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Breaking
News: Week of 24 September 2007
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Saturday – Sunday, 29 – 30 September
- The Busselton Dunsborough Times
- Our schools in crisis [21 September]
by Hayley WoottonTeachers are frustrated by a 'dumbed-down system'
"Eight Busselton Senior High School teachers have been on stress leave in the past two years and more than 10 senior teachers have quit teaching, according to a group of former teachers at the school.
"The teachers say they can finally speak out about the situation, now that they won't face certain disciplinary action or dismissal for revealing the "awful truth" of WA and Busselton's high school education system.
"The teachers told the Times there have also been a number of teachers absent from teaching over the last two years because they were under investigation by the Department of Education and Training for trying to control unruly student behaviour.
"After 18 years of teaching, John Paul quit the profession to work as a building plant operator because he believes the education system has become a complete "shambles".
"He said inappropriate timetables at the school meant teachers without expertise in those subjects were taking the classes, while specialised teachers in core subjects such as maths and science were teaching subjects like health education.
"The school even closed courses while we still had specialised teachers to take these courses," he said.
"We lost literature, economics, politics, geography and trigonometry and history from the classes on offer."
"The teachers believe a push towards vocational education has resulted in these core subjects vanishing, with a subsequent decline in the number of students going on to do their TEE.
"As a teacher of 15 years, Linda Gatter said the situation at the school was "nothing short of sad".
"We did have a great education system," Ms Gatter said.
"She said student behaviour was spiralling out-of-control because teachers were having difficulties disciplining bad behaviour.
"If we want to give them detention, we have to told it in our own time. Of course, some teachers opt to just not discipline them because they don't have that time," Ms Gatter said.
"It has gone from the days where I would ask students to hand in their work on a certain day and I would have to chase three pieces of work up, to "this is the day to hand the work in" and only three pieces have been handed in.
"There is no course of action to stop this happening."
"The teachers said there were a high number of bright students at BSHS and that they were all sad they had to quit as educators, as they previously had enormous passion for teaching.
"However the front-line reality had simply strangled their enthusiasm, the teachers said.
"It really is the best job and the worst job," Ms Gatter said.
"Kim Morrow, who has been a teacher for nine years, says she was one of the many teachers who had taken stress leave from the school.
"I took seven weeks stress leave because there was pressure to teach something (the OBE) we had not been given a lot of information about," she said.
"There was also no real help with behavioural management, which meant not a lot of learning was ultimately going on.
"This resulted in learning being cut into by the behaviour of a lot of students," Ms Morrow said.
"The Times contacted the Department of Education and Training for comment last Friday [a week ago] and was still waiting for a response to questions about the state of education in Busselton."
From The Busselton Dunsborough Times
- The West Australian
- Council delays release of English OBE report (page 12)
by Bethany Hiatt
"The release has been delayed of an official report by a panel of teachers which found the Year 12 outcomes-based education English course was flawed and required rewriting."The Curriculum Council agreed on recommended changes last Monday but their assessment will not be released publicly before the middle of next week.
"Christina Gillgren, a consultant in the Department of Premier and Cabinet who is co-ordinating the teacher juries, said she finished her report late on Wednesday and sent it to the Curriculum Council on Thursday.
"But the council said it would not release the report until after its next meeting on October 4.
"Council chief executive David Wood said there had been a "miscommunication" between him and Dr Gillgren. The report could not be released until after the council had considered the recommendations. [Then how did the council "agree" on the recommended changes? Web] He said that was the process that had been followed for other jury reports.
"Jury reports for the seven other OBE courses already under way in Years 11 and 12, including media production and engineering studies, have also raised concerns about their implementation.
"Dr Gillgren noted that all the juries had highlighted similar issues. These included calls for the removal from course documents of jargon and unnecessarily complex language and exams that were better linked to content learnt during the year.
"Engineering teachers said their course was too broad and contained too much information to fit into available class time.
"The aviation panel wanted all reference to OBE assessment in "levels" removed from course documents because it was considered confusing."
From The West Australian
- Letter to the Editor
- Lay off the teachers
"In response to Rod Rogers (Letters, 21/9), since 1996 the cumulative effect of cutbacks to education spending in Australia is a deficit of $2.8 billion; OECD acknowledges that this is how far we are behind where we should be. So, lay off the teachers, Rod - give us the resources and we will get the job done."
Andrew Bell, Woodvale
- The Australian
- Op Ed
Worrying report on education
by Ross Fitzgerald
"The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's flagship education report, released last week, is the only rigorous, independent, global analysis of how countries compare across a range of areas."These include educational attainment, the impact of socio-economic status on participation in education, the impact of education on employment outcomes and income levels, as well as the economic benefits of education.
"Most revealing was what Education at a Glance 2007 showed in relation to how much Australia invests in education, both public and private, across all levels: pre-primary, primary, secondary, tertiary and post-secondary, non-tertiary education.
"Our public investment in education at every level has declined to the point where we are investing less than most other developed countries. As a proportion of GDP, public expenditure on all levels of education in Australia is 4.3 per cent, compared to an OECD average of 5 per cent. This places Australia behind countries such as the US, Britain, Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal, Poland, Norway and New Zealand. Only six out of 30 OECD countries had less public investment in education. This poor performance was replicated at other levels.
"The OECD notes: "Differences in spending on educational institutions are most striking at the pre-primary level of education. Here, spending ranges from 0.1 per cent of GDP in Australia and South Korea to 0.8 per cent or more in Denmark and Hungary." As a proportion of GDP, our investment in pre-primary education is just 0.1 per cent compared to an OECD average of 0.5 per cent.
"This result is particularly worrying given that the OECD makes the telling point that investment in early childhood education "is of key importance in order to build a strong foundation for lifelong learning and to ensure equitable access to learning opportunities later in school".
"In primary, secondary and post-secondary, non-tertiary education, Australia recorded the third-lowest proportion of public investment of around 83 per cent, down from nearly 86 per cent in 1995 and well below the OECD average of nearly 92 per cent.
"Perhaps most alarmingly, the OECD found that in the decade following 1995, public investment in tertiary education in Australia declined by 4 per cent while other OECD countries increased by an average of 49 per cent. Australia was the only OECD country to register a fall in public investment in tertiary education during this period. In contrast, private expenditure in Australia on tertiary education was 1.6 per cent, the third highest of all OECD members, behind the US and South Korea, and more than double the OECD average of 0.7 per cent.
"Significantly, rises in private educational expenditure at the tertiary level generally went hand in hand with rises in public expenditure on education at the tertiary level. It is disturbing to note that the only exception to this was Australia.
"Unsurprisingly, the findings of the OECD's report were seized upon by the ALP, which all year has been accusing the federal Government of neglect and complacency in education. In response, Education Minister Julie Bishop released a university finances report showing that revenue for universities increased by $1.6 billion, or 11 per cent, from 2005 to 2006 to a record $15.5billion.
"This result shows that our universities are in a healthy financial position, which places them on a sustainable footing for the foreseeable future," she said.
"Labor's education spokesman Stephen Smith said that when the Coalition Government came to office "57c of each dollar that the universities spent came from the commonwealth ... Now, it is close to 40c".
"Still, throughout the year the Howard-Costello Government has clearly been talking up its spending on education, and especially higher education.
"Witness the Treasurer's commitment to a Higher Education Endowment Fund in the May budget so the Government could unambiguously spruik its credentials to university vice-chancellors and the tertiary sector generally.
"Treating university and post-secondary education as a key issue in the run-up to what may well be a very close federal election was evident last week on local Melbourne ABC Radio.
"Talking with the Treasurer about the Government's commitment to tertiary education, Ali Moore asked rhetorically: "It is a tough sell in some ways though, isn't it, because for example I know in recent days you have talked a lot about what you stand for, for example, lifting the standard of our universities?"
"Suggesting that this may have been an 11th-hour conversion, Moore continued: "You have been in government 11 years. I mean, you could easily ask the questions, why has it taken you so long to realise that only two of our unis are in the world's top 50?" Costello: "Well, it is not just a question of talking about it, it is a question of doing something about it." To Moore's statement, "Well, you have had 11 years," Costello replied: "And I have just set aside $6 billion."
"Even though this huge input into higher education by the Government may have only taken place this year, the Treasurer made it crystal clear that debates about education in all its forms will be a key issue in the forthcoming federal election."
From The Australian at link
- The Melbourne Age
- Students get in early for VCE
by Bridie Smith
"Students are starting VCE earlier, with the number of year 10s enrolled in a VCE subject hitting 25,230 this year, almost 7000 more than a decade ago."The VCE is usually completed by students in years 11 and 12, but figures from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority show those in year 10 are signing on in growing numbers as students — and sometimes schools — look for an edge on their competitors.
"A VCAA spokesman said 25,231 year 10 students were doing a VCE subject this year. The number was provisional and the final figure would probably top last year's figure of 30,143.
"Among the most popular subjects taken by year 10 students this year were general mathematics, industry and enterprise studies, biology, psychology and business management...."
Full story in The Melbourne Age at link
- Plan aims to give student a bully-free zone
The Education Department has drawn up plan to keep apart two students from the same school after one boy was accused of bullying that culminated in the other's attempted suicide.
- The Washington Post
- Breathing Life Into the Lecture Hall
by Valerie Strauss
"Nearly 200 students sat in the large lecture hall, staring down at their professor, Edward F. Redish, holding pencils at the ready to take notes in Fundamentals of Physics. It looked like a traditional lecture course, but appearance is where the tradition ended."Instead of spending 50 minutes putting students to sleep by lecturing about position, velocity and acceleration, Redish, a University of Maryland professor, kept the students awake by getting them actively involved in the lesson -- all 192 of them..."
Full story in The Washington Post at link
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Mandarin a must for some [late update from 21 September]
The study of Mandarin is set to become compulsory in some NSW public schools from next year.
- The Australian
- School performance spelt out [Lead National story]
by Milanda Rout and Justine Ferrari
"For the first time, parents will from next year be able to compare the performance of schools across the government, Catholic and independent sectors."Schools with students struggling to meet literacy and numeracy standards will also receive assistance, under a plan agreed toby the state and territory governments.
"The plan will be taken to a meeting of education ministers in November and a spokesman for federal Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith said it could be implemented as soon as next year.
"The Future of Schooling report conducted by the Council for the Australian Federation, to be released today, commits the governments to reporting school performance.
"The report, a revised version of the Labor states' and territories' education plans released in April, aims to reinstate teachers as the primary assessor of students' performance, ahead of national tests. It was revised after consultations with the Catholic and independent school sectors.
"Parents and students need reports on progress that will help them understand individual development in a jurisdiction or national context," it says.
"The judgment of teachers is paramount, but external assessments of all students in state and national testing programs must supplement this information."
"The draft report only committed governments to using external assessments to provideinformation on students' performance.
"But for the first time, the governments will have a strategy to use the information from thebenchmark tests to target schools with struggling students.
"The states and territories commit to work collaboratively to share targeted intervention strategies for schools with common characteristics whose students are struggling to meet or atrisk of not meeting literacy and numeracy benchmarks," the report says.
"Schools performance will be judged against "like schools" with students from similar social backgrounds. But the governments are also investigating adjusting school results in national tests to show the improvement of students, or how much schools have "value-added" to their charges.
"The report will be released at a conference in Melbourne today. It came from a steering committee chaired by Victorian Education Department secretary Peter Dawkins and set up by premiers and chief ministers to review national goals for schooling.
"While the National Catholic Education Commission broadly agreed with the plan, the Independent Schools Council of Australia was more reserved.
"In a letter to Professor Dawkins, ISCA chief executive Bill Daniels said it was disappointing the federal Government was not consulted, and expressed concern that the report added to confusion in the debate.
"We are concerned that the involvement of CAF serves to further complicate the existing national education consultative and decision-making processes in schooling," the letter says.
"But Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike said the Howard Government was bullying the states in tying funds to the introduction of policies such as performance pay for teachers.
"Australia's education system will never develop to its full potential without greater co-operation between the commonwealth and the states and territories," she said.
"The commonwealth should work with the states, rather than acting like an old-fashioned headmaster telling everyone what to do."
"Ms Pike said the Howard Government made constant demands on the states without providing any funding. "We will only provide the kind of education system our children deserve through a committed national approach," she said."
From The Australian at link
- Op Ed
More is less in the education battle
by Kevin Donnelly
"Last week's release of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's report Education at a Glance 2007 has put schooling firmly on the political agenda."On one side, the Australian Labor Party and much of the media have attacked the federal Coalition for its apparent dismal funding record. Canberra's low levels of education spending, the argument goes, amount to poor education outcomes.
"Yet according to the OECD report, there is little, if any, relationship between levels of investment and learning outcomes. Indeed, investing more money in education cannot guarantee stronger standards or better results.
"The OECD report states: "Lower unit expenditure does not necessarily lead to lower achievement and it would be misleading to equate lower unit expenditure generally with lower quality of educational services."
"The conclusion that more money does not lead to better results is supported by research carried out by German economist Ludger Woessmann. After analysing the results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Tests, he notes: "The empirical evidence on the determinants of education overwhelmingly shows that, at given levels of expenditure, an increase in the amount of resources used does not generally lead to an increase in educational performance."
"Even more damning for those bleating about the need for more taxpayers' money to be spent on education is that they ignore the OECD report's argument that many education systems are inefficient and that standards can be improved with less, not more, funding.
"In the section headed "How efficiently are resources used in education", the argument is put that "more money alone will not be enough" and that "across OECD countries there is the potential for increasing learning outcomes by 22 per cent while maintaining current levels of resources".
"In the words of the report, the key challenge is "for education to reinvent itself in ways that other professions have already done and to provide better value for money".
"What the federal Government's critics also ignore is that the figures to which they refer only include public expenditure; private investment is ignored. The reality is that if public and private investment are combined, then Australia is placed in the middle of the pack in terms of expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product and is no longer near the bottom of the table.
"Instead of bemoaning Australia's high rate of private investment by OECD standards on the assumption that government expenditure is somehow superior, critics of the federal Government, such as the ALP and the Australian Education Union, should recognise that private investment, in particular, in schools, leads to better educational outcomes.
"On identifying the factors that lead to stronger performance in international tests, Woessmann concludes: "Student performance is higher in education systems where private schools take over resource allocation from public decision-makers."
"Private schools have greater autonomy, are freed from union influence and are under pressure to do well because they have to compete for students.
"In many ways, the ALP and the Coalition are singing from the same hymnbook when it comes to education. Both argue for a national curriculum, for parents' rights to choose between government and non-government schools, and for increased teacher accountability.
"The ALP's response to the OECD report is that governments need to spend more and that private expenditure is a cause for complaint. So it looks as if Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd and his education spokesman Stephen Smith are returning to form. If elected, the success of our education system will be measured by taxpayers' money spent rather than outcomes achieved."
Kevin Donnelly is director of Education Strategies in Melbourne and author of Dumbing Down (Hardie Grant Books).
From The Australian at link
- The Age
- States shun league tables for schools
by Farrah Tomazin
"State Labor premiers have vowed to give parents more information on how students perform — but have refused to endorse the Federal Opposition's election-year push for so-called "league tables" comparing school results."In a report to be released today on the future of education in Australia, states and territories agreed to move towards a new system of "fair, public reporting on school performance", including better ways to intervene in struggling schools.
"The push for better reporting would begin next year, when the first national literacy and numeracy test is introduced for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Under the new regime, parents will be given information on how their children fare against their peers, and on national benchmarks in literacy and numeracy across the four year levels.
"But the premiers have stopped short of adopting a suggestion by federal Labor to have so-called "league tables" comparing school performance, warning that "making comparisons among schools is not straightforward … (and) can be misleading since it takes no account of differences in school circumstances or student cohort."
"The Future of Schooling In Australia paper was produced by the Council for the Australian Federation, a national body comprising the leaders of every state and territory government. It will form the basis of a push by the states to get a new national agreement with the Commonwealth on the direction of education beyond the election.
"Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike last night warned schools would never reach their full potential without greater collaboration between the state and federal governments.
"The Commonwealth should work with the states rather than acting like an old-fashioned headmaster telling everyone what to do. A "father knows best" approach is not the way to run a modern education system, (yet) the approach from the Commonwealth has been to make demands without resources," Ms Pike said.
"The report, to be released by the State Government today, also commits the states to:
- Sharing "targeted intervention strategies" for students failing to meet literacy and numeracy benchmarks.
- Rewarding high-performing teachers and principals.
- Using the next four-year schools funding deal with the Federal Government to try to reduce red tape.
- Boost achievement among indigenous students.
"Federal Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith welcomed the report's push for greater collaboration.
"The premiers' paper will be taken to the next education ministers' meeting in November. It emphasises the need to improve student and teacher standards, and warns Australia needs to boost overall performance in the face of increasing competition.
"Other nations are not standing still and seek consistently to improve student performance through high-quality teacher training programs, increased investment and the establishment of education as a central priority of public policy," the paper says."
From The Age at link
- Attack on teaching watchdog
by Farrah Tomazin
"The State Government is under pressure to overhaul its controversial teaching watchdog, which schools have accused of ignoring teachers' concerns and "supporting incompetence"."Teachers and principals have warned the Government that the Victorian Institute of Teaching — set up in 2001 to regulate the state's 104,000 teachers — has failed to live up to its role and become an "unwelcome intrusion" on the industry.
"In a series of damning submissions obtained by The Age, some have called on Education Minister Bronwyn Pike to strip the institute of its powers.
"The VIT has comprehensively failed to live up to its function of promoting the teaching profession. In the face of criticisms and attacks on individual teachers, the VIT has remained silent, giving teachers the perception that it is disconnected from their needs," said Deb James, general secretary of the Victorian Independent Education Union.
"Brian Burgess, the president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, said that while the institute was supposed to be independent, it was seen by many as merely "an arm of the bureaucracy and government". He called for the institute to be abolished in favour of a national body.
"The Victorian Institute of Teaching has been dogged by controversy since it was established by the Government in 2001, giving it the power to register teachers, conduct police checks and investigate cases of serious misconduct.
"The criticism comes at an awkward moment for the institute, which is in the process of creating a new code of conduct for teachers."
From The Age at link
- 'Hitler's son' teaching ban
A teacher who had claimed to be Adolf Hitler's son has been banned from working in Victorian schools.
- The West Australian
- Letter to the Editor (page 22)
- In Short
"I noted a comment on these pages last week that our children would be more literate and numerate if teachers just got on with the task of teaching and didn't become distracted by cutbacks and funding issues. I think our children would be more numerate and literate if the unruly, abusive, aggressive and disruptive students stayed at home with their permissive and disinterested parents and let them do the disciplining and babysitting instead of sending them to school to be a nuisance to the teachers and other kids who really to want to learn."
T. Theisinger, Kenwick
- Editorial
Ravlich shows familiar lack of action over Oombulgurri (page 20)"... [Racing and Gaming Minister Ljiljanna] Ravlich is showing the same reluctance to intervene that she displayed during the protracted debate over outcomes-based education when she was Education Minister. Her reaction of choice then was to ignore critics of the much-maligned scheme or to dismiss their claims as exaggerated. Just how wrong she was has been amply demonstrated..."
From The West Australian
- The West Australian
- New push to compare schools (page 9)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Parents may soon be able to compare the results of State, independent and Catholic schools after Education Minister Mark McGowan yesterday backed a national push to release the results achieved by all schools in new benchmarking tests."In a report on education directions released yesterday, State and Territory governments committed to develop ways to report school by school success in national literacy and numeracy tests, which Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 will sit for the first time next year.
"The Association of Independent Schools of WA refused to back the move, but Catholic schools said it was inevitable.
Mr McGowan said WA had led the way in publishing comparative data on State schools online and that should be extended to include private schools.
"I like the idea of all schools being open to the same scrutiny," he said. "I just don't think it's fair that some schools' information is more readily available than others, particularly because all schools in WA receive large amounts of public funding."
"But Mr McGowan said it was unlikely comparative data would be published next year because it would take time to work out how to present it.
"I also like the idea of an adjustment to actually determine what value a school adds," he said. "Raw comparisons are preposterous."
"The Future of Schooling in Australia report, prepared by the Council for the Australian Federation comprising State and Territory leaders, said all Australians had in interest in the quality of Australian schooling, "so reports on its quality should be made available to the whole community".
"But the report warned that making direct comparisons between schools could be misleading if differences in school circumstances were not taken into account. Governments pledged to examine ways to use "statistical adjustments" to separate the "value added" by schools from the influence of students' backgrounds.
"Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard said schools would have no choice on whether their results would be made public because State governments had already reached broad agreement.
"I think it's the real world and I think it's what parents want and we're certainly not afraid of it," he said.
"I just hope that the information will be given out in such a way that's a lot more meaningful than just raw scores," he said. "For example, why would you have, on the same continuum, Balga SHS and Hale school? It just doesn't make sense."
"But AISWA executive director Audrey Jackson said benchmark tests were useful only for informing parents and schools of student progress."I don't think it is useful to use those results as a comparison between schools because there are too many factors tied up in all of that," she said."
From The West Australian
- Letter to the Editor
- In Short
"I disagree, Rod Rogers (Letters, 21/9) Teachers aren't arguing with each other. Non-classroom educators have set unrealistic and confusing expectations and this has caused the mess (illiterate and innumerate students) that the education system is experiencing."M Crowe, Albany
- The Australian
- Op Ed
Familiar signposts but destination unclear, arrival uncertain
by Kevin Donnelly
"When it comes to reporting student achievement and school performance, the state and territory ALP governments' Future of Schooling in Australia report appears to stake the same ground as the Howard Government."The previous federal education minister, Brendan Nelson, championed greater accountability and transparency by forcing plain-English report cards on schools, with students ranked A to E. The federal Government has also stipulated that national standardised literacy and numeracy tests be introduced at levels 3, 5, 7 and 9 from next year.
"Yesterday's report endorses national testing and school accountability by committing the states and territories to what it terms "fair, public reporting on school performance".
"There is also agreement that "reports to students and their parents should make clear in substantive terms what students know and are able to do, including how this relates to what is expected of their age group".
"Given this, one might assume that Labor governments have followed the lead of overseas practice, especially in Britain and the US, where league tables have been produced for some years, ranking schools in terms of performance.
"Not so. The report commits states and territories only to developing "a plan and associated timetable". How long it will take, and what the final product will look like, is unclear.
"Uncertainty is compounded by the statement, not present in the draft document released in April, that "how best to inform the public about the attributes of schools is a complex challenge that will require expertise across different sectors and settings".
"While Labor education spokesman Stephen Smith has argued for parents' right to know how well their children perform, and especially how they rank in the class in terms of objective standards, even he appears unclear about the place or value of league tables.
"Yesterday's media release agrees that information about individual schools and school systems should be provided, butmakes no mention of information to directly compare different schools. The statement that federal Labor supports the "sensible provision of all objective information on the comparative performance of schools" also provides an escape clause.
"Why the reticence? One reason is that the Australian Education Union, a strong supporter of the ALP during election campaigns, is totally opposed to league tables.
"It is also true that state education bureaucracies and professional associations such as the Australian Curriculum Studies Association are against schools being compared and ranked in terms of performance."
Kevin Donnelly is director of Melbourne-based Education Strategies and author of Dumbing Down (Hardie Grant Books)
From The Australian at link
- Op Ed
Labor plan is modest progress on education
by Paul Kelly, Editor-at-large
"For the first time Australia is moving to a national curriculums framework for its schools across all states and systems in a cautious step towards improved education standards, better testing and reporting."The action plan endorsed by the Labor premiers and released yesterday by Victorian Premier John Brumby testifies to new forces driving schools policy mirrored in the outlook of the Howard Government, the Rudd Opposition and the ALP states.
"Consider the political conundrum: John Howard and his Education Minister Julie Bishop, having beaten the drum furiously for national curriculum consistency and better standards, now find that ALP state governments want to seize this mantle.
"In a sense they have no choice. In this year's budget Bishop declared that the 2009-12 federal funding agreement with the states will be conditional on them meeting core national curriculums standards, external assessments, performance-based pay for teachers and improved reporting on school performance.
"There are two intersecting trends at work. First, the Coalition and Labor are fighting to take command of a more rigorous agenda for schools based on higher standards, an approach that has manifest popular support. Second, Canberra and the states are heading in the same broad direction despite the rivalry and buck-passing between them.
"This issue will become a moment of truth for the Labor Party, heightened by any Rudd election victory.
"The test is whether Labor can disengage from the cultural fixations of the teacher unions and outdated educational theorists and shift the focus in schools policy towards national standards, a disciplined curriculum and performance outcomes.
"The ALP premiers and Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith say that moment has arrived.
"The reality, however, is that schools policy remains contentious within the Labor Party and among its stakeholders, where much of the cultural war is still prosecuted. The message from Labor premiers in yesterday's blueprint, titled The Future of Schooling in Australia, is that its recommendations have "substantial significance for all governments in Australia, the education community and the broader public". Brumby and Smith, on Kevin Rudd's behalf, presented a united Labor front in Melbourne yesterday to outmuscle Howard on schools policy in the election and, if Rudd wins, to have a ready-made operating basis for reform in this area.
"They said schools policy would become a template of Labor's brand of co-operative federalism, though Brumby branded it "a new era of collaborative nation-building". Brumby's message was a perfect fit for Rudd's education revolution.
"This signals a new and tougher policy where school outcomes are seen as a driver of national economic results. So Brumby said education must be "the No1 national priority".
"While Australian schools have high achievement rates, they "are not high enough" compared with countries such as South Korea, Japan and Canada, let alone Finland.
"In an age of globalisation "we are in competition with the world".
"The report, written by a steering committee chaired by Peter Dawkins, secretary of the Victorian Education Department, embodies four main themes.
"First, it proposes a national curriculum that is not one curriculum for all schools but defined "core content and achievement standards" expected for all students established on a nationally consistent basis. Research shows that in maths and science the core curriculum across all states is similar already, a useful start.
"But the evolving system should avoid being too prescriptive: there should be flexibility for different systems and schools to meet the standards. The philosophy is national consistency and local autonomy.
"Second, the standards reveal a hardening in favour of academic disciplines. The curriculum requires a "solid foundation in skills and knowledge" and advanced learning, based on "deep knowledge and skills" along with problem-solving ability. The key learning areas are English, maths, science and languages.
"Significantly, the report admits that studies of society and environment have been defective and says "what should be studied under this label are the disciplines of history, geography and economics". Brumby was specific on this endorsement. It is a serious admission of the failure of past educational theory and, in particular, of some ALP states.
"Under the heading of 21st-century learning, the report emphasises three areas: technology (including information and communication technology and design), civics and citizenship, and business. It says such disciplines relate to the "skills and knowledge" for an information-rich world.
"Third, the report says, assessment "should provide information on the performance of individual students, individual schools and school systems". Taken at face value, this is a far-reaching and vital step.
"But there are many qualifications: the judgment of teachers remains paramount and external assessment is supplementary. Some reports will be based on school assessments and others on national tests. The overall aim is to assist student progress, a timely warning given resistance to such assessments. Schools will be required to report to parents in a clear way that relates their child's efforts to national standards. The report says schools must be assessed not just on raw results but on a "value-added" basis taking account of socioeconomic differences and how schools have taken students beyond their socioeconomic benchmark.
"Fourth, the report offers the sensible warning that a better curriculum cannot substitute for a policy emphasis on quality teaching. It is the teachers who are charged with delivering the curriculum in a culture of higher performance. The point, of course, is that the teachers are essential to any better outcome strategy.
"The ideas in this document are being driven by Victorian Labor. The strategy is to obtain the support of other stakeholders, notably the Catholic and independent school sectors, as a prelude to seeking the backing of the federal Government for this national framework. On August 15, National Catholic Education Commission chairman Tom Doyle told Dawkins by letter that the Catholic sector was "in broad agreement" with his report.
"Independent Schools Council director Bill Daniels said in a letter of August 29 that it was disappointing the federal Government had not been involved. But the sector wants to be a participant in any ongoing process.
"Bishop is cautiously optimistic but sceptical about the initiative. Such scepticism is sure to be reinforced by the election campaign.
"The message from Bishop's counterpart, Smith, is that a Rudd government would embrace this approach.
"I see this report as the basis for co-operation on schools policy between a federal Labor government and the states," Smith says.
"Yes. But remember that one lesson from this entire episode is that the national government is pushing the states on schools policy.
"That won't change under Labor, despite sweet words."
From The Australian at link
- Brumby ignites school debate
by Justine Ferrari and Milanda Rout
"Victorian Premier John Brumby yesterday committed the states and territories to giving parents detailed information about the performance of the nation's schools, but the NSW Government labelled the debate a distraction."Releasing the Future of Schooling report on behalf of the Council of the Australian Federation, Mr Brumby said the plan agreed to by the states and territories would ensure students' improvement was reported to parents.
"He rejected as too simplistic a measure "league tables" to rank schools by their performance. "We are looking at the value a school adds," he said. "We're looking at better measures ... of making sure there are better indicators available of school performance and better indicators, which are then communicated to parents."
"As foreshadowed in The Australian yesterday, the report commits the states and territories to "reporting on performance in a more meaningful way" by developing "a plan and associated timetable for fair, public reporting on school performance".
"School performance will be judged against "like schools" - those with students of a similar social background - and governments will investigate overseas developments in focusing on the value added to students by schools.
"Mr Brumby's commitment was echoed by federal Labor education spokesman Stephen Smith. "I've made it very clear that I support the release of all objective, comprehensive information about how schools go; not in a simplistic way but in a comprehensive way," he said.
"But a senior NSW education official labelled the debate over whether parents would be able to compare schools a distraction.
"Questioned on ABC radio, the deputy director-general for strategic planning and regulation, Leslie Loble, was reluctant to confirm that parents would be able to judge the performance of their child's school against government, Catholic and independent schools across the nation.
"The debate is a distraction about whether it's sector-by-sector," she said.
"As a parent myself, what I want to know first is what can my own child do and then how is the school going. I really don't sit down and say, 'Is it Catholic, independent or government?"'
"When pressed, Ms Loble said schools needed to report their information to their own school community, which would be available to the wider community.
"You can compare school by school, and the report makes a commitment to starting the process of looking at like school groups and particularly not to allow income levels to distort the results of any schools diagnoses," she said. "But it's a distraction to turn it into the policy debates about whether it's a sector-by-sector analysis."
"A spokesman for NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca agreed that comparing schools across sectors was "absolutely a distraction"."
From The Australian at link
- Howard backs links to TAFE
by Milanda Rout and Catherine Armitage
"Prime Minister John Howard has opened a new front in the education debate by coming out strongly in favour of closer links between universities and TAFE."Already higher education institutions facing a diminishing supply of eligible students are turning to TAFE as an important source of growth.
"That approach received the Prime Minister's backing yesterday when he sketched a post-election vision of "a future where vocational and university campuses could sit side by side, with flexibility for students to move between them to access the mix of courses and skills they need".
"Earlier this week the Minister for Vocational Education and Training, Andrew Robb, promised that the Coalition Government, if re-elected, would pursue reform to make TAFE more responsive to market needs.
"Under threat of redirecting funding to private providers, the foreshadowed assault on the states' bureaucratic stranglehold was meant to deliver TAFE greater autonomy and self-governance.
"The Prime Minister yesterday reiterated that state governments "must also do more to unshackle the TAFE sector so it can provide the flexible and responsive solutions that employers and workers need".
"His stance drew support from Swinburne University vice-chancellor Ian Young, who said TAFEs should be used as preparatory institutions while universities dug deeper into less academically qualified student cohorts to maintain numbers.
"One of the real challenges for Australian higher education is that we are running out of higher education students and we are continuing to expand the system," Professor Young said.
"The reality is you are going to get more and more people going to unis lower and lower down the scores."
"Professor Young said there was a risk of "turning universities into remedial institutions".
"(Students) should go to some preparatory institutions before university, and the federal Government should actually fund them."
"TAFE was the logical place, Professor Young said: it would be "foolish" to create another layer of education for the purpose.
"Earlier this year Central Queensland University signalled its interest in becoming a dual-sector institution, though vice-chancellor John Rickard declined to elaborate to the HES this week. Other universities are setting up regional campuses in existing TAFE facilities so they can become "one-stop shops".
"Shared facilities, more articulation pathways and courses that offer a combination of higher and vocational education are all part of universities' efforts to build stronger TAFE links.
"The numbers of students going from TAFE to university courses has jumped significantly, from 7per cent of all undergraduates in 2001 to 10 per cent in 2005..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Old lessons bad for teens
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"Schools are demoralising teenagers in the same way that the welfare system has proved detrimental to the indigenous community, says leading youth worker the Reverend Bill Crews."Mr Crews, who has been working with homeless children for the past 40 years, said the school system was stuck in the 19th century, based on a production-line mentality that no longer catered for today's technological generation.
"Mr Crews, who set up the Exodus Foundation and has established three tutorial centres around Sydney to teach disaffected and homeless youth, said the school system existed for the benefit of teachers and bureaucrats.
"I have been deeply moved by Noel Pearson's assertions that a welfare system set up with the best intentions has ultimately proved detrimental to indigenous peoples," he said.
"I now wonder if we are not seeing the same sort of thing happening in our education institutions. Schools once provided a source of learning to young people who had no other way of accessing information."
"Mr Crews said children today were all computer literate, with instant access to information. They were suspicious of influences not endorsed by their own generation, and no longer valued education as a way of attaining a better life.
"Students who were uninterested in school and did not see the purpose of an education would be better off in the workforce, he said.
"Modern schools seem to me to be set up on the Henry Ford production line system," he said. "Kids are mainstreamed. Those outside the mainstream seem to fall off the perch as all effort goes into pushing the mainstream majority through."
"But professorial fellow in education at Melbourne University Richard Sweet said encouraging non-academic students to leave school early for the workforce absolved schools of the need to change to cater for their students needs.
"He said students who left school before Year 12 were twice as likely to be unemployed and earned less on average than their peers who finished school."
From The Australian at link
- Private-public education
by Milanda Rout
"Private companies could help build and maintain public schools under a proposal being considered by the Victorian Government."Premier John Brumby has commissioned research to investigate the benefits private companies could offer the state school system, particularly in building schools in growing suburbs.
"Mr Brumby has asked Education Minister Bronwyn Pike and Treasurer John Lenders to report back to him on the plan by the end of the year.
"This follows NSW using public-private partnerships to build schools, and South Australia considering the model.
"Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has recently backed the idea of corporate sponsorship of public schools.
"The old days of single stand-alone schools are probably gone," Mr Brumby said. "It's appropriate to look at the best arrangements, partnership arrangements." This could involve the private sector, the non-government schools sector and local government, he said
"Mr Brumby told the Future of Schooling conference in Melbourne yesterday that public-private partnerships had been successful in countries such as Scotland. "The injection of new investment, new leadership and new vision in Scotland has transformed areas that for decades have underperformed."
"The Premier said the nation had to improve the use of school infrastructure to offer more learning opportunities. "Australia needs to encourage greater sharing of infrastructure between schools," he told the conference.
"This could include non-government schools, universities, TAFEs, museums, galleries and sporting clubs.
"Mr Brumby said he had commissioned the research into public-private partnerships to provide better education, more value for taxpayer dollars and meet the demands of growing suburbs.
"During last year's state election campaign. the Victorian Government promised to spend $1.9billion upgrading schools by 2011.
"State Opposition education spokesman Martin Dixon said the announcement showed the Government had been caught short. "The Government has been insisting there's enough money in the budget to fund the infrastructure upgrades needed for Victorian schools," he said. "In fact, they ruled out public-private partnerships last year as a source of funding."
From The Australian at link
Similar story in The Age
- NZ dumps voucher system to increase achievement
by Guy Healy
"New Zealand's 17-year experiment with free market policies for its tertiary education sector will end with the effective abolition of the voucher system later this year, NZ Tertiary Education Commission investment manager Max Kerr said this week."Mr Kerr, who has been attending the Association for Tertiary Education Management conference in Canberra, said while the contentious changes had given a huge lift to participation in the country's tertiary education system, it hadn't been reflected in student achievement.
"We are at the beginning stage of quite a radical shift; there will be a rebalancing to recognise that the market isn't the only thing to be taken into account, and that there are regional and national needs to be taken into account as well," he told the HES.
"We got a lot of gains from the market-led approach, mainly a huge lift in participation and far greater diversity of provision.".
"But because government funding payments were linked to enrolments, NZ experienced high levels of dropouts at the lower end of tertiary education and didn't get the lift in student achievement, he said..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- ABC News
- WA Treasurer announces record budget surplus
The State Government has announced a record $2.3 billion dollar budget surplus for the 2006/07 financial year.
[But no money to improve teachers' salaries? Web]
- WA minister denies industry is giving up on TAFE system
"The State Education Minister, Mark McGowan, says an assessment of Australia's TAFE colleges by his federal counterpart does not reflect reality."The Minister for Vocational and Further Education, Andrew Robb, told a convention of TAFE directors in Melbourne earlier this week that Australia's resources industry was giving up on the TAFE system.
"Mr Robb says enrolments are dropping as private companies conduct their own training to meet the needs of their operations.
"But Mr McGowan says enrolments in WA are steady and the curriculum is constantly evolving with help from industry.
"TAFE is well respected by employers in WA," he said.
"We have a fairly autonomous TAFE system whereby colleges can act flexibly in the interests of employers and students so I don't think his comments really could be referring to WA."
"We have had enormous success in producing more tradespeople through TAFE in Western Australia. Around 85 per cent of our training in WA is done through TAFE so I really don't know what he's talking about."
From ABC News at link
- The Dominion Post [Wellington, NZ]
- Clowning with the curriculum
The [education] ministry has given such joy over the years. And always, just when I think they've wrung the last possible giggle out of the business of overseeing schools, up they pop again, the admin boys and girls from Wellington, all custard pies and swinging ladders and size 17 shoes and trousers with gargantuan waist bands. Without them the world would be a duller place.
- The Washington Post
- 'Nation's Report Card' Shows Improvement
The nation's fourth- and eighth-graders continue to improve steadily in mathematics, and fourth-grade reading achievement is on the rise, according to test scores released yesterday. Black and Hispanic students are also making broad gains, though significant achievement gaps persist.
[Amazing what you can achieve when you consign OBE to the rubbish bin. Web]
- ABC News
- Thousands of teachers face sack for not paying fees
"About 1,600 teachers could lose their jobs because they have failed to pay a membership fee for an independent body representing the profession."Teachers are required to pay $70 each year for registration with the West Australian College of Teaching.
"The Department of Education and Training has issued a letter warning that teachers who fail to pay the amount by the end of next month will have their contracts terminated.
"The department has advised principals to consider contingency plans.
"The Opposition spokesman on Education, Peter Collier, says many teachers are boycotting the body and has accused the Government of mishandling the situation.
"The Government should hang its head in shame. There's a litany of problems with regard to the way this Government has treated teachers over the past 6 years and in particular with regard to WACOT," he said.
"WACOT should be for the benefit of teachers. They still have no representation on the board three years after the formulation of the act. It is absolutely disgraceful.
"16-hundred teachers in a months time not in our classrooms. That is hundreds of classrooms over the length of this state potentially without teachers in six weeks time. I might add that is 3 days before the TEE, and responsibility rests entirely at the feet of the Minister."
"The Minister for Education, Mark McGowan, has accused the Opposition of scaremongering.
"All these teachers who have refused to pay, have refused to pay on the basis there has not been an election," he said.
"There is now going to be an election for the WACOT board amongst the teaching profession. Once they have their election this issue will be gone."
From ABC News at link
- The West Australian
- Schools face legal action over results (page 3)
by Bethany Hiatt
"WA private school principals have been warned that they could face massive compensation claims if they fail to teach students how to read, write and add up."Concerns about the prospect of schools being sued for educational negligence, which is deemed to have occurred when a student suffers harm as a result of careless or incompetent teaching, has prompted the Association of Independent Schools of WA to hold a briefing session for principals and administrators.
"Executive director Audrey Jackson said yesterday no action had been taken against WA schools but educational negligence was an emerging area of interest because of newspaper reports about cases in the Eastern States.
"It's really important that principals are informed because their governing bodies rely on them to provide advice in these sorts of areas," Ms Jackson said.
"While courts in the US and Britain have traditionally been reluctant to allow claims against teachers or education authorities, recent cases have forced changes to the laws in those countries.
"Yvonne Meyer, from Melbourne, got a payout from Brighton Grammar School last year for it allegedly failing to teach her son to read properly by the end of Year 5 after the prestige boys' school promised it would tackle his literacy problems.
"Ms Meyer took the school to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, claiming that it had breached the Trade Practices Act. The school settled out of court. [emphasis added]
"The WA principals were told it was not likely a parent could sue a school successfully on the basis it had failed to discharge its general obligations.
"But claims could be brought over failures to meet proper professional standards in response to known facts about particular students, such as undiagnosed dyslexia or failing to help gifted students accelerate their learning.
"Private schools could be held liable under the Trade Practices Act, which forbids a corporation from engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct."
From The West Australian
- Comparing schools fails with too many factors, says teachers' union (page 17)
by Bethany Hiatt
"Attempts to compare results of State, Catholic and independent schools by factoring in differences between the backgrounds of their students were "completely stupid", the head of the teachers' union said yesterday."State governments committed this week to develop ways to report individual schools' performance in new national literacy and numeracy tests.
"Education Minister Mark McGowan backed the release of data that would compare the results of private and State schools for the first time but said it would have to be adjusted to determine what value the school had added.
"State School Teachers' Union president Mike Keely said so many contributing factors would have to be taken into account that it would be meaningless.
"These could include parents' financial background, family stability, whether children had access to books and computers at home, differences in school facilities and conditions, how well trained the teachers were and how many years they had been teaching "or whether the school has a lap pool for water polo or a sewage sump next door".
"I think it's completely stupid to pretend that you can measure and adjust for all the factors," he said.
"It was "bizarre" and "unbelievable" that schools should be assessed only on their success in teaching children to read and add up, rather than valuing students' achievement in all the other things schools were legally required to teach.
"The proposition was politically driven with no educational value, Mr Keely said. "It will drive teachers to stop educating and simply teach literacy and numeracy," he said. "If this is how you measure schools, by test results based on one test on a couple of hours a year, then we've lost the plot completely."
"Results of all British schools each year take into account students' progress between tests at 7 and 11 years of age - the value added measure. A system is being developed to include students' sex, mobility and levels of deprivation."
From The West Australian
- Editorial
Huge surpluses: from triumph to embarrassment (page 20)"... And a perpetually cashed-up Government, particularly one with a record of serial overspending and a consequently burgeoning white-collar public service, must surely be held accountable for the state of public institutions, hospitals and schools in particular.
"It is hard, if not impossible, for people to reconcile huge Budget surpluses with the often deplorable conditions in schools and hospitals. Far from being symbols of fiscal achievement, such surpluses can become political embarrassments: hence yesterday's exercise in spin."
From The West Australian
- The Australian
- New vision for schools 'just drivel'
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"A former senior Labor policy adviser has attacked the vision for school education unveiled by state and territory governments, describing it as "dangerous drivel" and a "retrograde step that will dumb down school curriculum across Australia"."Ken Wiltshire, professor of public policy at the University of Queensland and the architect of the Queensland curriculum under the Goss government, told The Australian that the Future of Schooling report showed Labor education policy was still driven by the teachers' unions.
"Professor Wiltshire seized on the idea in the report, released this week, that "the judgment of teachers is paramount", with external state exams and national tests supplementing the teachers' assessment.
"External assessment should be what drives the whole national school curriculum. School-based assessment is subsidiary," he said.
"This is an enormous step backwards. This is a really retrograde step that will dumb down the whole curriculum across Australia to the lowest common denominator, and the worst school will become the standard.
"If this document gets through, the eight state education ministers are the greatest dunces in Australia."
"Professor Wiltshire said the argument for school-based assessment was driven by teachers' unions and meant the teachers decided what would be examined and assessed, with no external checks or comparison of standards.
"It's teachers' unions driving this to prevent any checks or controls on teachers and to prevent parents having appropriate measures of accountability and performance standards for the reporting of their kids," he said.
"The Future of Schooling report was released on Tuesday by Victorian Premier John Brumby and commissioned by the Council for the Australian Federation from a steering committee chaired by the secretary of the Victorian education department, Peter Dawkins.
"The report was a final version revised after consultation with a range of organisations, with very few changes.
"But the statement on public reporting of student assessment did change, with the draft version saying: "The external assessments of all students in state and national testing programs provide this kind of information (to understand personal development of students)."
"The final version states: "The judgment of teachers is paramount, but external assessments of all students in state and national testing programs must supplement this information."
"Professor Dawkins said that to interpret this sentence as a movement away from state and national testing programs was wrong, and that they remained a critical part of the assessment and reporting process.
"Rather, the idea of a teacher's judgment being paramount was to reflect that teachers are trained to interpret test results and relate this to a child's development, and that they are the primary communicators with parents about their child's performance.
"State and national testing programs are an important part, but not all the information that a teacher uses to determine a child's developmental needs," he said.
"The judgment of teachers should always be crucial in reporting to parents.
"During the consultation period, we received feedback that this is important. However, this is not intended to detract from the important role of external assessment."
"Professor Wiltshire said the explanation was "gobbledegook and designed to prevent proper accountability".
"Parents want to see external assessment - they're not interested in school-based assessment," he said.
"They don't want to know whether the teacher likes their child, or how they rank in class. They want to know how their child is shaping up and keeping pace with the national curriculum."
From The Australian at link
- Melbourne struggles with old courses
Majors in studies of Asia, Australia, Europe and Islam have been listed as endangered species by the University of Melbourne as it struggles to reconcile the bachelor of arts, its oldest degree, with its radical new liberal arts offering.
Similar story in The Age
- Letter to the Editor
- The learning strugglers
"It's apparent that Kevin Donnelly ("More is less in the education battle”, Opinion, 25/9) is on a different planet to me. Where I teach, many of our families struggle to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. Consequently, literacy and numeracy take a back seat to daily survival. With limited resources and limited access to opportunity, it’s not surprising in the least that many of their kids are learning strugglers."To suggest that private schools have the answers because they have autonomy over resource allocation and no union interference is a simplistic notion beyond belief. No doubt the private school data looks great, but how much do these schools really value add to their students. Their students come from homes that are already education savvy and resource and opportunity rich—it’s not surprising they do well. What is surprising is that Donnelly has overlooked the social and economic realities which are at the heart of the education debate. At all levels of government, the politicising of such important issues is shameful."
Mark Koppelmann, Principal, Risdon Vale Primary School, Risdon Vale, Tas
- The Age
- Editorial
A public-private partnership is worth examining
"A year ago, The Age ran an editorial with the headline "Something is rotten in the state of our classrooms". It highlighted comments by Professor Brian Caldwell, a former dean of education at the University of Melbourne, that hundreds of state schools needed to be demolished. "You can visit schools in the state, and whether you are looking at toilet facilities or classrooms, they are appalling," he said at the time. It would require about $4 billion to rectify the situation. A few months earlier, the Victorian Government in its budget outlined the state's biggest school rebuilding program: $555 million to upgrade 131 schools. At the time, the Australian Education Union voiced its support for public-private partnerships to build schools. Principals' groups also agreed, with conditions on limiting commercial influence in schools."This week the Premier, John Brumby, flagged the use of PPPs to do just that. He has asked the Treasury and the Education Minister, Bronwyn Pike, to report to him by the end of the year on the use of the partnerships in the school sector. In principle, The Age agrees with this approach. It is not enough merely to upgrade and maintain schools. There needs to be a long-term vision for the provision of schools. For too many years, teachers and students have had to suffer from the inadequacies of funding. The slash and burn years of the Kennett era — millions of dollars in funding cut, thousands of teachers lost and hundreds of schools closed — may be now a painful memory, but complacency is also an enemy. Mr Brumby should be applauded for positing a pro-active proposal..."
Full Editorial in The Age at link
- The West Australian
- Teachers face mass sackings over fees [Front Page Headline]
by Bethany Hiatt
"The Education Department has warned it will sack hundreds of teachers for failing to pay compulsory registration fees in a bitter standoff that threatens to exacerbate WA's already substantial teacher shortage."In a letter to State school principals this week, the department urged them to draw up contingency plans to cope with the staff shortages that may result from its decision to oust those who refuse to pay the annual $70 fee by October 26.
"The impasse prompted the head of the secondary principals' association, Alison Woodman, to warn that schools may have to close because of a lack of teachers while teachers' union chief Mike Keely said some programmes may have to be cut.
"The fee was originally due by April 30 but several thousand teachers refused to pay until the registration body, known as the WA College of Teaching, fulfilled its obligation to hold elections to allow teachers to appoint representatives to the board.
"The elections were meant to have been held last November but the process was abandoned midstream with the college citing legal complications. Since then, it has continued to demand teacher pay the fee of race the sack but thousands of teacher have refused to hand over their money until an election date is set.
"WACOT said yesterday its board would meet on October 26 to draw up a list of the teachers to be deregistered for failing to pay, making it illegal for them to teach in a State or private school.
"Nearly 3000 teachers from State and private school have not paid.
"In its letter to principals, a copy of which was obtained by The West Australian, the department warned it had no choice but to sack teachers who failed to pay by October 26.
"If teachers fail to comply with this requirement, the department will have no alternative but to comply with the legislation and terminate the contracts of employment of unregistered teachers on the basis that they have repudiated their employment contract," the letter said. "It is important for schools and districts to consider contingency plans where a teacher may be deregistered."
"Principals were instructed to tell the department how many unregistered teachers they had and how they planned to deal with the expected shortages.
"Acting director general of schools Keith Newton refused to say how schools could deal with an exacerbated teacher shortage.
"Education minister Mark McGowan said yesterday that he did not believe any teacher would be prepared to lose their job over the fee, which would cost them $50 after allowing for the tax deduction.
"There will be very few, if any, teachers who do not pay their, in effect, $50 fee to keep their jobs," he told Parliament.
"Ms Woodman, president of the WA Secondary Schools Executive Association, said school closures were a possibility. "If a school had a significant proportion of teachers deregistered then, in the interests of safety and a good education, I don't see how they could carry on," she said.
"I don't think it will get to that, but we have to face the fact that if we're being asked to make contingency plans, that's one that has to be considered."
"Mr Keely, president of the SSTUWA, agreed that schools could be forced to cut teaching programmes. He said the department should pay teachers' WACOT fees and warned they were angry about the department's heavy handed letter.
"It's basically a threatening letter," he said. "Instead of bashing teachers over the head with this they've got to find ways to get through this so they do not totally alienate teachers."
"The fees were a legal requirement. "But we will be advising WACOT and the department to tread carefully…How big a shortage in Term 4 do you really want?" he said."
From The West Australian
- Kindy kids join rise in bad behaviour (page 14)
by Bethany Hiatt
"The number of children suspended from State school for bad behaviour has leapt by more than 2000, from 7645, or 3.1% of the school population in 2005 to 9649 or 3.8% last year."The Education Department, which released the figures yesterday, said the big jump was a result of a new online reporting system. It said the 2006 figures were accurate and could not be compared with previous years.
"Some of the children suspended from public schools in 2006 were as young as 4, with 2 kindergarten students banned from school for hitting other students.
"Twenty five pre-primary students were suspended, three of them on more than 4 occasions, for a range of offences including hitting or abusing teachers, assaulting other students and breaking school rules. And the number of Year 1 students who were suspended jumped from 77 in 2005 to 108 last year.
"Forty percent of students banned from school were suspended more than once, bringing to 19744 the total number of suspension notices issued last year. Suspensions were for about 2 days.
"Last year, 21 students were expelled from State schools, compared with 26 in 2005. Most of those were boys in year 10. The youngest, a boy in Year 5, was expelled because of violence against other students.
"A department spokesman said it found another school or educational programme for students who had been excluded.
"Education director general Sharyn O'Neill said the new electronic system made it easier for schools to report incidents and allowed for quicker responses.
"While the 2006 data showed an increase in the number of students being suspended, we believe it is due to a more accurate reporting of incidents and not due to increased incidence of bad behaviour," she said. "There is also a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest that schools are taking a tougher stance on violence."
"Education Minister Mark McGowan has promised to set up three new specialist behaviour centres by next month to deal with violent, aggressive and disruptive students.
"Ms O'Neill said children who were suspended more than 3 times in a year would be considered eligible to be sent to one of the centres.
"State School Teachers' Union president Mike Keely said teachers were concerned about increasing levels of unacceptable behaviour.
"Shadow Education Minister Peter Collier said it was naïve to suggest that the alarming rise in student suspensions could be attributed to improved reporting procedures. "This issue is largely responsible for the deterioration of teacher morale in our schools over recent years and unless it is given adequate priority by the Government, it will inevitably lead to more resignations in the near future," he said."
From The West Australian
- The Australian
- Teachers face sack over $70 fee
by Amanda O'Brien, WA political reporter
"Western Australia's chronic teacher shortage could worsen after thousands of teachers were threatened with the sack this week if they refused to pay a $70 registration fee."Teachers have been told by the Education Department they have until October 26 to pay membership fees to the West Australian College of Teaching, their professional standards body, or face deregistration and termination of contracts.
"The issue sparked alarm yesterday with the Opposition predicting chaos in schools as students were preparing for their TEE exams.
"It is understood that about 3000 teachers, including 1600 of the state's 33,000 classroom teachers, have refused to pay their fees because they are angry over a lack of teacher representatives on the WACOT board.
"They say promised elections to put 10 teachers on to the board have not been held three years after the body was established.
"The Education Department wrote to them on Wednesday warning they would be dismissed if they failed to comply. It also told principals to prepare contingency plans to deal with any deregistrations.
"Opposition education spokesman Peter Collier said the approach was extraordinary at a time of a severe teacher shortage when the Government was desperate to recruit more teachers.
"What you've got potentially are 1600 teachers who are not going to be in our classrooms in a month's time," he said.
"That is hundreds of classrooms across the length and breadth of the state potentially without teachers in six weeks' time, three days before the commencement of the tertiary entrance exams."
"The issue caused uproar in state parliament yesterday, with Education Minister Mark McGowan rejecting the claims of looming chaos.
"Teachers would pay, he said.
"Do you actually think that anyone would give up their job over what is, in effect, a $50 (after tax deductions) fee," he said.
"There will be very few, if any, teachers that don't pay.
"A $50 fee is, in effect, a half-a-morning's pay for a teacher." [Rather missing the point, isn't he? Web]
"State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely told The Australian the comments were provocative and Mr McGowan might be surprised at the result.
"This is a sledgehammer approach to people you want to keep," he said.
"That dismissive approach is the last thing teachers need to hear from the Government." [emphasis added]
From The Australian at link
This story is also being carried by The Sunday Times online, with the opportunity for reader comments, at this link
- Early learning gap lashed
by Stephen Lunn, Social affairs writer
"Some Australian preschoolers are being left behind because of glaring gaps in early childhood education and services in parts of the country."And an overall lack of government spending on young children means Australia is being left behind internationally, Mission Australia says.
"Australia directs only 1.5per cent of its overall investment in public education into preschools compared to the OECD average of 7.2 per cent, despite the overwhelming evidence of its benefits," said Mission Australia chief executive Toby Hall.
"New Zealand is leaving Australia behind after establishing a 10-year national early childhood strategy which (includes) a universal early childhood education program providing 20 hours per week preschool for all 3-to-4-year olds."
"Mr Hall said inconsistencies between states on issues such as costs of care, curriculum for preschools and funding meant some children received a better start to their lives than others.
"Early childhood spending can herald a significant lift for all children," he said, "but it off
