Monday 19 November

Tuesday 20 November

Wednesday 21 November

Thursday 22 November

Friday 23 November

Saturday – Sunday, 24 – 25 November

 

Monday 19 November

• The West Australian
  
  
  • New drive for rural teachers (page 5)
    by Beatrice Thomas
    
    "The State Government has made a last-ditch attempt to overcome the chronic teacher shortage ahead of the next school year, launching a $230,000 advertising campaign in a bid to lure teaching graduates to the country.

    "At the centre of the Statewide campaign, which aims to boost teacher numbers in country public secondary schools, is a recent pay deal that would increase graduate teachers' base pay and provide further incentives to those who take up jobs in rural and remote areas.

    "Education Minister Mark McGowan said the new advertising campaign was just one part of a comprehensive strategy to tackle teacher shortages.

    "Hew said teachers were particularly in demand in physics, chemistry, maths, English, home economics and design and technology.

    "From next year new graduates will earn a base rate of just over $50,000 a year, with those who work in remote areas able to earn more than $70,000.

    "Mr McGowan said the pay deal was the biggest in the State's history and included thousands of dollars in allowances. The campaign comes after a similar recruitment drive to attract interstate and overseas teachers to WA. That effort has resulted in 400 expressions of interest, despite the State's teachers' union warning Eastern States teachers of the pitfalls of teaching in WA, particularly in remote locations. [So far it reads a bit like a ministerial press release... Web]

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier described the latest advertising campaign as "cosmetic" compared with the fundamental issue that teaching was no longer seen as a viable career option.

    "The Government is not dealing with the most fundamental issue and that is looking after of accommodating the very real concerns of mainstream practising teachers," he said.

    "What's happed as a direct result of that is morale is low within the fraternity as a whole... and public perception of teaching, while it is positive for the profession itself, as a career option it's not."

    "Mr Collier said a significant pay rise for all teachers was the only way to make the profession more attractive. [emphasis added]

    "The State School Teachers Union's State Council yesterday endorsed its committee's decision to reject a State Government pay offer that would result in elite teachers earning more than $100,000 a year by 2011.

    "The union has refused to even put the offer to teachers because it left out pay increases to two-thirds of the teaching force until 2009.

    "Union president Mike Keely said while he welcomes any move to attract teachers to the country, the reality was most graduates would get the new base salary by opting to stay in the city.

    "He's given the rise to graduates, good move - now do something serious to keep experienced people who really know what they're doing and who can help train those young teachers," he said.

    "The school year started with a shortage of 264 teachers. The union claims the figure will be as high as 600 next year."

    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Editorial
    Falling teacher numbers suggest trouble ahead (page 20)
    
    "The declining number of graduates deciding on a career in teaching should be of great concern to the community. So far, there is no indication that recently announced inducements have encouraged more people to join the profession.

    "Attempts to recruit teachers from overseas and interstate have not eased current shortages and the future now looks bleak as well.

    "Fewer than half the number of applicants who sought a place in post-graduate teaching courses in 2002 have applied for next year. There are also fewer applications for 2008 undergraduate teaching courses.

    "The disenchantment with teaching as a career has been building for years, exacerbated by low pay in comparison with other professions, confusion over outcomes-based education, increasing workloads and poor student behaviour.

    "Competition from other employers, including the mining industry, is also having an effect.

    "It is estimated that a quarter of WA's teaching workforce will be eligible to retire in the next five years.

    "If even some teachers take that option and there is no rapid increase in teacher numbers, there is the real prospect of shortages having a significant impact on the quality of education in this State."

    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 23)
    

    • "Dr Simon Clarke (Cash, sweeteners fail to boost teacher intake, 16/11) puts part of the blame for the teacher shortage on the teaching profession suffering "constant bagging by the media". I cannot recall the media bagging teachers. Attacking our laughable OBE fiasco? Yes. Attacking our non-teaching ideologues in the Curriculum Council and DET? Yes. Attacking ministers who listen to advisers who have no idea about what is happening in the classroom? Yes. But attacking hard-working, underpaid, under-resourced classroom teachers? Definitely no."

      Patrick F. Whalen, Yokine
      
      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • Union: Teacher pay deal 'dead in the water'
    
    "The State School Teachers Union has rejected a $600 million pay offer.

    "One hundred and twenty members of the Union's Council yesterday endorsed an earlier decision by the Union's Executive to reject the proposal because the majority of teachers would not receive a pay rise until 2009.

    "The State Government's offer included $100,000 salaries for elite teachers and allowances for those working in remote areas.

    "The Union's President Mike Keely says the Education Minister, Mark McGowan, needs to come up with a new deal.

    "Well I think the current offer is dead in the water," he said.

    "There are aspects of it that we have reported and made clear are absolutely good moves, but as an offer, unless he is able to say to his experienced teachers we value you, we want to keep you, then our schools are going to be drastically short of teachers next year," he said.

    "Ten thousand, 12 thousand teachers, who have been working in this system, many of them for 25 years or more, can simply not accept an offer that gives them nothing for a year, for well over a year, at the same time as we have a teacher shortage."

    "The Minister for Education, Mark McGowan, says he will look at offering the majority of the state's public school teachers a pay rise from next year.

    "I'm prepared to talk to the school teachers union about this issue," he said.

    "But I just want everyone to know that West Australian teachers under our agreement, under our offer, will become the best paid in the country."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Editorial
    Channelling better television to children
    
    "In an impassioned speech to the annual conference of the Screen Producers Association of Australia last week, actor and former Play School host Noni Hazlehurst attacked the "cultural drought" in local television and the ubiquity of inappropriate programs that skewed children's view of the world and effectively forced them to grow up too soon. Hazlehurst has a valid point. It is a reflection of a fundamental change in children's viewing habits and their ability to tune in to quality programs made specifically for them.

    "Children's programs produced by the national broadcaster aside, federal guidelines require commercial television stations to produce 390 hours of children's programs each a year, including 32 hours of new local drama. This obligation is being met, with many award-winning shows being screened. But often they are being shown at the wrong times. Routines have changed and many children are committed to after-school care, sport or music lessons between 4pm and 6pm, the hours when children would have once watched television and when many programs are currently screened. But research shows that most children now watch television between 6pm and 8.30pm. Programming times are also inconsistent and promotion is poor and untimely.

    "Many of these problems would be resolved with the establishment of a dedicated children's channel, such as that proposed by the ABC and the Australian Children's Television Foundation. ABC3, as it would be known, would be a digital, free-to-air channel without commercials and that would transmit programs, at least half of which would be Australian-made, between 6am and 9pm daily. Such a channel would be able to introduce more diverse programming that better reflects the needs and interests of Australian children and would be a welcome supplement to existing programming.

    "The Coalition has promised to back the network with $82 million in funding over four years and it is a commitment worthy of bipartisan support. Australian children would be better for it."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Education is not about being a good or bad parent — it's about the children
    by Leslie Cannold and Jane Caro
    
    "Everyone's heard of the Mummy Wars. The debate that flies out of the box like a bat out of hell every time some dry academic study appears about centre-based child care.

    "Behind all the shouting about sample size, confidence levels and expert bias is a shrillness that can only come from women who feel accused of being "bad" mummies, or are defending their status as "good" mummies. We don't acknowledge it, but debates about education funding may be similar.

    "Seemingly about funding figures drawn from federal and state budget papers and high-minded disagreements about the role of the market in education or education in democracy, the real source of the heat and light is far more primal: our desperate desire to be seen as good parents.

    "The proof is in the irrationality, wrong-headedness or sheer martyred silliness of the responses made to educators, parents, scholars and politicians who speak about the undeniable — and worsening — funding inequities between public and private schools. Responses that demonise those who speak out as dishonest, envious or, our personal favourite, unethical. So, let's see how the facts stack up.

    "The most common response to complaints about the grossly unfair way the Federal Government funds schools is to insist that the public system is the responsibility of the states. But what has this to do with the moral problem that 70% of federal funds go to support the 32% of our children who attend private schools? After all, a wrong is a wrong, no matter what gets done afterwards to right it.

    "It is also unclear how adding in the state contribution undermines the fact that the public system is under-funded given that the result of such mathematics still leaves some private school students with 62% more resources devoted to their education than the average student in a public school — a financial advantage, it must be noted, that the Federal Government omits to take account of when it doles out funds to schools.

    "Questionable claims are also made by the "yes, but not us" brigade: various officialdom from the Catholic schools who — usually as warm-up for yet another round of successful federal alms-collecting — imply that their good work among the underprivileged entitles them to ever-larger shares of the federal and state funding pies. Well, maybe, but a new report by Barbara Preston has found that while 40% of students in government schools are from low-income families, this figure is only 25% in Catholic schools (a figure not dissimilar to the 22% of children from low-income families in other private schools). According to Preston, the difference is even greater for those students in very low-income families, roughly twice as many of whom can be found in government schools, as compared with Catholic or other private schools.

    "And we must not forget the "I-work-five-jobs-and-budget carefully-and-live-in-a-shoe-box-in-middle-of-the-road-while-cleaning-toilets" parental martyrs. Terrified of any changes to government policy that would increase fees, this group defends the existing carve-up of federal funds despite the fact that, were the public system funded properly, such extreme sacrifice would be unnecessary.

    "Worse, they ignore the fact that even if they are the winners in the "who is the best parent stakes", allowing this victory to compromise the quality of education available in public schools does nothing more than punish the most disadvantaged children for the supposed sins of their parents. We hope that the Australian debate about education funding has not yet reached the stage where any participant truly believes that only the children of "good" parents merit a decent education.

    "And last, but not least, is the nonsensical claim that parents who pull their children from the public system are doing it a favour, as taxpayers couldn't afford the price tag of quality education for all Australian kids. The reality is that no supporter of public education has ever wanted or asked for relief from the cost of providing a first-rate education for our young.

    "Frankly, we can't think of a better way to spend money. As well, we know that when the last middle-class family finally leaves the system, Australia will have become the first democracy to settle for a public education system that provides, in the words of Prime Minister John Howard, a "reasonable safety net" for the poor.

    "So where do we go from here? First we need to be frank about why the subject of school funding gets us so hot under the collar.

    "Perhaps just knowing that much of the passion, invective and downright nastiness around this debate is driven by our very human and understandable anxiety about what kind of parents we are will help us all to calm down. Maybe then we'll be in a position to have a reasoned and effective discussion about what — when it comes to education — is really best for all Australian children. Even those without perfect parents."

    Leslie Cannold is an author, ethicist and researcher and Jane Caro is the co-author (with Chris Bonnor) of The Stupid Country; How Australia is Dismantling Public Education (UNSW Press, 2007).
    
    From The Age at link
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Preventing abuse starts in schools

      "Maree Crabbe (Opinion, 7/11) is right to point out that the attitudes of young women and men reflect a culture where women are often devalued, degraded and seen as objects, and also that young people want to know about sex. In our work, we have learnt that young people also want to learn about relationships, their rights and what respect looks like in action. As adults, we must remember that we have great influence over the culture and values that young people's beliefs and behaviours may reflect.

      "Young people will not be able to act on their education in an environment where inappropriate behaviours are not punished, where victims or survivors of sexual violence are not supported, or where respectful behaviours are not modelled or rewarded.

      "What is crucial to a school's capacity to prevent sexual assault is whether it is supported and funded to tackle these fundamental issues. In our work, it is evident that schools are not provided with resources, time, expertise or funding to adequately deal with sexual assault. We have lists of schools who are ready to take action but, without further funding, we simply cannot provide it.

      "As Crabbe suggests, we need to reclaim a sense of the preciousness of all people. We cannot expect young people to take up this task unless the adults in their lives do the same."

      Renee Imbesi, schools program co-ordinator, Centre Against Sexual Assault, Melbourne
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Computers don’t add up to education policy
      
      "Paul Kelly has put his finger on the gigantic confidence trick worked on the Australian people by Kevin Rudd (”The pitch”, Inquirer, 17-18/11). “Computers are an enabling force but they do not constitute an education policy.” Labor’s rhetoric throughout the campaign has abounded with cliches embodying the notion of future, but specifying only one tangible avenue of progress - the computer.

      "On his election as ALP leader a year ago, Rudd expressed a welcome concern about “the hollowing out of Australian manufacturing industry”. Alongside the crippling effects of measures to address climate change, his only positive solution has been to promise “world class high speed broadband” ad nauseam.

      "This may be attractive to the 25 per cent of 18 to 20-year-olds in neither study nor work who, according to a Monash University study, spend their days playing online games, but is no answer to our industrial decline."
      
      J. Morrissey, Hawthorn, Vic
      
      

    • "I recently drove through Labor-run NSW. Every public school in every city, suburb, and country hamlet displayed an anti-Howard billboard. No wonder Kevin Rudd wants to pour $200 million into public education. I’ve taught for 10 years in a Queensland government school. Of the 70 or so teachers there, only four were unashamed Liberal voters. Many more were even further left than Labor. In public education, teacher training, school curriculum, text books and department administrators are often unequivocally socialist. More and more parents are choosing non-government schools. They don’t want their children politically indoctrinated. What’s more, in government education, academic and discipline standards are seriously declining as they slip ever further into a morass of secular progressivism. Public education is free (paid for now by the Howard-implemented GST). But the educational establishment, to consolidate its power over juvenile minds, begrudges every tax dollar that goes to children in private schools.

      "It is this rotting edifice of government education that Rudd wants not to change but shore up with millions upon millions of more public money. He calls his proposed expenditure an educational revolution. The only revolution that comes even remotely to mind in this connection is a red one."
      
      Lloyd Williams, Caloundra, Qld
      
      

    • First Byte
      
      "Kevin Rudd’s unclarified education revolution will be incomplete without the study of grammar. But who will teach the students since the most recent crop of teachers were themselves never taught grammar?"
      
      Hamish Murray, Glenelg East, SA
      
      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • All children are entitled to a quality education

      "Tim Hawkes in his article "Funds squabble impoverishes schools" (November 17-18), like most other commentators on the issue, neglects the central players in the school funding debate - the children. According to him, the only protagonists (at least, the only ones mentioned in his article) are independent schools, public schools, governments and parents. The consumers of education - the children - don't get a mention.

      "Unfortunately, the new economics principle of "consumer pays" breaks down spectacularly in this situation. Because no child can pay for his or her education, some other "payer" has to be found, and it is either the parent through the private school system, or the state by way of public schools. Whoever pays, children are all equally entitled to the same quality of education - a criterion spectacularly missing from our present system of fund allocation. Dr Hawkes notes that "much more money needs to be poured into education", which is indisputable, but only after all Australian children have been granted equal educational opportunity."

      John Forrest, Annandale
      
      

    • "Can you explain to me, Dr Hawkes, how you think that any reduction of funds to independent schools (for example, yours) is an "unacceptable erosion of entitlement"?

      "Why should your school obtain any funding when it charges fees from $17,000 to $20,000 a child annually? Why should my family then subsidise the education of your "Kingsmen"? What else does your school need that you require extra funding from government sources? Another pool? You already have two. Or maybe a new underground car park, like Trinity Grammar?

      "Pouring in more money will not solve "our" educational problems, as you say, but reducing the funding to schools such as yours is a good start."

      Sharon McGuinness, Thirroul
      
      

    • "Tim Hawkes says school funding boils down to the basis of need and/or the basis of entitlement. Well, King's obviously doesn't "need" the funding, so that leaves entitlement. If you "choose" to go private, then you forfeit the "entitlement". Pretty simple really."

      Justin Sayers, Erskineville
      
      

    • "Dr Tim Hawkes advances the notion of entitlement to defend public money subsidising elitist private education. The sense of entitlement that he justifies can go both ways. The facilities of King's and private schools in receipt of public funds should be open for the public schools to access. Two days a week, the sporting grounds and computer/science labs, rifle ranges, pools and other facilities should be open to public school students. If they don't wish to indulge the sense of entitlement public funding generates and share with the hoi polloi, they are free to stand alone."

      Jason Leske, Pomona (Qld)
      
      

    • "In supporting needs funding for schools Tim Hawkes avoids critical questions. Should we allow combinations of public and private funding to increase the gaps between children, between schools and between communities? Should public funding be used to increase advantages for some children, ultimately at the expense of others? Why has Australia allowed public funding to increase educational, social and economic divides? What are the long-term implications? Along with Dr Hawkes, the Government and the ALP have worked hard to avoid the questions that will not go away. Dr Hawkes needs to prove he can be part of solutions, not ever-increasing problems."

      Chris Bonnor, Cherrybrook

Tuesday 20 November

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Parents angry at OBE test failure (page 14)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "A prestigious Perth school has formally complained to the Curriculum Council that a TEE exam in a new outcomes-based education course failed to reflect the content students studied in class.

    "Guildford Grammar School acting headmaster Kevin Lange yesterday confirmed that he had written to Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood to advise him of concerns from irate parents that the Engineering Studies exam had disadvantaged their sons.

    "Parents and teachers have complained that the paper contained questions that had not appeared in sample exams provided by the council or in the course syllabus.

    "Mr Lange said parents believed their sons had been so demoralised by their experience in the exam, which students sat last Tuesday, that it could have affected their performance in subsequent exams.

    "The letter called for an explanation from the council about how the situation arose - "and what steps or measure they might be taking to address the impact on individual examination scores," Mr Lange said.

    "This year was the first that Year 12s did the new Engineering Studies course.

    "The exam was split into common sections that all engineering students sat and schools chose to specialise in one of three types of engineering in the second section.

    "Half the Guildford class of 15 walked out of the exam early in despair over their inability to answer questions in the mechanical engineering section.

    "Parent Michael Tuckey said his son, who dreamt of a career in engineering, had achieved the highest class mark in the mock TEE engineering exam so he had not expected to be floored by the final exam.

    "My son relied on engineering to be a major part of his TEE score," he said. "There is a possibility that because someone stuffed up an engineering exam, his entire university career will be put on hold."

    "Mr Tuckey said the council should set a supplementary exam to give students another chance.

    "Parent Jenny Palmer said the exam was unfair because it asked questions in areas about which students had no knowledge, such as Physics. Students who had studied Physics or advanced Maths had an advantage over those who had not.

    "It's alright to say we'll scale up or scale down, but it's just devastated the boys," she said. "They've studied for two years and when they sit the exam it's like looking at another language."

    "The Curriculum Council has said it would statistically adjust the engineering exam results. Chief executive David Wood said the 2006 top raw exam mark in Aviation - a new OBE course examined for the first time last year - was 55 but that was scaled up to 72.

    "These same statistical procedures will be applied this year in all subjects and will ensure a level playing field for all students," he said.

    "Complaints about the Engineering exam come after criticism of the OBE English and Media exams. "

    From The West Australian
    

    
    
    
  • Schools bulging with transportable classrooms (page 14)
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "More evidence that the State Government's capital works programme for schools is failing to keep up with demand has emerged with revelations that the number of transportable classrooms in State schools has increased by 25 per cent in the past 7 years.

    "The Department of Education and Training said in response to parliamentary questions that the number of transportables used in schools had leapt from 1759 in 2000 to 2196 this year.

    "The State's main parent group, the WA Council of State School Organisations, has demanded that the department set a limit on transportables allowed on a school site.

    "The parents are bitterly opposed to overloading schools with transportables," president Rob Fry said yesterday.

    "There's got to be a balance between an established school and a portable component of the school."

    "Mr Fry said the jump in transportable use reflected the big rise in school enrolments caused by WA's booming economy.

    "State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said transportables should only be used in stopgap emergency circumstances.

    "While he acknowledged that transportables were more comfortable than they used to be, they were still temporary facilities.

    "This is a wealthy State and every parent wants every kid to be in a decent classroom where they've got facilities," he said. "I think the department and Government have fallen short if they're not providing the best quality school classrooms that they can."

    "Education Department acting infrastructure director Mal Parr said the use of air conditioned transportable classrooms allowed schools to respond to fluctuations in student enrolments.

    "The increase in transportable classrooms in the past 7 years can in part be attributed to the changes in the school leaving age, an initiative to reduce class sizes and the increase in demand for early childhood education," he said.

    "The department said transportable buildings also included science labs, pre primary and kindergarten classes, library resource centres, administration areas and toilets.

    "If all of those were included, transportables in use this year would number nearly 2700.

    "Mr Parr said the use of temporary buildings guarded against over provision of permanent facilities when enrolments declined as the population aged.

    "Transportables outnumber conventional classrooms at school in Currambine, Atwell, Landsdale and Middle Swan.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said many schools were "busting at the seams" or their buildings were so deficient they had to rely on prefabricated temporary classrooms."

    From The West Australian
    

    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • It's not enough
      
      "Education Minister Mark McGowan said in your newspaper (15/11) that "the Government is doing everything in its power to fix the shortage of teachers".

      "The State School Teachers Union, the WA College of Teachers, the Twomey report and the Chairman of the Business Council of Australia are all saying that teachers need a substantial, across-the-board increase in salary.

      "The Government has a massive surplus. Offering between 30 and 50 teachers, out of a workforce of nearly 30,000, a fancy $100,000 salary and leaving the rest in their current bereft state, is clearly a statement that the Government is "not doing everything in its power to fix the shortage of teachers".

      Greg Williams, president of PLATO, Bicton
      

      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Rudd throws atlas at Howard
    by Matthew Franklin, Chief political correspondent
    
    "Kevin Rudd has savaged the federal Government's level of education spending, revealing it is less than that of Tunisia, Cyprus, Estonia, Mexico and Croatia.

    "Declaring Saturday's election a referendum on education, the Labor leader also announced plans to use retired tradespeople as volunteer mentors in schools togive students the benefit of their experience and help them find jobs.

    "The next election will be a referendum on education - the future of education and whether we're going to have a world-class education system or one which continues to fall behind," he said in Melbourne yesterday.

    "The Opposition Leader has made the promise of an "education revolution" central to his bid for power and promised more funding for pre-school literacy and numeracy, new trades skill facilities in all schools and a computer on the desk of every student from years 9 to 12.

    "He has attacked John Howard as having no firm plan for education and yesterday used a globe as a prop as he pointed out nations that spent more than Australia as a proportion of their gross domestic product on education.

    "Mr Rudd said a Labor government would spend $5 million over four years on 25 mentoring programs with the aim of recruiting 750 retired tradespeople.

    "The volunteers would be trained before visiting secondary schools and TAFE colleges, where they would teach and provide advice based on their experience.

    "Mr Rudd said the mentors would act as bridges to the workforce, helping students secure good apprenticeships.

    "Retired tradespeople, in my experience, are usually the best linked to the real job opportunities and apprenticeship opportunities out there," Mr Rudd said.

    "Australia has an ageing workforce and increasing numbers of retiring professionals with the capacity and the desire to give something back.

    "A Rudd Labor government will close the skills gap - the gap between the demand and the supply of skilled workers."

    From The Australian at link
    
    Similar stories in today's Age and Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Rudd must stare down troglodytes
    by Malcolm Colless
    
    "Kevin Rudd is right: Australia's education system needs a major overhaul. But the education revolution he promises under a Labor government will be hollow unless he uncouples from it the dead hand of the teacher unions and the left-wing inspired political correctness, which combine to discourage the competitiveness we need in our school system.

    "We need a national education curriculum in our school system, one that is not politically driven. And we need to raise the education standards of the teachers who are charged with building the skills base that the country needs to survive in an increasingly competitive global market.

    "Student teachers used to be bonded until it was decided that this commitment involved too much stress for them. The federal government used to offer commonwealth university scholarships based on high school scholastic merit but these were scrapped because they discriminated against those students who failed to win one and because they were not means tested. And on top of this the public education system has been dumbed down so that everyone is a winner with the result that mediocrity has become the standard. And the education curriculums have been stretched like a rubber band to make sure that there is something for every student's taste no matter how irrelevant that subject is to a balanced and meaningful school education. [emphasis added]

    "Rudd's offer to fund computer access for all schoolchildren and provide a tax rebate for education expenses is a positive move, but stops short of addressing the fundamental shortcomings of our state-based education system. Students need to be taught subjects that are relevant to the competitive environment they will encounter when they leave school..." [The rest of the article deals with issues other than education. Web]
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Rudd to cut full-fee uni places in 09 [late update from 19 November]
    
    Kevin Rudd would, for the first two terms of a Labor government, allow students who had failed to gain the required entrance marks to continue to pay for full-fee university degrees. But a decade-long experiment with full-fee degrees, which has delivered millions of dollars in revenue to universities, would be abolished for students starting as undergraduates in 2009.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Give money to state schools and democracy wins

      "Leslie Cannold and Jane Caro (Opinion, 19/11) are right to draw attention to the inequality that will result from our system of school funding. Australia is the only OECD country to fund exclusive private schools. However, most OECD countries do fund non-government schools. In the Netherlands, most schools are non-government (religious) and in the US charter schools are an alternative to state schools. These schools are given 100% equivalent government school funding, on two conditions. They cannot charge any significant additional fees and the school must accept all comers. Now, that is real choice for parents.

      "In Australia, because private schools can exclude students as they see fit and still receive government funding the choice is exercised by the school. The result is to residualise state education and structurally weaken our democracy, which is why no other country does it."

      Paul Kennelly, Caulfield North
      
      

    • Investment, not a cost

      "I can attest to the career and life opportunities created by a properly funded public education system. I attended Sandringham Technical School in the 1960s. I received a teaching studentship that paid me while I studied science at RMIT. After two years' paid industrial experience, I did my teacher training in 1970. I was posted to Mildura and had to complete three years teaching.

      What followed was a rewarding and secure career in government schools. I also received a paid year off in the early 1980s to complete a graduate diploma. Plus an industry release year in 2000 — again on full pay.

      It seems to me we now treat education as another commodity to be charged at whatever the market will bear, instead of an investment in our human capital. Whoever wins this Saturday should be mindful of the adage: education is an investment and not a cost.

      Peter John Bainbridge, Maiden Gully
      
      

    • How the dollars add up

      "Leslie Cannold and Jane Caro failed to show how the facts stack up on government funding for education. My children attend a private school. Commonwealth funding is $2303 per child and state funding is $615, a total of $2918 per child. This is just under half of what the Government would spend if they attended the local primary school, about $7000 each. As I have three children, their education costs the Government $8754, instead of about $21,000. If I moved them to the local primary school, the extra money to educate them would come from the overall education budget, leaving less money for those already in the public system. If you want to argue that governments should increase funding to public schools go ahead, but don't begrudge my children the funding they receive.

      Maree Forte, Wheelers Hill
      
      

    • Look after the teachers

      "Nearly all of Flemington Primary School's teachers will be on strike tomorrow. Like Premier John Brumby, I am a former school teacher and union member and we both know teachers don't go on strike lightly. These teachers would not give ammunition to the Coalition's election campaign and I doubt they would support funding private schools ahead of government schools. So why is there a strike tomorrow, when my wife and I have to work — and removing our children from school is impossible?

      I don't blame the teachers or the union. The State Government is repeating one of the mistakes of a previous state Labor government: believing a fight with a conservative union will win political points. Premier Brumby, these teachers are the central nervous system of the education revolution we agree that we need. Protect and nurture them. The Government needs to settle this dispute, not exacerbate it.

      David Langsam, Flemington

      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • High school accused of elitism
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Entry to Sydney's Conservatorium [government] High School has been restricted to half the usual intake of year 7 students, all of whom will have to learn Chinese.
    
    "A group of parents is planning a crisis meeting next week to discuss concerns about limited subject choices and growing elitism, resulting in alleged belittling of students in the classroom.

    "Parents who contacted the Herald complained that their children were given no choice other than to study maths in year 11 next year.

    "Only 13 children have been selected for entry into year 7 next year, a considerable drop from previous intakes of 20 or more.

    "The NSW Department of Education's regional director for Sydney, Phil Lambert, confirmed Mandarin would replace Latin as the compulsory language for year 7 at the school.

    "In a letter to parents, Dr Lambert said next year's smaller intake was "commensurate with studying at the state's premier music school".

    "In a letter to parents, the principal, Robert Curry, said offering modern history would be a higher priority than offering ancient history because Beethoven and the key of E-flat "means nothing if you don't know about Napoleon Bonaparte and the ideals of the French Revolution".

    "However, the modern history syllabus for years 11 and 12 students covers 19th- and 20th-century events and does not generally include the Napoleonic wars and the 18th-century French Revolution.

    "While he recognised Latin was "a wonderful subject", Dr Curry said, the number of times a student of the school sang in Latin could be counted on one hand. It was also crucial for young musicians to learn the language of the country that would be a dominant player in the region. "It is my strongly held belief that the study of Mandarin should replace Latin in years 7 and 8 as the mandatory language."

    "Dr Lambert was forced to defend Dr Curry's credentials, which include masters' degrees in arts and music, a PhD in medieval studies and a graduate diploma in education, gained in another state.

    "Parents raised concerns that Dr Curry, who transferred to NSW from Western Australia early this year, was not yet officially registered to teach in NSW.

    "An Education Department spokeswoman said legislation allowed a full-time teacher to take three years to complete their professional accreditation.

    "Pieter Oomens, of the school's parents and citizens group, said the school was going through a period of change that would result in it being strengthened."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Some things you just can't learn from an interactive screen
      
      "I am a high school teacher and was invited the other day to attend a presentation on interactive whiteboards for use in the classroom. Since then I've been thinking that given how little opportunity we have to truly interact with people around us in all the frictional and pleasurable ways that are available if we're tuned in (as opposed to plugged in), I find myself increasingly reluctant to take up the types of mediated communication that instruments such as interactive whiteboards, computers and data projectors facilitate.

      "I am not particularly interested in feeding my students' desires (some would feel it as a need) to be entertained - which is how these tools are marketed to us. I believe education should be about enlivening imaginations, not simply providing people with a stock of commercially generated images and sensations that they can scroll through in their minds when the situation requires them to be thoughtful. I think the idea of teacher-as home-entertainment-system is to be discouraged at all costs. What happens to the sensual, the tactile, the real experiences that are so fundamental to our understanding of who we are and how we are in the world?

      "I have a word for the belief that the televisual is as valuable as getting out and about and moving in, smelling, touching, tasting, looking at and listening to what's going on around us. It's "lumbyism", after Catharine Lumby, who bangs on about how it is fine to sit your kids in front of the TV and how all these studies (from which she doesn't offer any concrete examples) have shown that it's fine and indeed educational. She seems to be forgetting that she and her husband are extremely well-educated, upper-middle class parents who probably interact with their children intelligently about what they're viewing. What about the others? The increasing numbers of people who are plugging their children in and opting out of the difficult and exciting work and play of being parents?

      "I am certain that at her own institution she is seeing the effects that this preoccupation with so-called "visual culture" is having: students struggling to express their ideas in writing because they have limited vocabularies, and lack the fluency and facility that the majority of educated native speakers once had. Having taught in this area at university, I can refute any claims that the majority of students are more "visually literate" than preceding generations. They lack the critical awareness and thoughtfulness to analyse visual texts until they are taught to.

      "While there is definitely a place in high school for beginning this valuable work, it should be a supplement to, not a substitute for, the skills that teachers of literature can provide."

      Jane Sloan, Potts Point

Wednesday 21 November

• The Age
  
  
  • School's out in protest over pay and conditions
    by Farrah Tomazin and Bridie Smith
    
    "About one in 10 Victorian schools will be shut down or severely disrupted when thousands of teachers walk off the job this morning over wages and working conditions.

    "Many parents have been forced to make other arrangements for their children because of the 24-hour protest, which is taking place three days before the federal election and on a day when more than 4000 students are to sit their VCE exams.

    "The stopwork is the first industrial showdown between Premier John Brumby, a former teacher, and the 33,000-strong education union of which he was once a member.

    "Victorian teachers, who argue they are the lowest paid in the country, have sought a 30% wage rise over three years, smaller class sizes and improved career pathways.

    "The government is offering a 3.25% increase each year, with anything above that to be met by "productivity trade-offs".

    "Mr Brumby said yesterday he was disappointed at the timing of the strike and was adamant the teachers' push for a 30% increase would not be met.

    "Victorian teachers already had small class sizes and could earn about $78,000 annually as a "leading teacher", a senior teacher with extra responsibilities.

    "The Victorian president of the Australian Education Union, Mary Bluett, said this role often took teachers away from the one place they were needed most — the classroom.

    "What we need is a career structure that provides incentives to stay in the profession, and, especially, to stay in the classroom," Ms Bluett said.

    "About 10,000 teachers are expected to join today's rally at Vodafone Arena before marching through the city to Parliament.

    "Schools have been warned to put plans in place to minimise the effect on students.

    "Those due to sit VCE exams in international studies, engineering, French, and industry and enterprise are not likely to be affected by the strike.

    "External assessors, not teachers, oversee the tests.

    "State Education Minister Bronwyn Pike said about 4000 students were sitting exams tomorrow as well and might not be able to get the last-minute help some might need.

    "Melbourne Girls' College principal Judy Crowe said there would be significant disruption at her school, with 48 of her 75 staff walking out and years 8 to 11 classes cancelled.

    "At McKinnon Secondary College, assistant principal Pitsa Binnion said the effect would be minimal, with 11 out of about 115 teachers planning to strike.

    "The timing of the strike has also allowed the federal Coalition to further criticise the unions and play on fears that union "militancy" could worsen under a Rudd Labor government.

    "Victorian teachers earn between $46,127 and $65,414 a year unless they are prepared to take on extra responsibilities beyond the classroom, such as curriculum or early years co-ordination.

    "In contrast, NSW teachers at the top of the classroom scale earn $72,454, while those in Western Australia earn $71,067.

    "Any deal struck between the teachers and the Government could have an effect on Catholic school teachers, who are also locked in wage talks with their employers."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Editorial
    Better pay for teachers is an investment in the future
    
    As Victoria's teachers strike for more pay, it is in the community's interest to give it to them.

    "Australia is in the happy throes of an economic boom and, as many economic commentators have enthusiastically noted, the prospects for continuing prosperity stretch far into the foreseeable future.

    "Governments, federal and state, are awash with money and some individual members of the community have also done well out of this country's economic good fortune. Consider the new survey from the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, released yesterday, which reveals that the CEOs of the top 100 companies have seen their fixed salaries double over the five years to 2006, four times faster than that of ordinary wage earners. A further gleam has been added to this sparkling bounty by the fact that their average annual bonuses have also doubled from $769,000 in 2001 to $1.66 million in 2006.

    "Without doubt, the fortunate beneficiaries of such boardroom and shareholder largesse have made a key contribution to the robust health of Australia's economy. But, then, so have this nation's teachers, and not by any standards could they be seen as having prospered in these exceptional economic times. Indeed, their salaries have failed to keep pace with general wages growth, never mind the stellar gains enjoyed by many chief executives. Yet, as Michael Chaney, the former president of the Business Council of Australia, and a contemporary of many of today's highly-paid CEOs, declared in his memorable valedictory speech last month, it is education that will drive this country's continuing economic and social prosperity.

    "This newspaper agrees. Clearly, the scales of value are disturbingly unbalanced. It is teachers who lay the groundwork for Australia's economic success by generating the intellectual capital and skills crucial for effective participation in the workforce. In short, they refine the fuel for the engine of growth. Yet, as a society, we place comparatively little value on their contribution, as their annual remuneration relative to many other professionals so clearly attests. In his speech, Mr Chaney asked his audience to imagine "a society where teachers are revered as the fundamental source of our ultimate prosperity". This is a laudable sentiment, and one, it must be hoped, that will be realised in the not-too-distant future. The first step (the second should be the overdue reform of the unsatisfactory and demoralising contract system) to according teachers the respect they deserve is for the State Government to significantly increase teachers' annual salaries. This would not only reflect the crucial role they play in building this nation but go a long way to helping attract, and retain, the brightest possible candidates who otherwise might not be drawn to a profession where the top annual salary is $65,414, or who would prefer to work in other states where they would be better paid, or who could reject teaching in favour of jobs where the financial rewards are greater. Attracting the best people to the profession — and providing them with incentives to stay in the classroom — is fundamental to the success of the education system, to skills development and to Australia's international competitiveness and economic wellbeing. Research consistently shows that the quality of an education system reflects the quality of its teachers: the better the teachers, the better the students, the better the workers. Teachers mould tomorrow's society and tomorrow's workforce; they are the source from which our wealth flows. This should be at the forefront of the community's mind as Victoria's 33,000 teachers take strike action today to press their claim for a 30 per cent wage rise over three years.

    "During this federal election campaign, the Coalition and the Labor Party have earmarked several billion dollars for education programs, but they only tinker at the edges of reform. The Premier, John Brumby, has proclaimed that education is the Government's priority. If Victoria really aims to be the "smart state" it should seize the initiative and embark on a genuine education revolution by paying teachers what they so demonstrably deserve."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    

    • Salary equation goes back to square root of one
      by Farrah Tomazin
      
      "Three years ago, thousands of Victorian teachers walked off the job as they sought better pay and working conditions.

      "At the time, they argued they were underpaid, lodged an ambit claim for a 30% wage rise over three years, and ultimately brokered a State Government deal for increases of 12% to 21%.

      "Fast-forward to the present day, and the situation looks familiar. Victorian teachers at the top of the classroom scale are the lowest paid in the country. The union has launched another ambit claim for a 30% pay rise. And dozens of schools are set to be crippled this morning when teachers embark on a 24-hour strike in a bid to force the Government's hand.

      "The move comes after eight months of failed negotiations: while teachers want a better deal, Premier John Brumby and Education Minister Bronwyn Pike claim they've got one. The state's "leading teachers" earn about $78,000 a year, they say, and "are among the highest paid in country". This is true, but leading teachers are those who take on responsibilities beyond the classroom, such as a curriculum co-ordinator or early years development.

      "Classroom teachers, however, start on an annual salary of $46,127 in Victoria, compared with $49,050 in NSW and $49,605 in South Australia.

      "At the top of the classroom scale, the situation is even more pronounced: $65,414 a year for Victorian teachers, compared with $72,454 in NSW; about $70,000 in the Northern Territory; and more than $68,000 in SA and Tasmania.

      "Even if the union accepted the Government's offer of a 3.25% wage rise each year for the life of the next certified agreement, the starting salary for Victorian teachers would rise to $47,626 — still less than their NSW or SA counterparts."
      
      From The Age at link
      
      

  • Out of classroom, family feels blow
    
    "Teachers are starting to put themselves up on pedestals and it's about time they were knocked down again," [a parent] said.
    
    
    
    
• Letters to the Editor
  
  
  • Lost to teaching

    "I am not a teacher any more. I transferred those skills a long time ago after deciding that teaching was more demanding, underpaid and unappreciated than it should be for such an important job. As for the furphy of 10 weeks holidays? Puleeease. I do not know a single teacher who isn't writing reports or back at school days before each term begins.

    "I now have a job that is not as crucial to the future of this state or country. But I get paid a lot more, make a coffee or go to the toilet when I want and work in a comfortable, air-conditioned and peaceful office. Teachers deserve higher esteem from the government and the community and to be paid much more for their commitment to such an essential vocation."

    Colleen Coghlan, Prahran
    
    

  • Remember this

    "While the teacher union leaders have discounted the effect of today's industrial action by state school teachers on the federal ALP's chances of electoral success, the reality is that industrial action by teachers should not have occurred. All other states have settled claims by their teachers long ago. Victoria has prevaricated and procrastinated.

    "With a $1.3 billion surplus, the Brumby Government is crying poor over bringing Victorian teachers up to the pay levels of their NSW counterparts. The difference at the top of the salary scale is $7000; by early next year it will be $10,000. All John Brumby can offer is a measly three months overdue 3.35%. The union leaders are right — we can't confuse state and federal issues, but Victorian teachers should not forget the parsimonious and contemptible Brumby at the next state election."

    David E. Spratt, Burwood
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Campaign a victory of spin over substance (page 21)
    by Tony Rutherford
    
    "... Mr Rudd has talked incessantly about a revolution in Australian education. Talk of a revolution involves new and lively ideas. That is precisely what Mr Rudd’s revolution lacks. It is trite and scarcely to be distinguished from the Government’s own policies. It is entirely typical that it should involve giving each Australian child a computer. Computers are, still, just flash and visible. They are not what Australian education needs.
    
    "Mr Rudd’s plans will do nothing whatsoever to free Australia’s dysfunctional public education systems from the dead hand of the State bureaucracies curiously intent on killing them. [emphasis added] And, in passing, it is to be noted that Mr Rudd — publicly at least — plans no cuts in the private sector: if Labor won’t stand up for public school students, who will? It is also interesting that Australia’s universities come a poor last in his plans, which are very much pitched at the parents of school-age children. But if you repeat the phrase “revolution in education” often enough, most people will eventually believe it. Repetition is a key part of spin..."
    
    "On present indications we may reasonably expect a [Labor] government consumed with message and spin. The language will always exceed the reality. Indeed, Mr Rudd on education already uncannily recalls Tony Blair’s “education, education, education” mantra. What makes this more likely is the way in which Mr Rudd’s State Labor colleagues already run extensive spin operations..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • Still no job
      
      "It amazes me that the Education Department is offering incentives to attract new teachers while not doing enough to keep those it already has.

      "I am one of a group of fixed-term teachers at a secondary school in Perth. As yet, I have not heard from the department about my placement for 2008. I hope the timing of this advice is a significant improvement on the advice I received for me placement this year.

      "Because I had not been advised of my placement school by the first pupil-free day in January, I phoned the Education Department early in the morning. I was advised my school choices were too selective and no school was available.

      "That afternoon, the department phoned and offered me placement at three of the schools I chose on my nomination form. I am not surprised that many teachers are leaving the public school system when we are treated with this type of disdain."

      Name and address supplied
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
• Little scope for detailed analysis
  by Brendan O'Keefe
  
  "Three days out from the federal election, policy detail from the main parties remains thin on the ground.

  "Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop last week left the door open for further policy initiatives when she told the HES: "There are 11 days to go and I'm not going to pre-empt John Howard on anything."

  "The door was still ajar yesterday. Ms Bishop said: "There are a few days to go and I'm not going to pre-empt John Howard on anything."

  "Australian Democrats education spokeswoman Natasha Stott Despoja called on Labor to reveal more detail about its education policy. "We have had the Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd talking all year about an education revolution, but so far it has been more sizzle than steak," she said.

  "Labor education spokesman Stephen Smith on Sunday gave some idea of the party's plans for abolishing domestic undergraduate fee-paying places. But this, too, left unanswered questions.

  "Asked on the Ten Network's Meet the Press if Labor would scrap voluntary student unionism, Mr Smith said: "No, we won't. We will allow students to voluntarily organise themselves.

  "The key thing is making sure the services that have traditionally been sustained by the student groups are there for all students to enjoy into the future ... childcare, sport and rec facilities and the like.

  "Those services are withering and dwindling on the vine."

  "Paying for services and compensating universities for lost fees would cost Labor about $560million, Senator Stott Despoja said.

  "Have Labor even factored these into their election promises?" she said.

  "The Democrats said they would review the Government's policy on science and innovation (scrapping the research quality framework), provide more funding for basic research and more money for research staff salaries.

  "A new amalgamated scheme could finance as many as 300 Federation fellows, the party said."

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  
  
• Questions over Labor's fee rollback
  by Bernard Lane
  
  "The fate of extra student places in high-demand areas including medicine has emerged as a vital election issue following the release of Labor's timetable for doing away with full fees for local undergraduates.

  "The big missing point in the whole discussion is not the compensation (for universities losing full-fee revenue) but what is going to happen to those places," higher education commentator Andrew Norton said. "That is a vital detail which we've heard nothing about."

  "He said that if Labor in power did not swap those full-fee places with HECS places, skills shortages could worsen and universities left with spare capacity would try to recruit foreign students. These would be strange outcomes for a Labor policy advanced on equity grounds.

  "Mr Norton was commenting as a research fellow for the Centre for Independent Studies, although he also works as an adviser at the University of Melbourne, a leader in developing the local full-fee market.

  "On Sunday, Labor's education spokesman Stephen Smith added two details to the party's longstanding policy to abolish full fees for locals: from 2009 no new undergraduates would be allowed to take up such places and the compensation bill for universities could range from $300 million to $400 million.

  "Before the campaign is out we will indicate how those arrangements will be costed and funded," Mr Smith told Channel 10's Meet the Press program.

  "Yesterday the HES put a series of questions to Mr Smith's office, including what would happen to the extra places underwritten by full fees, but his spokesman said it was premature to answer.

  "Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop said universities had told her the Labor veto on this revenue source could leave them with a "black hole" costing $500 million to $700 million.

  "Stephen Smith has been pressed since January and Labor still hasn't said how they will make that up to the universities," Ms Bishop said.

  "The other point is that the small number of full-fee places we've got are in the areas of skills shortage, in medicine and dentistry, and it's illogical to strip universities and students of the opportunity to take up full-fee places in skills shortage areas.

  "It smacks of a blind ideological agenda."

  "Commentator Simon Marginson said Mr Smith's compensation estimate showed Labor did not regard the loss of this revenue as "a big problem" for the sector. Marginson, professor of higher education at Melbourne, said the loss could be closer to $1billion although he said there were too many unknowns to be precise.

  "Monash University vice-chancellor Richard Larkins said a straight swap of HECS places for full-fee places would leave institutions out of pocket.

  "Expanding the number of commonwealth-supported places to compensate would be logical, but the income from these full-fee places is significantly more per place per student," Professor Larkins said..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Op Ed
  If government changes, so does nation
  by Paul Kelly
  
  "... The fourth area where Rudd promises to change the nation is his education revolution. In the campaign his passion has not been backed by dollars. But Rudd repeats the revolutionary goal: to make Australia's the best educated and skilled workforce in the world. It demands a huge financial reallocation through time, combined with better policy, notably towards universities. So far there is little evidence of any policy innovation.

  On education, Howard warns that a nationwide Labor supremacy cannot deliver because Labor remains culturally and organisationally tied to the progressive Left, whose power base is the producer side of the education system. It is one of Howard's deepest articles of faith. And its validity will be tested by any Rudd government.

  Howard sees election 2007 as a contest between values. His disappointment, surely, must be that this alleged contest of values has not won prominence. This is because Rudd denied it as a tactic and as a policy. Rudd decided he would not be wedged by Howard on cultural issues. On education, Rudd presents as a practical realist seeking better investments tied to better outcomes..."
  
  Full story in The Australian at link

  
  

• Conference flags fall in participation
  
  Higher education participation growth in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations is increasingly driven by government policies designed to produce a culture of aspiration that fosters a more talented and entrepreneurial population irrespective of long-term labour market needs, an international higher education conference has heard.
  
  
  
  
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Teachers 'ashamed' of child abuse gag
    AAP
    
    Hundreds of NSW public school principals are "ashamed" of their education department for trying to gag them from speaking out on child abuse, their spokeswoman says.
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Sounds like rubbish

      "How elitist and fatuous can one get? To imply that Beethoven's Eroica Symphony means nothing without a background of 18th-century history is plain ridiculous ("High school accused of elitism", November 20).

      "The implication is that classical music must be kept, shining and polished, on a high shelf beyond the reach of ordinary mortals. For some people, increased knowledge of the minutiae of contemporary history (what Bach had for breakfast, who was Chopin's piano tuner) might help them gain more pleasure from listening, but we of the masses can still love our music in our own way."

      H.B. Vallance, Darling Point
      
      

    • Teaching us a lesson

      "I feel so stupid. Up until now I thought parents sent their children to private schools to network and make use of the tennis courts and swimming pools.

      But now, thanks to Geoff Hawke, I realise that parents really sent their children to private schools to save taxpayers money (Letters, November 20). How thoughtful."

      Chris Lawley, Cooma
      
      

    • "Geoff Hawke, what is wrong in "billions of dollars a year" of my taxes going into funding a public education system? As a single person with no children I would be happier that my taxes went there, rather than to the rich elitist schools you favour.

      "Quality education should be available to all Australian students. Or perhaps the elites in Mosman fear an educated, thinking "proletariat"? How dreadful, those people getting above their station."

      JohnPaul Cenzato, Leura
      
      

    • "Geoff Hawke, I had a private school education. In retrospect, the good aspects outweighed the bad. But I never kidded myself that by paying to send me there, my parents were "saving the entire education system in this country".

      Lloyd Swanton, Wentworth Falls

Thursday 22 November

 Happy Thanksgiving Day, Pat, Steve and any American visitors

• The Australian
  
  
  • Feature
    No substitute for teachers
    by Justine Ferrari
    
    "Does every student really need their own pencil? Surely one pencil between two is enough. It sounds an absurd proposition today, but the debate over the use of computers and digital technology in schools mirrors the debate over the introduction of pencils in the classroom a couple of generations ago.
    
    "Greg Whitby, who oversees the Catholic school network in western Sydney, makes the point that the digital divide discussed today repeats the arguments of the carbon divide or, more correctly, the lead divide.

    "We had great argument when pencils were introduced. They were new technology and we even had the discussion: Should every student have a pencil?" he told the conference Our Schools ... Our Future, hosted last week by The Australian and the Melbourne Institute.

    "Arthur Phillip High School in western Sydney already uses computers extensively in its classes, has a wireless network and introduced a program this year giving every Year 7 student a laptop.

    "Principal Lynne Goodwin says teachers wanting to use laptops have to demonstrate through a research project how they will integrate them into their lessons. The danger is that computers can become electronic textbooks rather than adding an extra dimension to the lesson and "bringing the world inside the classroom".

    "We had a similar debate about calculators when they replaced log tables and slide rules," Goodwin says.

    "It's just another teaching tool. It won't fundamentally change what we are teaching but it's a way of getting kids really engaged."

    "Technology is a tool. By itself it won't revolutionise a student's education. Its worth lies in the skill of the teacher. An education revolution must address the quality of teaching, and both the Coalition and the ALP are silent on the issue.

    "Technology is the centrepiece of Labor's self-styled education revolution. Labor is promising $1 billion to provide every student in years 9 to 12 with access to a computer, high-speed broadband for every school and a 50 per cent tax rebate for parents, on a means-tested basis, to subsidise home computers.

    "The Coalition's main funding commitment is also an education rebate but spread more widely. All parents, regardless of income, will receive a 40 per cent rebate on all education expenses, from school fees and uniforms to excursions and after-school dance classes.

    "The rebates offer an insight into the central belief that underpins the education policies of John Howard and Kevin Rudd.

    "Howard's mantra is the Coalition's commitment to parental choice in education. He has put billions into parents' pockets and his Government has increased its funding for non-government schools much faster than for government schools.

    "As a result the number of students attending non-government schools has increased significantly and the number of private schools has grown, particularly low-fee schools.

    "In line with Rudd's belief that education is the key to economic prosperity, Labor's policy recognises research showing $1 spent on a child before they start school saves $7 in welfare, lost tax revenue and productivity from being unemployed or involved in crime.

    "The ALP has policies that extend from birth through to tertiary qualifications. The Coalition's policy on early childhood education is largely restricted to subsidising parents' costs and seems to still view it as basically babysitting on a large scale.

    "But the ALP is guaranteeing 15 hours a week of preschool, with a qualified teacher for every four-year-old, and early intervention programs with the Brotherhood of St Laurence for children in disadvantaged communities to provide resources including books and tutors to ensure children are ready to start school. It will also roll out nationally the Australian Early Development Index in all primary schools to assess how children are developing when they start school.

    "The education revolution was among the first policies outlined by Rudd after assuming the Labor leadership in December. The first chapter announced $111 million over four years to encourage the study of maths and science by offering HECS relief, with further subsidies for those taking up a profession in the sciences, particularly teaching.

    "The Coalition argues the level of HECS paid has no bearing on students' decision to attend university or the course they choose.

    "The second chapter of Labor's education revolution outlined a plan for a national school curriculum from the first year of school to Year 12 under the auspices of a national curriculum board, an idea proposed by the Coalition a year previously.

    "The Coalition was the first to participate in the debate over the quality of school education, traditionally a policy strength of Labor.

    "It picked up on parent and community concerns about the rigour of curriculum and teaching in schools and put in place conditions to make the system more accountable. It changed the way schools reported to parents and the community, and has pushed through uniform national tests starting next year in literacy and numeracy for years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

    "But the Coalition's lead has been whittled away by Rudd with Labor's early childhood and preschool policies and its statement about lifting school standards last weekend.

    "In defiance of teacher unions, Labor is committed to publishing the annual results of every school from the national tests, data the states have refused to hand over.

    "But there is a gaping hole in the education policies of both parties: the teacher. [emphasis added]

    "The biggest variable in a student's performance is the teacher standing in front of the class. A good teacher can overcome social disadvantage. And an education system is only as good as its teachers.

    "Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop first raised the idea of paying teachers based on merit rather than length of service more than a year ago. The Government made merit-based pay a condition of federal schools funding to the states in the budget and has commissioned a pilot study of different models.

    "Bishop envisages a system that pays teachers based on their students' improvement or how much they have "value-added". Labor's education spokesman Stephen Smith supports a system that pays teachers for specific skills such as maths and science, extra qualifications and working in disadvantaged or rural schools.

    "The Coalition points to its summer school program for teachers, announced in the budget, as improving teacher standards. The program pays teachers $5000 to attend courses in English, literacy and numeracy, science, maths, Australian history and one announced last week in disabilities. The schools cater for only a little more than 1000 teachers, but Bishop says there will be a ripple effect as those teachers return to school and share what they have learned.

    "Still, with only 0.5 per cent of the nation's teachers attending these schools every year, it will have to be one hell of a ripple to flow through the system.

    "Labor's only addition to improving teacher quality came at the weekend, saying it would work with the universities to ensure trainee teachers could not graduate without meeting literacy and numeracy standards and that all teaching students would be trained in different strategies for teaching literacy and numeracy.

    "Labor has ditched a policy aimed at improving teacher quality formulated under Kim Beazley's leadership that would have paid $10,000 to each teacher recognised as outstanding under a process set by federal, state and territory governments.

    "But the challenge is to improve the academic calibre of students choosing teaching as a career. It's poorly paid in comparison to other professions; it has a short career path, with teachers reaching their highest pay level within about eight years; and it is held in low esteem by the wider community.

    "Scores to enter teaching at university are based on demand rather than academic ability, so teaching has one of the lowest entrance scores of any degree. Students with high tertiary entrance marks feel it's a waste choosing a teaching degree.

    "A study by economists Andrew Leigh and Chris Ryan from the Australian National University shows teachers come from the lowest achieving students rather than the top performers they were 20 years ago. [emphasis added]

    "In Britain, a government-led campaign marketing teaching as a profession coupled with better pay made it one of the top three career choices within about five years.

    "Finland, which consistently tops the world in international tests, runs a stringent selection program that accepts teaching students only from the top 10 per cent of university graduates. All teachers have masters degrees and it is a highly sought-after and respected career, despite not being one of the best paid.

    "A truly national approach to the training of teachers in Australia is made difficult by the split between commonwealth and state responsibilities. The states run schools and hire most teachers; the commonwealth controls the supply and quality of teachers through its funding of universities. Australia has an oversupply of teachers in some areas, such as primary, and a shortage in other areas, such as maths and science. Still, universities churn out thousands of primary school teachers every year, paid for by the commonwealth.

    "An education revolution would commit itself to ensuring every student, no matter what their family background, has the opportunity to a good quality education. Unfortunately, in Australia, what school you attend and the area it is in does matter.

    "Some students are more difficult and therefore more expensive to teach. They may have learning difficulties, speak English as a second language, or come from dysfunctional or poor families and conditions that interfere with their attendance at school.

    "These students require extra assistance to learn at the rate of their peers and match their results. Their schools need extra resources, whether it's individual tutoring, counsellors or resources such as books and computers that more affluent children take for granted. These students are overwhelmingly in the public system. A taskforce established by the federal, state and territory governments has estimated public schools need $2.4 billion a year if allstudents are to meet the national goals ofschooling.

    "The Coalition and the ALP are offering tax cuts in another guise through their education rebates instead of injecting money where it counts: into teachers and schools."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Choose the lesser of two evils
    Lucas Walsh eyes his options, a policy without a future or one with no vision
    
    "As an academic research fellow whose main area of interest is the use of technology in education, I have two reasons for unease after watching Kevin Rudd's campaign launch last week.
    
    "First, his promise to provide a computer to every school student will provide some great educational benefits; however, what is lacking is a broader and longer-term vision of how the provision of such technology will benefit the educational and societal development of Australia.

    "Technology is too often presented as a panacea and as any educator experienced in e-learning (computer-assisted learning) will tell you, the use of computers in the classroom is only as good as the teaching and learning strategies underpinning their use. This means that the value of computers in our classrooms depends on equipping teaching and support staff with the skills and resources to be able to fully exploit the educational benefits of such technology.

    "It means developing the necessary digital literacies in our young. It depends on having a coherent and long-term vision of where our students are going as active participants in the Australian economy and lifelong learners.

    "Finally, it also depends on having the necessary infrastructure in place to enable Australia to bloom as a knowledge economy. [emphasis added]

    "Rudd rightly acknowledges the importance of fast broadband, an area in which Australia has fallen way behind other nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

    "The Howard Government, by comparison, offers no alternative, neither educationally nor in dealing with its own conflicts with Australia's main telecommunications provider, Telstra. If nothing else, we need to be cautious of the seductive power of short-term technological solutions when it is fashionable to use buzz words, "e-this" and "e-that".

    "Regarding my research, I would like to see more direct engagement with the wonderful opportunities that recent technological developments have given us in collaborative learning, simulations and social networking. In failing to address the many wonderful opportunities to enhance the use of technology in Australian schools, the Australian Labor Party's policy is more "me too" rather than Web 2.0.

    "My second reason for unease is that Rudd's announcement on funding changes to higher education is welcome but not persuasive, particularly for researchers such as me. With the election rapidly approaching, I find myself at a crossroads..."
    
    Lucas Walsh is a research fellow at Deakin University.
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Coalition seizes on strike to teach voters a lesson
    by Ewin Hannan
    
    "The federal Coalition last night tried to capitalise on a rally by 10,000 striking Victorian teachers, claiming "parents and children" would incur more industrial strife and inconvenience if Kevin Rudd won power on Saturday.

    "Just three days from the federal election, the Australian Education Union tried to maximise pressure on the state Labor Government by claiming there had been an unprecedented turnout by rank-and-file teachers in support of the union's bid for a 30 per cent pay rise over three years.

    "Thousands of teachers vowed to hold another 24-hour strike in February, followed by rolling four-hour stoppages unless the Government negotiated an acceptable deal for better pay and conditions.

    "But Premier John Brumby, who has offered a 3.25 per cent annual wage increase, stared down the union, declaring the Government would not agree to the union's "irresponsible" claim..."
    
    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • University promises contracts in bid to snare $3.6m grant
    
    A Victorian university has won a $3.6 million grant from the Howard Government by promising to put a quarter of its staff on AWAs.
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Union criticises plan to address WA teacher shortage [21 November]
    
    "The Western Australian State School Teachers' Union says teachers and students are going to suffer as a result of a state Education Department plan to move some staff from District Offices back into classrooms next year to address the teacher shortage.

    "The Department sent a memo out on Friday warning that contracts for District Office staff may not be extended next year.

    "The union predicts the state will be six-hundred teachers short at the start of the year and has accused the Department of failing to plan for the crisis.

    "The president of the State School Teachers' Union, Mike Keely, says if District Office staff are forced back into classrooms the professional development and support they provide for teachers will not be available.

    "There will be n