public interest – if public attention is drawn to a problem of public policy, it is more likely to be fixed. This is a political reality.
"It is a reasonable community expectation that the department's first concern would be for the wellbeing of children in its schools. However, by pursuing the whistleblower, the bureaucrats in the department imply that his action was wrong – even though its effect was to draw attention to the need for improved protection of children – and that he deserves to be punished for it.
"The effect of this kind of bullying is to intimidate others who might speak out on behalf of children. Of course, the Government has been under pressure for its tardy and less than wholehearted response to disclosures of deplorable conditions in some Aboriginal communities where neglect and abuse of children are endemic. But what sort of haywire official thinking puts the comfort of politicians ahead of the welfare of children?
"Of course, this department showed itself for the bullying bureaucracy that it is when it threatened to penalise teachers who criticised outcomes-based education. Its actions denied the public interest in open and informed discussion of proposed changes in education.
"Intimidation was again evident in the efforts made to track shadow education minister Peter Collier's school visits. An email sent from the department on this is likely to make principals wary of agreeing to Mr Collier visiting their schools.
"The Opposition has been criticised for being lax. But when Mr Collier shows diligence in doing the job he should be doing for our democracy, the Government wants to put impediments in his way.
"Alan Carpenter should not countenance this kind of intimidatory and oppressive behaviour in the name of his Government. The Premier, of all people, should know better."
[And all 3 examples are from the Department of Education and Training. Web]
From The West Australian
- Op Ed
Integrity disappears fast under Carpenter (page 21)
by Robert Taylor, Inside State
"The Carpenter Government's dismissal this week of serious questions raised by public service watchdog Maxine Murray about top-level recruitment in the public sector displayed worrying signs that Labor was starting to suffer from integrity fatigue..."
Full story in The West Australian
- Catholic pupils to have faith exams (page 9)
by Bethany Hiatt
Knowledge of Bible to get same status as maths and reading as Catholic Schools overhaul religious education
"All children at Catholic schools will have to sit compulsory exams to test their religious knowledge in a bid to give religion the same status as mathematics and reading.
"The Catholic Education Office is overhauling its religious education curriculum to dovetail with the introduction of the new outcomes-based education course Religion and Life that Year 11 students start in 2008..." [emphasis added]
"All Year 7 children in the Perth Archdiocese – which stretches as far as Kalgoorlie – sat their first Bishop's Religious Literacy Assessment last week.
"Next year, Year 9 students will sit the test, which will be phased into Years 5 and 3 after that.
"Eventually, all the State's 66,000 Catholic school students will have to sit a religious literacy test four times during their education if they attend Catholic school from Years 1 to 12.
"Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard said the test was designed to mirror the WA Literacy and Numeracy Assessments (WALNA) that students sit in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
"The Year 7 test included multiple choice questions on topics such as the Bible, Jesus Christ, Church history, liturgy and sacrament, religious prayer and practice.
"Students in Catholic schools are expected to spend the same amount of time on religious education as they do on other subjects.
"We want to be quite clear that the religious education component is a knowledge component that we want all children to know, just like we would want them to know geography or their reading, writing and maths," Mr Dullard said. "We are trying to say this is a subject just like any other subject."
"Mr Dullard said the push for tests came from Archbishop Barry Hickey about a year ago.
"He was keen to have students knowing core facts about the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion," he said. "All of this is good preparation for what will be a course of study in 2008."
"The intention is that it will be compulsory for all Year 11 and 12 students. And some of them will do it at a level where the marks will count for tertiary entrance." [emphasis added]
Mr Dullard believe WA was the only State to link religion tests to the WALNA tests."
Examples of multiple choice questions from the "Bishop's Religious Literacy Assessment"
Full story in The West Australian
- Bishop palns history renaissance (page 11)
by Rhianna King, Canberra
"A crowded curriculum which "mushed up" history studies with other subjects was failing WA students, Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said yesterday as part of her campaign to make history compulsory in high school..."
"She wanted to encourage a national roll-out of NSW's curriculum, which teaches compulsory history in Years 9 and 10. [emphasis added]
"In WA, students in Year 8-10 learn history through the Time, Continuity and Change outcome, but Ms Bishop said that led to a crowded curriculum.
"We should seriously question the experiment of mushing up history in Studies of Society and the Environment. There is a growing body f evidence that this is failing our children," she said. "History is not social justice awareness week. Or conscious-raising about ecological sustainability. History is history and shouldn't be a political science course by another name..." [emphasis added]
"Labor Leader Kim Beazley said the Federal Government should be more concerned about promoting trades subjects in schools, to address the skills shortage."
Full story in The West Australian
Other similar stories on this issue, from The Australian, The Melbourne Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, provided below.
- Students offered sign-on bonuses (front page)
by Kim MacDonald
"The skills crisis driven by WA's boom is forcing desperate firms to scour high schools for talent and offer university students sign-on bonuses worth thousands of dollars if they promise to work for them when they graduate.
"Accounting firm Ernst & Young is about to give 30 second-year university students a cheque for $2000 each which they can cash if they promise to join the company’s graduate program in 2008."Spokesman Stuart McLean said the strategy to entice the State’s top students was gaining popularity. Accounting firm Deloittes said it gave the bonuses to graduates selectively. RSM Cameron spokesman Geoff Peate said the labour market was so tight that the accounting firm was forced to start recruitment drives at high schools, with pleas to country students to consider a career at one of their regional offices if they graduated as accountants.
“Generation Y graduates are very different. They graduate with up to five or six job offers and they end up interviewing the employers,” said Mr Peate, also a spokesman for the Australian Human Resources Institute. Incentives for graduate engineers were more generous and were usually paid when employment began, according to the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers.
"Mercer HR Consulting recently offered an engineering and science graduate a $7000 sign-on bonus. Orica Australia offered an engineering and mining graduate a $3000 commencement bonus.
"Clough Engineering gave $5000 scholarships to seven final-year students on the condition they took up full time jobs at the company when they finished their degrees.
"UWA Young Engineers chairman Linh Le said students were aware of how much times had changed. “I know people who are getting job offers left, right and centre. Perhaps five years ago that would not have been the case, because back then, if you got an offer, you’d hold on to it,” Mr Le said.
"Associate professor at the University of WA, Richard Durham, said the skills shortage was so dire that salary packages for some graduates were as high as $110,000. Most students had secure employment offers before they finished studying.
"Recruitment firm Talent2 said sign-on bonuses for established engineers were as much as $20,000. “Basically the demography is such that there are not enough graduates to go around, and this is what employers are doing to stand out in the crowd,” spokeswoman Sharon Parcell said.
"There is an estimated 18 per cent vacancy rate in the 20,000-strong engineering sector in WA and a 10 to 15 per cent vacancy rate in accounting.
"Curtin students Daniel Fingland, 19, and Tim Whyte, 20, said job offers gave them peace of mind. While both would have taken the jobs without the cash incentive, they felt the bonus could be the deciding factor for those with several offers."
From The West Australian at link
- Letter to the Editor (page 22)
- "The WA Primary Principals' Association push for full-time compulsory kindergarten and pre-primary school is an excellent proposal. Research shows that the earlier children get quality education the better they will perform academically and socially.
"Edith Cowan University academic Carmel Maloney's objections are ludicrous. Why would teachers shift to more didactic teaching and away from play-based exploratory programs merely because pre-Year 1 education becomes compulsory? This denigrates the professionalism of dedicated teachers.
"My job takes me into daily contact with early childhood teachers and their students. These teachers are putting into practice the spirit of the Curriculum Framework, which stresses the importance of play and exploration for this age group, and their students are happy, stimulated and eager to learn.
"Ms Maloney says that parents should be able to choose whether their children attend. Why? If we carried this to its logical conclusion, parents would be able to choose whether their children went to school at any age. Often the children who most need early intervention either do not attend regularly or are not enrolled at all.
"Kindergarten-age children are quite capable of managing a 30-hour week, so long as they have a rest in the middle of the day. Actual teaching time would be only about 20 hours under this proposal, quite modest when much younger children can spend up to 50 hours a week in child care."
Alec Duncan, Glendalough
Full Letters to the Editor in The West Australian
- School bus belt plan in tatters (page 4)
by Graham Mason
"The State Government’s plan to retrofit school buses with seat belts by 2010 is in tatters, with a senior public transport official telling an industry group last week that they wanted to push the program back five years. That delay will mean that some school children may not travel in a seatbelt-fitted orange school bus until 2015.
"The West Australian understands that a senior Public Transport Authority official told a bus safety management meeting in Margaret River last week that the retrofit program was unlikely to be completed before 2015.
"Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan said she was seeking information about what was said at that meeting.
"A State Government tender earlier this year calling for expressions of interest from companies interested in retrofitting buses drew five submissions — none of which were successful — and was officially declined on June 30.
"Ms MacTiernan said the previous tenders were insufficiently detailed for the PTA to be able to assess them.
“Within the next six weeks, we will be reletting tenders and will provide more precise detail about our requirements,” she said.
"But Ms MacTiernan could not say when any retrofit program would be completed.
“I want to have a retrofit program underway this year and completed within the next few years,” she said.
"Lloyd Shepherdson, chairman of the school bus division of the Transport Forum and owner-operator of 12 school buses, said the solution should be to bring forward the bus replacement program.
"Currently contractors have to replace their orange school buses every 15 years.
“The PTA are trying to push back the retrofit program from five years to 10 years,” Mr Shepherdson said. “It means some buses might be retrofitted with seatbelts near the end of their 15-year life and that doesn’t make much sense.”
"Opposition planning and infrastructure spokesman Simon O’Brien said the Government had not done its homework and was paying the price for a knee-jerk policy.
"Industry sources estimate that the cost to retrofit a 57-seat school bus with seat belts ranged from $40,000 to $80,000 depending on the type of bus and whether reinforcement of the chassis, floor or walls was needed.
"In October when former premier Geoff Gallop announced that seatbelts would be introduced on all school buses, in the wake of students from the Mandurah Baptist College being involved in a bus rollover, the cost was estimated at $50 million. But in the Government’s mid-year budget review last December, the price blew out to $87 million."
From The West Australian at link
Similar story at ABC News Online
- The Australian
- Restore subject or funding is history
by Imre Salusinszky
"State governments will be under pressure to reinstate history as a compulsory separate subject in schools or risk losing nearly $13 billion in federal funding as a summit of experts meet in Canberra today."But in launching the history summit last night, federal Education Minister Julie Bishop told the 23 participants she was not in favour of "creating some form of an official" history.
"We start, however, with a strong view that Australian history should be a compulsory stand-alone subject during some period of high school," she said.
"The history summit, which was flagged by The Australian last month, has been convened by Ms Bishop in response to John Howard's call in January for a "root and branch renewal" of the teaching of Australian history.
"Debate is healthy, but too often in the past decade the extremes in the history debate obscured the sensible centre and left others - not the least our children - to simply switch off," Ms Bishop said.
"But let me assure everyone that we are not in the business of producing some form of official history."
"The Government is worried that school students are losing any sense of Australian or world history as a result of the rise of cross-disciplinary subjects with titles such as Study of Society and its Environment.
"The Prime Minister and Ms Bishop want compulsory history subjects taught from kindergarten to Year 10, with Australian history the focus of Years 9 and 10..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Editorial
The past is prologue
Australian history should not be taught as tragedy or farce
"Addressing the dinner opening today's Australian History Summit last night, federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said: "History is not peace studies. History is not social justice awareness week. Or consciousness-raising about ecological sustainability. History is history." She is exactly right. Yet for too long Australian history, when it is taught at all, has been used as an excuse to indoctrinate students in politically correct fads rather than give them a solid grounding in the factual and narrative history of their nation. In many states, Australian history is taught as part of something called Studies of Society and the Environment. In the ACT, "gender equity" is a key "curriculum component" informing what the territory's educators call the study of "time, continuity and change". Most other jurisdictions are no better, replacing history with outcomes-based education gobbledegook. The end result is students turned off by history who graduate without any concrete sense of how Australia became the nation it is today. The only exception is NSW, where, thanks to former premier Bob Carr, history is taught as a discrete subject in secondary schools by teachers who have actually studied the stuff. In bringing together a raft of historians and thinkers in Sydney today to discuss the teaching of history, the Howard Government is sending a clear message: our history matters, has been ignored for too long and deserves to be taught as a stand-alone subject to every Australian child..."
Full editorial in The Australian at link [Scroll down a bit.]
Cut & paste
If we forget our nation's past, we will fail our future
Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop, at the history summit last night, on the importance of teaching the discipline.
"Last year Roy Eccleston, a journalist at The Australian, returned home after four years ... in the US. There his young son learned the basics about important Americans in first grade: from George Washington to Martin Luther King. His daughter's fourth-grade history book traced the national story from Native Americans through the Revolutionary War and onwards."Since returning to Australia, Eccleston's children have looked at how their suburb has changed over time. They've done some work on a family tree. But, as Roy lamented earlier this year on the opinion page, "a structured, consistent study of the nation's history" was nowhere to be found. When he expressed his concerns to the local school principal, he was told not to worry. His children wouldn't be alone in their ignorance..."
Text of Julie Bishop's speech in The Australian at link
- Call to attract more maths, science students
by Jeremy Roberts
"Unless South Australia's review of the secondary school curriculum produces more science and maths students, universities will be forced to lengthen courses or drop subjects."University of South Australia Pro-Vice Chancellor Peter Lee said yesterday the measures would be necessary if the review did not turn around the current shortage of students.
"Students are not studying maths and science at the same rate as they did 10 or 20 years ago," Professor Lee said. "We would have to ... lengthen the degrees by adding another year or take away extra options and fill it up with stuff they haven't done in high school."
"But he said the review was in its early stages a
