Monday 24 March

Tuesday 25 March

Wednesday 26 March

Thursday 27 March

Friday 28 March

Saturday – Sunday, 29 – 30 March

Monday 24 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    One battle is won but the accountability war goes on (page 20)
    
    "... The chief Justice's decision may have brought an end to one battle, but the State Government's failure to release another report bears similar hallmarks. Education Minister Mark McGowan continues his astounding pig-headedness over the report by the Twomey taskforce into teacher shortages in WA. The report was delivered to him last December, yet he refuses to release it. [emphasis added]

    "The report by the 12-member taskforce also came at a considerable cost to WA taxpayers. Almost $500,000 was spent on consultancy fees, travel and accommodation to examine one of the most serious issues confronting the state.

    "Teacher shortages are predicted to become worse in coming years. A report expected to contain advice on how to solve the problem clearly needs to be made available to the public without delay - certainly without a delay of four months.

    "If the Minister's refusal to release the report is linked to the WA State School Teachers Union campaign for better wages and conditions, he is to be further condemned. The Government is right to be concerned about the effect of pay rises in the public sector but there is no justification in commissioning and paying for a report and then refusing to release it for fear that its contents may not accord with the Government's case. [emphasis added]

    "By laying the cloak of Cabinet confidentiality over a report of such importance, Mr McGowan is failing in his responsibility to the future of education in this State. The Mercer and Twomey reports cover different areas of government, yet sadly they reveal similar evidence that any promise of accountability by the Carpenter Government is threadbare."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Fewer now studying a language to TEE level (page 12)
    By Bethany Hiatt

    "Making language study compulsory in WA schools has failed to increase the number of students who study a foreign tongue in their final years of high school.

    "Curriculum Council figures show that the number of students who study a language to TEE level has plunged 30 per cent in the past 10 years, even though it has been compulsory for students to learn a language since 1998.

    "University of WA education association dean Alexandra Ludewig said many schools did not place enough emphasis on languages. Students at primary school would typically study only one hour a week.

    "They can sing three songs but they certainly cannot communicate," she said. "Some schools have terrific language programs but they are unfortunately the exception".

    "Dr Ludewig said schools were failing to meet the demand from pupils who wanted to learn a language. There had been a 30 per cent increase in the number of beginners enrolling in European languages at UWA in the past three years.

    "Our biggest intake in the languages used to be the post-TEE students but now it is in the three-digit figures, for example, in French and Italian for the beginner," she said. "A lot of the students want to learn a language and it is often a need that is not recognised or taken seriously at school."

    "Dr Ludewig hoped a language bonus to be introduced in 2011 would give schools an incentive to review the way they taught languages. Under the scheme, students who want to attend UWA who learn a second language in Year 12 will automatically receive a 10 per cent bonus towards their tertiary entrance score.

    "Association of Independent Schools deputy executive director Valerie Gould said schools had to teach languages but there was nothing in the curriculum framework to say how much time each week had to be spent on it.

    "She said most private schools made language study compulsory in Year 8 and 9 but finding enough language teachers was proving a problem, particularly in country schools.

    "Department of Education and Training school support programs executive director David Axworthy said all State primary schools taught a language. Catholic Education Office deputy director Mary Retel said almost all Catholic primary schools offered a language and it was compulsory in the first year of high school.

    "Education Minister Mar McGowan said the decline in students studying a second language was a national trend.

    "The study of a language is also dependent on a career path that a student chooses and if language isn't seen as a priority in the chosen career then it's unlikely that it would be taken up," he said.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said it was surprising the decline in TEE language study had happened at the same time it became compulsory for younger pupils."

    From The West Australian at link
    
    Additional stories on LOTE and the national curriculum follow.
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Language skills push for schools
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "The Federal Government is moving to significantly increase the number of students graduating with foreign language skills by pushing the states towards a nationally consistent language curriculum.

    "New government research to be released tomorrow has found that students are being turned off languages because they believe the subject will affect their university entry scores or because they are told by parents and career teachers that language skills are not relevant to their future.

    "In an exclusive interview with The Age, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she was concerned that the lack of interest in learning a second language would lead to young Australians being less competitive internationally.

    "She has instructed the new National Curriculum Board — which is developing a nationally consistent curriculum in the four key areas of English, maths, science and history — to also work out how languages can be standardised across all the states.

    "The move means more students will be encouraged to take on a language, and current problems — such as lack of time devoted to teaching a language, staff shortages and whether they are taken as compulsory subjects or as an optional program — will be addressed.

    "We want young Australians to be coming out of school with the tools that they need to work in that modern environment, and increasingly that environment will require them to be able to converse with people in our region in their own language," said Ms Gillard, who is also Education Minister. "But when you look at the content of these reports, there is a lot of reason to be concerned.

    "The reports are basically saying that the study of languages other than English is the weakest part of the key learning areas in Australian schools, and they point to the fact that more than 85% of students who graduate from high school today do so without a language other than English.

    "That obviously is a concerning situation when we know that this is a globalised economy."

    "In a broad-ranging interview, Ms Gillard also:

    • Did not rule out giving teachers greater financial incentives to work in disadvantaged schools.
      
      
    • Rejected suggestions that Labor's plan to abolish full-fee undergraduate places would leave universities short-changed.
      
      
    • Described the Government's computer in schools program as a "shared partnership" and did not rule out the states picking up some of the additional costs, such as teacher training, power points or maintenance.
      

  "Statistics show Australian students spend less time learning a language than students in any other OECD country. The percentage of year 12 students studying a language other than English has fallen from 40% in the 1960s to 13% today.

  "The Government's language reports, obtained by The Age, found that fewer than half the nation's students studied a second language in 2005.

  "Enrolments tend to fall steadily at year 7, with parents and career teachers partly to blame for reinforcing the view that language studies are irrelevant.

  "Many primary schools spend less than an hour a week on language studies, and government reform has often been "episodic rather than long-term", the reports say.

  "Ms Gillard said the National Curriculum Board will create consistency in the key areas of maths, science, English and history, meaning students from kindergarten to year 12 will essentially be studying under the same curriculum framework by 2011.

  "The board will then look at revamping languages as part of its second tranche of work, to complement the Government's $62 million election promise to provide more Asian language classes and bolster the number of language teachers in schools.

  "Ms Gillard has written to state education ministers and the chiefs of Catholic and independent schools seeking information about the extent of Asian language teaching and teachers, and inviting them to work with the Commonwealth to develop a shared approach.

  "Victorian Government spokeswoman Sofia Dedes said: "The State Government supports national standards for how foreign languages are taught in schools. We are keen to continue to work with the Federal Government on the national curriculum initiative."

  "Australian Secondary Principals Association president Andrew Blair welcomed the changes, but urged the Government to "be bold" and consider introducing HECS discounts for teaching students who take on a language degree or making languages compulsory from prep to year 10.

  "National Curriculum Board chairman Professor Barry McGaw agreed greater focus on languages was needed, but warned that any revamp should not be too prescriptive. "We've got such a diverse need that we wouldn't want to be saying we should all be studying this language or that language."
  
  Fact File

  • The percentage of year 12 students studying a language other than English has fallen from 40% in the 1960s to 13% today.
    
    
  • Most states and territories had a reduction in participation rates in languages between 2001 and 2005.
    
    
  • Most language study occurs in primary school and participation rates decrease steadily from year 7.
    
    
  • The perceived low status of language teaching, coupled with a view that teachers have limited career paths, has been a disincentive for people wanting to become language teachers.
    
    
  • The top five languages studied in government schools are Japanese, Italian, Indonesian, French and German.
    
    Sources: Federal Government Reports / OECD Data


From The Age at link

Similar stories in The Sydney Morning Herald and The West Australian



• The Australian
  
• Unis feel heat on teaching degrees
  by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
  
  "A teaching degree at a leading university has been refused accreditation for failing to properly prepare students in key primary school subjects, with some of its course units described as being more akin to TAFE-level study.

  "Three other universities are also restructuring their 12-month graduate diplomas in primary education to meet new accreditation standards that emphasise content ahead of educational theory, with a year considered insufficient time to complete the mandatory subjects.

  "The four-year Bachelor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Wollongong is being restructured for next year after it was rejected by the NSW Institute of Teachers and a new set of standards agreed to by the states and territories. It is believed this is the first time a course has been rejected under the new system.

  "Newcastle, Macquarie and the Australian Catholic University have also been forced to restructure their 12-month graduate diploma courses.

  "Wollongong's deputy dean of education Brian Ferry said the university had received "feedback" from the NSWIT that its four-year degree - which trains teachers for children aged up to eight in childcare centres, preschools and the first years of primary school - had failed to meet accreditation standards.

  "But Professor Ferry said that was not the same as failing accreditation or the course being rejected.

  "The institute has just asked us to increase a bit more emphasis on the primary aspect of this program," he said.

  "We just have to make sure we cover the key learning areas in a little more detail." ...
  
  Full story in The Australian at link
  
  
  

• The Manchester Evening News
  
  
  • Call for class limit of 20 [23 March]
    
    "Children are suffering from the "national scandal" of lessons taught in large classes, with even older pupils losing concentration in big groups, ministers were warned today.

    "Groundbreaking research found larger secondary school classes have a particularly severe impact on the behaviour of less academic pupils.

    "And teachers demanded a legally enforceable maximum of 20 pupils in state school groups.

    "The call from delegates at the National Union of Teachers' annual conference followed assertions last week from a minister that classes of 70 could be "perfectly acceptable" in secondary schools.

    "Tony Tonks, speaking for the union's executive, condemned the suggestion, from Schools Minister Jim Knight.

    "Schools in Britain remain at 23rd in the league table for class sizes," he told the conference in Manchester.

    "Apparently, Jim Knight finds that acceptable. No, it's not acceptable.

    "The children in state schools in this country deserve better," he said.

    "Robin Pye, a delegate from St Helens, added: "Nobody is taking the responsibility for the devastating impact class sizes have on the education of children."

    "He condemned "the national scandal that is our class sizes in this country".

    "Large class sizes destroy the lives of our members, undermine our professionalism by suggesting you don't have to be a teacher to teach children and destroy the life chances of our pupils."

    Debate

    "The NUT conference is debating a motion that calls for a legally enforceable limit of 20 for state school classes.

    "Delegates have already voted to back a possible campaign of rolling strike action over large class sizes, pay and workload.

    "The debates came as research from the Institute of Education in London found that large secondary school classes affect low-attaining pupils the most.

    "Adding five pupils to a class increases the odds of less academic pupils being "off task" by 40%, according to the study, led by Professor Peter Blatchford.

    "In classes of 30 there is likely to be more than twice as much "off task behaviour" by low-achieving secondary pupils as there is in classes of 15.

    "But brighter pupils will engage in their work regardless of the size of the class, the researchers found.

    "A similar pattern was found in primary schools, although the impact was less marked.

    "Previous research has tended to focus on primary and infant schools because class size was thought to have only minimal effects on older children.

    "But this study, to be presented tomorrow at the American Educational Research Association conference in New York, suggests that the impact on older children may have been underestimated in the past.

    "The findings were based on close observation of 686 pupils in 27 primary schools and 22 secondary schools in England and Wales.

    "Professor Blatchford said: "At present, pupils spend too much time passively listening to the teacher talk.

    "It is important that pupils' engagement levels remain high and that, where possible, their interactions with teachers are individualised."

    "Previous studies have indicated that children benefit when classes are reduced to below 20 or 15 pupils. Professor Blatchford said such a conclusion was "over-simplistic".

    From The Manchester Evening News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Question for the Ages: What Books When?
    by Valerie Strauss
    
    "Parents at Green Acres, a private school in Montgomery County, complained this month when a teacher read to a group of third-graders from a book containing gruesome descriptions of violence against enslaved Africans and the conditions on the ships that brought them to the United States. They said the children were too young for the difficult theme and graphic language.
    
    "At Deal Junior High School in the District, some parents wondered why their children were reading books this year that they considered too easy for advanced seventh-grade students ("Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson) or books without much literary merit ("The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens" by Sean Covey.)

    "The episodes illustrate how difficult it is for librarians, teachers and parents to match children with the right book at the right age in an effort to turn young people into lovers of reading. And experts say that process is becoming increasingly complicated..."

    "Picking books appropriate in theme and reading level is an art rather than a science, librarians and educators say. The nonprofit National Council of English Teachers, which issues guidelines for selecting materials for English classes, has another description for the process: problematic.

    "Age appropriateness must be considered along with the value of the material as a whole, particularly in relation to educational objectives and how much exposure the typical student might have to a subject, the guidelines say. The task has been complicated because today's children are exposed to more difficult themes earlier than ever and are often assumed to be emotionally maturing faster, too..."
    
    Full story in The Washington Post at link
    
    

    • Most Challenged Books Include 'Beloved' and 'The Chocolate War'
      
      
      
      
  • Outlook: A Home-Grown Solution to Bad Schools
    
    Contrary to Stereotype, Home-Schoolers Aren't All Religious or Socially Maladjusted -- and They Are Changing the World
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • The humble brown paper bag to vanish [late pickup from 23 March]
    
    A Sydney school has established an online canteen ordering system to save time, reduce waste and ensure parents know exactly what their children are eating.

Tuesday 25 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Teachers' pay push to target ministers (page 17)
    by Yasmine Phillips

    "The teachers' union will intensify its battle for better pay this week when dozens of members rally outside the electorate offices of key State Government ministers.

    "The protest will coincide with the day the Industrial Relations Commission is expected to hear why the State School Teachers Union defied its directive to call off a half-day strike on February 28.

    "SSTU president Anne Gisborne told The West Australian yesterday that the union would consider a number of actions including political lobbying to voice the growing level of discontent.

    "We're calling on members to come forward in their local area and show how they're feeling about the current progress of negotiations," she said. "We're not expecting hundreds and hundreds but enough to signal to all relevant ministers that this continues to be a serious issue and we want to see a resolution as soon as possible."

    "State school teachers are seeking across-the-board pay rises of more than 20 percent over three years in the increasingly bitter enterprise bargaining talks with the Department of Education and Training.

    "Ms Gisborne said union members would rally outside Alan Carpenter's Hamilton Hill electorate office, Treasurer Eric Ripper's Belmont office and Education Minister Mark McGowan's electorate office in Rockingham after school on Thursday.

    "The union will consider ways of handling the negotiation deadlock at its executive meeting this week but it has temporarily backed away from any further disruptions to the classroom for the time being.

    "Meanwhile, a British teachers' union has threatened the Government with a rolling campaign of strikes to demand that class sizes be capped at 20 students.

    "The move came after a study found big class sizes proved disruptive and damaged the prospects of less able children.

    "For every five children added to a classroom, the risk of less academic students finding themselves 'off-task' jumped 40 per cent.

    "The research, conducted by the London Institute of Education, also found those students were twice as likely to misbehave in classes of 30 as they were in classes of 15 pupils.

    "Ms Gisborne ruled out a push for 20-student limits, but said the union would stand by its call for the current class size maximums to be reduced by two.

    "Under the existing model, the limit for pre-primary to Year Three is 24 pupils and the maximum class size allowable for Year 4 to 10 is 32."

    From the West Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor (page 22)
    

    • "So, the Government refuses to release the Twomey Report about teaching in WA ($480,000 teacher report a secret, 22/3). In the comment following the report, Keryn McKinnon says: "For a Government facing the polls in less than a year, its contempt for its constituents is alarming." I might add to this: Particularly when the Government's leader is a former investigative journalist. How would Alan Carpenter, the journalist, have treated Alan Carpenter, the Premier, over this issue?"

      Patrick F. Whalen, Yokine
      
      

      
      
  • Op Ed
    Minister lacks logic on loss of language study (page 20)
    by Paul Murray

    "After five years studying French and three of Latin, I took myself off Sto the University of WA to get a degree in geology.

    "Classical languages are hardly a sound basis for a career as a rock doctor - and so it was to turn out. However, it was an inability to master the complexities of maths, not the time wasted learning languages, that saw one career dream fade and another prospect in journalism emerge.

    "Even though my father and brother were journalists - and there were others going back generations in the family - I'd turned my back on an early interest in the trade and allowed myself to be swept along on the enthusiasm for the WA resources boom of the time - nickel.

    "I don't regret the two years spent in futile pursuit of geology at university. Just like I'm happy about the three years of religious studies at secondary school, which I hated at the time, but now realise gave me at least some understanding of the spiritual nature of people.

    "The geology has allowed me to annoy loved ones endlessly as I kick over rocks looking for something interesting, instead of doing the task at hand.

    "And, while the languages became useful in my job, they had a far more enriching effect on my life than just that. So it was with some despondency that I read in Monday's paper that the number of students studying languages to TEE level has plunged 30 per cent in 10 years.

    "It appears languages are becoming a victim of the new educational pragmatism as students are channeled into vocational streams at an early age and anything that is not directly pertinent to that choice is weeded out of their learning.

    "What suffers in that equation is the ability of a classical education to broaden a young person's outlook. In my view, education can have no better course than preparing an inquiring mind. Vocational training can wait.

    "There was no breakdown of those figures between the sexes, but I'll bet the number of boys who study a language to TEE is far outweighed by girls. Engineers who only know about physics and maths can make fairly limited human beings.

    "I certainly don't advocate insisting that kids who are struggling with their education be forced into languages in secondary schooling when it's clear they will fairly quickly head towards a trade. However, I do think they should be encouraged to consider the beneficial effect even a rudimentary knowledge of a foreign language can have.

    "An important side effect of studying a language is that it brings you into contact with a new culture. It's impossible to learn French, for example, without picking up all sorts of details of European life and history.

    "The study of languages is also dependent on the career path that a student chooses and if language isn't seen as a priority in the chosen career then it's unlikely that it would be taken up," Education Minister Mark McGowan said.

    "Seen as a priority by whom? Associate dean of education at UWA, Alexandra Ludewig, blamed schools for failing to meet the demands from students who wanted to learn a language. She pointed to a big rise in enrolments by beginners wanting to study a language at university.

    "Mr McGowan should be finding out what's happening at the coal face. Is there a bias developing within schools away from languages, as Dr Ludewig suggests?

    "Schools should reflect the sort of society we want. Turning out job-ready drones won't make WA a better place."

    From The West Australian
    

    
    

• The Australian
  
  
• Editorial
  Overhaul is overdue
  
  Teachers need preparation for life in the classroom
  
  "In October 2006, a survey of 1351 state, Catholic and independent school teachers in all states and territories found strong support for an overhaul of university teaching courses. Those surveyed had all graduated in the previous three years, and a strong view emerged about the need for better training in what and how to teach. Their comments included: "The university is out of touch with real teaching" and "They were more concerned with the academic aspect of the degree than the practical hands-on experience that could have really made my transition into teaching so much easier."

  "Against this background, it is encouraging that the University of Wollongong's four-year Bachelor of Early Childhood Education course is being restructured. The course trains teachers of children aged up to eight in childcare centres, preschools and the early years of primary school. The overhaul is a result of the course being rejected by the NSW Institute of Teachers, in accordance with a new set of standards agreed to by the states and territories. Newcastle and Macquarie universities and the Australian Catholic University have also been forced to restructure their 12-month graduate diploma courses.

  "As The Australian's Justine Ferrari reported yesterday, the NSWIT panel found a large proportion of the Wollongong course gave too little attention to key areas of the primary curriculum such as literacy and numeracy curriculum content, and how to teach it. Too much attention, on the other hand, was paid to educational theory, such as the social and emotional development of children younger than five.

  "Two years ago, the NSW Education Department, previously responsible for approving courses, expressed strong reservations about primary teaching courses in general. This is hardly surprising given the results of literacy and numeracy testing, which have consistently shown there is vast room for improvement in students in Years 3, 5 and 7. [emphasis added]

  "The NSWIT has moved in the right direction, insisting that trainee teachers receive more instruction in the content they will be required to teach children in classrooms. Significantly, in accrediting courses, the institute does not does not accept educational theory as content. While Wollongong's course is believed to be the first to be rejected under the new system, the decision puts all universities on notice. To retain their accreditations and hard-won credibility, they will need to cover key learning areas in detail. This must include instruction on how to teach children to read by sounding out syllables (phonics) as well as whole word recognition, as well as a good grounding in children's literature. They should also give trainee teachers sufficient practical experience in real classes.

  "The universities that lift their game best will in turn attract the brightest students. In a discipline that suffers from low entry cut-offs, this will be an important bonus. For too long, education students have suffered from the disconnection between what universities cover in their programs and the real skills teachers need at the chalkface or whiteboard. It is good to see nebulous "feelgood" programs focused on pedagogic philosophy giving way to instruction on how to teach specific subject content."
  
  From The Australian at link
  
  
  

• The Age
  
  
  • Editorial
    'Lost in translation' means same in any language
    
    Learning another language is essential if Australia is to relate socially, politically and economically to the rest of the world.

    "It is well known that one of the 178 million people around the world who speak Mandarin Chinese as a second language is Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. At the APEC summit in Sydney last September, Mr Rudd, then opposition leader, welcomed Chinese President Hu Jintao not in the lingua franca of 21 million Australians but in the vernacular of the 873 million native speakers of the world's most widely spoken language. Despite objections by then foreign minister Alexander Downer, who called Mr Rudd a show-off and said he had learnt French in a fraction of the time it took Mr Rudd to learn Mandarin, the address impressed not only its recipient but all those who watched it on Chinese television.

    "Mr Rudd, a former diplomat, might have acquired a second language for professional reasons, but he is also shrewd and intelligent enough to appreciate the advantages of doing so, especially given Australia's place in the Asia-Pacific region and the need to communicate in an ever-changing, more prosperous age. Indeed, six months before last year's federal election, Mr Rudd, lamenting the decline of the teaching of foreign languages in schools, announced a $68 million plan to revive Asian languages. His plan, over four years, would involve additional classes, teacher training and support, and a specialist curriculum for above-average students.

    "Things are moving closer to realisation. On Easter Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard told this newspaper that the Government planned to increase significantly the number of students graduating with foreign language skills. Ms Gillard has also instructed the new National Curriculum Board, which is determining national consistency in English, maths, science and history, to work on the standardisation of language studies across the states. The aim, Ms Gillard said, was for young Australians to gain the expertise necessary to work in a modern environment that would "require them to be able to converse with people in our region in their own language".

    "The problems in achieving this are considerable. Not the least is having to shift a national mindset. New Government research to be released today shows that in 2005 fewer than half the nation's students studied a second language; popular reasons are that this could affect their university-entrance scores, or that parents or career teachers have said a second language is irrelevant. There is also a critical shortage of specialised teachers. Other figures are just as disturbing. The number of year 12 students studying a language other than English has fallen from 40% in the 1960s to 13% today; over the same period, university-level language studies have dropped from 66% to 29%. Interestingly, and encouragingly, Victoria appears to be bucking the monolingual trend, with the number of VCE students studying other languages above the national level. But, as the report card says, things can always improve.

    "These problems, however, should not be a deterrent but a warning: unless more of Australia's students learn other languages, the consequences to Australia's economy, security and national identity will be dire.

    "Last year, the Group of Eight, Australia's leading universities, produced a discussion paper, Languages in Crisis, that stresses the urgent need to improve matters and says "the decline in language education poses serious national security and international relations risks for Australia". No longer (says the paper) should the nation rely on the "complacent assumption that English is the only language we need" — the fact that so many speak it or learn it should only heighten awareness of competition from non-native English speakers in an overcrowded global jobs market. More and more international business negotiations take place in languages other than English. Even on the internet, the proportion of users with English as a native language has dropped from just over 50% to 32% between 2000 and 2005. The paper recommends compulsory teaching of a second language from the first day of primary school to the end of year 10.

    "Australia is geographically isolated in world terms. This does not have to be the case in taking an insular approach to language — something this country's multicultural population eloquently and effortlessly disproves. But the natural speaking of a language is different from the active, continuous learning of it. Australia is more out of step than out of touch. In most European countries, and in much of Asia, languages are a mandatory part of the curriculum. This country has no reason to be immune.

    "The Government's move towards a more formalised structure for language education is as essential as it is timely. After all, 2008 is UNESCO's International Year of Languages. Its catchphrase, reproduced in 28 languages on its website, is not lost in translation in any of them: "Languages matter!"

    From The Age at link
    
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Neither fear nor favour
    by James Walter
    
    Public servants must be able to offer free and frank advice or democracy suffers.
    
    "... What, then, has gone wrong? Peter Shergold, the head of Howard's department of prime minister and cabinet claimed that the public service had been tarnished by a perception of "politicisation, intimidation and demoralisation"— a perception he did his best to counter. But both history, and the practice of the Howard government, were against him.

    "Since the 1970s there has been a steady increase in political oversight and demands for a bureaucracy "more responsive" to the elected government. Indeed, every prime minister has turned the screws a little further. Whitlam introduced expanded ministerial offices which, over time, would become a tool for more interventionist, quixotic and unaccountable interventions into policy deliberations..."
    
    Full story in The Age at link
    

    [Should be mandatory reading for all educrats! Web]

© The Age

• The Independent
  
  
  • Leading Article / Editorial
    Teachers are right... class sizes matter [from 24 March]
    
    "The mood of militancy emanating from the National Union of Teachers' conference this Easter means that schools in England and Wales may face the first national teachers' strike for 22 years. So what's new, you might ask. There are often strike calls at teachers' conferences that never come to anything. This year, though, the mood is different, and the militancy comes from the top, not from rank and file activists trying to overturn more moderate leadership.

    "There are two issues driving the calls for industrial action – pay and class sizes. On both, the Government can fairly claim to have improved the situation in its early years. But on both they can now be accused of backsliding.

    "Pay is the most immediate issue with a one-day national stoppage planned for next month, followed by a rolling programme of further action through the summer. Teachers argue that the profession is again facing difficulties retaining staff, with half of all new recruits leaving after three years.

    "But it is on class sizes that the union detects that ministerial good intentions have gone into reverse. One of Tony Blair's five key promises (indeed, his only education promise among them) was a legal limit of 30 on class sizes for five to seven-year-olds. He delivered that ahead of time, but there was a widespread assumption that it would be just the first step towards smaller classes throughout the system. Teachers, and many parents, were happy that the Government seemed to share their view that small classes were a good thing in themselves.

    "Quite soon, though, it became clear there would be no further effort to reduce class numbers. One reason was apparently research (from the United States) which showed that only a major reduction – say, from 25 to 15 – would significantly affect standards. And this, it was argued behind the scenes, would be too expensive. Classes in state primary schools now average 26, compared with 10.7 in the independent sector.

    "It seems self evident that many parents go private because each child is likely to receive more attention. The United Kingdom has some of the largest primary classes in the western world. More worrying, though, is that ministers' language on class sizes has changed. They no longer talk of pupil/teacher ratios, but of adult/teacher ratios – counting teachers and classroom assistants in the same way.

    "There can be no doubt that the army of classroom assistants recruited by Labour has been of great help to teachers – relieving them of tasks that they should not have been saddled with. The teachers' unions, however, argued from the start that they would be used as "cheap labour" to replace more expensive teachers. Eleven years on, their worst suspicions may be on the way to being confirmed."

    From The Independent at link
    
    
    
    
  • Teachers vote for strike action in bid to cut maximum class size to 20 [from 24 March]
    by Richard Garner, Education Editor
    
    "Teachers warned of the "national scandal" of oversized classes yesterday as research showed that they were damaging the prospects of children struggling to keep up.

    "Voting in favour of industrial action to reduce class sizes, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) demanded new legislation for a limit of 20 pupils per group.

    "A motion to the union's annual conference in Manchester said that the UK was 23rd out of 30 Western countries in a survey of primary school class sizes by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. It found that the average class size in independent primary schools was 10.7, compared to just over 26 for state schools..."
    
    Full story in The Independent at link
    

 

Wednesday 26 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Scathing attack on two year 12 OBE exams (page 11)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    "Year 12 exams held last year in two new outcomes-based education courses were seriously flawed because the Curriculum Council failed to adequately control the process, a scathing independent review has found.

    "The report by retired high school principal Ray Maher details a series of problems in the way exam panels were selected and TEE papers written for engineering studies and media production and analysis.

    "The Curriculum Council is not effectively in charge of this vital process, despite having final responsibility for all examinations," he said in the report, which is yet to be released publicly.

    "It also reveals that key people involved in reviewing and checking the media exam quit in dismay because they did not want to be associated with the final paper.

    "Parents, teachers and principals were furious in November after students sat the engineering exam, complaining the paper bore little resemblance to earlier sample exams and contained questions not in the syllabus. Media teachers claimed their paper was poorly constructed and did not adequately examine material covered in Year 12.

    "Mr Maher said exam panels for both courses failed to provide evidence to show that the papers covered key parts of the syllabus but this was not picked up by chief examiners or council staff.

    "He recommended the Curriculum Council pay examiners more and take control of the selection process for choosing exam panels rather than leaving it universities. He also suggested that it boost existing quality controls to ensure that exams fully reflect the published syllabus and that both courses are reviewed to provide teachers and students with more specific content.

    "Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood said it would adopt almost all of Mr Maher's recommendations but he did not believe the problems showed that implementation of the courses had been rushed. Results had been statistically adjusted so that students were not disadvantaged.

    "But Mr Maher said that "an unfair poorly balanced examination that is not representative of the known syllabus" did not give students a chance to demonstrate what they had learnt in two years. "In fact it is conceivable that such an examination so disconcerts some students that they unable to demonstrate much at all," he said.

    "The report said the media paper was flawed partly because of serious conflict between the chief examiner and the two people charged with reviewing and checking the exam. In the case of engineering studies, the exam panel did not see sample papers produced earlier in the year."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Performance ranking is a key to reform
    

    States must respond to the commonwealth's lead
    
    "The Rudd Government has started to put its reform cards on the COAG table. Kevin Rudd and his team have agreed to give states and territories greater flexibility in how they manage their finances by reducing the number of special purpose payments from 90 to five core areas. These are health, education and schooling, vocational education, disabilities and housing. The commonwealth has also acknowledged the longstanding practice of cost shifting its aged care responsibilities by hiding thousands of elderly people in state-funded hospital beds. As such, Mr Rudd's offer of an additional $158 million to get 2000 elderly people out of high-cost hospital beds into more appropriate care is not so much a gift to the states as an admission of commonwealth guilt. As a further demonstration of good faith on health, the federal Government is today expected to announce funding for 50,000 new vocational training places for nursing assistants, dental nurses and indigenous nursing assistants.

    "Given the commonwealth's gesture of goodwill, the pressure is now on state and territory governments to get serious about delivering much needed reform across a broad range of longstanding issues. On top of the list is water, where the Howard government's plan for commonwealth management of the Murray-Darling Basin fell victim to Victorian intransigence. There are high expectations of a breakthrough in negotiations on the Murray-Darling scheme in Adelaide today. Without one, it will be reasonable to ask whether, as Mr Rudd argued throughout the election campaign, that having Labor governments in all states and the commonwealth would make reforming the federation easier to achieve.

    "Water reform was one of seven key areas that states and territories were asked at the last COAG meeting in December to report back on today. They must also outline progress that has been made on plans to improve service delivery in the areas of health and ageing, productivity, infrastructure, business regulation and competition, housing and indigenous reform. In health, the focus is waiting times, aged care, public dental, preventive health and GP super-clinics. On education, states must report back on boosting trades training, implementing the schools computer revolution, lifting Asian language studies, investing in early childhood programs and meeting a target of 90 per cent Year 12 retention by 2020. [emphasis added] On climate change, the focus is a national approach rather than the hotch-potch of state systems that owe more to political opportunism than achieving a tangible environmental benefit. The goal has been set to halve the number of homeless people turned away from shelters within five years and to improve housing affordability. In indigenous affairs, Mr Rudd wants states to close the life expectancy gap within a generation, and halve the infant mortality gap and the gap in basic education within 10 years.

    "Negotiators were given until the end of the year to formulate the best ways to cut red tape for business. A green paper is now expected, which will include discussion on the commonwealth taking responsibility for regulation in the newly sensitive areas of margin lending and mortgage broking. None of the COAG reform issues are particularly new and some, including many business reforms such as simplified occupational health and safety requirements, payroll tax administration and reform of trade and professional qualifications, have been on the COAG agenda for more than a decade. The Business Council of Australia estimates the costs to business and the wider economy of inefficient, overlapping and duplicated state and federal business regulation at $16 billion a year.

    "Today's meeting will be the first guide of whether the election of a new federal government and a changed format has succeeded in re-energising the COAG process. As Matthew Franklin reports, the Government has identified the key to achieving real progress lies in demanding that states publish uniform data about their relative performances in areas such as health, education and disability services. Mr Rudd has rightly calculated that pitting states against each other and financially rewarding the best performers and penalising the worst is the most effective way to drive productivity. But as a seasoned bureaucrat, Mr Rudd will surely know that public disclosure and competitive ranking is anathema to many in the public sector, particularly the states' militant teacher unions. [emphasis added] And without building a new bureaucracy to monitor the states' reporting of their performance, a high degree of trust will be required. The whistle has already been blown on NSW health officials who would rather doctor waiting list figures than cut them to help the state qualify for incentive payments from the commonwealth.

    "Having got what they were seeking on special purpose grants, the test will be how willing state and territory governments are to submit to a revised COAG process that has the federal Government firmly in the driver's seat. Any reluctance to agree to publish performance tables that are directly comparable across all jurisdictions will be the first indication that the Labor family is not really serious about delivering on the lofty reform rhetoric that helped spirit Mr Rudd and his team into office."
    

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • UNSW to launch portable degrees
    by Guy Healy
    
    "The University of NSW is believed to be the first in the Asia-Pacific region to introduce an "education passport", a key feature of the Bologna process for harmonising higher education.
    
    "The UNSW supplementary statement - designed to comply with the Bologna standard to promote portability of qualifications across 4000 European universities - will be issued to about 500 UNSW students at a graduation ceremony later this month.

    "UNSW deputy vice-chancellor (academic) Richard Henry told the HES the statement would "make it much easier for our graduates to find places in the world and in universities around the world". The statement will accompany the traditional degree, and as well as detailing the academic performance of undergraduate, masters or PhD students, it will verify key graduate attributes such leadership, teamwork and communications activities.

    "UNSW is one of 14 universities preparing a template for graduate statements compliant with the European standard. The results will be presented to the federal Government ahead of national take-up of education passports.

    "Project leader Grant Harman, of the University of New England, told the HES that "as far as we know UNSW is the first with a graduation statement in the Asia-Pacific region".

    "The feedback from the 14 vice-chancellors involved in the project is they are keen on these statements in terms of improving their international competitiveness," Professor Harman said.

    "The Bologna process - started in 1999 and aimed at creating an integrated European higher education area by 2010 - may turn out to be of critical strategic interest to Australia. Under a related agreement Australia has signed, member states agree to work towards greater consistency in degree structures, credit transfer and quality assurance systems.

    "The former Howard government and academic leaders of the Australian link to the project argued Bologna had the potential to help shore up our lucrative education export industry and protect it against future threats from competitors.

    "European Commission ambassador to Australia Bruno Julien, visiting Bond University this month, told the HES that former education minister Julie Bishop had followed Bologna very carefully. "And I am sure your new Government will do exactly the same," he said.

    "Mr Julien emphasised the strategic implications of Bologna: "Australia is a tremendous market for Asian students, (of) which you have many more than Europe. We know Asia is following the (Bologna) process carefully.

    "If we have an agreement (via Bologna), we will be tempted to sell students to countries where they will be sure they will get recognition.

    "So there's double interest for Australia to maintain a good flow of European students, but also to continue to capture the Asian market and ensure you have a system compatible with Asia," he said.

    "Macquarie University vice-chancellor Steven Schwartz, who chairs the ministerial advisory committee on Bologna, told the HES the process could be worth the effort involved in mutual recognition of higher education systems. "Bologna, being involved in credit transfer and the (European) diploma supplement, potentially makes Australian qualifications more attractive," he said.

    "He said Australian graduates would be able to study and work more easily in Europe, and Australian researchers would enjoy greater freedom of movement within Europe's faculties.

    "Professor Harman told the HES increased interest was being shown in Bologna, with countries such as the US, China, Japan and South Korea closely monitoring developments.

    "He said the statements would be a benefit to overseas students and their host Australian universities. Unlike an academic transcript, a statement would verify that a graduate had satisfied the professional accreditation requirements for entry into a profession such as accounting or engineering in Australia.

    "Professor Harman said the statements were originally intended to shore up the attractiveness of Australian degrees overseas, especially Asia, but they also were likely to help young Australian masters students do higher degrees in theUS.

    "Since the statements included an explanation of the academic rigour and quality assurance of Australian higher education, US institutions - notwithstanding their being outside the Bologna process - were expected to waive key barriers for Australians whose statements testified to their high performance.

    "Professor Schwartz dismissed concerns Australia faced considerable reshaping to bring its qualifications structure into line with those of Europe. "What this means is Europe is coming into line with Britain because the top institutions there, Oxford and Cambridge, will not change their structures to suit (lesser-ranked) European universities and Australia is already in line with Britain," he said.

    "He said international credit transfer was "a big deal" as a lot of Australian institutions did not even recognise one another. "There's no particular benefit for us to regularise our (degree) cycles with Europe. That doesn't affect us here," Professor Schwartz said.

    "We need to ensure we remain aligned with the US given its leadership in higher education," he said."

    From the Australian at link

• The long road to Bologna
  by Aban Contractor
  
  "Leaps of faith are not easy. But that is what European leaders demanded when they launched what became known as the Bologna process eight years ago.

  "The integration of EU higher education is a difficult juggling act, writes Aban Contractor. Illustration: Michael Perkins
  The process, which promises diversity yet also demands consistency within higher education institutions in the 46 participating countries, declared that by 2010 there would be a single European Higher Education Area and it would be promoted worldwide.

  "It was the European Union's response to the challenges of the globalised world, where countries such as China, India, the US and Australia compete not only academically but financially, especially in the lucrative area of wooing overseas students. EU leaders, who wanted not only to break down borders between countries but also between higher education institutions, promised:

  • A system of comparable degrees;
  • A common structure for higher education systems;
  • Greater mobility for teachers, researchers and students;
  • Co-operation in quality assurance.

  "Building on our rich and diverse European cultural heritage, we are developing an EHEA based on institutional autonomy, academic freedom, equal opportunities and democratic principles that will facilitate mobility, increase employability and strengthen Europe's attractiveness and competitiveness," says a recent communique from the Bologna group, which met in London last year.

  "We reaffirm our commitment to increasing the compatibility and comparability of our higher education systems, while at the same time respecting their diversity."

  "It is an enormous task, a juggling act made all the more difficult by the number of countries and universities involved, the barriers of language, limited financial resources and the propensity of governments and institutions to protect their own back yards.

  "Nor has the Bologna process won universal acceptance from students. Only this month thousands of students in Barcelona staged an anti-Bologna demonstration. They see the process as a trojan horse for privatisation of universities.

  "One student leader protested that the post-Bologna university would be designed to churn out employees suitable for business rather than citizens with a critical spirit. Student unions in Spain also complain that changes to the structure of teaching will devalue the bachelor equivalent degree and make it more difficult to combine work and study.

  "The Bologna Declaration -- officially known as the European Higher Education Area Joint Declaration of European Ministers of Education -- was signed by 31 representatives of 29 EU member states and ascension candidates in June 1999. The number of participating countries has since jumped to 46.

  "But notwithstanding the confidence suggested by the rise in membership, nobody the HES speaks to, on or off the record, underestimates the challenges that lie ahead -- not least in the core area of mobility for staff, students and graduates. Immigration laws, inflexible curriculums, insufficient financial incentives and rigid pension arrangements are four of the most critical areas still to be resolved if a single EHEA is to become a reality.

  "And while some progress has been made on implementing national qualifications frameworks, the Bologna group concedes that much more effort is required.

  "The academic year varies in length across Europe, as do degree courses, and that has a knock-on affect on the employability of graduates.

  "Universities UK president Rick Trainor tells the HES that the "bottom-up process" had served universities, students and other stakeholders well.

  "The Bologna group is "a step closer to making Europe's higher education systems more comparable and therefore more attractive to the rest of the world," Trainor says.

  "Paul Bennett, a vice-president of the Pan-European structure of Education International, which represents teachers and academics unions worldwide, and a representative on the Bologna Follow-up Group, says academic staff have only been formally represented within the Bologna process for the past two years.

  "British institutions often seem unaware of the Bologna process or believe it will have no direct effect," he says.

  "Yet it is a phenomenon that, by inter-governmental initiatives over only nine years, has managed to engage the whole of Europe and attract the interest of countries worldwide, and initiate significant collaborative measures that have outstripped the often snail-like pace of the European Union's attempts at integration."

  "Bennett, who is also a senior official in Britain's University and College Union, says EI supports moves to shift the character of the process during the next two years to one that opens doors to other regions of the world.

  "Higher education systems elsewhere are responding, looking at ways of forming regional relationships which help define the character of the systems and relate to the Bologna area in a new way," he says.

  "The benchmark three-level structure based around bachelor, master and doctoral degrees still needs to be completed, and also its implications for the labour market still need to be more fully absorbed in many countries.

  "There are a number of issues where the British system and Bologna need to be reconciled. For example, we need to defend the role of foundation degrees, whose duration, status and mix of study and work arouse suspicion among a number of our European partners."

  "Richard James, director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne, says Bologna has not been a prominent issue in Australian higher education.

  "Former federal education minister Julie Bishop triggered some discussion with a 2006 paper that suggested Bologna posed a threat to the international market for Australian degrees, he says.

  "But the interest in Bologna alignment quickly died down.

  "Notably the terms of reference for the recently announced review of Australian higher education make no mention of Bologna.

  "The US and the developing higher education systems of Asia must also be reference points for Australia. Nonetheless, the Australian sector would be unwise to ignore Bologna trends.

  "Australia needs to protect its fragile position in a global higher education environment by ensuring the portability and recognition of Australian degrees. This requires considering the introduction of a national diploma supplement."

  "The federal Department of Education will soon receive a report on a diploma supplement as well as recommendations from a review of the Australian Qualifications Framework, he says.

  "The University of Melbourne's Melbourne model introduces a curriculum that is consistent with the three-cycle Bologna benchmark.

  "Whether other universities follow this path remains to be seen."

  "Aban Contractor is a London-based writer for the HES."

  From the Australian at link
  
  
  

• Funding doesn't add up
  by Brendan O'Keefe
  

  "Less than a year after the Howard government handed out about $25million to reverse the maths and statistics skills crisis, one university plans to cut staff from the disciplines, while staff at another are worried about cuts.

  "The University of Southern Queensland, as part of an institution-wide overhaul, has flagged cuts of four academic positions in computing, five in maths and three in statistics.

  "According to a draft internal report on the overhaul, the positions are "potentially no longer required".

  "It is not anticipated that any of the proposed changes will contribute to significant changes in workload," the report says.

  "A USQ maths academic said staff last year taught the equivalent of about 440 full-time students, who brought in about $5 million in fees.

  "After the proposed cuts, reduced staff would be teaching the same number of students who would bring in about $6million, he said.

  "In 2007 the direct cost of the 14 academics teaching maths and statistics was roughly $1.5 million," he said.

  "In 2009 we would have just six academics at a direct cost of roughly $600,000. (So) while government funding of the students we teach will go up by about $1 million, the proposed funding of the academics teaching the students would decrease by about $900,000."

  "Maths and statistics staff at the University of New England are concerned that space is not being made for two staff who were made redundant last year but reinstated after an appeal.

  "Imre Bokor and Bea Bleile are working on sabbatical in Switzerland and are due back at UNE soon. But statistician Bob Murison said staff were apprehensive.

  "Our funding has not been not increased (by the university). They are funding us as if we have only four maths and three stats lecturers," he said. "That excludes Imre and Bea: we should have six maths and three stats lecturers."

  "Dr Bokor said: "Bea and I are deeply concerned about our return to UNE."

  "When the two were reinstated in April last year, they were told university staff would contact them to approve the move.

  "There has been no progress in 11 months," Dr Bokor said. "In fact, we were subjected to threats (from the university)."

  "Dr Murison said any cuts at USQ would harm maths and stats at UNE because the two institutions gave joint courses.

  "Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute executive officer Jan Thomas told the HES that the threat of cuts came at a bad time for maths.

  "People at USQ were planning to start an education program about the importance of maths for education students (future teachers)," Ms Thomas said. "You just don't get new initiatives when departments are being cut back like this."

  "In last year's federal budget, education minister Julie Bishop gave universities $2729 in extra funds for each student place in maths and statistics. But AMSI found that little of that money had been spent in the way intended.

  "USQ vice-chancellor Bill Lovegrove will announce on April 18 what cuts are needed as the university seeks to reduce the number of courses it offers from 1592 to 751 and the number of degrees from 353 to 93."

  From the Australian at link
  
  
  

• Time is counting against us
  by Peter Hall
  

  "Education Minister Julia Gillard has initiated another review of higher education. Repeatedly building new higher education ideas is a fascinating intellectual and ideological exercise, but of itself it does not move the nation forward.

  "Action is overdue to reverse the nation's statistics and mathematics skills shortage, urges Peter Hall. Illustration: Igor Saktor
  In my area, mathematics and statistics, there is always more than enough to fill a review submission. Banks, insurance companies, mining companies, the pharmaceutical industry, state and federal government departments, the CSIRO and many other employers are experiencing substantial problems finding the trained mathematicians and statisticians they need. One large Australian company is financially supporting the education of mathematics students abroad with the aim of bringing them to Australia when they graduate.

  "The demand for trained mathematical scientists rose by 52 per cent in the eight years to 2004 and is forecast to grow by at least another 32 per cent in the next eight years (according to the Department of Education, Science and Training's 2006 audit of science, engineering and technology skills).

  "Yet each year Australian universities are graduating fewer mathematicians and statisticians. These skills are in demand in all nations. Australia's skills shortages in mathematics arise because we can't produce enough mathematics graduates, which means we can't train enough mathematics teachers for our schools, which means our schools can't produce enough students who can study mathematics at university.

  "This perpetuates a downward spiral.

  "The right to a reasonable mathematics education is surely something that comes under the social inclusion portfolio that is entrusted to Gillard, along with education. Yet she has foreshadowed no funding improvements in the near term. Many recent reviews, including one by the Productivity Commission, have called for proper attention to be paid to the mathematics teacher shortage. However, these entreaties have been largely ignored.

  "Some of us in mathematics and statistics took a little encouragement from Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister Kim Carr's comments last month in an address at the Australian Academy of Science conference. Commenting on skills shortages in science and technology, he said: "In mathematics the problem has been particularly acute. Someone has called mathematics 'the language of the sciences', but it is also, in important ways, the language of business, economics, social policy and the trades.

  "A nation that cannot turn out top-notch mathematicians and statisticians is a nation in deep trouble. Unless we turn around the trends that have bedevilled this discipline over the last decade or so -- in schools, in universities and in research -- we will not be able to meet our needs for people with a sound knowledge of mathematics that they can put to use across the economy and across all fields of knowledge."

  "However, just a month after Carr's speech, the University of Southern Queensland has set out to more than halve its number of academic mathematics and statistics teachers. Ironically, USQ had been developing, in collaboration with education specialists, a special program for mathematics teacher training. This innovative program, which is on the scrap heap before it even started, would have offered courses on campus and at a distance to support in-service and pre-service teacher training across the nation.

  "During the review of the mathematical sciences that reported in late 2006, thethree international reviewers noted themany vulnerabilities experienced by mathematics and statistics programs in Australian universities.

  "Australia's distinguished tradition and capability in mathematics and statistics is on a truly perilous path," they wrote. "The decline has already taken its toll: the university presence has been decimated, in part by unanticipated consequences of funding formulas and by neglect of the basicprinciple that mathematics be taught by mathematicians, and the supply of students and graduates is falling short of national needs."

  "In the May 2007 budget, new funding for mathematics and statistics was announced. However, most university managers decided to pass little or none of this money to the areas that generated and needed it. The reduction in HECS for mathematics students may not provide a boost to mathematics and statistics if many students do not have the option of appropriate courses.

  "The calamity at the USQ and the actions of other universities make it clear that the federal Government cannot rely on university managers to apply their budgets to the national good.

  "For a nation in the grip of a serious skills shortage in mathematics and statistics, another review is not needed. Action is needed. It should be possible to drive university behaviour in the national interest by foreshadowing that the Government's proposed compacts will include a requirement that mathematics and statistics curriculums be offered in science and technology, education, business and economics courses across the country, taught by professionals in mathematics and statistics."

  Peter Hall is a federation fellow at the University of Melbourne and president of the Australian Mathematical Society.

  From the Australian at link
  
  
  

• Little benefit from drug testing students
  by Justine Ferrari and Stephen Lunn
  

  "Drug-testing school students would cause more harm than good, lacks the support of the community and would cost more than $300 million a year to test every student just once.

  "In a report to be released today, the Government's principal drugs advisory body, the Australian National Council on Drugs, recommends against introducing random drug-testing in schools, which it says would cost billions of dollars.

  "The report estimates it would cost at least $355million to conduct one saliva test each year on each student, and $305million for one urine test. Even randomly testing 10per cent of the nation's school students three times a year is prohibitively expensive, estimated to cost $110million for saliva tests and $91million for urine tests.

  "The report, by the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction, says there is insufficient evidence from around the world to show any benefits from drug-testing school students. It says the tests are unreliable, and introducing testing in schools would create mistrust among students..."

  Full story in the Australian at link
  
  
  

• Thinking Head helps out language students (late update from 25th March)
  by Jennifer Foreshew
  

  "An advanced artificial intelligence program, dubbed The Thinking Head, which can talk, show emotions and maintain eye contact, could be used to teach Australian schoolchildren within two years.

  "Researchers have used complex algorithms and software to bring the program, worth nearly $5 million, to life, offering a range of facial expressions, gestures and eye contact.

  "The five-year project is designed to create a computer interface that communicates with humans in a believable way.

  "It incorporates about a dozen technologies that for the first time are being brought together to create a comprehensive platform for communications research.

  "Flinders University informatics and engineering school Thinking Head research team leader David Powers said the group had joined with a German university to develop a German-language version of the head.

  "It will be used in Germany to teach children English, but the main focus is teaching Australian children German," Associate Professor Powers said..."

Full story in the Australian at link

Thursday 27 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Carpenter baulks at Rudd's classroom computers [Front Page Headline]
    by Chris Johnson

    "Kevin Rudd's $1 billion pre-election pledge to ensure every high school student had access to a computer was in tatters last night after Alan Carpenter refused to implement the plan unless the Federal Government significantly increased its share of the expected costs.

    "The Premier told Mr Rudd at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Adelaide that WA was not prepared to meet the cost of installing and operating the computers, which form the centerpiece of the Federal Government's "education revolution".

    "He said for every dollar the Prime Minister was planning to spend, it would cost the States three to four dollars for extras such as cabling, internet connection and power.

    "The Federal Government might have a simplistic approach to delivering computers in order to keep an election promise but the States should not be expected to pay to keep that promise and this State won't," Mr Carpenter said.

    "The impasse has dented Mr Rudd's plan to end the "blame game" between Canberra and the States and intensifies the pressure on the Federal Government to identify further savings in the May Budget as part of its strategy to increase the surplus and reduce the pressure on inflation.

    "As well as likely extra spending on computers, Mr Rudd has locked himself into keeping the expensive carers and seniors' bonus payments.

    "Mr Rudd agreed yesterday to ensure the States would not be left with "huge" bills to implement the computer promise but the final price and extent of the program was still in doubt last night, with crucial details on cost-sharing still to be resolved by a specially appointed working group.

    "The States agreed only to roll out stage one, which will provide computers to the neediest schools from June.

    "Despite the stand-off over the computer promise, Mr Rudd and State and Territory leaders emerged from the meeting hailing their deals on health, water, cutting red tape and radically reshaping Commonwealth-State funding arrangements.

    "WA secured an extra $103 million in Commonwealth funding for public hospitals as part of a nation-wide $1 billion funding injection promised by the Federal Government, $500 million of which was payable immediately.

    "Mr Carpenter said WA's share would provide some immediate relief to the State's emergency departments and elective waiting lists.

    "We ended up with a better deal than the one that was offered when the meeting started" he said."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Rudd's school pledge just does not compute (page 20)
    by Paul Murray

    "Kevin Rudd simply hadn't done his homework when he promised to spend $1 billion of taxpayers' money to provide every senior secondary student with a computer at school. And it's too late to claim that the dog ate it. That poorly researched vote-grabber now looks like costing somewhere around $4 billion.

    "A report in The West Australian this month flagged a series of concerns about the promise, including the emergence of additional costs to be borne by schools and a worrying lack of detail about teacher training.

    "WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said many schools would require extensive work before they could cope with extra computers. Secondary school principals were concerned about computers being supplied without infrastructure and teacher training. And on the eve of yesterday's meeting of the Coalition of Australian Governments it emerged that the States had told Mr Rudd they face a heavy extra burden in providing cables, power, security and internet connectivity that could quadruple the cost of the policy.

    "Ensuring students have access to computers seems like a motherhood statement. But it's not that simple.

    "The Australian Council for Educational Research says that the results of a major international study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development question the impact of computers on learning. "The relationship between student performance and access to computers is ambiguous and continued research would be needed to investigate how computer use actually impacts on student performance," ACER said.

    "At $1 billion that statement is perplexing. At $4 billion, it is alarming.

    "Labor's rhetoric about the so-called digital divide between the computer haves and have-nots exposes the class warfare mentality driving this policy. So-called social inclusion is a hot button item for this Government.

    "However, the research does not bear out claims of a digital divide that is any more prevalent than the socioeconomic divisions between schools that exist in many areas.

    "While Labor's computer policy will spend money on the schools in greatest need first, it will eventually get around to providing more laptops to schools that, frankly, don't need them.

    "In terms of computer access, the divide that exists could be evened out quite cheaply without resorting to providing every Year 9 to Year 12 student with a computer at school.

    "Combined with Labor's other promise to make home computers tax-deductible, for which there has never been any cost-benefit rationale offered, the policy looks quite exorbitant.

    "The OECD research questions the need for the Rudd Government's intervention. It found that Australian schools measure up very well internationally for computer access.

    "Australia was among the highest rated countries with 94 per cent of our students reporting that they have access to a computer at home for school work, compared with the OECD average of 79 per cent. All Australian students reported having access to a computer at school.

    "Australian students were the highest users of computers for word processing, with 70 per cent reporting they used a computer frequently for this purpose compared with an OECD average of 48 per cent. However, just 10 per cent of Australian students reported frequent use of educational software such as a mathematics program, below the OECD average of 13 per cent.

    "How children use computers - and how teachers use them - is fundamental to success outcomes at school.

    "In a speech in 2005 about 20 years of teaching using computers in Australian schools, ACER research director Alison Elliott said many teachers had trouble incorporating information and communication technology in their work.

    "Two decades later, there is not much to distinguish many contemporary classrooms from the classrooms of 1984 or 1994," Dr Elliott said.

    "There may be a pod of computers in the room, but they're probably not being used well. Rarely are they used for just-in-time learning or to enhance thinking and problem-solving."

    "An international study in 2005 of about 100,000 students aged 15 in 32 countries, including Australia, also questioned computer-based teaching.

    "Despite numerous claims by politicians and software vendors to the contrary, the evidence so far suggests that computer use in schools does not seem to contribute substantially to students' learning of basic skills, such as maths or reading," the study's authors told the Royal Economic Society's annual conference in Britain.

    "The availability of computers at home appeared to have a negative impact.

    "Students with one computer at home had worse reading and maths scores than those without a home computer and those with several computers at home had even lower maths and reading skills.

    "Waving a laptop computer in the air and pronouncing it the "toolbox of the 21st century" is great for the cameras. Mr Rudd got his photo opportunity during the election campaign.

    "A sound, well-documented case for spending so much money on the provision of extra computers to students who already have them would be of more value."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Teachers Union faces deregistration for defying IRC
    
    "The Industrial Relations Commission has indicated the State School Teachers Union (SSTU) is likely to be fined or face deregistration for what has been described as a serious breach of an order to call off a stop work meeting.

    "The union had reached an agreement with the Commission's registrar, as part of its penalty, that it would not repeat the action.

    "However, the Commission's acting president Mark Writter, has questioned what message that penalty would send to the community given the union had 'thumbed its nose' at the order.

    "But he has requested further information on the impact of the stop work meeting on schools before deciding what penalty to impose.

    "Outside the hearing, the President of the SSTU, Anne Gisborne, said she believed a caution was appropriate.

    "We do not engage in these types of actions lightly or on a regular basis," she said.

    "We believe that that is a matter that should be and I believe will be taken into consideration."

    Teacher protest

    "Dozens of teachers have turned out to protest outside the offices of key Government Ministers involved in stalled teacher pay negotiations.

    "The President of the SSTU, Anne Gisborne, says the protesters will target the offices of the Premier, the Treasurer and the Education Minister.

    "We are I guess increasing the focus on the politicians, the ones that are making the decisions about the funding that goes into a further log of claims, a further offer," she said."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• Channel 7 National News
  
  
  • Teachers confirm strike, call Govt's offer 'an insult'
    
    "The Territory's Education Union says teachers will go on strike on Monday.

    "The executive has met today to decide if they should push ahead with industrial action.

    "The union says teachers will strike from from 10.15am to 2.15pm.

    "The union is pushing for a 15 per cent pay rise over three years.

    "Yesterday, the government offered 11 per cent over three years.

    "The union's Territory branch secretary Adam Lampe says the offer is an insult.

    "This is the first offer we've had since September of last year and this offer hasn't substantially changed very much and it continues to be a slap in the face to the way teachers and valued and the way education is valued in the Territory."

    "The Education Minister Marion Scrymgour is urging teachers not to support the strike action."

    From Channel 7 / Yahoo News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Defence force to take work experience
    AAP
    

    "Students will do work experience in the defence force, despite the objections of defence chiefs.

    "Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon will order the launch of a student work experience scheme at bases across the country.

    "He says none of the objections to the scheme - including the safety of participants, security of bases and the resources involved in supervising students - are insurmountable.

    "Mr Fitzgibbon said defence chiefs had told him why the issues posed a challenge, rather than how the scheme could be implemented.

    “This will be resolved by me simply issuing an edict that this shall be done,” he told ABC Radio today.

    “We will have a template which can be laid across every substantial base in this country which will allow young people to go along and experience a week or two in the ADF (Australian Defence Force), learning more about the culture of the ADF and what it is like to work within it...”

    Full story in the Australian at link
    
    
    
  
  
  • Alliance deal for top unis
    by Milanda Rout
    

    "Australia's top two universities have put aside their competitive differences to join forces in an agreement that will allow staff exchanges, joint research projects and students to study at both institutions.

    "The University of Melbourne and the Australian National University announced yesterday they had signed a memorandum of understanding to create a "formidable alliance".

    "The agreement means the universities will work together in research, put together funding bids, offer scholarships and training, and share facilities..."

    Full story in the Australian at link
    
    
    

• The Age
  
  
  • Op Ed
    The Premier is forgetting who his friends are
    
    Time and again we've seen the Government posturing when dealing with the public sector: teachers, health workers, emergency service workers such as police, public servants and others. Disputes with public sector unions typically centre on services and standards, not just wages. These disputes are eventually resolved, mostly on terms well beyond the Treasury's original "take it or leave it" offer — but at a significant political cost to the Government.
    
    
    
    
• The Times
  
  
  • Schools to be forced to keep quota of problem pupils
    by Nicola Woolcock
    
    "Successful schools will be forced to take a share of disruptive pupils to prevent them from monopolising the best-behaved children, the Government announced yesterday.

    "Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary, said that schools which excluded pupils would have to accept the same number that had been expelled by another school. This “one out, one in” policy would prevent oversubscribed schools from dumping badly behaved children on to their less successful neighbours.

    "Speaking at the NASUWT teaching union’s annual conference, Mr Balls said that he accepted the recommendations of a behaviour review published yesterday, which said: “A school that permanently excludes a child should expect to receive a permanently excluded child on the principle of one out, one in.”

    "Sir Alan Steer, the head teacher of a specialist school and author of the report, said: “I didn’t feel we should have a situation where a school has a perverse incentive to exclude, knowing it wo