Monday 19 February

Tuesday 20 February

Wednesday 21 February

Thursday 22 February

Friday 23 February

Saturday – Sunday, 24 – 25 February

 

Monday 19 February

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Principals query Minister's three Rs rules for teachers (page 14)
    by Anne Buggins
    
    "Primary school principals have questioned a State Government plan to compel teachers to spend at least half their time on basic literacy and numeracy, saying it is already being applied in classrooms.

    "The plan, outlined by Education Minister Mark McGowan and to be formalised later this year, would see teachers spending a minimum 50 per cent of their teaching hours on the three Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic. There is now no formal requirement which stipulates how much time these subjects should take up.

    "Yesterday, WA Primary Principals Association president Colin Pettit said he was not opposed to the idea but believed it would not make much difference because it was already happening.

    "He said a recent Federally funded study of resources across all primary school sectors - government, Catholic and independent - found that most primary schools, including those in WA, devoted more than 50 per cent of their time to teaching literacy and numeracy.

    "What we would really like to see is that the time allocated is allocated to quality programs supported by resources so that schools can achieve that," he said.

    "If we are going to have mandated programs they need to be well supported financially and teachers need to have the right training."

    "Mr McGowan said: "If you don't get literacy and numeracy when you are at primary school, it puts you at a disadvantage for the rest of your life."

    "I'm happy that principals are saying that most teachers are doing it. What I want to do is make sure all teachers are doing it."

    "Mr McGowan said that the 50 per cent rule would apply to all students but teaching would be modified to suit the needs of students.

    "A northern suburbs school principal said Mr McGowan had taken a simplistic stand on a complex issue but debate was welcome in the face of opposition from many early childhood specialists.

    "He said parents and teachers were looking for clear direction and realistic targets on literacy and numeracy, rather than an unstructured approach.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said people would say they were already doing it but the literacy results suggested it was not being done adequately.

    "We do need to make sure teachers are provided with comprehensive and specific tasks and exercises which are generated toward improving the literacy and numeracy standards of our students," he said."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Howard brings his Cabinet to WA with fistful of dollars for schools (page 6)
    by Ben Ruse
    
    "John Howard will use his visit to Perth today to announce an extra $181 million for improving schools..."
    
    "The Federal Government is at odds with the State Government over education, with Mr Howard having described some courses taught in WA as sludge..."
    
    "He will bring his entire Cabinet to Perth for a meeting, a rare event which shows the importance of WA in his re-election bid, and is expected to make several other funding announcements..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    See similar stories from The Australian and at Nine MSN for more details
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor (pages 18-19)
    
    
    • Another Letter on pre-kindy, plus:
      
      "Well done, Jessica Strutt, for encapsulating so precisely what many of us feel about the Premier (Sneering Premier carps on regardless, 15/2). When he took over as Premier, we thought we might have a man more sympathetic to the needs of the governed rather than the Government. We had hoped, as an ex-journalist, he would resist the spin and deception that had become endemic. How wrong we were."

      Ann Ousey, Two Rocks
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • Plan to wipe out HECS for teachers
    by Gary Hughes
    
    "HECS debts for graduates taking up teaching should be progressively wiped out as a way of lifting standards, solving teacher shortages and improving literacy and numeracy levels in schools.
    
    "Victorian Premier Steve Bracks will make this call today as part of a $900 million proposal to improve literacy and numeracy skills in primary and secondary schools and tackle the shortage of mathematics and science teachers.

    "Under the proposal made under its new policy, titled the National Reform Agenda, newly trained teachers would have a typical HECS debt of $15,000-$20,000 reduced in stages until it had been completely forgiven.

    "Such a staged remission of HECS debts, if agreed to by the federal Government, would lift entry standards to teaching courses by making it more competitive and stop young teachers leaving the profession after only a short time in the classroom, the Victorian Government argues.

    "At the moment, many university graduates are rejecting teaching as a career because it is seen as a low-status job, which has led to a fall in entry standards, a state government consultation paper says.

    "The lower tertiary entrance score required to become a teacher "has undermined the status of the profession and the standing of teachers in the eyes of parents and the community".

    "A staged HECS debt remission scheme would provide a powerful national signal from the commonwealth about the value of teaching, and the importance of the profession to our future prosperity," says the paper to be released by Mr Bracks today at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia forum in Melbourne.

    "This approach would increase the incentives to choose teaching as a career, thus making it more attractive to more people. This increased competition to gain entry to teaching courses will drive up admission score.

    "A staged debt remission system would also provide an incentive for young teachers to stay in the profession longer, resulting in less attrition, greater staff stability for schools and concomitant savings."

    "The Howard Government capped HECS fees at about $4000 a year for tertiary teaching courses in 2005 in an attempt to address the shortage of teachers, but those completing other degrees before entering teaching still pay full HECS.

    "The proposal is one of a range of steps costing $580 million over fours years that the Victorian Government wants the federal Government to adopt to improve literacy and numeracy and lift teaching standards.

    "Other measures include improving teacher training at universities and funding new programs to teach English to young migrants.

    "About $400 million would go to funding programs to be provided by the Victorian Government and $180 million in direct spending, including the staged remission of HECS debts.

    "The Victorian Government says it is already committed to spending $312 million over four years to improve literacy and numeracy levels, including $99million for extra computers, better internet access and additional science and mathematics equipment.

    "Failure to undertake reform in this area will leave us unprepared to face the challenges ahead, such as managing the impacts of our ageing population and globalisation," the paper says.

    "Victoria is expected to put its National Reform Agenda to the premiers, chief ministers and Prime Minister at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in April."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    

  • $181m more for schools
    by Patricia Karvelas
    
    "Cash-strapped public schools and some of their private counterparts have won a funding boost from a special fund set up by John Howard two years ago.
    
    "The Prime Minister will today announce an extra $181million for projects identified by school communities under a new round of funding for the Investing in Our Schools Program.

    "Of this figure, $127 million will be for government schools and $54 million for the non-government sector..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    Similar story at Nine MSN at link
    
    
    

• The Guardian
  
  
  • Survey reveals rising levels of stress among teachers
    by Alexandra L Smith
    
    "Half of teachers in England have considered quitting the profession because of the stress of working with disrespectful pupils, a new survey has found.

    "Two-thirds of the 823 teachers polled by the channel Teachers' TV said they felt stressed by teaching - half of them during lessons - and one of the biggest causes was the behaviour of pupils.

    "More than 60% said they felt stressed as a result of teaching, even when not in school, and there were many complaints of long working hours. One in 10 told researchers for Teachers' TV they worked longer hours than EU rules permit - and 60% blamed the amount of paperwork required.

    "Nearly half of the secondary school teachers said stress was caused by verbal abuse from pupils and 14% said it was due to physical abuse from pupils during lessons. When asked specifically about what caused stress, 71% of teachers cited a lack of respect from pupils and three-quarters said they felt inadequately supported by their headteacher or senior management..."

    Full story in The Guardian at link [plus a podcast from "Teachers' TV"]
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Replenishing teachers is education's most pressing task
    by Lyndsay Connors
    
    "If re-elected, [NSW] Labor has promised $2 billion on improving public schools' infrastructure, spending that needs to be accompanied by investment in human infrastructure - in the teachers who will educate this and future generations.

    "The NSW public school system is facing an exodus of older, experienced teachers that will peak about 2012. As well, the Department of Education and Training expects about 15,000 teachers will reach retirement age between 2012 and 2021.

    "The heavy round of looming retirements follows the rapid rise of teacher numbers in the 1960s and '70s, when an army of new teachers had to be raised for school systems that were bulging because of the postwar baby boom and immigration. Between 1963 and 1972 the number of teachers rose by more than one half, from 84,700 to 130,500.

    "As these teachers begin to retire, over the next few years parents will find that their children are far more likely to have a beginning teacher than has been the case in recent decades.

    "These newcomers will be the backbone of the teaching force for all schools in the state for years to come. We need a government with the backbone to invest in the conditions most likely to make them effective from their earliest days in the classroom. Governments have known for years that a generational change in the teaching force was looming.

    "After more than a decade of alarm and denial about the likelihood of a critical shortage of recruits to replace those retiring, it now appears that supply will be sufficient to meet demand.

    "This does not, however, justify complacency since this masks serious shortages of secondary school teachers in important subject areas, notably science and mathematics - a shortage further masked by positions being filled with teachers moving outside their subject areas in numbers of schools. The situation with mathematics, according to reports from experts, is entering a "downward spiral".

    "This is compounded for those schools in the persistently hard-to-staff areas of the state, the schools that serve the poorest communities, including those in rural and remote areas.

    "The NSW public system will be competing for teachers within a national and global market affected by similar demand for teachers. Teaching will be competing with other professions to attract its share of talented newcomers. It will also be competing against a growing private school sector in which many schools will use their financial muscle to their own advantage..." [emphasis added]
    
    Lyndsay Connors chaired the former NSW Public Education Council. She was commissioned by the NSW Public Education Alliance to analyse the steps needed to support beginning teachers.
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Herald Sun
  
  
  • Student study centres part of $900m plan
    by Ellen Whinnett and Milanda Rout
    
    "Homework centres would be established across Victoria under a $900 million plan being touted by Premier Steve Bracks.
    
    "The proposal would allow students to complete school assignments under the supervision of a tutor, and would focus on struggling students whose reading, writing and mathematical skills were below the state average.

    "The proposal is similar to successful homework centres that already operate in Aboriginal communities interstate, and in Arabic-speaking communities in western Sydney.

    "The ambitious plan will be outlined by the Premier in a speech today to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.

    "The proposal is contingent on federal funding and its final shape will be determined through public consultation. The Government has not yet decided how many centres should be opened, or in which towns and suburbs they would be placed.

    "However, they would aim at children who do not get adequate homework help in the family home, and assist disadvantaged and marginalised community groups..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Herald Sun at link
    
    

  • Unborn children enrolled
    
    Parents are trying to enrol unborn children in a desperate attempt to score a place at the state's most exclusive private schools.
    
    
    
    
    
• The Miami Herald
  
  
  • Colleges review ethics of textbook selection [16 Feb]
    by Noah Bierman
    
    Colleges are grappling with how to balance conflict-of-interest policy with professors' authority to choose textbooks. Prices have tripled in 20 years.
    
    "A Miami Dade College professor took a trip to San Francisco, paid for by a textbook publisher.
    
    "Weeks later, his three-member committee selected the publisher's book as required reading for all anatomy students at MDC's Kendall campus and the department chairman approved.

    "Retail cost at the college bookstore: [US]$178.50. [A$ 235.]

    "A recent state ethics finding on the trip two years ago has raised questions about MDC's ambiguous rules for choosing textbooks. And it has opened a window into the nation's $6 billion textbook industry, whose prices have tripled in the past two decades..."
    
    Full story in The Miami Herald at link
    
    
    

• Spiked Online
  
  
  • Corrupting the curriculum [5 Feb]
    by Frank Furedi
    
    "So what’s the difference between subjecting children to the zealous propaganda of their elders in a faith school and in a secular school? According to today’s cultural commentators, it is ‘brainwashing’ when carried out in a faith school, but ‘raising awareness’ when conducted in a so-called secular environment.

    "The current wave of hysteria about the apocalyptic consequences of climate change, following most recently the publication of the IPCC summary on 2 February, is being harnessed towards ‘re-educating’ schoolchildren. According to proposals due to be published this week, cautionary tales about global warming will become integral to the British school curriculum. This instruction about global warming will masquerade under the title ‘geography lessons’, but in truth it constitutes a new kind of behaviour management.

    "This was clear when UK education secretary Alan Johnson announced his new moralising enterprise last week. Johnson said he wants children to alter their behaviour. ‘We need the next generation to think about their impact on the environment in a different way’, he declared. This project, aimed at manipulating how children lead their lives, is justified through appealing to a higher truth. Johnson claims that ‘if we can instill in the next generation an understanding of how our actions can mitigate or cause global warming, then we lock in a culture change that could, quite literally, save the world’. Literally save the world! That looks like a price worth paying for making some changes to the geography curriculum. In truth, the moralisation of education will only nurture ignorance..."
    
    "And they will learn in geography that we face human extinction, but will not be able to name the highest mountain in Europe. In other words they will be values-rich but uneducated."
    
    Frank Furedi is the author of Politics of Fear: Beyond Left and Right
    
    Full story at spiked.online.com at link

Tuesday 20 February

• Liberals condemn WACOT election delay
  
  
  • Media Statement: Peter Collier MLC, Shadow Minister for Education and Training
    
    Another delay for teacher representation

    "Shadow Education Minister Peter Collier has slammed an announcement by the WA College of Teaching Board that the election of 10 teacher representatives will potentially be delayed until the end of the year.

    "The announcement has been posted on WACOT's website:

    Following its Board of Management meeting on 14 February, the Western Australian College of Teaching made a request to the Minister of Education and Training that regulations to govern the election of ten teacher members to the Board be prepared.

    While is it very difficult to predict the timing of parliamentary processes, it is hoped that a fresh election can be held by the end of the year. The College will keep members informed of the progress being made and when a new election is likely.

    "Mr Collier said teachers would now potentially not have a say on the body, created in 2004 to represent the teaching profession, until the end of 2007.

    "Unfortunately, after two and a half years, teachers still don't have any elected representatives on the board," he said.

    "WACOT's inaugural election of teacher representatives had been scheduled for November 2006, but was postponed at the last minute when a problem with the rules was discovered.

    "In addition, in a letter obtained by the Opposition under FOI, it was blatantly evident that the former Education Minister sought to prevent education lobby group PLATO from gaining significant representation on the board.

    "The former Minister clearly changed the voting system to ensure that the election of members of PLATO would be minimal.

    "Teachers have felt completely disengaged from the decision making process over recent years.

    "In what has been a period of unparalleled change in education in terms of curriculum and additional pressures with the raising of the school leaving age, working with children legislation and the teacher shortage, it is imperative that the profession be heard.
    
    "The fact that there is little likelihood of a fresh election for teacher representation on the WACOT board until the end of the year will do little to remove the negativity and cynicism that currently permeates the profession.

    "The Opposition will provide full support and cooperation with the government to ensure that the election of the WACOT board be conducted as a matter of urgency.
    
    "There is absolutely no reason that regulations can't be formulated and the election be conducted within a matter of months." [emphasis added]
    
    From Peter Collier's website at link
    

    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Substance must prevail over spin in politics of schooling (page 14)

    "It would be fair to say that Education Minister Mark McGowan's best political asset, for the time being, is his predecessor. Whatever he does in the key portfolio is likely to look impressive compared with the dismal non-performance of Ljiljanna Ravlich, from whom he inherited it.

    "That, of course, will fade over time as people judge him on what he achieves, rather than by comparison to an inadequate predecessor.

    "The judgment people will ultimately make is whether he is a minister of substantial accomplishment or merely one of the Carpenter Government's spin masters.

    "There is no question that education is a critical issue of political consequences for the State Government. People are worried about standards of education offered to their children by the State school system.

    "One measure of this has been the movement of students from State to private schools. Another has been increasing interest in and criticism of State school systems by the election-bound Howard Government, which clearly has picked up on a politically significant level of disaffection among parents.

    "John Howard and his Education Minister Julie Bishop have been carrying the standards debate to the State with rare persistence. The Prime Minister has said that students are being taught "incomprehensible sludge" and describes outcomes-based education as "gobbledegook".

    "There is more going on here than can be attributed to the usual Commonwealth-State or Liberal-Labor antipathies. There is a general sense abroad of inadequacies in State schools and anxiety about what appears to be officially endorsed dumbing down.

    "To his credit, Mr McGowan has shown that he is sensitive to community concerns about this. He made a good start by announcing that one of the most controversial parts of OBE, the levels system used to mark students in Years 11 and 12, would be abolished, though there is confusion about how and whether this is being carried out in schools. Ultimately, OBE will have to be purged from the school system as a failed experiment in social engineering. That is a challenge for Mr McGowan in the face of resistance by elements of the education bureaucracy. [emphasis added]

    Ultimately, OBE will have to be purged from the school system as a failed experiment in social engineering. That is a challenge for Mr McGowan in the face of resistance by elements of the education bureaucracy.

    "So is the need to improve basic literacy and number skills learning in primary schools. His plan for teachers to spend at least 50 per cent of their teaching time on reading, writing and arithmetic responds to public disquiet about unacceptably high numbers of children failing to achieve minimum standards in basic skills.

    "But principals say this is already the case in most schools - so the McGowan plan looks unlikely to provide the solution it seems to offer. Though the focus on basic skills is to be welcomed, the real remedy is to be found in making sure teaching programs are effective and that children who struggle are identified early and given the special help they need.

    "At least Mr McGowan has shown that he understands that there are pressing problems in education, and that is the first step towards finding solutions. But the solutions are not to be found in trying to manipulate public perceptions, as is evidently the case with the continuing practice of rebadging public schools with new names or logos. [see following article]

    "Schools will be judged on the substance of their results, not on appearances. So will Mr McGowan."

    From The West Australian

     

  • Schools lift image to become 'colleges' (page 11)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Public schools are being rebadged with posh names or having image makeovers in a bid to boost community perceptions of State school education standards.

    "As the popularity of public schools increases, name changes and school logo makeovers are seen as ways to counter negative perceptions and boost enrolments..."

    "And recently upgraded schools in suburbs with rough reputations - such as Gosnells and Kwinana senior high schools - have also been rebadged. Kwinana will be know as Gilmore College and Gosnells changed its name to Southern River College last year.

    "The Education Department's marketing branch is also encouraging schools with dated logos or crests to smarten their image..." [emphasis added]

    "WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said colleges were usually associated with vocational and paraprofessional learning and that could confuse parents. [Clearly Mr Fry has never heard of the university colleges in Australian universities, the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge or the American liberal arts colleges.   Web]

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said State schools were trying to add credibility and meet the competitive edge provided by private schools, most of which were called colleges."

    Full story in The West Australian
    

    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Education Dept up-beat about filling regional teaching spots

    "The Education Department says it expects most regional teaching positions to be filled in the next few weeks, despite there still being more than 100 vacancies throughout Western Australia.

    "The director-general of the Education Department, Sharon O'Neil, says there are 117 teaching vacancies, with the Pilbara, Kimberley and Goldfields worst affected.

    "But she insists no classroom is without a teacher.

    "In a number of locations contingency plans have been put in place, largely in relation to timetabling activities, so teachers are provided with additional time," she said.

    "However, the president of the State School Teachers Union, Mike Keely, says some schools are at crisis point as they have only 80 per cent of required teachers.

    "The union will meet the director-general of education later this week."
    
    From ABC News Online at link
    
    
    

• Channel 9 Evening News
  
  
  • OBE music course hits a sour note

    Dixie Marshall: The Perth musician who helped get musical instrument lessons in Government schools is worried that the new OBE music course for Years 11 and 12 will hit a sour note. As Kristen Taylor reports, students who can’t read or write music will still be able to pass the subject in their TEE.

    Kristen Taylor: Respected musician Neil Boon was the first teacher to bring instrument playing lessons into an Australian Government School classroom. He’s appalled the Curriculum Council is planning to make reading music an optional part of learning to play, and is convinced standards will fall.

    Neil Boon (Musician): When you take music seriously, you have to read music- there’s no getting away from that.

    Kristen Taylor: But the Curriculum Council says both those who read music and those who don’t will be expected to meet high standards, and the course is aimed to more inclusive, catering for indigenous, jazz and music theatre musicians.

    David Wood, (Curriculum Council): By restricting the course to those that [sic] read conventional music notation would limit it because in a number of other music forms, other forms of notation are used.

    Marko Vojkovic, PLATO spokesman: With a subject at TEE level are we really looking for inclusivity? Why only have one course- why not have two or three music courses?

    Kristen Taylor: Teacher Les Peirce who has trialled OBE Music Courses and says students become more creative because they are free to explore music that interests them.

    Les Peirce: The classicists, if you like, will maintain their integrity. The universities will still get their high-level performers, but we’ll have more students in school just doing music because they love it.

    Kristen Taylor: The course will go before an independent teacher jury for approval and is due to be introduced into Year 11 next year. Kristen Taylor, Channel Nine News.

    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Labor risks the ire of teachers by putting failure back into school report cards
    by Matthew Franklin and Samantha Maiden
    
    "Kevin Rudd has risked enraging teachers' unions by rejecting their opposition to fail marks in school assessments.
    
    "The Opposition Leader has also backed the push for a national school curriculum.

    "Teachers' unions have long opposed handing students pass or fail marks, arguing that a fail mark could damage pupils' self-esteem.

    "But Mr Rudd said yesterday it was wrong to give children a false view about their ability.

    "You may be serving them a temporary comfort at school only to throw them into the cold, hard reality of the workforce," Mr Rudd said in a radio interview.

    "I end up having a brawl with some of the teachers' unions but that's life. I agree with us moving towards a national curriculum in areas of critical need across the country."

    "Mr Rudd said a national curriculum in key areas would recognise the reality that many parents moved around the country in a highly mobile workforce.

    "He also stressed he had no criticism of teachers.

    "My concern is this: Do we have enough absolute rigour in our national approach to curriculum to give our teachers the best resources to do the job?" [emphasis added]

    "Earlier yesterday, Mr Rudd refused to guarantee that a popular schools funding program for classroom upgrades will continue beyond 2008 if the party wins the next federal election.

    "John Howard yesterday announced a $181 million funding boost to an existing program to improve facilities at public and private schools, after a campaign by Coalition backbenchers.

    "The Investing In Our Schools program has proved popular with Coalition MPs because it has allowed the Government to play "white knight" on projects that state governments have failed to fund - such as installing new toilets, new carpets, airconditioning and shadecloths.

    "The scheme is also designed to blunt political attacks that the lion's share of federal funding for schools is provided to the private schools, not public schools, which are largely funded by state governments.

    "While the Opposition Leader backed the funding boost yesterday and suggested the program would continue, his education spokesman was less emphatic.

    "Do I think that program solves all the problems of our schools across the country? Of course not," Mr Rudd said.

    "But do I think that it's a useful program worthy of bipartisan support, you bet."

    "But Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith would only guarantee the program until next year. "Improving the infrastructure of our schools is very important," he said.

    "I note that the program is due to expire in 2008 and the Government is yet to commit to its continuation."

    "In principle I believe funding for school infrastructure should be continued and I am having discussions with interested parties about that."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Cutting HECS fees 'not the solution'
    by Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent
    
    "Slashing HECS fees for student teachers will not solve the recruitment crisis, education experts say.
    
    "Victorian Premier Steve Bracks's suggestion to tackle the shortage of mathematics and science teachers has sparked warnings that lower HECS fees do not always guarantee increased student demand.

    "Labor leader Kevin Rudd has also proposed limited HECS relief to encourage students to become maths and science teachers.

    "However, deans of education warned yesterday that many graduates drop out of teaching within five years of entering the profession and finding enough teacher training places in schools for students to complete practical training also remained a problem.

    "Bill Louden, dean of education at the University of Western Australia, said yesterday a HECS reduction or waiver may not significantly increase demand for teaching degrees.

    "No, I don't think so. Talking to our students, many don't know how big their HECS debt is," he said. "The underlining problem is the status of teaching as a profession and starting salaries." [emphasis added]

    "The Howard Government has previously declared teaching and nursing degrees a priority, ensuring the HECS fees did not rise by up to 30 per cent in 2005 when universities were allowed to set their own fees. However, education faculties later complained the decision starved institutions of funding, arguing the decision had backfired.

    "It has not led to a flood of applicants. There's also incentives of thousands of dollars to encourage students to teach maths and science in Western Australia, more than HECS, and that has had little effect," Professor Louden said. Finding enough teacher training places in schools for practical experience before graduation also remained a problem, he warned."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Grateful authors honour Jolley
    
    Author Elizabeth Jolley, whose skilful meditations on family endeared her to book clubs and academics, has been farewelled in a private ceremony befitting her modesty. She died last Tuesday, aged 83.
    
    
    
  • Principals scold Premier over toilet mess
    
    School principals have criticised the NSW Labor Government for allowing toilet blocks and other school facilities to fall into such disrepair they have had to be made part of Premier Morris Iemma's election platform.
    
    
    
  • Government to pump in unsniffable petrol
    
    An unsniffable fuel will replace all regular unleaded petrol at service stations in Alice Springs by the end of the month.
    
    
    
  • Op Ed, by Matt Price: Contender heads west to shadow leader
    
    "... The PM whipped through a Stirling school yesterday, promising federal money for building projects and accepting the adulation of students. Unfortunately the local Liberal MP forgot the name of the school; Michael Keenan mistakenly welcomed Howard to nearby Balga High rather than Balcatta, which round these parts is akin to turning up at a Collingwood function barracking for Carlton..."
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Plague of phones in school
      
      "Your editorial ("Roaming charges”, 19/2) is out of touch with the reality of children and mobile phones. Ask any primary school teacher about how many 10-year-olds have phones and you will be surprised. In high school, they are in epidemic proportions and, as a teacher, I’ve constantly asked myself how parents can continue to pay for them.

      "Clive Hamilton is right: the mobile phone ensures a cradle-to-grave marketing mentality from which most people will be unable to extricate themselves. The simplistic response of saying no is not within the repertoire of skills of a vast number of modern parents. The idea that children need to be “checked up on” by their parents during lessons is appalling.

      "Certainly today’s students spend a lot of time on the phone when they should be concentrating on their lessons. Perhaps the lesson of consumer-worship is a more valid one these days – even if some phone users come to school without books or pencils."
      
      Susan Leembruggen, East Maitland, NSW
      
      
      
      

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Editorial
    Generation HECS should not be cursed by poor politics
    
    "The Higher Education Contribution Scheme was set up in 1989 by the Hawke Labor government. It followed the recommendations of an inquiry, which was chaired by former NSW premier Neville Wran. Since its inception there have been myriad changes brought about by both sides of politics.

    "In recent weeks, HECS has again surfaced, this time as part of the phoney federal election campaign. The Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, has announced another instalment in his so-called "education revolution". Mr Rudd has vowed to cut the accumulated HECS debt of a science and maths graduate from more than $21,000 to $12,000, or the annual rate of about $7000 to $4000, from 2009. The HECS repayments of those graduates would be halved if they worked in a relevant occupation, in particular teaching.

    "Mr Rudd's move is driven by the critical shortage in Australia of qualified people in the science and maths disciplines who can then use their skills in other research, industry and teaching fields. The Opposition claims that almost 50 per cent of senior physics teachers and 25 per cent of senior chemistry teachers have not majored in those areas and that a quarter of science teachers do not have a science qualification. The claims are supported by a Department of Education and Science audit, which predicts that in six years there will be a shortage of 20,000 scientists and engineers.

    "Clearly something has to be done to stop this trend if Australia is not to become denuded in the technical fields. Prosperity cannot flourish, and Australia cannot keep up with the world, if there is no one willing to teach nor anyone to learn. It is the responsibility of government through its funding priorities to tackle the problem. However, it is at this point the remedies diverge..."
    
    Full editorial in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • State seeks fast move on teaching
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Victorian teachers could have their pay and career structures overhauled within a year, with the State Government conceding the profession is not as "flexible" as it should be and may be deterring some people from taking up teaching jobs.

    "Premier Steve Bracks has urged the Federal Government to review teachers' pay, qualifications and career opportunities as part of a plan to boost literacy and numeracy rates by 25 per cent over 10 years.

    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop hit back last night, saying that if Victoria was serious it would support Canberra's push for performance pay for teachers.

    "Performance pay or having incentives in the pay structure for teachers is commonplace around the world … There's nothing to stop state governments now putting in place sensible changes to the career structures for teachers," Ms Bishop said.

    "In a 50-page discussion paper that will be presented to the Council of Australian Governments meeting in April, Mr Bracks admitted teachers' status had been undermined in recent years, and perceptions of the job had deterred some from enrolling in teaching degrees.

    "He challenged Prime Minister John Howard to work with Victoria, calling for a new career "framework" to be in place by next year. This, he argued, would significantly help boost literacy and numeracy standards..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    

  • The "Monday" Education Supplement [finally updated] contains 16 articles, including:
    
    
    • Students feel guilt over future
      
      School leavers fret about a lack of goals, but should they be worried?
      
      
      
    • Helping square pegs fit better
      
      Unconventional students can slip through the cracks, reports Leigh Parry. A new school sees itself as a safety net.
      
      
      
    • League table 'inflates' Australian universities
      
      Professor warns of possible damage to standings.
      
      
      
    • Put trust in early warnings
      
      Teachers are being trained to tackle students' mental health problems.
      
      
      
    • Op Ed: Just wake me when it's all over
      
      Students accused of not showing adequate effort might just be saying something eloquent about the teacher.
      
      
      
      
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • And now for A Tale of One City

      "So, they are rewriting Tolstoy's classic War and Peace ( The Age, 19/2), not only shortening it but changing the ending to make it happier — and boom goes that adorable line, "Your darling Prince Bolkonsky has had his head shot off!"

      "HarperCollins is doing to literature what Hollywood and Disney have been doing for years. One wonders now where this might lead. Dickens' immortal A Tale of One City could be much shorter and end with Sydney Carton's cry, "It is a far, far better thing that I do — escape!" Victor Hugo's Les Miserables could be halved, both in length and horror, by calling it Le Miserable. Let's make Ethel Turner's classic Six Little Australians and get rid of Judy altogether (that was the first book that made me weep; I don't want to feel sad any more, or have to read too much and anyway they are all dead, so we can do what we like, can't we?).

      "And let's face it, if we can shorten War, even at the price of Peace, I'd vote for that."

      Suzanne G. Ingleton, Castlemaine
      
      
      

Wednesday 21 February

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Students to help set pay rises for best teachers (page 7)
    See very similar story in The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
  • Teacher training cut back to fill schools (page 7)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Relief teachers are being allowed into WA classrooms with just three years of training rather than four under a desperate plan to tackle an acute shortage of teachers.

    "The State's teacher registration body, the WA College of Teaching, told schools this week that three-year trained teachers - who normally would not qualify for registration - could be granted an exemption for relief teaching.

    "Schools struggled last year to find enough teachers to cover classes when a teacher was absent, with some making up to 70 phone calls to fill the gap at short notice.

    "Relief teacher agencies laid part of the blame on restrictions the college introduced last year. But the college now says a "limited authority to teach for the purpose of relief teaching may be granted to three-year trained teachers". [If WACOT exhibits its usual efficiency, it will be 2008 or beyond before it gets them registered.   Web]

    "Under WACOT rules, all teachers must be four-year trained unless they joined the college by March last year. Three-year training degrees were phased out of universities in the 1990s.

    "New WACOT director Suzanne Parry denied the college was dropping standards, saying the exemption would be valid only until the end of next year when the policy would be reviewed.

    "We're not lowering standards in that these limited authorities to teach only have a short life," she said. [Translation: "We're just lowering standards for a little while..."   Web]

    "And during that time we would be encouraging everybody to upgrade their qualifications."

    "Strict conditions would apply, with limited authority teachers not permitted to replace an absent teacher for more than 20 consecutive days.

    "Employers would be expected to provide mentoring support.

    "State and independent school teachers' unions said the decision was e necessary compromise to obtain much-needed help.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan refused to comment on the drop in relief teaching standards. He said department officers would leave today to recruit British teachers for next year at migration expos and universities in Birmingham, London, Edinburgh and Belfast to avoid a repeat of this year's huge shortfall of regular classroom teachers.

    "With school now into their third week of term, the teacher shortfall has dropped from 264 at the start of the year to 95 this week. About 400 Port Hedland students are studying science by correspondence because no teacher is available." [If it's 400 students, they're short more than one teacher.   Web]

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Tough life for teachers, says inquiry chief (page 50)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Life can be tough for teachers, according to the chairman of a new task force set up to examine solutions to the shortage of teachers in WA.

    "Lance Twomey, former Curtin University vice-chancellor, is expected to hand a report to Education Minister Mark McGowan by the end of this year.

    "The task force was set up after a strategic study commissioned by former education minister Ljiljanna Ravlich into teacher supply and demand warned that the teacher shortage was likely to worsen.

    "Mr McGowan has also employed an independent consultant to examine ways to make country positions more attractive to teachers.

    "Professor Twomey said he had agreed to chair the task force just last week so he was still unsure what tack it would take.

    "But he said it would have to look at both short and long-term solutions to getting more people into the profession and keeping them there.

    "It's not always the money, it's the conditions under which people work," he said. "I think it's a pretty tough life for teachers. [emphasis added]

    "I don't know a lot about it but I would expect to be on a very steep learning curve and get a lot of information rapidly."

    "The preliminary report said that problems with getting reliable data made it almost impossible to monitor teacher supply and demand variables.

    "Professor Twomey said one of his priorities would be to track data.

    "I think all these things have to be data driven," he said. "If they're not you can never be sure of what you're doing and unless you measure things as you go you can't be sure whether you're having an effect or not."

    "This year public schools started back with more than 260 teaching positions unfilled, which by last week had dropped to 100 across the State."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Premier told to come home in wake of CCC probe

    "Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter is facing a backlash over his decision to continue a trade mission in India even though two of his ministers are facing serious allegations at a corruption inquiry.

    "The Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) heard a secretly taped telephone conversation yesterday in which the lobbyist and former premier Brian Burke claimed he could get anything he wanted out of at least two ministers.

    "Their identities were suppressed by the CCC.

    "Mr Burke was heard speaking to the former minister Norm Malborough, who the commission heard leaked Cabinet information to the lobbyist.

    "Mr Carpenter is due to return from India on Sunday.

    "A spokeswoman says he will not cut his trip short.

    "Opposition Leader Paul Omodei says that is not good enough.

    "If the Premier wants to stay in India and allow the reputation and the integrity of the Cabinet of Western Australia to continue to be tarnished then he should bear the brunt of any criticism over that," he said.

    "Acting Premier Eric Ripper will not comment about the CCC."
    
    From ABC News Online at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Families get say in teachers' pay rises [lead national story]
    by John Garnaut
    
    "Students and parents will help allocate large pay rises to the best teachers in a Federal Government plan to raise academic standards in public schools.

    "The performance-based shake-up is likely to start from 2009, and the Government is prepared to "strike out on its own" if the states refuse to co-operate.

    "The federal Minister for Education, Julie Bishop, wants teachers to be assessed on the improvement of their students over the year. The aim is for the best teachers to benefit most, especially at disadvantaged schools.

    "Ms Bishop will present three performance pay models for state education ministers to consider in April. The first would assess teachers by the improvement of their students, as measured by annual statewide exam scores.

    "A second model would rank teachers by the subjective assessments of peers, principals, parents and students. The third would reward a smaller number of teachers with large bonuses paid out of a "federal merit pay bonus fund".

    "Ms Bishop favours combining the student-improvement and peer-assessment models in teachers' wage agreements.

    "She told the Herald: "For example, some form of assessment model that would include classroom performance, references from colleagues and supervisors, views of parents and students, involvement in professional learning [and] contributions to the development of other teachers and school well-being." [emphasis added]

    "Ms Bishop could hold back funding or bypass the states altogether if they do not agree to include performance pay in the next four-year, $40 billion education funding agreement.

    "It is possible to make a component of [funding] dependent on the states embracing a performance pay model," she said. Alternatively, "the Commonwealth can always strike out on its own".

    "Her plans are likely to spark a showdown with teacher unions and state education ministers, who mostly refuse to consider any form of merit-based pay and say there is no fair way to assess who the good teachers are.

    "I think it's virtually impossible to compare the performance of teachers who are teaching students with different levels of aptitude," said the NSW Education Minister, Carmel Tebbutt. "The other fear I have is it will undermine the congeniality that exists within schools."

    "NSW has already developed data systems that can match individual teachers with changes in their students' exam scores. As well as using this information to reward good teachers, Ms Bishop wants it to be published and scrutinised by the wider community."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    Similar story on ABC News
    
    
    

• The Melbourne Age
  
  
  • Teachers push Bracks for more
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Premier Steve Bracks is headed for a showdown with Victoria's powerful teacher union, which has refused to rule out the prospect of statewide strikes as it pushes for a 30 per cent wage rise.

    "Only days after Mr Bracks challenged Prime Minister John Howard to boost teaching quality, the Australian Education Union has mounted a push for better pay, fewer teachers on contract employment, and improved career paths in schools.

    "In a pre-budget submission obtained by The Age, teachers argue that a pay rise is warranted given that Victorian teachers are paid $7040 less than their NSW counterparts at the top of the scale, and $2933 less at the bottom of the scale.

    "But the union's wage claim — 10 per cent a year for three years — is significantly higher than the Government's public sector wage policy, which generally limits increases to 3 per cent a year, with anything above that to be met by productivity trade-offs.

    "Clearly no framework in or around 3 per cent is going to address a situation where you've got a national teaching shortage and you've problems attracting and retaining teachers here in Victoria," AEU state president Mary Bluett told The Age..."
    
    "Ms Bluett said she hoped industrial action would not be necessary this year, but could not rule it out. The union's pre-budget submission, which focuses on making schools more "equitable" for families, also calls on the Treasury to:

    • Set up "early warning systems" in schools, whereby parents are immediately notified when a child has problems with disruptive behaviour, bullying and absenteeism.
    • Create special centres for students with behavioural or learning difficulties.
    • Make kindergarten free for all four-year-olds and disadvantaged three-year-olds.
    • Reduce contract employment...
      
      

  "The proposed pay rise would mean that Victorian teachers, who currently receive a starting salary of $46,127 with $65,414 at the top of the scale, would, within three years, have a starting salary of $61,395, going up to $87,066." [emphasis added]
  
  Full story in The Melbourne Age at link

  
  
  
• The Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    What's driving the Rudd phenomenon
    
    The Labor leader is closing John Howard's lead in national security and economic management, writes editor-at-large Paul Kelly
    
    "The Rudd phenomenon that dominates Australia's politics has penetrated all elements of Newspoll, signalling a pervasive goodwill factor for the new Labor leader - with John Howard's political foundations intact but eroding..."
    
    "Newspoll tested eight issues - water, health, education, environment, economy, welfare, national security and industrial relations..."
    
    "Rudd's lead on health is 12 points, on education 22 points, on welfare 23 points and on industrial relations 24 points..."
    
    "Newspoll also documents the changing political agenda that assists Labor. It shows the four most important issues in order are water, health, education and the environment. [emphasis added] This suggests a possible shift towards softer pro-Labor issues at the expense of harder pro-Coalition issues..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • The Higher Education Supplement has 16 articles today, including:
    
    
    • Drop-outs not a problem, say unis
      
      Of the 300,000 or so first-year students who will arrive on Australian campuses this week, just under 100,000 will be gone by the end of the year.
      
      
      
    • US college shows sway students
      
      Some prospective students get their ideas about university life mainly from US television shows.
      
      
      
    • Rising costs change student lifestyles
      
      It was almost a rite of passage: half a dozen university students paying low rent for a rambling old house where they learned much more about life than in the lecture theatre.
      
      
      
    • Labor to scrap 'flawed' RQF
      
      A Labor Government would scrap the controversial Research Quality Framework and replace it with a new scheme to measure the quality of Australia's publicly-funded research.
      
      
      
    • Delicate state of the nation

      There is a renewed danger of territorial self-interest overtaking progress on federal issues writes Geoff Gallop.
      
      

    • In pursuit of status and sexier labels [Sounds familiar   Web]
      
      Students base their choice of university on prestige and well-named programs writes Gavin Moodie.
      
      
      
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Farce in the classroom
      
      "The demise of standards in public education is almost as discouraging as the decline in student behaviour.

      "I recently taught a class of 33 Year-6 students at an inner city school as a relief teacher. I spent an amusing day scorned by impudent children who complained their way through a variety of lessons while talking incessantly, ignoring instructions, bickering, teasing, fighting, openly swearing and walking around or out of the room.

      "It was an absolute farce reflecting the worst of much of public education."
      
      Cameron Goozeff, Dulwich Hill. NSW
      
      
      

• The Sydney Daily Telegraph
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Literature loses heroine
    
    English-born, German-speaking, Quaker-educated Australian author Elizabeth Jolley hated fuss – disliked being the centre of attention. And fawning.
    
    
    
    
• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Teach your children on finances [20 Feb]
    
    Parents should teach their children about money management from the time they can talk, South Australian Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi says. Senator Bernardi has written a booklet on financial planning to be distributed free through Liberal MPs' offices. Designed to be read to children, it uses fictional family characters to demonstrate the virtues of saving and financial planning.
    
    
    

Thursday 22 February

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Bishop's teacher pay plan under fire (page 7)
    by Rhianna King and Bethany Hiatt
    
    See more detailed articles in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Melbourne Age, below.
    
    "Julie Bishop is on a collision course with the State Government, teachers' unions and parents' groups over her plan for performance-based pay, which was described yesterday as insulting, unworkable and having no educational credibility..."
    
    "State Education Minister Mark McGowan said while he supported the concept of merit-based pay, it should reward teachers prepared to move to rural, remote and low socio-economic areas and do extra training..."
    
    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said there was no research to prove performance-based pay worked.
    
    "WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry attacked Ms Bishop for failing to consult parents on the plan and said it would make teaching a popularity contest..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (page 17)
    
    
    • I disagree
      
      "The WA College of Teaching (WACOT) is now accrediting three-year-trained teachers to meet the shortage of relief teachers (report, 21/2). The utter lack of logic in their new policy is truly astounding.

      "The exemptions for three-year teachers, which are valid until the end of 2008, means standards are dropping for just a little while, says director Suzanne Parry.

      "That’s two years – kind of a long "little while".

      "The report states that strict conditions would apply, with limited authority teachers not permitted to replace an absent teacher for more than 20 consecutive days.

      "Let me guess: 20 days on, one day off, then back again for another 20 days. What is the point?

      "It is stated that employers would be expected to provide mentoring support. Yes, schools have so many extra teachers floating around, doing nothing, that every relief teacher will get proper mentoring. That’s why we need relief teachers – there are so many spare teachers available to mentor. What utter nonsense.

      "But this is precisely what we have come of expect of WACOT, the “teacher representative body” that has no elected teacher representatives on its board of management."
      
      Steve Kessell, Willetton
      
      
      

• The Brisbane Courier Mail
  
  
  • Kids to learn plain English
    by Tess Livingstone
    
    "Queensland students from Year 1 to Year 10 will have a new plain English syllabus from the middle of next year.

    "It will emphasise the teaching of reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation and the importance of literature.

    "Curriculum waffle is out, clear English is in," Education Minister Rod Welford said.

    "He said the new syllabus would take a "nuts-and-bolts" approach to help children write well and speak clearly while encouraging them to read and think.

    "The syllabus is being drawn up by the Queensland Studies Authority after a review of the preschool to Year 10 syllabus last year. The review was conducted by Sunshine Coast-based education consultant Ray Land, a former teacher and education official.

    "Part of the draft syllabus will be available on the authority's website from next month for public scrutiny and feedback, and the full syllabus is to be ready for approval by the authority's board by October.

    "This will allow support materials and teacher training to be provided ahead of the introduction of the syllabus from the start of Semester 2 next year.

    "The new syllabus was welcomed by Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens Associations executive officer Greg Donaldson.

    "If this new QSA syllabus is going to improve the literacy levels of our kids we would support it," he said.

    "Queensland Teachers Union president Steve Ryan said teachers had been heavily involved in the process and were satisfied with the new syllabus.

    "The redeveloped syllabus would be organised in three strands: speaking and listening, reading and viewing, and writing and shaping.

    "There will be greater emphasis on correct spelling, grammar and punctuation," said QSA assistant director (syllabus services) Bob Dudley.

    "He said the syllabus would be more balanced in terms of the texts studied with wide range of books, poetry and plays to be read. Continued

    "He said material from the internet, films and television programs would also be included.

    "The syllabus will be much more specific than it is at present. For example, it is envisaged that by the end of Year 3 students will be able to:

    • Identify and record main ideas and make simple inferences.

    • Organise and sequence one or two main ideas with some supporting detail.

    • Create texts that tell stories, recount, report on, explain, give opinions or transact.

    • Use punctuation to signal the meaning boundaries of simple sentences.

    • Create and play with representations of people, places, events and things for an audience by selecting descriptive words, images, facial expressions and gestures.

    "The syllabus requires teachers to use a range of measures, including phonics and whole word recognition, to teach reading to young children.

    "Students' progress will also be tightly monitored under the new syllabus.

    "The syllabus is being drawn up by a team of QSA staff with input from a panel of 20 teachers.

    "Focus groups of parents have also been consulted."
    
    From The Brisbane Courier Mail at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Family say in teachers' pay faces all-round ridicule
    by Anna Patty Education Editor
    
    "A proposal that students and parents have a say in teacher pay rises has been universally ridiculed. Teachers, academics and the NSW Government all favour pay rises founded on performance, but said basing them on parent views and student results was absurd.

    "The federal Minister for Education, Julie Bishop, said she would introduce performance-based pay to all public schools and would present three models to the states in April.

    "One would be based on student results and a second would use the assessments of principals, parents and students. The third is similar to one already operating in NSW private schools, which measures teacher performance against standards set by the NSW Institute of Teachers.

    "The State Government favours a model for public school teachers based on set standards, but has ruled out bonuses based on student results or parent reviews.

    "The NSW Minister for Education, Carmel Tebbutt, said the federal proposal would lead to teachers leaving the profession in droves.

    "She said it would be unfair to compare the performance of a teacher of disadvantaged students with that of a teacher at a selective school.

    "We do not support any proposal that would link teacher salaries to student performance," she said.

    "The idea that you could have teachers' salaries established by a panel of peers, principals, parents and students would be a recipe for disruption in schools."

    "However, Ms Tebbutt has welcomed a federal Labor proposal to reward top-performing teachers with bonuses of up to $10,000 a year if they met rigorous standards not limited to student results.

    "The NSW Institute of Teachers is developing two new standards of professional competence and leadership for experienced teachers.

    "Teachers would be assessed on teaching plans, classroom performance, student outcomes and work samples, along with references from colleagues and supervisors.

    "The Association of Independent Schools of NSW last year introduced performance pay for teachers in private schools and has used the institute's standards framework to measure teacher performance.

    "The association's executive director, Geoff Newcombe, said he was pleased Ms Bishop had moved beyond her earlier proposal to measure teacher performance simply on student performance.

    "I think anyone administering schools now could see that the community is looking to teacher payments based on some sort of assessment of professionalism," he said.

    "I'm delighted the independent sector is leading the way in this."

    "The deputy president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Angelo Gavrielatos, rejected Ms Bishop's proposals as absurd. He said teachers were not opposed to the Labor proposal announced last year that proposed bonuses for quality teaching.

    "The ALP's proposal … is not a proposal that threatens us, given that it was described as a system designed to recognise quality teaching, based on the assessment of teachers against objective standards," he said.

    "[Ms Bishop's proposals] are ostensibly about forcing the Government's industrial relations agenda on schools by placing individual teachers on contracts, forcing teachers to pit themselves against each other."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Don't pit teachers against each other
      
      "The Federal Government's plan to introduce performance-based pay for teachers ("Families get say in teachers' pay rises", February 21) ignores the relational process of teaching.

      "Teachers do not work in isolation. Professional collaboration is critical to quality learning and teaching. Individual incentives for improving students' results have the potential to discourage teachers from sharing their knowledge, ideas and experience by pitting them against one another.

      "If we are to reward teachers for good performance then incentives need to be team-based and should not focus primarily on financial gain. Present organisational thinking indicates that money is not the prime motivator for improved performance. People perform best when they understand the purpose and values of an organisation, are recognised professionally and have continuing opportunities for professional growth.

      "If the Minister for Education is serious about improving student outcomes, the Government needs to support greater collaboration, not promote competition."

      Greg Whitby, executive director of schools, Catholic Diocese of Parramatta
      
      

    • "Ms Bishop, the delightful students in my class, in south-western Sydney, have severe and multiple intellectual, physical and sensory disabilities and fluctuating health and come from families where the home language is not English.

      "If you have devised a truly objective assessment to determine each child's yearly progress and hence my salary, could you please let me know? I am just not sure you've thought this through."

      Jane Truswell, Surry Hills
      
      

    • "Our children, their families and our teachers deserve better from the Education Minister than a stream of populist stunts accompanied by financial bullying.

      "As a parent of four children and now a grandparent, I cannot imagine that most parents would have the time or be willing to take part in decisions about what particular teachers should be paid.

      "What is needed is a more modern and realistic career structure for teaching in which the range of teaching positions is expanded to recognise the more complex aspects of teachers' work and to reward those who do the most complex work. This is the way to allow teachers to go on improving and to be rewarded."

      Lyndsay Connors, Edgecliff

      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Many have say on teacher pay
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Good teachers will receive extra pay judged on their classroom practice, programming of lessons, mentoring of beginner teachers and contribution to the school, as well as their students' academic achievements.
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said yesterday that any system of paying teachers extra based on their performance would take into account a range of factors, including standards developed by the profession and input from the principal, colleagues, parents and the student community.

    "The Australian understands the planned system might include weighting some factors in specific cases, so teachers of students with learning difficulties might have greater weight put on peer and parent review, while for teachers in rural schools, more weight might be put on academic achievements.

    "The system could be adjusted to target issues such as schools in disadvantaged areas that might be difficult to staff.

    "There are a number of models that could be incorporated to take into account professional standards, classroom performance, evidence of student learning or achievements, the contribution to the development of other teachers or the contribution to the school and student wellbeing beyond the classroom," Ms Bishop said on radio yesterday. "It could include an element of peer review from colleagues and supervisors, but also I think the view of parents and students should be canvassed. It's not the determinant, but it's an element that should be taken into account."

    "Ms Bishop said the Howard Government would consider withholding funding for schools in the Labor-governed states and territories if they refused at a meeting of education ministers in April to adopt performance pay for teachers. [emphasis added]

    "But Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said the state already had a system to pay high-performing teachers more, while Queensland Education Minister Rod Welford said the plan could not be seriously considered without knowing the extent of planned commonwealth funding.

    "Federal Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith said judging teacher quality on the basis of student outcomes in standardised tests was simplistic. Labor preferred to use professional standards developed with the states and teachers as a basis for performance pay.

    "Australian Education Union deputy federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said teachers were willing to negotiate a system that assessed teachers on a wider range of factors than student test scores, including teaching practice, programming and contributions to the school and students.

    "We believe there could be developed a set of criteria by the profession for the profession against which teachers can be assessed and rewarded for quality teaching, skills and practice," he said. [emphasis added]

    "The Australian reported in July that Ms Bishop was planning a system of performance pay for teachers as a way of keeping good teachers in the public system and attracting them to disadvantaged schools, where good teaching can make the biggest difference.

    "A spokesman for Ms Bishop said yesterday teachers in well-resourced schools with already high standards would find it harder to prove they had added value than would teachers in low socio-economic schools, where poor standards had been lifted astronomically."
    
    From The Australian at link

    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • More to lifting standards than higher pay for teachers
      
      "Cameron Goozeff’s account (Letters, 21/2) of the less than gentle reception he received as a relief teacher highlights the tenacity, resourcefulness and pluck that permanent teachers must demonstrate day after day. Although one day’s rough treatment was enough for Mr Goozeff, we should be thankful that the rest of his full-time colleagues will be back at work while he licks his wounds and writes letters to the paper.

      "Still, relief teachers have always occupied a special place in the hearts of school students, since there are so many novel opportunities to create chaos when the regular teacher is away. I know we certainly did so in my day."
      
      Mercurius Goldstein, Ashfield, NSW
      
      

    • "Teaching is a vocation. The monetary rewards to be gained from this noble profession can’t begin to approach the intrinsic rewards to be had from contributing to the nation’s future by helping our youth realise their potential.

      "Beyond the contentiousness of her suggestion that Australian teachers are not of sufficient quality, this is why federal Education Minister Julie Bishop’s call for merit pay for teachers makes no sense. Teaching is a collective enterprise. Recent research in NSW has confirmed that highly effective teachers, as measured by HSC results, typically enact a strong subject department culture. Good teachers are part of a good team.

      "The social Darwinism of merit pay can only divide teachers, destroying the sense of community that makes good schools and good teachers."
      
      Mark Howie, Lawson, NSW
      
      

    • "If federal Education Minister Julie Bishop is serious about lifting standards in public schools, how about diverting some of the private school funds back to public schools so that schools in lower socio-economic areas can have better resources. With all that cash flowing back, there could even be a general pay rise for teachers in the public system which should enhance performance.

      "We know education is a big voting issue but please, Ms Bishop, don’t pretend to care about the welfare of public schools. The reality is that with performance pay, the teachers of students from the more affluent classes are going to benefit because those students have the means and greater parent involvement to guarantee good grades for their kids."
      
      A. Khat, Ryde, NSW
      
      

• The Melbourne Age
  

  • Op Ed
    Tinkering with HECS won't change students' choices
    by Bruce Chapman
    
    Dr Chapman is professor of economics in the Research School of Social Sciences, ANU. He devised the original HECS proposal for the Wran review of higher education.
    
    "The education policy debate is now embracing the issue of skill shortages. In particular, HECS debt has been raised as a possible instrument to address an alleged shortage of science and maths teachers. The ALP is promoting two aspects of the proposals, and what follows considers the economic and behavioural aspects of these ideas.

    "The first suggestion, as reported in The Age on Monday, is to cut the accumulated HECS debt of a science or maths graduate from more than $21,000 to about $12,000. Let us call this idea A. The second aspect, idea B, is to reduce HECS repayment obligations in those years in which a maths or science graduate chooses to be employed as a teacher, perhaps for a period sufficient to diminish the HECS debt to zero.

    "Ideas A and B provide the opportunity to explain how and why HECS charge levels have been set in the past. We can start with the beginnings of the scheme in 1989, after recommendations by a committee chaired by former NSW Labor premier Neville Wran in 1988.

    "When HECS was introduced, there was a flat charge of $1800 in 1989 terms per full-time student. Those enrolled in medicine incurred the same debt as students enrolled in history, even though the costs per year of providing these educational services are very different (medicine costs much more to teach per year than history).

    "However, it is apposite to record that a uniform price was not recommended by the Wran committee. Instead it proposed a three-tier approach, reflecting the cost of course provision. High-cost courses, such as medicine and dentistry, were accorded the top charge of $3000 in 1989 terms, with low-cost cour