Monday 12 November

Tuesday 13 November

Wednesday 14 November

Thursday 15 November

Friday 16 November

Saturday – Sunday, 17 – 18 November

 

Monday 12 November

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Union attacks plan to cut teacher training (page 7)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Poorly qualified people could be instructing children at the most important phase of their schooling under a plan for education assistants to qualify as primary school teachers in two years instead of the usual four, the teachers' union has warned.

    "State School Teachers Union vice president Anne Gisborne said yesterday members were concerned that a new scheme devised to tackle the teacher shortage would downgrade the value of university qualifications and undermine the standards required to become a teacher.

    "Our initial response is some concern at the proposal that there would be simply a two year conversion course and its potential capacity to undermine what are the established standards through WA College of Teaching, which is a four-year degree," Ms Gisborne said.

    "The concern is that this may well lead to the undermining of the quality of provision of education for students."

    "Ms Gisborne said members also had attacked the scheme as unfair because those who completed only two years at university would have half the HECS debt of their colleagues.

    "The union will raise its concerns with Department of Education and Training this week.

    "Under the scheme, education assistants who have at least five years classroom experience are eligible for scholarships to qualify as an early childhood or primary school teacher within two years.

    "Those selected would attend Curtin University for eight weeks and complete the rest of the course while they were working in schools.

    "Education assistants support teachers by supervising classroom activities or help children with disabilities by taking them to the toilet, restraining them and giving medication. No pre requisites are required to become an education assistant, though TAFE offers training courses.

    "The WA Primary Principals' Association is due to meet Curtin University lecturers this week to examine the programme the students would study to make sure it meets the same requirements as that of teachers taking a four-year degree.

    "In balancing the need of teacher supply it is important to have quality courses to ensure that the standard of teaching qualification is not diminished," president Colin Pettit said.

    "Curtin University head of education Len Sparrow said he was confident the programme would turn out quality teachers.

    "If they don't come up to the mark they won't graduate," he said.

    "About 800 people had applied for 60 spots in the programme and he had been inundated with emails from school principals recommending their staff, Associate Professor Sparrow said.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said he was surprised that the union would criticise an initiative aimed at supplying more teachers to ease the shortage in WA.

    "These scholarships are for education assistants who already have extensive classroom experience, unlike the vast majority of people who start an ordinary teaching course at university," he said."
    
    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • "Under their current agreement, teachers will get a 2.5 per cent increase in February 2008. Under the Government's new offer the next pay rise for the vast majority of teachers will be in 12 months from then, in February 2009. At the current rate of inflation, that means by 2009 teachers will be valued somewhere between 3 and 4 per cent less than now. It's hard to see this as encouragement."

      D. H. Phillips, White Gum Valley
      
      
      

• The Age
  
  
  • Howard's education fight-back [lead story]
    by Tony Wright
    
    "Prime Minister John Howard will offer tax rebates worth billions of dollars to help parents pay for their children's education in an attempt to recapture crucial political momentum today.

    "The plan, to be announced by Mr Howard when he officially launches the Coalition's election campaign in Brisbane, is a direct assault on Labor leader Kevin Rudd's "education revolution".

    "The scheme includes taxation breaks for parents of preschool children right through to those attending secondary school and will cover a wide range of education expenses, including school fees. "Basically, this will cover all those things that are important to parents," a source told The Age. "It will blow Rudd out of the water."

    "Mr Rudd announced early in the election campaign that Labor would offer families a rebate of up to $375 a year for primary school students and $750 a year for those at secondary school. Labor focused its promised rebate — part of its taxation policy — on the benefit to parents wanting to buy a computer and other high-tech equipment for their children. A family with one primary and one secondary-school child could receive up to $1125 a year under the initiative.

    "However, the Howard Government's scheme — apart from embracing preschool-aged children — is believed to offer more comprehensive tax rebates covering a much broader range of education costs.

    "Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile will also weigh in to the education push, announcing bursaries worth $4000 each to help tertiary students from remote areas. The bursaries, for 1000 students a year, will be for university and TAFE students who have to move long distances.

    "In Victoria, this would include students from the Mallee and far-east Gippsland.

    "Mr Howard's new focus on education will also offer $5000 to teachers willing to attend 10-day summer-school courses to learn new techniques in teaching children with special needs and disabilities. These will be an extension to summer schools in more traditional disciplines, which were announced in the budget and which have proved popular among teachers..."
    
    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    

• State eyes private funding of schools
  by Paul Austin
  
  "Private funding of new state schools, "one-stop shop" education and community centres in the outer suburbs, staggered school starting times and a push for underperforming schools to lift their game are key elements of John Brumby's education revolution for Victoria..."
  
  "Outlining his policy agenda in an interview with The Age to mark his first 100 days as Premier, Mr Brumby identified education as his No. 1 priority and said he hoped to attract private sector investment in state schools for the first time.

  "He indicated public-private partnerships could be used to build schools in the next four to six years in growth areas such as Wyndham, Melton, Sydenham and Hume.

  "New state schools would share facilities such as ovals, pools, libraries and computers with the local community and private schools.

  "I think the old days where you have a single, old-fashioned, stand-alone school are gone," Mr Brumby said.

  "You're going to see more preschool centres and kindergartens integrated into school sites, more sharing of facilities, including between government and non-government schools. The old days where they'd each have two or three ovals and each look after those … are over."

  "Mr Brumby said there were too many underperforming state schools in Victoria, and the Government was determined to change the culture to give disadvantaged children a better chance in life.

  "He made it clear that offering financial incentives to good teachers to work in struggling schools could be part of the solution, saying payment arrangements would be looked at.

  "I think we can be proud of the fact that our state schools are very good — that if you are a parent in Victoria, you know that if you are sending your kids to a government school they're going to get a good education," he said.

  "But there's a long tail. There are still too many kids who are missing out and who aren't doing as well as they could or should." ...
  
  Full story in The Age at link
  
  
  

• Young lack post-school training despite demand
  
  Nearly half of Australia's 18 to 20-year-olds are not in any form of education or training despite the nation's professional and technical skills shortage.
  
  
  
  
• Op Ed
  School chaplains help young people cope with life [late update from 11 November]
  
  The National School Chaplaincy Program categorically does not provide religious programs in schools... [research indicates] that students in schools which had a chaplaincy program in place were better able to deal with problems of bullying, peer pressure and feelings of low self-esteem.
  
  
  
  
• The Australian
  
  
  • Vaile to lure bush uni students
    by Cath Hart
    
    "Students The scheme will be announced today by Nationals leader Mark Vaile at the Coalition's campaign launch in Brisbane.

    "Under the $12 million package, students from remote and very remote areas embarking on university study would be eligible for the grants. The proposal would deliver grants to 1000 remote-area students a year between 2008-09 and 2010-11.

    "The payments, which the Isolated Children's Parents Association has been lobbying for, would not be means-tested..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • PhD deficit to hit boom
    by Luke Slattery
    
    "Economic growth and productivity are threatened by a 30 per cent fall in the number of postgraduate researchers between 1995 and 2006, the group of eight research universities warned yesterday.
    
    "The brain drain from academia to industry - a result of high employment and graduate starting salaries of more than $100,000 in key sectors - means that universities are producing only 2.3 doctorates for every 100 graduates, compared with 3.9 per cent in Canada, 10.1 per cent in Switzerland and 11.2 in Germany.

    "Australian National University vice-chancellor Ian Chubb, speaking on behalf of the G-8, said universities were not producing enough new researchers to sustain, let alone improve, economic growth and productivity, nor to replenish the ageing academic workforce..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Schools cut ties with rights group
    
    Two private schools have cut links with human rights group Amnesty International, holding their first meetings of a breakaway group following a change in the charity's stance on abortion.

Tuesday 13 November

• The Australian
  
  
  • Howard's rebate to cover all parents
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "All parents will receive tax rebates worth up to $400 a year for preschool and primary students and $800 a year for high school students to cover school fees, uniforms and excursions under a re-elected Coalition government.

    "In the latest policy bidding war, John Howard outlined an education tax rebate worth more than $2 billion a year, costed at $6.3 billion over the next three years.

    "The Coalition's education rebate goes further than the proposal announced two weeks ago by Labor, which provides rebates worth $2.3 billion over two years to families eligible for the Family Tax Benefit (Part A), making it means tested.

    "The ALP's rebate excludes expenses such as school fees and uniforms but offers a maximum refund of 50 per cent of expenses up to $750 for primary students and $1500 for high school students for laptop and home computers, printers, internet connection, software and textbooks.

    "The Coalition's rebate is much broader, available for every student regardless of parental income and pays 40 per cent of $1000 worth of expenses for primary students and 40 per cent of $2000 worth of expenses for high school students for every year the student attends school.

    "Under the Coalition's rebate, parents can claim technology expenses but also school and preschool fees, whether government or private, schoolbags and uniforms, camps and excursions, stationery and calculators as well as extra-curricular activities including sport, music, dance and drama.

    "Labor's education rebate would come into force from July 2009 while the Coalition's plan would apply to expenses incurred from the beginning of next year, with parents able to claim their first rebate in their July 2008 tax return.

    "The Prime Minister said the policy would increase children's educational opportunities by helping parents make investments in their future.

    "I know that for many parents this is the most important investment of all, but of course they face many competing pressures on the family budget," Mr Howard said.

    "Unlike (Kevin) Rudd I do recognise that the cost of education extends well beyond laptops and broadband connections."

    "Labor's education spokesman Stephen Smith said the Coalition's plan was basically the same as Labor's.

    "They've had 11 long years and now two weeks to go before an election they put a fig leaf on top of Labor's program and somehow try to pretend it's a plan for the future," Mr Smith told Sky News yesterday.

    "The plan was welcomed by the Independent Schools Council of Australia, with executive director Bill Daniels saying the flexibility allowed a broad range of family expenses to be targeted.

    "If Australia is to meet community expectations of schooling in the 21st century then governments need to find ways to harness community resources," Mr Daniels said. "Tax rebates are one way governments can support private contribution to school education."

    "But Australian Council of State School Organisations executive officer Terry Aulich warned refunding private school fees had the capacity to do "grave damage to public schools".

    "It can create a whole new debate about private versus public education funding and we thought we had moved away from that," Mr Aulich said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    Similar stories in today's Age and Sydney Morning Herald
    
    

  • Go digital or lose out, teachers told
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Teachers are immigrants in their students' digital world and risk being sidelined as irrelevant if they fail to embrace the learning potential offered by digital technologies.

    "Former film producer turned British Labour politician David Puttnam yesterday said today's students were "digital natives" who had never known a world without a computer. But they were forced to "power down" when they entered a classroom to cope with their teachers, whom he described as "digital immigrants", suspicious of technology and begrudging of its place in schools.

    "Are we going to allow the disconnect between learners' everyday lives and experience of formal education to grow from a gap to a chasm?" he asked the Curriculum Corporation's annual conference in Sydney.

    "Are we going to allow it to get to the point where the entire process of learning has atrophied beyond the point of salvation?

    "Should we fail to accept this potential, we run the risk of relegating education to second-class status in the information world."

    "Lord Puttnam, producer of such films as Chariots of Fire, The Killing Fields and Midnight Express, retired from filmmaking in 1998 to focus on his work in education.

    "He is the chancellor of the Open University in Britain, was founder of the National Teaching Awards, and is the chairman of FutureLab, a not-for-profit organisation developing digital classroom resources.

    "Lord Puttnam said teachers, for the first time in history, were being asked to prepare a generation for a world they could not envisage. "Yet the education system remains relatively unchanged and is more attuned to the immediate past rather than the immediate future," he said.

    "He compared the standoff between education and technology to the plight of the British clergy in the 17th century, who greeted with furore the first publication of the Bible.

    "It meant they were no longer the sole fount of knowledge because people started to read the Bible for themselves and challenged the orthodoxies," he said.

    "Similarly, the learning opportunities offered by such technolgies as multiplayer online games were being overlooked.

    "Lord Puttnam said multiplayer games such as The Sims offered immense opportunities, introducing children to the apprenticeship model of learning and giving instant feedback on their progress through the death of a character or destruction of a world.

    "He said such games could be adapted to model historic events, such as the factors facing Neville Chamberlain in deciding to go to war in 1939, and that all teachers should customise software by inserting a language or specific skill in existing games. "You have to be open to legitimate components of what sometimes appear to be illegitimate invasions of cultural territory," Lord Puttnam said.

    "Education systems need to protect the ethos or they will be swamped and overtaken by the commercial market.

    "Steal the technology, steal the ideas, use the energy and inventiveness but protect the values you are teaching."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Libs' education rebates draws crossfire
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Public school parents and teachers have accused the Coalition of advancing the rich and attempting to "privatise education" by offering contentious tax rebates for school fees and uniforms.

    "Prime Minister John Howard yesterday vowed that a re-elected Coalition Government would provide parents with refunds of up to $800 for every secondary school child, and up to $400 for every primary and preschool child to help pay for a broad range of educational expenses.

    "The policy was reminiscent of federal Labor's plan to give tax rebates to families for laptops and software. But it goes a step further than the Opposition by offering parents — regardless of income — a slightly larger rebate on everything from computers and books, to school uniforms, voluntary levies, and private school fees.

    "Ideological divisions deepened over the policy last night, with public school parents, teachers and academics condemning the move.

    "The private schools lobby welcomed the move for not discriminating against families with higher incomes.

    "The policy is the first time since before state aid was introduced in Australia that tax rebates have been offered to subsidise private school fees, which can reach up to $19,000 in some schools. Terry Aulich, executive director of the Australian Council for State School Organisations, said the plan was "radical change" towards the privatisation of the education system.

    "To introduce a tax rebate for school fees is a major change in the way education is funded in this country. It throws the onus back on to the private individual, and it is, in essence, privatising education," said Mr Aulich, whose group represents the parents of children in government schools.

    "The Australian Education Union was also outraged by the move, describing it as a "further extending of privilege to the already privileged".

    "What Australia needs is leadership and a bold vision aimed at dramatically increasing investment in public schools," said the union's deputy president, Angelo Gavrielatos.

    "Subsidising private choice is not in the public interest."

    "But Education Minister Julie Bishop said the fact that the plan was not means tested supported parental choice.

    "We believe that education is an important investment for the entire nation and we don't pick and choose," Ms Bishop said.

    "This is talking about giving parents the choice of where they send their children to school, how they educate children, where they direct their money in terms of educating their children."

    "The Coalition's policy comes only weeks after Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd announced a $2.3 billion plan for an education tax rebate, in which families eligible for the Family Tax Benefit (Part A) would receive a 50 per cent refund on education expenses limited to laptops and home computers, printers, internet connection, educational software and school textbooks.

    "Under Labor's plan, the maximum claim each year would be $375 for each primary school child (compared with the Coalition's $400 rebate), while the maximum annual claim per high school student would be $750 (compared with $800).

    "Independent Schools Council of Australia executive director Bill Daniels said parents would welcome the flexibility of the Coalition's policy, which would ease a broad range of financial pressures.

    "But Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith described the policy as a "last minute desperate bribe".

    "They've had 11 long years and now, two weeks to go before an election, they put a fig leaf on top of Labor's program and somehow try to pretend it's a plan for the future," Mr Smith said.

    "If the Coalition is re-elected, parents may claim the rebate for their tax returns from July 2008.

    "The Government expects the rebate will benefit up to 2.1 million families."
    

    From The Age at link
    
    Other article on Howard's education policy in The Australian, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
    
  • The Monday Education Section has been updated online and contains 11 articles, including:
    
    
    • Survey reveals uni discontent
      
      Government funding for universities is inadequate and universities are more interested in making money than in student results. These are the resounding messages from an online survey of academics and other staff at Victoria's nine universities.
      
      
      
    • Put the love back into learning
      
      The back-to-basics movement, assisted considerably by political momentum, assumes failure to acquire essential numeracy and literacy skills is because too few formal lessons are devoted to these core studies. But might the opposite be true?
      
      
      
    • Schools urged 'do better' on data
      
      Parents are being short-changed by schools that don't hand in their report cards on time, writes Caroline Milburn.
      
      
      
    • Behold the power of creation
      
      School projects build character and memories, writes Maya Beaucasin.
      
      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Skills crisis, yet rate of training stagnates [late update from 12 November]
    
    Despite the demand for skilled workers, almost half of young people are not undertaking training - a situation that has not improved in the past five years.

Wednesday 14 November

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Fears State schools left for poor (page 9)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Tax rebates aimed at helping parents offset education costs would increase the drift to private schools, leaving State schools only for the poor and disadvantaged, principal and parent groups said yesterday.

    "Responding to John Howard's $6 billion plan to offer rebates of up to $800 on school fees, uniforms, laptops and textbooks, the WA Council of State School Organisations and the WA Secondary School Executives Association said the scheme could create a two tiered system in which only the children of poor families attended public schools. Enrolments in WA private schools increased 36% in the past 10 years compared with 2.5% at public school, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

    "WACSSO president Rob Fry said the rebate scheme had the potential to exacerbate the flight to private schools.

    "I'm sure this coalition Government is hell bent on driving public schools down to the ground and making it a more privatised system," Mr Fry said. "They've done it with everything else, why not with schools?"

    "Mr Fry and State school parents would prefer the Government to spend more on support for teachers and schools. "Potentially, this money is not going to schools, it's going to the parents to pay what they're probably paying anyway, it's not adding any value to schools," he said.

    "WASSEA president Alison Woodman said the Federal Government intended to increase enrolments at private schools.

    "Because we've become an economy, not a society," she said. "I think their intention is to create a residualised system." The meant only poor and disadvantaged students would attend State schools. "Instead of looking at the social consequences they have focused only on the economics of businesses running schools," Ms Woodman said.

    "But John Howard has furiously rejected suggestions that coalition's education rebates are simply welfare for the middle and upper classes.

    "The Prime Minister said the coalition's promise to give families education rebates of up to $800 per child - regardless of their wealth - was proper recognition of the extra costs of having children.

    "I do not regard it as welfare to give people a tax break for having children," he said.

    "Labor's $2.4 billion education rebate is capped at $375 a year for primary school students and $750 for secondary students but is limited to recouping the cost of laptops and broadband access at home.

    "It is also limited to parents who are eligible for Family Tax Benefit A payments.

    "The coalition's $6.3 billion education rebates are worth up to $400 per primary student and preschoolers and up to $800 per secondary student.

    "The rebates are not means tested and apply to any education related expense, including private school fees."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    See below for a wide range of articles on the education rebate from today's Australian and Age
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • Simple cure

      "Mr McGowan, after reading about your ideas to help the teacher shortage (Union attacks plan to cut teacher training, 12/10), I offer a little help of my own. I am told there is also a shortage of medical practitioners. Although I have been a teacher for 36 years, I have had a long relationship with the medical world.

      "Since the advent of Dr Ben Casey I have followed my medical calling with rigour. I am familiar with the Kildare method, the Lancellot Spratt recovery process and the technological mastery of Dr House and Dr Grey.

      "I have also spent time in hospital and have enrolled in first-aid courses to bolster my suitability for what I am about to suggest. I could easily do a two-year medical conversion course and become a doctor.

      "I would not try to move too quickly and would allow at least a year before brain surgery and the like. I feel that my long relationship with current medical practice through dedicated observance would give me much more "hospital" experience than a rank first-year intern. I think this solves both problems nicely: I make way for a new teacher sna the State gains a new doctor."

      T. Wilson, Sorrento
      

      
      
    • Our solution

      "Your report on the plan for educational assistants to qualify as primary school teachers within two years requires comment.

      "This proposal is an extension of a current programme, not a new one, but it does require detailed examination of the type and quality of prior learning being recognised and the method in which it is being advertised.

      "WACOT has a role in approving teaching training courses and it will not be a party to the undermining of standards for the profession and the delivery of quality education.

      "The long term solution to teacher shortages is to raise the status of teaching by increased recognition of the role of the profession, support from parents, employers and government and appropriate salary, working conditions and career paths."

      Brian Lindberg, Chairman WA College of Teaching
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • Quality teachers vital to outcomes
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "The head of the nation's biggest school system yesterday criticised Australia's teacher training programs for failing to select student teachers based on their academic ability.

    "Director-general of the NSW education department Michael Coutts-Trotter yesterday pointed to a report by international management consultants McKinsey & Company that highlights the shortcomings in Australia's teacher training programs.

    "Mr Coutts-Trotter said the report highlighted the fact most high-performing school systems selected students before they started teacher training and limited places to those selected.

    "The relative scarcity of teacher training places makes it attractive to high performers," he told the Curriculum Corporation conference in Sydney yesterday.

    "Mr Coutts-Trotter said the core problem was the commonwealth's system for funding universities that encouraged institutions to train as many teachers as they could.

    "Education policy in the election campaign has focused on tax rebates for school expenses but the Coalition and the ALP are yet to address the fundamental factor in student performance underlined by the McKinsey report - the quality of teachers.

    "The McKinsey report examined 25 school systems around the world - including the top 10 performing systems based on results in OECD tests, which includes Australia - to determine the common factors to improve student performance.

    "The report concluded that three things mattered most across all systems, primarily teacher quality. "The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers," it says. [emphasis added]

    "The other factors were developing teachers into effective instructors and building a system that responds to student needs so that every child succeeds.

    "In the Coalition policy launch on Monday, Prime Minister John Howard unveiled a $6.3 billion rebate making school fees, uniforms, equipment and other expenses tax deductible for parents of students from preschool to Year 12 regardless of income.

    "The Coalition also extended its summer school program for teachers to include disabilities as well as English, numeracy, literacy, Australian history, science and maths unveiled in the budget and is funding a pilot study into schemes to pay teachers more based on improvements in student achievement.

    "Kevin Rudd will launch his party's election campaign today.

    "ALP spokesman on education Stephen Smith yesterday said improving the respect and regard for teachers was key to improving the quality of education.

    "We have to have a very serious look at teacher training and start sending policy and financial signals that being a teacher is one of the most important things people can do," he said. He added that meant paying teachers more according to their qualifications, particularly in areas of shortage.

    "Mr Coutts-Trotter was chief of staff to former NSW Treasurer Michael Egan and is married to Labor spokeswoman on human services, housing, youth and women, Tanya Plibersek."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Rudd's classroom warfare
    by Matthew Franklin and Patricia Karvelas
    
    "Kevin Rudd will today attempt to seal his prime ministerial bid with hundreds of millions of dollars in new education spending, but will stop short of matching John Howard's $6.3 billion tax rebate for private school fees.

    "But the Opposition Leader's pledge that the parents of private school students would not be worse off under Labor was undermined yesterday by the party's star candidate for the NSW marginal seat of Eden-Monaro, Mike Kelly, who flagged a return to Mark Latham's needs-based funding model.

    "Mr Kelly told an ABC radio interviewer that the existing system of funding private schools was "a ridiculous approach to looking at the needs of schools, and we'll move away from that and get down eventually to a proper needs-based approach".

    "He later apologised and retracted the statement, but the Prime Minister, campaigning on his own education policies at a Catholic school in the Brisbane seat of Dickson, seized on the gaffe to accuse Labor of planning to revive former leader Mr Latham's controversial 2004 hit list of rich schools to suffer funding cuts under a Labor government.

    "But Mr Howard's education tax rebate plan came under fire from economists and education experts, who criticised the Coalition's non-means-tested promise to rebate parents up to $800 for every high school student, arguing it would increase voter reliance on government welfare.

    "Tim Hawkes, headmaster of Sydney's elite The King's School, said the private schools fees rebate should be means-tested.

    "The bottom line is I think the money should be spent where it's needed," Mr Hawkes said.

    "Mr Rudd, who will formally launch his campaign to win the election in his home town of Brisbane this morning, will also press his environmental credentials with a$500 million renewable energy fund designed to help researchers commercialise new energy technology.

    "Mr Howard yesterday passionately defended his promise to give parents $6.3 billion in education rebates.

    "The rebates could be used to cover any education-related expense, including, for the first time, private school fees, as well as public school voluntary contributions, uniforms and books, school excursions and extracurricular activities, such as music and sport.

    "They will be available to all parents, regardless of their income. Labor's rival $2.3 billion school rebate plan is means-tested and designed to cover a more limited range of education expenses.

    "Challenged yesterday about whether the spending was middle-class welfare, Mr Howard said many people mangled the definition of welfare and that he wanted a society where governments supported parents.

    "I do not regard it as welfare to give people a tax break for having children," Mr Howard said.

    "It is an insult to the parents of Australia to call something that compensates parents for the cost of having children welfare.

    "What sort of society do some people want?"

    "Mr Howard said many private schools - such as the Catholic school he visited in Petrie yesterday, Our Lady of the Way School - were not wealthy and that the Coalition was passionately committed to the "absolute sovereignty of parental choice".

    "Asked whether wealthy people spending up to $20,000 a year to send their children to exclusive private schools needed an $800 rebate, Mr Howard said all parents made sacrifices to educate their children and all deserved assistance.

    "Speaking on Queensland's Sunshine Coast yesterday, Mr Rudd offered no criticism of the Government's education plans, but said he had better ideas on education. "I don't care whether schools are government-owned or non-government," Mr Rudd said.

    "What I'm concerned about is the quality of education provided through those schools and their physical assets, infrastructure and the training of their teachers.

    "I have no ideological problem whatsoever.

    "What I do have a problem with is making sure that every one of the country's schools, government and non-government, has the best quality education infrastructure on the ground."

    "Mr Howard went on the offensive late yesterday, describing Mr Kelly's gaffe as evidence Mr Latham's 2004 rich private school hit list had "never been put away". "It's only been put in a drawer," he said.

    "It was the second gaffe in a fortnight from a Labor figure, after environment spokesman Peter Garrett's remark that Labor in government would "change everything" after it won the election and his confusion about the party's climate change policy.

    "Within hours, Mr Kelly, whose polls indicate he has a strong chance of ousting Special Minister of State Gary Nairn, had retracted his earlier comment. "The statement I made today on school funding was wrong and inconsistent with Kevin Rudd's and federal Labor's election commitments," he said. "Federal Labor has made a rock-solid commitment to maintain the existing socio-economic status schools funding formula."

    "Last month, Australia's most senior Catholic cleric, George Pell, publicly endorsed Labor's new schools policy as a repudiation of the party's education platform under Mr Latham. In the 2004 election campaign, Cardinal Pell condemned Labor's policy of stripping funding from wealthy private schools.

    "Senior Labor sources last night went into damage control, promising that Mr Rudd's campaign future-focused launch today would involve a series of new policy proposals designed to counter Mr Howard's family-friendly launch on Monday.

    "But the Coalition's school tax rebates drew criticism, with economists and public school lobbyists warning they could drive up the cost of a private education, with schools likely to build the rebate into their fee base.

    "Australian National University economist Andrew Leigh described the measure as "standard middle-class welfare a la the baby bonus and first-home buyers grant". He said it was likely independent schools would build the money into their fees in the same way the LPG conversion rebate had translated into higher LPG conversion costs.

    "Australian Council for State School Organisations executive director Terry Aulich also predicted the rebate would result in a corresponding increase in fees. "If you subsidise the market place with tax benefits or a direct subsidy then, generally speaking, fees will rise to absorb it," he said."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    

  • Federal rivals maintain the charm offensive
    Staff reporters
    
    "Education Minister Julie Bishop and Labor education spokesman Stephen Smith have continued their duelling charm offensives in universities and schools across the nation.
    
    "Ms Bishop spruiked diversity as she worked towards her goal of visiting every Australian university while in office, though yesterday a hasty plan to visit Swinburne University in Melbourne was abandoned in favour of a Christian college in suburban Werribee.

    "Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd's campaign speech today should reveal whether Labor can sustain Mr Smith's repeated promise to reverse what he calls "11 long years of funding neglect of universities".

    "Visiting Charles Sturt University in central NSW yesterday with the Labor candidate for Macquarie, Bob Debus, Mr Smith said Labor would make "a long-term, enduring commitment, a greater public investment in universities".

    "On Monday, CSU researchers released a paper that said country students faced a bill of up to $26,000 in their first year of study if they moved away from home to go to university.

    "The National Union of Students seized on the report, saying it showed the Government had "failed to provide a real level of support" for country students. CSU's Sophie Warner and Kirsten Whyte said they had to work to earn up to $18,000 to be eligible for youth allowance.

    "Ms Whyte, 20, a nursing student, told the HES: "I would have to work at something I didn't want to do and put off even starting to study to enter the career I had chosen."

    "They voiced their concerns to Mr Smith, who said he would deal with educational disadvantage in the bush and look to provide more scholarships.

    "Mr Smith visited University of Queensland vice-chancellor John Hay in the past week in Brisbane, as well as his counterpart at Griffith, Ian O'Connor, in the seat of Moreton, which is being targeted by Labor. Mr Smith also attended the higher education forum held at Macquarie University in the Prime Minister's seat of Bennelong.

    "Ms Bishop continued her theme of urging universities to diversify and focus on their strengths by building centres of excellence.

    "Labor's spokesman for innovation, science and research, Kim Carr, visited UQ's Ipswich campus in the electorate of Bowman.

    "He told the HES that, if elected, Labor "would rebuild the national innovation system and encourage research so as to allow our universities and innovation system to meet the fundamental challenges facing our society".

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    PM stages his own education revolution
    by Paul Kelly
    
    "... Education is set to dominate this week after Howard's launch. The signs are that Rudd, backed by education spokesman Stephen Smith, will refuse to match Howard's rebate but also refuse to succumb to an ideological battle..."
    
    "Howard has given a new meaning to Rudd's $2.3 billion education tax refund for information technology costs for children. He expands this concept to a tax break for all students and all costs from fees to laptops to excursions. This is a vast new tax concession. Howard mocked Rudd by saying school costs went far beyond laptops and broadband. By including public as well as private school students Howard offers parents in public education a direct benefit while offending the ideology of many of them..."
    
    "But Rudd and Smith saw Howard coming. Labor's schools policy has been totally revamped during the past year. Rudd and Smith have abolished the hit list; accepted Howard's private school funding model; declared the government v non-government school funding debate dead; embraced a national curriculum with core subjects maths, science, English and history; championed the freedom of choice principle for parents; and determined that Howard will not wedge them on educational values.

    "What of the Labor Party? The answer is much of the ALP, the education unions and the public school lobby is unreformed on these issues, hostile to Rudd-Smith revisionism and awaiting the chance to revert to ideological habit..."
    
    "Rudd says he will not wage an ideological struggle with Howard over education. Obviously, that does not mean Rudd supports Howard's rebate. Indeed, by dismissing Howard's speech as devoid of "new ideas for the future", Rudd signals, presumably, that he has drawn the line on me-tooism.

    "In his policy launch today Rudd must explain to the Australian people the philosophical and policy dimensions of his education revolution and its price tag. It is a defining moment for Rudd. Howard's charge is that the smooth and elusive Rudd stands for nothing, unlike the "love me or loathe me" PM.

    "It opens a golden opportunity for Rudd to inject passion and faith into his agenda. His January pledge to make Australia into the best skilled and educated nation remains the single most important promise of Rudd's leadership. Now he must reveal himself as the persuasive advocate for this vision..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    

  • Private school backs ALP
    
    The headmaster of one of the nation's richest private schools believes John Howard's tax rebate for school fees should be means-tested.
    
    

  • Parents' rebate 'will drive up fees'
    
    Parents risk losing any financial gain from the campaign childcare bidding war within two years if childcare providers follow past form and hike fees.
    
    

  • No joy for unis in PM's vision
    
    Higher education's hopes for good news during the election campaign rest on Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd's launch in Brisbane today after universities, innovation or science were notably absent from Prime Minister John Howard's centrepiece speech on Monday.
    
    

  • Op Ed
    No point in learning to teach
    
    The idea that university academics should be trained as teachers ("Train academics to be teachers,"
    HES, November7) assumes that the teaching skills so important for schoolteachers are equally important for university scholars. However, I think that requiring university academics to become trained teachers would be bad for university students.
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • School funding should be based on needs of the children
      
      "Surely a true “education revolution’’ would be for both political parties to commit to providing our children with the very best education the nation can afford, irrespective of which school they attend.

      "Our future prosperity rests upon all children, no matter what their socio-economic background, being given the opportunity to reach their potential through education. It’s mind-boggling that we continue to accept that it’s OK for the majority of children to attend under-resourced public schools so long as private schools are there to cater to those who can afford them.

      "The Australian Constitution is silent on parental choice of school, but it does mandate an education for every Australian child. Taxpayer funding of all schools should be based on the needs of the children they educate, not the preferences of some parents. That would be an education revolution."
      
      Cathrynne Henshall, Bungonia, NSW
      
      

    • "Offering a tax rebate to parents of children attending private schools is a mistake. My daughter attends a private college, so I’m a target of John Howard’s policy. But I know I’ll never see the cash from a rebate.

      "Schools will think it’s Christmas and put their fees up, so the rebate will go straight from the Government to the school. We only need to remember what happened with private health insurance premiums when the 30 per cent rebate was introduced."
      
      Brian Mitchell, Sandy Bay, Tas

 

• The Age
  
  
  • Top private schools lash PM's policy
    by Farrah Tomazin, Education Editor, and Jewel Topsfield
    
    "Leading private school principals have branded Prime Minister John Howard's education tax rebate plan short-sighted, and accused both the major parties of squandering education money to buy votes.

    "A day after Mr Howard promised more than $6 billion in rebates to parents for education expenses — including school fees — heads of schools in Melbourne that stand to benefit financially from the policy have attacked it for lacking vision.

    "The criticism came as education dominated election campaigning yesterday, with Mr Howard seizing on remarks by an ALP candidate to claim a Rudd government would revive plans to cut funding from a "hit list" of wealthy private schools.

    "As the major parties argued, Melbourne Grammar principal Paul Sheahan accused both Labor and the Coalition of wasting large amounts of taxpayers' money in pursuit of votes.

    "Mr Sheahan said that rather than offering tax cuts and rebates, the nation's political leaders should promise to spend billions improving classrooms and buildings in poorer non-government schools and across the public education system.

    "I know there's a few people in our school who are struggling and they will no doubt appreciate that money, but I think the vast majority of this country don't want tax cuts or rebates," Mr Sheahan said.

    "They would actually like a hell of a lot of money spent on bringing the infrastructure up to scratch in our poorer schools. People don't want quick pork barrelling, they want long-term vision." [emphasis added]

    "St Michael's Grammar School principal Simon Gipson agreed, saying the offer of education tax rebates by both parties was "tweaking around the edges".

    "If you were to aggregate the amount that they've offered as tax rebates across Australia and actually put it towards more far-sighted changes to education, then we'd be more likely to see something of impact," he said.

    "Carey Baptist Grammar School principal Phil De Young said the biggest challenge both parties should tackle in education was disadvantage — or "unequal outcomes because of unequal opportunities" — across the government and non-government systems.

    "With year 12 fees at Carey set to increase to $18,456 a year, he said the Coalition's rebate would help "lighten the load" for parents. "But is this going to solve long-term equity problems? I wouldn't think so," Mr De Young said.

    "Under Mr Howard's policy, announced this week, parents could claim rebates of up to $800 for every secondary school child, and up to $400 for every child in primary or preschool, on education expenses."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    

  • Education Questions Answered
    
    
    
  • Thanks say parents, but means test rebate
    
    The reaction to [John Howard's] education tax rebate had been enthusiastic — and yet some in this Catholic community felt distinctly uncomfortable about the plan for funds to go to very rich households.
    
    
    
  • Reality Check: Going for growth of welfare state
    
    If the Coalition is re-elected, Australians for the first time will be paying other people's school fees. If Labor gets in, we will be paying other people's internet bills. And all through the tax system.
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Policies fail the grade
    by Richard Teese
    
    Tax breaks will not fix the massive inequities in the education system.
    
    "... A revolution in education would mean an end to the sharp and persistent inequalities that mark our school system, frustrate our children, undermine their aspirations, starve us of skills, inventiveness and creativity, and foster the very welfare dependency that Howard abhors.

    "A revolution would close the achievement gap in our schools, engage children in satisfying and enjoyable learning, reduce early leaving, provide a broad skills base for all young people, and offer them a culturally rich and economically valuable experience in place of the academic battlefield to which upper secondary education has been reduced.

    "But while education policy continues to divide families, rewarding some and injuring others, setting state against Commonwealth, private against public, there is little chance of achieving these objectives..."
    
    Full story in The Age at link
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Private doesn't necessarily mean wealthy
      
      "So Tony Wright ("Howard's new frontier: upper class welfare", The Age, 13/11) thinks only the wealthy pay private school fees — an old-fashioned idea, indeed. I suggest he take a good look at who really sends their children to private schools; he may be surprised to find many struggling parents, who both work and pay taxes — that, incidentally, contribute to those choosing a "free" education. He may like to consider how much money the government saves when parents choose to send their children to independent schools.

      "So a few measly dollars in response isn't as bad as it seems. In the end, it's about education and, in turn, what that education will give a future Australia. Long gone are the days of only the wealthy sending their children to private schools."

      Jennifer Le Messurier, Armadale
      
      

    • More gifts for his mates

      "Another gift for the well-off. To obtain the full $800 education rebate, which John Howard proudly states includes fees and uniforms, parents must spend $2000 upfront, because it is a 40 per cent rebate on a maximum of $2000. This will be a boon for those well-off families with children attending private schools, where the fees alone can be in excess of $10,000 per child.

      "How will this help those in less affluent situations, whose children attend the local secondary or primary school (the primary rebate is 40 per cent on a maximum of $1000 spent)? How many of these people could afford $2000 per child upfront, especially if they have two or three children attending school? This is another example of Howard looking after his mates."

      Michael Higgins, Erica
      
      

    • How to spend $800 well

      "I am a parent who, in the past 15 years, has paid a total of 29 years of fees to what are deemed elite private schools. It was a choice my husband and I made collectively. I was horrified to hear that the Coalition Government has promised to rebate some of the cost of private school education to parents.

      "I am adamant that my children are entitled to a subsidy for their education, regardless of whether they are in the public or private sector. However, I find it unacceptable that they could receive more simply because their parents spend more. Why not spend the $800 rebate I would be entitled to for each child on better schools for our indigenous population? That would be more just and make more sense."

      Sally Gregory, Surrey Hills
      
      

    • Poor policy on the run

      "It would appear the Liberals didn't properly think through their education tax plan. Most private school parents in my marginal seat buy computers and school books and have broadband access.

      "Under Rudd, they would get a tax rebate for these items. Under Howard, on the other hand, there is a clear argument from the schools to simply put up their fees so parents won't actually see any of the rebate.

      "Public school parents will feel that their taxes are funding private school fees, and private school parents will see no difference because their rebates will be swallowed up. This is the outcome when Howard and Costello do policy on the run."

      Josh Cullinan, Boronia
      
      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • Labor plan leaves universities disappointed
    
    "Universities say federal Labor's latest education promises are a good start, but more needs to be done.

    "Labor leader Kevin Rudd made education the key focus of his campaign launch in Brisbane today.

    "He promised that if elected, Labor will boost the number of research scholarships, provide computers for senior school students from grades nine to 12 and connect 99 per cent of schools to the national broadband network.

    "Glenn Withers from Universities Australia says there are some positive aspects in Labor's plan, but some areas miss out.

    "We welcome the particular new initiatives but we actually think we're disappointed for the lack of attention to core funding of teaching and our research infrastructure," he said.

    "That, and indeed a lot of student access problems for the less advantaged. This goes a little bit of the way, a down payment, but not far enough."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    • Rudd talks of 'education revolution'
      
      Federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd outlined his plan for an "education revolution" at the Labor Party's official election launch in Brisbane this afternoon
      
      
      
    • Education rebates will be costly to implement: Democrats
      
      The Democrats have warned that the Coalition and Labor's education tax rebate plans might not actually put more money in people's pockets.

Thursday 15 November

• The West Australian
  
  
  • State to be short of 600 teachers in 2008: union (page 4)
    by Kate Campbell

    "WA is facing a shortfall of 600 teachers at the start of next year and a pay dispute with the Government is one of the reasons for the crisis, the teachers' union warned yesterday.

    "The State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said teachers were becoming more despondent, with many considering early retirement to take advantage of superannuation changes. He said this year's graduate intake of more than 1000 had to be greatly surpassed next year to cope with the expected exodus.

    "Union vice-president Anne Gisborne said the crisis had been made worse because teachers would not get a pay rise until 2009 under the current offer, which the union has rejected. "It (the pay offer) will not encourage people who've got choices about continuing teaching or retiring to say 'This looks good, I'll hang in for another year'," she said.

    "The 2007 year started with a shortage of 264 teachers.

    "It's significantly alarming, if you consider there are about 750 schools," Ms Gisborne said. "That's almost one person for every school and you know from the experience that we've have in 2007 unfortunately it's not a sharing of one person per school, which could probably all manage, it ends up being 10, 11 and 12 in one particular school."

    "She said knowing what was ahead would make teachers depressed before the school year even began. The Government's "pie in the sky, fairyland" strategies such as $100,000 a year for the profession's elite teachers had deepened teachers' cynicism. The union believes all teachers need to be up to $8000 a year better off under the next pay deal.

    "Education minister Mark McGowan was quizzed on the union's estimate in Parliament yesterday, but avoided being drawn on a shortfall figure. He said it was too soon to project next year's deficit and he was not aware of the union's claim.

    "It's often not until closer to the day that we actually know exactly where we stand," he said. Several weeks out from the end of the school year, WA is still 60 teachers short.

    "Mr McGowan said a $630 million remuneration package, special allowances for country and remote teachers, and scholarship programmes showed the Government was doing everything in its power to fix the shortage.

    "Independent MP Liz Constable attacked Mr McGowan, saying: "It's the middle of November, he should know at least some estimate of what they're up against and what they're planning for."

    "Mr McGowan last month revealed a plan to pay the State's top classroom teachers $100000 a year but the union rejected the plan. "

    From The West Australian
    
    

  • ABC News
    
    
    • Union: Teacher shortage to hit 600
      
      "The State School Teachers Union is predicting there will be a shortage of 600 teachers in Western Australia in 2008.

      "There are still 60 unfilled teaching positions in Western Australia in the final weeks fo the school year.

      "The State Government last month announced a $600 million recruitment plan to attract more people to the profession, but it was rejected by the Teachers Union.

      "The Union President, Mike Keely, says schools will lose hundreds of teachers if the Government does nOt increase pay rates across the board.

      "We have a lot of teachers who are in the age range where they can retire and the anecdotal advice that we're getting from members around the state is that there will be a significant increase in retirements at the end of this year simply because those people who may choose or could've chosen to work another couple of years have had enough," he said.

      "The Opposition spokesman on Education, Peter Collier, says the government must take immediate steps to address the problem.

      "The numbers that would leave without having told the department at this stage would be minimal," he said.

      "The Department of Education and the Minister would have a very clear idea of how many teachers are leaving and they need to take some bold action immediately or there will be hundreds of classrooms potentially across the State without a teacher in front of them at the beginning of the 2008 academic year."

      "The Minister for Education, Mark McGowan, has accused the State School Teachers Union of scaremongering.

      "Mr McGowan says he is doing all he can to address the teacher shortage, but will not know until next year how many positioins remain unfilled.

      "We have tens of thousands of employees in the Department of Education and Training and it's very difficult until some time in January to get an actual read on exactly how many teachers we have," he said."

      From ABC News at link
      
      
      

  • Mark McGowan Media Statement
    
    
    • State acts to retain experienced teachers close to retirement
      
      Innovative changes to public sector superannuation have the potential to benefit up to 6,000 teachers over the next five years, Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan said today.

      Mr McGowan said the changes, which would kick in from January 2008, would allow teachers aged over 55 to access their superannuation while still working.

      Under the changes, teachers aged over 55 will be able to:

      * continue working full-time while accessing their superannuation;
      * opt for part-time or casual work while supplementing their income with superannuation; and
      * salary package their entire salary and draw on as much superannuation as desired.
      
      The Minister said it was estimated that about 25 per cent of the State’s teaching workforce would be eligible for retirement over the next five years.

      “These teachers have a wealth of experience and are incredibly valuable,” he said.

      “The changes announced today will give alternative options to many of those teachers who may be thinking of retirement over the coming years.

      “These changes will allow teachers to phase in their retirement without being penalised financially or spend a number of years significantly increasing their superannuation benefit.”

      Mr McGowan said teachers in GESB’s defined benefit schemes, Gold State Super and the Pension Scheme, would be eligible.

      “I have asked the Department of Education and Training to ensure information on this important initiative is provided to teachers as soon as possible,” he said.

      “This will assist teachers making important decisions following the end of the 2007 school year.”

      The Minister said the changes were one of the many ways in which the Carpenter Government was acting to boost the teaching workforce.

      “I recently announced a graduate salary boost to ensure that graduate teachers are among the highest paid in the country and a $19million scheme to offer lucrative scholarships to more than 1,300 university students and existing teachers,” he said.

      “We are also continuing to recruit interstate and overseas and began recruiting graduates six months earlier than usual.

      “I also recently announced a massive pay offer to the State’s teaching workforce which, if accepted, will see all teachers receive a significant pay increase.”
      
      
      

  • Schoolwork and little play makes dull day for young kids (page 3)
    by Bethany Hiatt and Gabrielle Knowles
    
    "Guidelines for teaching kindergarten and pre-primary children next year are under fire from early childhood education experts, who say they are "grossly flawed" because they are too structured and do not place enough importance on learning through play.

    "Edith Cowan University early childhood program director Carmel Maloney said the draft syllabuses needed substantial rewriting because they failed to take into account ways that young children learnt.

    "We feel the document is grossly flawed in its development," she said. "We won't be supporting its use in our teacher education program." ...

    "The early childhood syllabuses, aimed at children from 3 ½ - 6, use the same template as syllabuses for children in primary and secondary school. They detail content that children are expected to know under separate learning areas, such as maths, English and science..."

    "Sarah Weaving, of Wembley, who has four children, said the plan seemed to assume children did not learn while playing games. "An ability to read, write or count comes without having a formal process," she said..." [emphasis added]

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Ticks all around for Labor IT plan (page 11)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "Independent schools would need up to 20,000 new computers under Kevin Rudd's education plan to give every student in Years 9 to 12 access to their own computer..."

    "Association of Independent Schools WA executive director Audrey Jackson applauded Labor's broadband policy but said that one computer between two students was enough. Independent schools would have to install at least 19,000 more computers. "I think that every Australian student should have access to the very best in technology," she said. "Whether that actually means that they need access to their own dedicated computer or not, I'm not convinced."

    "Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard said extra computers would give schools more flexibility and access to online learning resources. He said it would cost about $17 million to fit out more than 40 Catholic high schools with another 14,650 computers..."

    Full story in The West Australian
    
    

    • A reponse from 'Boxer', PLATO FORUM:
      
      What a right load of old bollocks Tin Tin dribbles sometimes. Filling schools with shiny new computers and hooking them up to some distant broadband nirvana is not the panacea to our collective educational woes the earnest bluffer suggests.

      For a start, the cost of housing these computers in a purpose built laboratory, benches, approved seating, cabling the schools, upgrading power supply infrastructures, upgrading room security, upgrading room cooling, funding printing consumables, providing maintenance support staff and providing suitable software is massive. If all of this isn't carefully worked out and funding and staffing provided, all we will have is piles of increasingly redundant technology stacked in rooms.

      My guess is that schools will get a pile of boxes full of computers and left to work out the logistics, training, infrastructure, maintenance, software, security and replacement strategies for themselves. This will result in an increased workload for harried teachers and an increasing ongoing and unfunded financial burden on schools. In my experience, rooms full of computers are extremely effective in convincing gullible parents, politicians and educational bureaucrats that amazing things are happening in schools but the reality is much different.

      Without a carefully developed integration strategy, a staff training regime and quality software and technical support, IT in schools becomes and expensive and onerous burden that simply serves as another distraction to the majority of students. Better paid teachers, better rooming, equipment, professional development, a rational curriculum with carefully developed support resources and the promotion of proven learning strategies would do infinitely more for education than rooms full of hot, wasteful and rapidly depreciating grey or black boxes.
      

    
    

• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • Best candidates no longer attracted to teaching
    by Jeff Turnbull, AAP
    
    "Inflexible salary arrangements and low job status are reasons why graduates are no longer attracted to teaching careers, Education Minister Julie Bishop said.

    "Ms Bishop said university leavers were more interested in chasing careers where they were paid on excellence rather than the amount of time they have spent in the job.

    "In a debate with opposition education and training spokesman Stephen Smith, Ms Bishop said 3000 teachers had enrolled in summer school next January in order to upgrade their skills.

    "We do know there is a problem, we're not attracting our best and brightest into teaching,'' Ms Bishop said.

    "Students say they are not going into teaching because of the inflexible salary arrangements and the status of the profession - they want to be in a profession where people are paid on excellence, not on years in the job.''

    "She said the government was trialling a salary model to try to break down ``this one-size-fits-all mediocrity that has beset the teaching profession''.

    "Mr Smith said schools were faced with ageing teachers and a decline in their skills.

    "We now have teachers with the average age of 50, or if you are in a vocational and technical area, 55 years,'' Mr Smith said.

    "He said only 25 per cent of science teachers in secondary schools have science degrees and about 10 per cent of maths teacher have a major in maths in their degrees.

    "So we have a rebuilding job to do here and the starting point is rebuilding respect and regard and encouraging our best and brightest to enter the teaching profession,'' he said.

    "We have to tell young Australians (teaching) is a noble profession and absolutely essential to our fundamental economic and social prosperity and one of the great challenges for our ageing teacher stock is to become attuned to the digital age.''

    "Mr Smith said there were signs that HECS fees burden on students and families may be becoming a disincentive for students, especially those from lower socio-economic areas, to seek tertiary education.

    "He said Labor had committed to a 50 per cent reduction in HECS upfront for those studying maths and science with a 50 per cent remission at the back end where the student takes up a relative occupation such as maths teacher or scientist.

    "If not studying those two key national priorities areas is affected by the HECS rate then we have sent the financial signal, but we have also sent the public policy signal that studying maths and science is important, particularly the teaching of maths and science,'' Mr Smith said.

    "Ms Bishop said HECS was not a barrier for young people attending university.

    "We have more people at university than at any time in our history - we're about to hit the one million student mark,'' she said.

    "She said research had shown reducing HECS, even cutting it to zero, made no discernible difference in terms of enrolment numbers.

    "Students are smart, they look at the long term career benefits that a university education will bring them,'' Ms Bishop said.

    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    

    • Reader comments to date [same link]
      

      Let the teachers discipline the kids first! That would take away half the teacher's stress and then actually allow them to get on and teach! And the joke salaries must go and be replaced with a sum that reflects Teachers actual value to society. Think about it, if you want to attract 'the brightest and the best' you have to pay appropriate salaries. This is nothing new but I can't see that anything's been done about it since I went through school over 15 years ago. When I was correcting my teacher's spelling in Years 5 and 6, I certainly didn't think, 'Oh yeah, my Teachers are the brightest and the best.' That's for sure. I hate to think how thick some of the teachers are that have entered the system since. And obviously this points to the blind leading the blind. Teaching IS a noble occupation deserving of great respect if the teachers are good. The State Government has the responsibility to do what it takes to address the real problems and restore the profession to it's previous standing!
      Posted by: Matt of London 7:48pm today

      Last career I'd consider too. Not just salary but like adrian says, the student behaviour. And their parents. The risk of violence by some students, or even their feral parents. The disrespect. Having to try to teach a class full of kids with "issues", behavioural problems, zero motivation, foul mouths, mental disorders, ADHD, real or not. The lack of power. The airy-fairy curriculum, the bureaucracy, the political correctness rubbish. No wonder we're hundreds of teachers short. Who in their right mind would want to do that?
      Posted by: HJR of Perth 7:32pm today

      spot on Adrian. I spend 50% of my time playing crowd controller.
      Posted by: matt of perth 7:15pm today

      TRY FIXING STUDENT BEHAVIOUR FIRST then everything else will fix itself!
      Posted by: adrian of bris 5:39pm today

      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • $1bn to create digital classrooms
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "Every student in years 9 to 12 will have access to their own school computer under a $1 billion Labor policy to bring classrooms into the digital world.

    "Under the National Secondary School Computer Fund announced yesterday by Kevin Rudd, high schools will be able to apply for up to $1 million to buy new computers or upgrade existing internet facilities.

    "The announcement was one of the few spending initiatives outlined in Labor's campaign launch at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. The $1 billion over four years would supply computers to about one million students, and schools would apply to upgrade their equipment every three years.

    "Schools would determine the best computer systems for their students. The scheme would connect the nation's more than 9000 primary and high schools to Labor's planned national high-speed broadband network, ensuring internet access at speeds of up to 100megabits a second.

    "Schools unable to access broadband would be provided with alternatives, such as the best available fixed line, wireless or satellite technologies. All schools, whether government, Catholic or independent, would be eligible and those schools where students already had computers would be able to apply to upgrade.

    "The Opposition Leader said broadband was transforming overseas economies and the impact could be greater than that of the Industrial Revolution.

    "The problem again for Australia is we are falling behind other nations," he said. "This is an education revolution. I want to turn every secondary school in Australia into a digital school."

    "Mr Rudd said computer technology was no longer a key subject to learn but was the key to learning in almost every subject. The policy says a federal Labor government would work with the states, territories and universities to ensure teachers had the skills to use the technologies, and it would develop web portals for parents to participate in their children's education. It would work with the different school systems to ensure technical support was provided, as well as maintenance costs.

    "Education Minister Julie Bishop said schools already had sufficient computer resources. She said schools could buy computer equipment under the Investing In Our Schools program.

    "It's rare a school isn't connected to the internet. Across the country, state government programs and federal government programs, schools have very high levels of access to computers," she said. "Kevin Rudd clearly hasn't done his homework."

    "But one of the five education priorities nominated by the Australian Secondary Principals Association ahead of the election was ensuring schools had effective computer infrastructure. Labor's computer plan was welcomed by the Independent Schools Council of Australia and the Australian Council of State School Organisations. The latter's executive officer, Terry Aulich, said: "It's a good example of educational leadership that comes from a federal government."

    "ISCA executive director Bill Daniels said technological advances were challenging the nature and cost of schooling and the ALP policy recognised all schools needed support to stay up to date.

    "But Australian Education Union president Pat Byrne said the education revolution failed to make up the $2.9 billion shortfall in funding for public schools."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    

    • Scholarships, computers in ALP plan
      Staff reporters
      
      "Kevin Rudd has launched his education pitch, promising more tertiary tuition and research scholarships, broadband to every school and a computer for every senior school child.
      
      "Announcing “three new chapters in Australia’s education revolution” at the ALP campaign launch in Brisbane today, Mr Rudd said a Labor government would double the number of university undergraduate scholarships to 88,000 and postgraduate scholarships to almost 10,000 by 2012.

      "He also promised 1000 mid-career research fellowships valued at $140,000 each to “help reverse the brain drain” from Australia.

      "Australia was the only country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to have disinvested in its universities during the past decade, he said.

      "This has got to stop, it has got to stop now, otherwise the brain drain will continue to see us lose many of our best and brightest overseas,'' Mr Rudd said.

      "Australia cannot survive as a knowledge economy if we do not help our universities attract and retain our best scientists, innovators and researchers into the future.''

      "In another “chapter” of his plan, for skills training, the number of funded training places would be boosted by 450,000, including 65,000 apprenticeships.

      "And for schools, Labor would to connect Australia’s 9000 primary and secondary schools to the planned National Broadband network at speeds of up to 100 megabits a second.

      "It would also ensure every students in years nine to 12 has access to their own computer.

      "Mr Rudd had already announced five “chapters’’ in his education revolution: pre-literacy and numeracy education for four-year-olds; a 50 per cent tax refund on home computers and broadband connections; incentives for maths and science teachers; increased funding for Asian language teaching; and state-of-the-art trades training centres in schools.

      "I am intensely proud of Labor’s plan for education. It’s core business for Labor. It is core business for me. And it’s a core part of our nation’s pathway to the future," he said today.

      "Declaring he wanted to turn every school into a digital school, Mr Rudd said Labor was committed to ongoing investment to ensure Australia remained competitive.

      "The economies we are competing against are making a huge new investment in education. They know that knowledge-intensive economies will be the wealthiest economies of the future.

      "We must take action now. We need nothing less than an education revolution now.’’

      "For those schools that already had computers, Labor will help pay for upgrades, and Mr Rudd promised that his government would continue to pay for upgrades.

      “Our National Secondary School Computer Fund will help students in all subject areas – such as technical students who use computer aided design as a key part of trades projects including furniture making, carpentry, metals and electronics,’’ he said.

      "It will turbo-charge the effective teaching of foreign languages providing pronunciation online.

      "And it will deepen and broaden the study of chemistry, physics, biology and the hard sciences.’’

      "Mr Rudd said that Mr Howard did not understand how vital computers were, even in the traditional trades areas.

      "The best tech blocks or automotive workshops had computer integrated.

      "I believe for that Australia’s future a trade certificate will be just as important as a university degree,’’ he said."

      From The Australian at link
      
      
      

  • Op Ed
    Battle plan without an army
    by Justine Ferrari
    
    "Kevin Rudd promises an education revolution but his battle plan is silent on the one thing that would guarantee success: teachers.

    "Labor deserves some credit for recognising that the future of education is digital classrooms, and for spending $1 billion to ensure every school, public or private, enters the digital world.

    "But Mr Rudd, where's your army? Where are the foot soldiers that will transform the education system?

    "The average age of teachers today is 50. They are immigrants to the digital world; their students are natives who have to "power down" when they enter the classroom.

    "Labor's school computer policy mentions teachers as an aside, promising to work with the states, territories and universities to give them the training they need to use new technology.

    "Training middle-aged teachers on the verge of retirement to use modern technology in their lessons is not a revolution.

    "If Mr Rudd is serious about lifting education standards, he must have a plan for the nation's teachers.

    "Research shows again and again that the main variable in student performance is the quality of the teacher standing at the front of the classroom. Not family background, not a private school, not a smaller class, not technology - the teacher.

    "Students with high-performing teachers progress at three times the rate of students with low-performing teachers. Three times.

    "The best school systems in the world have high entry standards into teaching programs. Only the top 10 to 30 per cent of university graduates are eligible. Teaching is a highly respected and sought-after vocation.

    "In Australia, the opposite is true. Education degrees have one of the lowest entry scores. Some of the nation's most academically able students do choose to become teachers but the profession is held in low esteem by the community.

    "While the commonwealth does not run schools or set curriculums, the one area it does control is teacher training, through its funding of universities.

    "At the moment, the funding system encourages universities to enrol as many students as possible. The entry scores are a reflection of demand not academic ability.

    "The best the Coalition