From Monday 17 December 2007 through Sunday 20 January 2008, PLATO's Breaking News coverage is on "Summer Holidays", and will be limited to MAJOR Western Australian education articles, editorials, Op Ed pieces and Letters to the Editor. Important national stories from The Australian [and if time permits, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald] will be included whenever possible. The home page will be updated only once a day, normally in the evening.

We anticipate that full coverage will resume on Monday 21 January 2008.

Monday 14 January

Tuesday 15 January

Wednesday 16 January

Thursday 17 January

Friday 18 January

Saturday – Sunday, 19 – 20 January

 

Monday 14 January

• The Australian
  

• University of Google 'dulling minds'
  by Alexandra Frean
  

  "GOOGLE is "white bread for the mind", and the internet is producing a generation of students who survive on a diet of unreliable information, a British professor of media studies will claim this week.

  "In her inaugural lecture at the University of Brighton, Tara Brabazon will urge teachers at all levels of the education system to equip students with the skills they need to interpret and sift through information gleaned from the internet.

  "She believes that easy access to information has dulled students’ sense of curiosity and is stifling debate. She claims that many undergraduates arrive at university unable to discriminate between anecdotal and unsubstantiated material posted on the internet.

  "I call this type of education ‘the University of Google’.

  "Google offers easy answers to difficult questions. But students do not know how to tell if they come from serious, refereed work or are merely composed of shallow ideas, superficial surfing and fleeting commitments.

  "Google is filling, but it does not necessarily offer nutritional content,” she said.

  "Professor Brabazon, who has been teaching in universities for 18 years, said the heavy reliance on the internet in universities had the effect of “flattening expertise” because every piece of information was given the same credibility by users.

  "Professor Brabazon’s concerns echo the author Andrew Keen’s criticisms of online amateurism. In his book The Cult of the Amateur, Keen says: “Today’s media is shattering the world into a billion personalised truths, each seemingly equally valid and worthwhile.”

  "Professor Brabazon said: “I’ve taught all through the digitisation of education. It’s fascinating to see how students have changed. We can no longer assume that students arrive at university, knowing what to read and knowing what standards are required of the material that they do read.”

  "Students live in an age of information, but what they lack is correct information. They turn to Wikipedia unquestioningly for information. Why wouldn’t they - it’s there,” she said.

  "Professor Brabazon does not blame schools for students’ cut-and-paste attitude to study. Nor is she critical of students individually.

  "With libraries in decline, diminishing stocks of books and fewer librarians, media platforms such as Google made perfect sense. The trick was to learn how to use them properly.

  "We need to teach our students the interpretative skills first before we teach them the technological skills. Students must be trained to be dynamic and critical thinkers rather than drifting to the first site returned through Google,” she said.

  "Her own students are banned from using Wikipedia or Google as research tools in their first year of study, but instead are provided with 200 extracts from peer-reviewed printed texts at the beginning of the year, supplemented by printed extracts from eight to nine texts for individual pieces of work.

  "I want students to experience the pages and the print as much as the digitisation and the pixels - both are fine but I want students to have both – not one or the other, not a cheap solution,” she said.

  "The have been concerns about students plagiarising from the internet and the growth of a new online “coursework industry”, in which websites produce tailor-made essays, some selling for up to £1,000 ($2,190) each.

  "Wikipedia, containing millions of articles contributed by users was founded in 2001. It has been criticised for being riddled with inaccuracies and nonsense. Even one of its own founders, Larry Sanger, described it as “broken beyond repair” before leaving the site last year.

  "Google is the dominant search engine on the internet. It uses a formula designed to place the most relevant content at the top of its listings. But a multimillion-pound industry has grown up around manipulating Google rankings through a process called “search engine optimisation”.

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Students in shift on union funding
  by Sara Elks, Higher Education
  

  "The nation's peak student body will urge the Rudd Government to scrap controversial voluntary student unionism laws.

  "But, in a major policy backflip, the National Union of Students will not push for a return to the compulsory upfront membership fees for students it has lobbied for since the legislation came into effect in 2006.

  "Instead, it will consider options such as a levy to be repaid by students when they can afford it under the HECS scheme, and indirect government funding for the unions.

  "The NUS's new national president, Angus McFarland, will meet Education Minister Julia Gillard and Youth Minister Kate Ellis on Friday week and implore them to save student unions, which he said yesterday were on the brink of extinction.

  "Membership has plummeted since the voluntary student unionism legislation came into effect. The NUS says the VSU laws have prompted a decline in essential services such as childcare, legal representation, bookshops and sporting clubs -- especially at cash-strapped regional universities.

  "Mr McFarland said the NUS was committed to scrapping VSU and that the union's shift was a realistic move.

  "At our national conference, we decided we wanted to replace (VSU) with a new model that addressed all of the issues we have about student services and representation," he said.

  "But we were also aware of the reality that the Labor Party had comprehensively ruled out returning to the upfront fee-paying system."

  "Ms Gillard, who was president of the Australian Union of Students in 1983, said the Government would be "working with our universities to restore vital student services that the previous Liberal government trashed".

  "The Minister for Youth, Kate Ellis, will be conducting consultations with universities, student societies and clubs on the best way to ensure vital services like childcare are provided," Ms Gillard said.

  "Federal Labor will obviously allow students to voluntarily organise themselves but think the most important thing is to ensure vital student services are restored."

  "Mr McFarland said he was researching international student unions and would compile an "options paper" to present to the federal Government next month.

  "He said the student unions that were surviving were receiving robust financial support from their universities.

  "According to NUS figures, the Sydney University union had 40,000 members in 2006 and received $8.4 million in student fees before VSU.

  "Last year, it had one-quarter the number of members and received $5 million in financial support from the university."
  
  From The Australian at link
  
  
  

• One third of Vic hopefuls miss place
  by Milanda Rout
  

  "Up to 19,000 Victorian students will be disappointed after they learn today they have missed out on a first-round university place.

  "Almost one-third of the 57,545 applicants for a HECS-funded place at university were unsuccessful in their bid to start studying this year.

  "The rejections come despite a 3.2 per cent drop in the number of people applying for courses at Victorian tertiary institutions.

  "Commentators attributed this decline partly to the strong job market.

  "The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre offers, which will be released tonight , will bring good news for 38,060 university hopefuls who wil be offered a HECS place.

  "Of those 33,099 will be school leavers and the remainder mature-aged students.

  "Victorian acting skills and workplace participation minister Theo Theophanous said that the drop in applications was mostly a demographic issue.

  "To a large degree, this can be attributed to the changing demographics," he said.

  "Fewer students completed Year 12 last year than the previous year - a drop from 48,282 in 2006 to 47,001 in 2007.

  "These figures also suggest that VCE students are taking advantage of a number of post-school options available to them thanks to a strong economy."

  "Deakin University was the only institution to defy the drop in tertiary applications, with the univeristy increasing its final first preferences for HECS-funded places by 5.5 per cent on last year. "

  From The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Teachers unable to promote A levels
  by Nicola Woolcock
  

  "British teachers are to be banned from encouraging their pupils to study A levels rather than the Government's controversial new vocational diploma qualifications under legislation that is going through parliament.

  "A clause in the Education and Skills Bill, to be debated in parliament today, says that schools will be forbidden from “unduly promoting any particular options” to teenagers seeking advice on courses.

  "The move has been criticised by academics, who say that the Government is desperate for the diplomas to succeed at all costs.

  "Others fear that the new and “impartial” mortgage-style advice will not be in the best interests of pupils as teachers unconvinced of the worth of the diplomas will be unable to pass on their concerns to either them or their parents.

  "The qualifications are designed to end the divide between vocational and academic learning and will be offered at some schools from September and across England and Wales by 2013.

  "Ministers are promoting diplomas as the “jewel in the crown” of the education system. Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, recently said that they would become the “qualification of choice” and refused to confirm that A levels would survive beyond a review in 2013."
  

  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  

• Letters to the Editor
  
  
  • History needs good teachers
    

    "I laud the new federal Government's commitment to making history a compulsory subject in the national education curriculum ('Labor wedded to compulsory history', 11/1). As a practising secondary school history teacher of over 20 years' experience, I have been very concerned how the subject has been whittled down during the past two decades in terms of teaching time, content and quality of delivery - or its disappearance from the secondary school curriculum altogether - much to the detriment of the subject and to the country in general. Like many of my fellow practitioners, I have been following with both interest and dismay the recent debates about how the introduction of compulsory history units in the national curriculum might be implemented.

    "However, along with the bold commitment to make history a core subject in the national curriculum, I’m yet to hear a satisfactory explanation as to who will teach any such compulsory history units, particularly at secondary school level. The recent NSW experience has revealed that without enough professionally trained and committed history teachers, students have been turned right off the subject. My questions to the new federal Education Minister are these: (1) can she guarantee that there will be ample numbers of well-trained, passionate history teachers to do justice to the teaching the subject? (2) if not, what provision will be made to attract and train sufficient numbers of history teachers for our secondary schools? My fear is that if we do not have enough competent and enthusiastic teachers to deliver the subject in meaningful and imaginative ways, the Government’s policy on this issue is already a lame duck and will only serve to destroy the credibility of the subject in the minds of the very young people it is aimed to reach. "

    David Thiele, Salisbury Heights, SA
    
    
    
    

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Religious schools in high-tech security splurge (page 16)
    by Beatrice Thomas

    "Islamic and Jewish schools in Perth are taking extraordinary measures to protect their students from possible attack, in some cases spending ten of thousands of dollars on high-tech security equipment, fences and patrols.

    "Lorraine Day, principal of Carmel School in Dianella, said the Jewish school spent $100,000 a year on security, including fixed cameras and a full-time security guard during school hours.

    "Ms. Day said it was a burden on the school and parents, who had to pay a security levy and were expected to be on duty at least once a term for morning and afternoon patrols as students arrived and left.

    "There are some crazies out there and we are a soft target," she said. "It's an unfortunate thing that we have to go to those measures. It's a bit sad really but the safety of our students is paramount."

    "The school was one of several that said it would take up a Federal Government offer to help to cover the costs with security measures, which they claim are necessary to safeguard against threats.

    "It is an area that our parents have to pay for that parents at other schools don't," Ms. Day said.

    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said the Government would spend $20 million to help schools at risk of hate-based attacks.

    "Under the plan, schools would apply for a security assessment to be carried out by agencies such as the Australian Federal Police, with the Government to pay for security measures for schools deemed at risk.

    "Al-Hidayah Islamic School administrator Umar Abdullah said addressing security had been part of planning for a number of years.

    "The Bentley school had one 24-hour camera and was about to install two more.

    "It is comforting to know that if things did escalate, and we needed to upgrade the security of the school to protect our staff and pupils, that the Government is at least considering helping with the expense," Mr. Abdullah said.

    "Australian Islamic College Kewdale secretary Amna Hansia said the school spent $200,000 last year on a security fence and would welcome funding for cameras on buses, which had been vandalised in the past.

    "But Ameer Ali, vice-president of the Regional Islamic Council of South-East Asia and the Pacific, labelled the Government's plan short-sighted and said the money would be better spent educating the community to be more tolerant."

    From The West Australian
    
    See related story in the 11 January The Australian
    

    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • Lift teacher rewards

      "In 1990 the average age of teachers was 37 and it rose to 42 in 2000 and now it is 48. The age of the teacher you meet now is most likely to be in the 50-54 group. So there has been no significant increase of young people into the profession during that time.

      "In the main, this has occurred before the current resources boom could be blamed for the existing shortage of suitably qualified teachers.

      "During this period salaries fell further and further behind other professions and so the score required to study for a teaching qualification at university was lowered more and more to encourage enough young people into the profession.

      "The recent entry scores made teaching a last resort option and too few young people have taken it.

      "It is important to note that when today's most common age group teachers chose the profession they were making a choice, not taking a last resort. Many could have opted for engineering, accounting, law etc., but chose teaching.

      "A significant part of their choice that is different today is salaries. Back then teaching salary levels were much higher than today.

      "For example, a head of department earned the same as a backbencher.

      "Teaching is no longer the well-paid profession that it once was and we now have competing new pressures from business and resources sectors that are prepared to pay for quality graduates, especially those in the areas of mathematics and other sciences.

      "As a community we face the price of more than 20 years of failing to maintain salary levels that will ensure our children are taught by capable teachers. Salaries have to be of the order that will make teaching a profession to which young people will aspire and in which experienced teachers enjoy the rewards of continuing commitment."

      Les Tiede, Kingsley

Tuesday 15 January

• The Australian
  
  
  • Pass all nurse trainees, teachers told
    by Sarah Elks
    

    "Lecturers at a Brisbane nursing college were instructed to pass all of their students regardless of their performance.

    "The investigation by the Queensland Nursing Council into Shafston College last year found that the college's Head of School of Nursing, Gay Carran, gave a directive to teachers that "no student should fail".

    "One witness, who was a senior nursing lecturer at Shafston from January 2004 to June 2006, told David Price, who undertook the investigation for the council, that students who had failed an occupational health and safety exam were allowed to re-sit the test two more times.

    "She said in one re-sit exam, she and a colleague were told by Ms Carran to "mark students' work on the spot, immediately return unsatisfactory papers to students, and coach them until they obtained correct answers".

    "Ms Carran, who was also interviewed by Professor Price, denied she had given the directives but was reported as saying: "You always have to err on the side of ... let's be fair to the student. Ms Kemp (a Shafston nursing teacher) used to be black and white. If a student didn't pass, they were failed. We spoke to Ms Kemp about this as 'you can't do this because students are paying good money for the course'."

    "Five other former teaching staff at the college who were interviewed as part of the investigation supported the existence of the "no-fail" directive from the college management.

    "Professor Price's investigation also found the college allowed some incompetent students with poor English to graduate with a nursing diploma last year, qualifying them to become enrolled nurses.

    "The college came under scrutiny after a graduate told a former Shafston lecturer she felt "unsafe" as an enrolled nurse at Brisbane's Prince Charles Hospital. Details of the investigation were submitted to the Queensland Supreme Court as part of the case brought by Shafston Nursing against the Queensland Nursing Council.

    "The council has not renewed the college's accreditation, which expired on December 31. The council has also placed restrictions on the activities of graduates from Shafston College.

    "Shafston has since cancelled its nursing course, which was scheduled to begin in three weeks, and has suspended teaching for continuing students, some weeks away from graduating.

    "About 500 students - of whom about half are from overseas - are being directed to a similar course offered by a South Australian private educator or to nursing programs at TAFE.

    "Professor Price's investigation was conducted in July last year and involved interviews with five former teaching staff, current senior staff and an inspection of the Shafston Nursing campus at Brisbane's Spring Hill.

    "Students were charged up to $16,000 for the 55-week course.

    "In its defence, Shafston claimed in documents submitted to the court that the witness statements were flawed because the former staff did not necessarily understand exam re-sit requirements. The college also rejected the idea it had allowed incompetent students or those with poor English skills to pass. The QNC has imposed strict restrictions on Shafston students who graduated in the last trimester of last year.

    "Shafston and two of its graduates have separately taken the QNC to the Supreme Court in an attempt to have the restrictions lifted."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Uni hails move to US-style system
    by Richard Kerbaj and Brendan O'Keefe
    

    "Melbourne University has hailed its radical move to a US-style tertiary institution as a success, as students rush to study its new generalist arts degree.

    "The offers, which will be released tonight, reveal strong demand for places at the university, defying an overall decline, and the arts course at Melbourne is the most popular.

    "The university said yesterday international and interstate students had also jumped on board.

    "There was also strong demand for agriculture and environment courses in Victoria more generally, which is being put down to a rush for places at Melbourne.

    "Applications for undergraduate places in Victoria fell by nearly 4 per cent on last year, the state's tertiary admissions centre said.

    "The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre said it had released 57,771 offers for places in universities, TAFE and independent colleges.

    "There were 58,879 applicants for university places.

    "Applications for undergraduate courses were down by 2917, or 3.9 per cent from last year, and the number who received offers fell by 3403 (5.5 per cent).

    "Monash University demographer Bob Birrell said that the figures reflected the state of the job market.

    "Demand for vocational courses was fierce but "if you're on the margin with modest school results and the best you can do is non-vocational arts, you might think twice" about going to university.

    "Melbourne announced it would offer 5885 common-wealth-supported places in 29 bachelor degrees, a small increase on 5850 last year.

    "Asked how the university could know its new model was the driver of greater demand, spokeswoman Christina Buckridge said: "We have a strong number of students putting Melbourne as their preference.

    "We had strong interest in the (new) degrees.

    "We went to schools and told students and parents and teachers about them," she said.

    "Arts was most popular: the university has made 1772 offers in the discipline.

    "Demand for HECS places at RMIT University had dropped by 4.4 per cent. Acting vice-chancellor Daine Alcorn said: "Australia's strong labour market continues to have an impact on the sector as a whole".

    "Engineering and IT fared best at RMIT.

    "Deakin University said demand from school-leavers for places increased by 10 per cent on last year.

    "Science and technology, up 25 per cent, was its best improved discipline.

    "Monash University received 11,304 first preference applications, 16 fewer than last year.

    "Strongest demand was for engineering, law and a new architecture degree.

    "Acting vice-chancellor Adam Shoemaker said he was pleased with the university's position.

    "Our professional degrees are attracting great demand but also, our general degrees are doing well," he said.

    "The University of Ballarat said it had a 27 per cent increase in first preference applications but places were still available in business, humanities and information technology.

    "Swinburne University would make about 2400 offers, the same as last year.

    "Demand was best for civil engineering but biotechnology science had fallen off.

    "Victoria University said it would offer about 1400 places.

    "No details were available from La Trobe University."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • A casualty of a dysfunctional state education system
      
      "As one of the 30 per cent of teachers who will leave teaching in the "first four or five years" to find a job in another sector, as highlighted by Kevin Donnelly ("Labor ignores the Left and gives the education revolution a chance", Inquirer, 12-13/1), my story of how things are happening in Queensland may further highlight the need for change.

      "I recently retrained as a mature-age student in primary education while raising my children full-time. I looked forward to having the opportunity of getting out there and proving what an asset I could be as a great teacher, with life and parenting experience to offer as well.

      "There are many obstacles to gaining permanent employment with the state system. The first is the strict requirement that new teachers do country service for a number of years.

      "I am unable to do this due to family responsibilities. Fair enough, I say, I'll stick with supply and contract work. This work can be enjoyable and I make it that way. However, the reality is it's soul-destroying to always be teaching someone else's class.

      "Another factor against gaining permanency is that, according to our local union representative, there are approximately 5000 teachers without a permanent position. To make matters worse, current teachers have been encouraged to postpone their retirement so that they may gain greater superannuation benefits.

      "What has finally pushed me to the decision to seek employment elsewhere is being recently informed that, because Education Queensland has too many permanent teachers and no class to give them, they will locate them in primary schools this year and give them the supply and contract work as it arises.

      "So with no job, a $15,000 HECS bill and also teaching qualifications that I agree with Kevin Donnelly are inadequate, in particular for the teaching of literacy, I'm a very unsatisfied customer of our university system. I also feel I am a casualty of a dysfunctional state education system."
      
      Louise Boyle, Toowoomba, Qld
      
      

    • "As one of 200 teachers currently attending the national summer school for English teachers, at Deakin University in Geelong, it has been refreshing to see that from this assembly, which represents every state, both the public and private systems and teachers of varying years of experience, there has been a remarkable confluence of views about teaching in practice.

      "It's with interest then in reading Kevin Donnelly's article about the "education revolution" that the key role of the teacher isn't foregrounded. Donnelly acknowledges that ``teachers are the most important determinant in how well students learn'' and yet the debate centres on pedagogy. As far as I can ascertain, the development of Labor's national curriculum is a top-down model. This forum hasn't been used to canvass teacher opinion about where we currently are in the development of curriculum, nor has it been used to canvass what are practising teachers' current concerns. It would seem that a forum like this would have been an ideal opportunity to do precisely that.

      "What emerged from the floor in this forum at Deakin University is that, as classroom practitioners, we understand that to be effective the relationship between student and teacher comes first, then engagement. Only after that can teaching take place. The debate therefore about whether to use or not use computers, or which pedagogy to adopt, is largely a tactical one best decided by the teachers with the students in front of them.

      "In framing the national curriculum, the Rudd Government, in my view, would be advised to assemble a grouping of this sort, which isn't a lobby group but is representative of teachers and is grounded in practice. If they had assumed that a grouping of this sort couldn't arrive at a consensus, the experience so far would suggest otherwise. Additionally, it would ground any such curriculum in the real experience of teachers."
      
      Bob Carline, Deputy principal, Canowindra High School, Canowindra, NSW
      
      

    • "The first step towards recruiting and keeping the competent and enthusiastic history teachers that David Thiele (Letters, 14/1) says we need is to reverse the decline in pay, staffing, working conditions, security of employment and scope for professional judgment that teachers as a whole have suffered over the past two or three decades.

      "The second, more particular, step is for schools to restore history to its rightful place as a stand-alone subject on their timetables. The Victorian Government dumped its predecessor's Studies of Society and the Environment and returned history to the curriculum a few years ago, but there are still schools that advertise for SOSE teachers.

      "Worse than that, many schools, usually in working-class areas, are recycling the failed 1970s fad of the open classroom, under which more than 100 students can be gathered in the one room to do projects for half a week. They are not taught at all, but "facilitated" by teams of teachers, many of whom have also been forced into this learning space against their professional judgment and without due regard for their subject expertise.

      "Of course, if able and independent-minded people had not been pushed out of teaching by the long-term attack on the profession, history – and other subjects – would never have been replaced by fads such as SOSE."
      
      Chris Curtis, Hurstbridge, Vic
      

  
  
  
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Student debts out of control
    by Harriet Alexander, Higher Education Reporter
    

    "Graduates from private colleges and universities are costing taxpayers more than those from public universities, and new ministers of religion present one of the greatest burdens.

    "The architect of HECS, Bruce Chapman, has calculated that the taxpayer subsidy to privately educated graduates who deferred payment on their courses is 18 to 28 per cent on average. It is less than 5 per cent for public university graduates paying off HECS debts.

    "HECS allows students to wait until they have reached an annual income of nearly $40,000 before paying off their degrees. Past and present university students owe $14 billion in HECS debt, which is underwritten by the Commonwealth government.

    "Professor Chapman gauged that because education loans were interest-free, the taxpayer was effectively subsidising the students, and those privately educated students who paid a premium for their courses were costing more in foregone interest than their public peers.

    "The Howard government introduced a loan deferment scheme called FEE-HELP for students in the private sector in 2005, but with no cap on the prices imposed.

    "There was never going to be a worry with the HECS system because the debts weren't big enough and the prices weren't high enough," Professor Chapman said. "But once HECS went into the private sector, some of those debts are $80,000 and the interest rates start to matter very much."

    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Editorial
    A day of new opportunities, for students and governments
    
    The annual story of who gets in and who misses out is a small part of a bigger picture. An education revolution is needed and it will cost billions.

    "The wait has ended for 72,497 Victorians looking to enter a new stage of life. Every year the scenes are repeated: joy and relief among the successful applicants to universities, TAFEs and independent colleges and disappointment and concern for those who miss out — a few will win a reprieve in second-round offers on January 31. About two-thirds of the 57,545 who applied for HECS-funded places, or 38,060, have a first-round offer and about 600 fewer students than last year missed out. Also notable is a rise in first preferences recorded for Monash and Deakin university courses, inflating required ENTER scores, as students seem wary of the "Melbourne Model" adopted this year by Melbourne University, which has recorded a 6% drop in preferences on last year..."
    
    Full story in The Melbourne Age at link

  
  
  
  • Students turn their backs on teaching
    by Josh Gordon and Adam Morton
    

    "Victorian students are turning their backs on teaching careers, with experts blaming poor pay and job security.

    "As first-round offers for 2008 tertiary entrance were released to prospective students yesterday, it was revealed that there had been a a 6.8% drop in first preferences for undergraduate teaching.

    "For education-related degrees, there were just 2424 first-round government-supplemented HECS offers — 13.4% fewer than last year, and the lowest since 2004.

    "There was also a 21% slump in the number of students receiving a first round HECS-funded offer to study natural and physical sciences, a 12.1% decline for engineering and a 9.8% drop for architecture and building — all areas with skills shortages.

    "The negative trend across a range of degrees was offset by a 112.7% jump in the number of people who allocated their first preference to agriculture, environment and related studies, with the number of offers up an even larger 129%.

    "The surge follows the introduction of Melbourne University's generalist bachelor of environments degree.

    "Australian Education Union state president Mary Bluett said relatively low pay in state schools was turning Victorian students away from teaching in droves.

    "In Victoria, word is also getting around among young people that there are very high levels of contracting in government schools," Ms Bluett said. "Almost one in five teachers in Victorian schools is on a contract, and almost 80% of first-year teachers commence on one."

    "A spokesman for Education Minister Bronwyn Pike said an average Victorian graduate teacher received $44,500, "which is higher than law, architecture and pharmacy, and they also receive generous leave entitlements".

    "We will give teachers a further pay increase, but we must leave enough money for better classrooms, libraries and computer equipment," the spokesman said.

    "Trends in entry scores for education varied. It was harder to get in to Deakin and La Trobe universities than last year, but cut-offs went down at the Australian Catholic University and Melbourne University. Scores for education ranged from 56 to 80.

    "During the year there were almost 19,000 eligible students out of 57,545 applicants who missed out on a first-round offer for a HECS-funded place.

    "Victoria's acting Minister for Skills and Workforce Participation, Theo Theophanous, said the unmet demand had been largely caused by neglect from the Howard government. "I think Victoria has a much better chance of getting the sort of deal we deserve from the Rudd Labor Government," he said.

    "But education experts say the new Federal Government will need to do a lot to tackle the teacher shortfall in Victoria.

    "The 41,584 offers announced today included 4288 places in the "new generation" degrees introduced under Melbourne University's new US-style teaching model, the most radical transformation in its 155-year history.

    "The university is slashing the number of undergraduate courses, from 96 to 29 this year and eventually to just six, as it shifts professional courses such as law to postgraduate level.

    "Entry to its most popular course, arts, was significantly easier to get into, with an ENTER of 85 compared with 90.9 last year. But it was harder than last year to win a place in the other high-enrolment courses — science (85 from 83.05) and commerce (95.6 from 95.05). The standard of applications for commerce was much higher than expected: the university had predicted an ENTER of 90.

    "Acting Melbourne University vice-chancellor Peter McPhee said: "It's disappointing for students who get below that — they now have the choice of a fee place at Melbourne or going to another business faculty." But Professor McPhee said the university had got the calculated risk of setting entry scores for its new degrees "pretty right". It accurately predicted 85 for arts and science and 95 for biomedicine.

    "We're just stoked," he said. "We thought it was really important to have a strong bachelor of arts and bachelor of science. They are absolutely core to the university." Entry cut-offs at the Clayton campus of Monash University were 85.8 for arts, 75 for science and 90.45 for commerce.

    "Entry into law — which has been moved to postgraduate only at Parkville, cutting the number of undergraduate places available in Victoria by almost 320 — became more difficult.

    "At Monash, the cut-off was higher for straight law — 99.3 from 99.05 — and for nearly all double-degree combinations, including law. At La Trobe University, entry leapt from 91.2 to 96.3.

    "For the second year running, Monash was the most popular university with would-be students. Deakin University was the big mover, with a 10% jump in enrolments.

    "Melbourne's first-preference applications fell by 6%. Despite this, it offered 35 more undergraduate places than last year.

    "The figures also showed a 5.6% drop in the number of people who allocated first preferences to information technology, and a hefty 6.7% drop for engineering and related fields of study.But education experts say the new Federal Government will need to do a lot to tackle the teacher shortfall in Victoria.

    "The 41,584 offers announced today included 4288 places in the "new generation" degrees introduced under Melbourne University's new US-style teaching model, the most radical transformation in its 155-year history.

    "The university is slashing the number of undergraduate courses, from 96 to 29 this year and eventually to just six, as it shifts professional courses such as law to postgraduate level.

    "Entry to its most popular course, arts, was significantly easier to get into, with an ENTER of 85 compared with 90.9 last year. But it was harder than last year to win a place in the other high-enrolment courses — science (85 from 83.05) and commerce (95.6 from 95.05). The standard of applications for commerce was much higher than expected: the university had predicted an ENTER of 90.

    "Acting Melbourne University vice-chancellor Peter McPhee said: "It's disappointing for students who get below that — they now have the choice of a fee place at Melbourne or going to another business faculty." But Professor McPhee said the university had got the calculated risk of setting entry scores for its new degrees "pretty right". It accurately predicted 85 for arts and science and 95 for biomedicine.

    "We're just stoked," he said. "We thought it was really important to have a strong bachelor of arts and bachelor of science. They are absolutely core to the university." Entry cut-offs at the Clayton campus of Monash University were 85.8 for arts, 75 for science and 90.45 for commerce.

    "Entry into law — which has been moved to postgraduate only at Parkville, cutting the number of undergraduate places available in Victoria by almost 320 — became more difficult.

    "At Monash, the cut-off was higher for straight law — 99.3 from 99.05 — and for nearly all double-degree combinations, including law. At La Trobe University, entry leapt from 91.2 to 96.3.

    "For the second year running, Monash was the most popular university with would-be students. Deakin University was the big mover, with a 10% jump in enrolments.

    "Melbourne's first-preference applications fell by 6%. Despite this, it offered 35 more undergraduate places than last year.

    "The figures also showed a 5.6% drop in the number of people who allocated first preferences to information technology, and a hefty 6.7% drop for engineering and related fields of study."

    From The Melbourne Age at link
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Death and divorce on TEE excuse list (page 13)
    
    More than 300 TEE students were given special treatment during last year's exams for reasons ranging from the death of a parent or close relative and parents' marriage breakdowns to gastroenteritis, bad period pain, lack of transport and headaches.
    
    Full story in The West Australian

Wednesday 16 January

• The Australian
  
  
  • Teachers back merit-based pay
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    

    "Overwhelming support has emerged among the nation's teachers for merit-based pay, with a majority believing wages should be pegged to competence and qualifications.

    "A national survey of 13,000 teachers, almost a third of the profession, found that two in three believe schools have difficulty retaining staff.

    "Of that group, 70 per cent believe paying more to the most competent and those with extra qualifications would help stem the exodus.

    "While teacher unions have argued strenuously against the idea of linking pay to students' results, the survey reveals one in four supports higher pay for teachers whose students achieve specified goals.

    "The study, commissioned by the federal Education Department, comes before the national conference of the Australian Education Union in Sydney today, which is expected to criticise the Rudd Government's education revolution for focusing too narrowly on technology.

    "The union's incoming federal president, Angelo Gavrielatos, in his opening address today is expected to call for literacy and numeracy to be the foundation of the Government's education policy.

    "Mr Gavrielatos will call on the Government to invest $2.9 billion to develop a comprehensive literacy and numeracy strategy that covers students from early childhood throughout the school years.

    "The $2.9 billion identified by Mr Gavrielatos was nominated in a report last year commissioned by the federal, state and territory education ministers as the annual amount in additional funds required for government schools to meet national standards.

    "Mr Gavrielatos will outline key factors that must underpin a national literacy and numeracy strategy, including a "curriculum guarantee" that every student will have access to a rich, rigorous and rewarding curriculum.

    "Other factors are smaller classes to allow more individual attention to student needs; competitive salaries to attract and retain teachers; a large investment in indigenous education; and expanded early childhood services, with an increase in the number of hours of preschool from the 15 hours a week for every four-year-old promised by the Government to 20 hours a week.

    "Mr Gavrielatos's speech echoes the findings of a survey conducted for the AEU which found that more than four in five people believe an education revolution can happen only if the federal Government invests substantially more in public education.

    "The survey of 600 people across the nation, conducted last week by Essential Media Communications, a research and communication company that handles public relations for the AEU, also found that education was an important factor in winning votes from the Howard government at the election. About 60 per cent of people who switched their vote from the Coalition to Labor said the Howard government's neglect of public education was an important factor in determining their vote.

    "About 70 per cent said investing more to recruit and retain the best teachers, and increasing national literacy and numeracy standards, was very important for improving education, while 63 per cent nominated investing more in public schools to lower class sizes and deliver more individual attention to students.

    "Mr Gavrielatos, the national president-elect of the AEU, starts his term at the end of the month, replacing Pat Byrne, who has been on leave since November.

    "Mr Gavrielatos is a former languages teacher, is fluent in Indonesian and was previously the deputy president of the NSW Teachers Federation and deputy national president of the AEU.

    "The federal survey, conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research and the Australian College of Educators, identifies chronic teaching shortages across the nation, and in a broader range of specialist areas than previously reported.

    "Despite a glut of primary school teachers graduating from universities, about one in 10 primary school principals had at least one unfilled vacancy throughout 2006, equating to about 1300 jobs.

    "In high schools, the biggest shortage is among maths teachers, with 10 per cent of schools unable to fill a job at the beginning of 2006, rising to 13 per cent by the end of the year. Almost one in five schools readvertised the same job throughout that year.

    "About 11 per cent of high schools couldn't find a science teacher, 6 per cent couldn't find an English teacher and 5 per cent struggled to get a languages teacher.

    "To cope with shortages, the most common action by principals is to have a teacher from outside the speciality teach the class but many schools tend to drop the subject.

    "The survey underlines the lack of a competitive pay structure for the teaching profession, with three-quarters of principals reporting the majority of teachers are paid according to an incremental pay scale with progression largely based on years of service.

    "The most common strategies nominated to retain teachers are smaller class sizes, fewer student management issues, a more positive public image of teachers and more support staff.

    "In a statement released yesterday, Education Minister Julia Gillard said the report highlighted the urgent need to implement the Rudd Government's education revolution and ensure every high school student could participate effectively in a digital world.

    "She said the findings highlighted that teachers and principals saw computer technology as a vital learning tool, and the need for more professional learning for teachers, especially in the use of computers in school learning.

    "Two-thirds of teachers nominated making more effective use of computers in student learning as the area of greatest need for professional learning.

    "Mr Gavrielatos said Ms Gillard's statements had overemphasised some aspects of the report to skim over other matters of "deeper significance and deeper concern". These included measures nominated to attract and retain teachers, such as more support staff, smaller class sizes, higher pay and fewer changes imposed on schools."
    

    From The Australian at link
    
    Similar stories in today's Age, Sydney Morning Herald and West Australian
    
    The Staff in Australia's Schools 2007 report, upon which these articles are based. [You might come to rather different conclusions after reading the report.] [Note: It's a 1 MB, 183 page .pdf file.]
    
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Rewarding quality
    
    Merit pay would help stem the exodus of teachers
    
    "At the outset of the Rudd Government's promised education revolution, Education Minister Julia Gillard and her state counterparts should find useful pointers in the national survey of teachers completed by the Australian Council for Educational Research and the Australian College of Educators. Governments should note that despite the hostility of unions, teachers in the classroom overwhelmingly support merit-based pay linking salaries to competence and extra qualifications. This, they believe, would help stem the exodus from the profession.

    "It is encouraging to find that most teachers are happy in their work, but the report pinpoints areas of serious shortages in secondary mathematics, science, English, languages other than English and SOSE (Study of Society and the Environment). The problem is most acute in government and regional schools, with 43 per cent of secondary principals requiring teachers to teach outside their fields of expertise. For many students, this is the root of much educational inequality and is unacceptable. The shortages also reflect the reluctance of school-leavers to enrol in teaching degrees. In Queensland, for instance, the cut-offs for many university teaching courses for this year have fallen to an abysmal Overall Position 19 in a system where OP1 is the highest and OP25 is the lowest.

    "While salaries are an important issue, the shortages also reflect poor planning at state and university level. As highlighted in yesterday's letters page of The Australian, thousands of qualified primary school teachers with HECS fees to pay off cannot find work in the profession because of an over-supply of primary teachers, while jobs in secondary schools remain unfilled.

    "Such imbalances should be redressed through the new co-operative federalism.

    "On the positive side, the rush of students to sign up for Melbourne University's US-style generalist arts degree holds the promise of graduates leaving university better educated. Under the Melbourne model, teachers will follow up their first degrees in arts, science, commerce or music with an 18-month Master of Teaching degree, which will include classroom practice. Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis is correct in his belief that teachers will be major beneficiaries of the system. As well as giving students deeper knowledge in their chosen subjects, the system awards teaching the same educational approach as other professions.

    "Australian Education Union president-elect Angelo Gavrielatos, a former language teacher, is also set to make a worthwhile contribution to the education debate today when he is expected to criticise the Rudd Government for focusing too narrowly, so far, on technology in its education revolution. As Mr Gavrielatos will point out, literacy and numeracy should be the foundations of the policy, backed with proper resourcing."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    Similar Editorial in today's Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    

  • 'Let's talk' to save Carrick
    by Bernard Lane
    

    "John Carrick, lifelong educator and political mentor to John Howard, has spoken publicly for the first time about the funding crisis that faces the higher education institute named after him.

    "I've been through it many times myself, both as victim and guillotiner. The thing for both to do is to smile at each other and say, 'let's talk'," said Carrick, whose long career in politics included serving as federal education minister.

    "The Sydney-based institute for teaching and learning, set up by the Howard government in 2004, stands to lose $10.7 million of its $27 million budget under the Rudd administration..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Private graduates 'not a bigger burden'
    by Brendan O'Keefe

    "Graduates from private universities and colleges are not a greater burden on the nation's taxpayers than their public counterparts, according to the peak body for private higher education.

    "Council for Private Higher Education executive director Adrian McComb said a paper by HECS architect Bruce Chapman overstated the burden imposed by private students.

    "Professor Chapman, an economist at the Australian National University, is co-author of a paper claiming that higher fees in private universities and colleges mean graduates take longer to pay off their FEE-HELP debts, which are interest-free, thereby accruing an implicit subsidy to themselves and a burden to taxpayers.

    "Professor Chapman and co-author Kiananantha Lounkaew say the subsidy to private graduates is between 18 per cent and 28 per cent. Public graduates enjoy a subsidy of about 5 per cent, they say. "

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Genes only part of key to reading
    by Jill Rowbotham

    "A literacy expert has called for a constructive community attitude to research confirming that nature trumps nurture when it comes to reading ability in children.

    "The University of New England's Brian Byrne said dismay was the wrong reaction to findings such as the latest from his longitudinal survey of twins, which confirmed that as early as preschool, genetic influences were far more powerful than environmental ones in laying the foundations for reading.

    "Instead parents, school authorities and teachers should welcome the information as something that could be used to develop and hone the most effective techniques to help struggling young students.

    "When medical doctors identify a gene responsible for a condition, the immediate response is to try to work out a therapy for it," Professor Byrne said.

    "But educators sometimes form the mistaken concept that what is genetic can't be changed."

    "Professor Byrne heads an international team which is following about 1000 sets of twins in Australia, the US and Scandinavia, in a study which began in 1999.

    "The unique aspect of this research is that it takes in the preschool year, whereas the handful of other studies in the area waited until the school years.

    "According to Professor Byrne, there was confusion about the value of teaching, which helped most students learn to read better but may not help those "genetically under-endowed" in this area.

    "Genes were only part of the answer. "Intensive and well-designed classroom and preschool interventions can make a difference for struggling readers," Professor Byrne said.

    "Educators, no less than medical practitioners, should familiarise themselves with aspects of human evolution and human genetics as they address issues of practice and policy."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Goodbye Oxbridge, hello Ivy League
    by Nicola Woolcock, Suzy Jagger
    

    "A record number of talented British teenagers are snubbing Oxbridge and applying to Ivy League universities, lured by more substantial US bursaries. Students from families whose household income is pound stg. 90,000 ($195,000) qualify for financial assistance at Harvard. It also recently raised its threshold for free tuition and board for the poorest students.

    "Leading British schools say that some of their highest-achieving pupils no longer see Oxford and Cambridge as the pinnacle. Instead they are attracted by the broader curriculum and supposedly superior facilities at Ivy League universities, an elite group of eight in the northeast of the US. It raises fears that the cream of British students will increasingly look abroad, potentially undermining the global standing of top universities in Britain.

    "The number of British students applying to Harvard was 197 five years ago. By last year it had risen to 290. Applications to Yale from British teenagers have more than trebled from 74 in 1997 to 234 last year.

    "Harvard students whose parents' income is less than pound stg. 30,000 have all tuition fees, accommodation, living expenses and flights home paid by the university, a package worth almost pound stg. 25,000. Those with household earnings of between pound stg. 30,000 and pound stg. 90,000 have to contribute only between 4 per cent and 10 per cent of their income..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Review long overdue
    by Gavin Moodie

    "Public universities should pressure the federal Government to establish a general review of HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP and the level of Australian Government subsidies to public and private higher education.

    "As the vice-chancellor of the University of Technology, Sydney, Ross Milbourne has pointed out, federal Labor’s policy of abolishing full fee-paying places for domestic undergraduate students at public universities is inconsistent with its support through FEE-HELP of the same places at the public universities’ competitors, private universities and higher education providers.

    "FEE-HELP provides income contingent loans like the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS), but for places at public and private institutions that aren’t subsidised directly by the Australian Government. The Australian Government guarantees FEE-HELP loans and subsidises interest rates, but as Bruce Chapman and Kiatanantha Lounkaew have recently demonstrated, it provides a bigger interest rate subsidy for private postgraduate students than for undergraduate students, and provides a bigger interest rate subsidy for all private FEE-HELP students than it does for public HECS students.

    "This has resulted in a predictable but nonetheless dramatic increase in the number and enrolments of private and for-profit providers of higher education since 2005 when their students were made eligible for FEE-HELP. Australian private higher education providers enrolled about 10,000 equivalent full-time students in 2006. This is some 2per cent of total student load, but an increase of 60 per cent on the previous year.

    "Almost half of private higher education student load in Australia is enrolled in Christian colleges, the biggest of which are the Australian College of Theology Council (1,224 Equivalent Full-Time Student Load), Avondale College (971 EFTSL) and the Sydney College of Divinity (824 EFTSL). But most are much smaller. There are 16 private religious colleges whose students have FEE-HELP loans, with an average of 319 EFTSL. They grew by 23 per cent from 2005 to 2006.

    "About 4,000 EFTSL are enrolled by private for-profit higher education providers such as ACPE Limited (750 EFTSL), the Australian College of Applied Psychology Pty Ltd (640 EFTSL) and the Australian Institute of Music Limited (273 EFTSL). Australian for-profit providers have an average of 200 EFTSL, but grew by a staggering 200 per cent from 2005 to 2006.

    "The inconsistent treatment of HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP students is compounded by the inconsistent subsidies within HECS-HELP due to the different levels of commonwealth grant scheme funding for each funding cluster. There seems no rationale, for example, for HECS places in medicine to be subsidised by 68 per cent but humanities to be subsidised by 48 per cent, or for agriculture places to be subsidised by 72 per cent while computing programs are subsidised by 53 per cent. These anomalies will be increased in 2009 when federal Labor implements its election commitment to halve HECS for maths and science, but apparently not for engineering which is currently in the same HECS band as science.

    "The anomalies and inconsistencies within and between HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP have arisen because the schemes have been changed by a series of ad hoc decisions which haven’t considered their relation to the rest of the loans schemes, let alone returning to the basic principles established by the Wran Committee which recommended the introduction of HECS in 1988. A systematic review is therefore well overdue."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • PM fast track to lure back nurses
    
    "The Rudd Government has moved to arrest the nursing shortfall by fast-tracking the introduction of incentives to lure out-of-work nurses back to hospitals.

    "Under the plan, which was announced during the first week of last year's election campaign, nurses who had been out of work for more than a year would be offered $6000 to return to the workforce..."
    
    Are teachers next?
    
    

  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • More permanent teachers
      

      "I agree wholeheartedly with Louise Boyle (Letters, 15/1). 

      "Short-term contracts are the biggest hindrance to effective teaching, disliked by parents and many teachers alike. They make for lack of continuity and stability, which is vital for younger children. Kevin Rudd should forget the laptops and create more permanent teaching positions. And there’s no need to train new teachers from scratch; they exist already."
      
      Roseanne Schneider, Yeronga, Qld
      
      
      

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Classes combined as teacher shortage bites
    by Anna Patty Education Editor
    

    "Close to half of all secondary school principals have been forced to ask staff to teach outside their area of expertise to cover shortages, a national survey has found.

    "The study also suggests a looming shortage of principals, with more than half aged at least 51 - just four years short of the official retirement age.

    "The survey of 2509 principals and 10,603 teachers from primary and secondary schools in the government and non-government sectors shows that 22 per cent of high school principals recruit less qualified teachers to deal with shortages.

    "A further 19 per cent simply remove subjects from the curriculum when teachers are not available.

    "The survey, conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research, found 43 per cent of high school principals had to ask teachers to teach outside their field of expertise.

    "The president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Jim McAlpine, said a constant challenge for principals was the need to be creative in the way they attracted and retained staff.

    "He said principals often asked teachers to cover a subject outside their usual area for one or two periods a week to balance the timetable.

    "Teaching outside the subject area is done, but not necessarily on a huge scale," he said.

    "It would be beneficial for students in rural and remote schools if there were significant incentives for teachers to go to those schools and remain in them for a considerable time. Incentives such as high-quality housing, professional development opportunities - not just additional money."

    "The research council's report, commissioned by the Howard government and released yesterday by the Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, found that primary principals commonly combined classes across different years to deal with teacher shortages.

    "The report said: "Teacher shortages are often hidden and hard to measure in the sense that schools and school systems use a variety of strategies to ensure that classes are not left without a teacher, including reducing the curriculum on offer, employing less qualified teachers, or increasing class sizes."

    "The lead author of the report, Phillip McKenzie, said it suggested there was likely to be a high turnover of school leaders within the next few years.

    "Schools are going to have to replace a high number of school principals," he said. "Quite a high number of teachers don't anticipate applying for the job because they don't think its possible to have a good work/life balance."

    "It will be a challenge for employers of teachers to encourage them to take up leadership roles."

    "Mr McKenzie said the study, which was designed to help policy-makers develop strategies to attract and retain teachers, found 40 per cent of secondary school principals and 23 per cent from primary schools had difficulty filling staff vacancies. More than 20 per cent of high school principals and 15 per cent of primary principals said they had difficulty retaining suitable staff.

    "But contrary to common belief, most teachers reported high levels of job satisfaction. "Most teachers report they are satisfied with the job, but they are also seeing a high level of turnover," he said.

    "The incoming president of the Australian Education Union, Angelo Gavrielatos, said the starting point for addressing teacher shortages was a $2.9 billion investment in public education.

    "The national teachers' union yesterday released results of its poll of 600 voters that showed 82 per cent agreed that the new Labor Government would need to invest heavily in public education to support its claim for an "education revolution".

    "Ms Gillard said the Government's "education revolution" would play a key role in responding to issues raised in the survey."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Teacher shortages are much worse: union
    

    "Chronic teacher shortages in public schools are being masked because staff are working outside their speciality areas, the national teachers' union says.

    "At the Australian Education Union's annual federal conference in Sydney, incoming president Angelo Gavrielatos said the entire country was facing serious teacher shortages.

    "Western Australia alone was starting the school year with 600 vacancies, he said.

    "It is one of the most alarming figures that I've certainly heard of," Mr Gavrielatos said of the WA vacancies.

    "An absence of 600 teachers is truly disturbing, and we need to look at strategies in order to ameliorate that alarming statistic."

    "Staff shortages were being masked by teachers working outside their subject areas, he told reporters.

    "We have examples of teachers of PE (physical education), health and professional development who are teaching maths and science," Mr Gavrielatos said.

    "We have teachers who are not trained to be language teachers who are teaching junior language classes. These things are not in the interests of high quality education."

    "The teachers' union wants the Rudd Labor government to increase funding by $2.9 billion a year, saying without the boost its promised education revolution would be impossible.

    "The union released results of a voter poll showing more than 80 per cent of Australians believed an education revolution would not be possible without a better funded public education system.

    "The poll, conducted for the union, also found that two thirds of voters said the government should make investing in public schools their top priority.

    "Mr Gavrielatos listed six targets for better funding, including a reduction in class sizes, better teacher salaries, improved school infrastructure, and more extensive early childhood education.

    "He also called on the federal government to abandon its support for the controversial funding formula for private schools.

    "A review by the education department has found some private schools are being overpaid by the funding system introduced by the Howard government.

    "The ... funding model is indefensible, it is not sustainable, it is not in the national interest," Mr Gavrielatos said.

    "Mr Gavrielatos also criticised a recently announced Rudd government policy to provide $20 million for high-tech security measures for Australian schools at risk of race-hate attacks, such as schools for Jewish or Muslim students.

    "The policy amounted to further lavish subsidisation of private schools, he said. "

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • 600 teacher vacancies in WA: Union
    
    "The Australian Education Union's annual conference has been told teacher shortages are so serious that Western Australia will be starting the school year with 600 teacher vacancies.

    "The acting president, Angelo Gavrielatos, says South Australia is trying to make up a shortfall by recruiting teachers from other states.

    "He says the true extent of the shortages are being hidden by teachers who are teaching outside their subject areas.

    "That puts at risk educational continuity, a curriculum guarantee and of course the provision of education itself," he said.

    "All of this requires the investment in pubic education and the investment of significant amounts.

    "The Rudd Government must fulfil its commitment to an education revolution through additional funding for public schools."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Teacher shortage a tough lesson for Rudd and Labor
    by Jewel Topsfield

    "A Chronic shortage of teachers across Australia has left more than two-thirds of the nation's high schools struggling to recruit essential staff, a landmark survey of teachers has revealed.

    "The survey provides compelling new evidence of a profession in crisis, with shortages of qualified people in subjects including maths, science, information technology and languages.

    "Many schools were requiring staff members to teach outside their field of expertise to cope with the shortage, the survey found. Some principals were also combining classes across year levels, sharing programs with other schools and reducing their curriculums.

    "The report comes a day after it was revealed that demand for places in undergraduate teaching courses in Victoria this year had slumped by 6.8% — a trend blamed by the teachers' union on poor pay and a lack of job security in state schools.

    "About 13,000 teachers and principals in the public and private school systems took part in the national survey. Of those, about 70% agreed that higher pay based on competence or extra qualifications would help retain more teachers."

    Full article in The Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Devaluing our teachers
    by Josh Gordon and Tim Colebatch

    "State school principals in Wodonga have a serious problem: they cannot keep their staff. Their teachers are leaving to become commuters, crossing the Murray River every morning, by taking jobs at schools in Albury.

    "One school reports losing eight of its teachers over the past two years. Why? Because across the border in NSW, senior teachers are paid almost $10,000 more than their counterparts in Victoria.

    "The teaching profession is now the oldest and greyest of any in Australia. By 2015, experts project, our schools will face serious staff shortages as the old teachers retire and years of dwindling demand for teaching places and high attrition rates in the profession will leave too few young teachers to replace them.

    "This year alone, the number of Victorian school-leavers seeking entry to an education degree as their first preference dropped by 7%. At one university, a TER as low as 56 would earn you a first-round offer to the education course..."

    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    

  
  
  © The Age
  
  

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Improve pay for a gain all round
      
      "I clocked up more than 50 years in the teaching profession and while running secondary school libraries was unable to climb many promotional ladders.

      "I loved what I did and have no regrets that I stayed in library positions over the years. However, the difference between my salary and that of a new teacher is so minimal as to be laughable. At the end of a 50-year career, my salary today would be about $65,000 a year: a graduate would start at around $44,500 a year. With 50 years of experience as a qualified secondary school teacher, I would be rewarded with a salary of about $20,000 more than a graduate with no experience at all."

      Anne Young, Bendigo
      
      

    • It's not all about income
      
      "There is more to the malaise in the teaching profession than the size of our wages. Our desks could also do with some expansion. To give readers an idea, there would be just enough room to open The Age on mine, if there was nothing else on it. The shelf space consists of a single bookshelf as wide as the desk and the top of my filing cabinet.
      
      "In this space we are expected to juggle the materials needed to educate more than 100 students as well as a mountain of administration. Where to put class materials, or the new pile of correction, is a constant challenge. As a result, teachers' desks are often a chaotic mess, with materials stacked in piles and on the floor. They gave us a laptop, but we can't have that going and effectively use written materials at the same time. With 20 years of experience behind me, I keep most of my resources at home, as there is simply no room at school.

      "The result of this constant space challenge is a less productive, frustrated teacher workforce. It's high time we were allocated adequate space to more effectively prepare for and assess the students in our care, and in keeping with the professional status we supposedly have."

      Ralph Judd (secondary science teacher), Blackburn North
      
      
      
      

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Letter to the Editor (page 22)
    
    
    • In Short
      
      "With reference to Mark McGowan's statement that he doesn't know how many teachers are needed for the 2008 school year, I sent in a staffing request form in August and was told that temporary teachers would be placed by the end of November. I naively thought they meant November 2007. No temporary teacher that I know has been placed as of yet. How can Mr Mc Gowan know how many teachers they will be short when they haven't given some teachers jobs?"
      
      Name and address supplied

Thursday 17 January

• The Australian
  
  
  • Teachers warm to merit pay
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "The national teachers union is developing a model for a system of performance pay that involves assessing teachers on their skills, knowledge and practice.

    "The Australian Education Union has commissioned an independent company to survey its members and develop a set of standards as a basis for assessing teachers and paying more to those who excel.

    "The move is a significant softening in the union's opposition to the introduction of paying teachers based on merit.

    "AEU national president-elect Angelo Gavrielatos yesterday told The Australian the union had commissioned the University of NSW-owned company Education Assessment Australia to identify a set of standards as the basis of a new salary structure.

    "The first part of what we describe as a professional pay program to further reward teachers through recognising teaching skills, knowledge and practice is establishing valid standards of measurement and assessment," Mr Gavrielatos said. "There's work being done nationally in various jurisdictions in this area, and it's incumbent upon us to explore this area."
    
    "The move will revise the proposal released by the AEU last year for a professional pay scheme rewarding "experienced teachers".

    "The scheme proposed a third salary band of "accomplished", above the existing scale of incremental increases based on length of service. Applicants would be appraised on practice, professional development and student learning, which was not defined.

    "The scheme was released by outgoing national president Pat Byrne, who was strident in her opposition to the idea ofpaying teachers based on the results of students.

    "When the idea of merit-based pay tied to student results was first mooted by former education minister Julie Bishop, Ms Byrne said it was "completely unreasonable to hold a teacher responsible for outcomes".

    "The AEU's move comes as a survey released on Tuesday of 13,000 teachers found an overwhelming majority believed wages should be pegged to competence and qualifications.

    "The study, commissioned by the federal Education Department, found significant support for paying teachers based on student results.

    "One in four of a subset of 8500 teachers surveyed supported higher pay for teachers whose students achieved specified goals.

    "Mr Gavrielatos said the union would review its professional pay scheme as part of the development of standards. "We're taking the policy to the next step; the real test is the development of those standards which are understood and accepted by the profession."

    "Opening the AEU annual national conference in Sydney yesterday, Mr Gavrielatos challenged the Rudd Government to back its rhetoric about an education revolution with the increased funding required to deliver improved standards.

    "He said the foundation had to be literacy and numeracy and called for the development of a comprehensive national strategy to lift standards in these areas with an increased investment of $2.9 billion.

    "Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday defended the Government's approach, saying that the education revolution was beginning but change would take time."

    From The Australian at link

    
    

  • Op Ed
    Students' results must be the main measure
    by Kevin Donnelly
    
    "The Australian Education Union has changed presidents but, when it comes to the best way to attract students to teaching and to keep teachers in the profession, some things never change.

    "New AEU president Angelo Gavrielatos says the union is totally opposed to merit pay, linked to student results. This flies in the face of a recent survey of teachers' views about the best way to attract and reward teachers in which 25 per cent agreed that teachers who achieve the best results with their students should be paid more.

    "Given the billions of dollars invested in education and fears about falling standards, parents and the public might be forgiven for thinking that linking higher salaries to improved learning outcomes was a no-brainer.

    "After all, what is the use of rewarding teachers for completing further degrees and paying a select few $5000 to attend summer schools if classroom practice and student learning do not improve?

    "Instead, Mr Gavrielatos argues a way to raise standards and to strengthen the system is to increase investment - an additional $2.9 billion to be exact - so that all teachers, effective or ineffective, are paid more and class sizes are reduced.
    
    "Ignored is the research proving that there is little, if any, relationship between levels of investment and strong educational outcomes.

    "Internationally, the US outspends most countries in education, but achieves only average results. Those countries that achieve the best results in international tests, when compared with the US and Australia, spend less on education as a percentage of GDP and employ fewer teachers, meaning class sizes are larger.

    "Also ignored is the research proving that one of the most important factors in deciding how well students learn is the knowledge, commitment and enthusiasm of the teacher.

    "Although the jury is out on what type of merit-based pay system might best suit Australia's schools and teachers, based on practice in Britain and the US, there are several possibilities.

    "It takes a particular kind of stubbornness to reject the proposal even before it has been investigated. "

    Kevin Donnelly is director of Melbourne-based Education Strategies and author of Dumbing Down (Hardie Grant Books)

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Main event for uni spots
    by Pia Akerman
    
    "Students from NSW, Western Australia and the ACT who have applied for university places will be sweating today, watching the clock until nearly 75,000 main round offers are released.
    
    "Nearly 60,000 main round offers will come in NSW and the ACT, and nearly 15,000 in Western Australia.

    "In the east, results will be available on the University Admissions Centre website from 9pm, with postal offers arriving from tomorrow.

    "The universities have made 59,894 main round offers - an increase of 582 over last year - and a total of 65,575 offers this year, up by 289 from the same time last year.

    "In Western Australia, the total number of offers has decreased by 5 per cent, following a 3 per cent decline in the number of applications.

    "Applications by and offers to Year 12 students has increased slightly. After the main round, 14,616 offers will have been made to 82.8 per cent of applicants.

    "Offers will be available on the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre website today, with hard copy results also sent out.

    "Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory have already made their main round offers.

    "UAC managing director Andrew Stanton said students who do not get offers in the main round may receive them in the late round, on January 31, or the final round, on February 7, if courses still had vacancies.

    "Last year, more than 9000 offers were made in these offer rounds, so there is still a chance that you could be made an offer," he said.

    "UAC expects vacancies in about 670 commonwealth-supported courses and more than 350 domestic fee-paying courses."

    From The Australian at link
    
    See the following detailed article on WA universities' TER cutoffs from today's West Australian
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian
  
  
  • Easier path into many uni courses (page 11)
    by Karen Hodge

    "Entry to many WA university courses has become easier as demand for new courses has resulted in waning interest in some traditionally popular areas of study, including commerce and engineering.

    "The first round of offers at WA public universities will be known today by the 14,616 applicants who secured a place.

    "Figures from the Tertiary Institutions Services Service Centre show 82.8 per cent of this year's 17,661 applicants will be offered a place, including 8954 school leavers. There was a 3 per cent drop in applications this year, despite a 7 per cent increase in school-leaver applicants.

    "At Murdoch University, a higher tertiary entrance rank (TER) is needed to train as a vet or chiropractor than to enter law.

    "The cut-off score to study law dropped from 85 to 80 this year, while for veterinary studies it increased from 94 to 95.4, and chiropractic science from 86 to 87.

    "The lowest cut-off rank for most Murdoch courses increased from 65 to 70.

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