Monday 9 June

Tuesday 10 June

Wednesday 11 June

Thursday 12 June

Friday 13 June

Saturday – Sunday, 14 – 15 June

Monday 9 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Reports banned in school pay row [Front Page Headline]
    by Bethany Hiatt

    “State school teachers have dramatically escalated their bitter pay campaign against the Carpenter Government, banning the release of student report cards and refusing to roll out more than 30 long-planned Year 11 courses due to start next year.

    “Only a day after the State School Teachers Union voted to disrupt classes with half-day strikes, the union's State Council endorsed a plan yesterday to withhold students' end­of-semester reports until the Government released a six-month-old report it commissioned into WAs alarming teacher shortage.

    “The report, by respected academic Lance Twomey, is believed to recom­mend significant pay rises for teachers.  Education Minister Mark McGowan has had the report since December but is refusing to release it.

    “Under the report card ban, teachers would refuse to use the Education Department's computerised report­ing system and parents would not receive written reports. But they could still discuss their child's pro­gress with teachers.

    “The West Australian understands union members also voted to halt implementation of new Year 11 cours­es such as geography, history, literature and chemistry which are due to start next year.

    “Teachers say it is impossible to write programs, lesson plans and assessment items for the new courses during normal school hours and they can't do the work after school because of the union ban on unpaid overtime imposed at the start of the year.

    “Many of the Year 11 courses under threat have already been postponed twice because of teachers' concerns they lacked content and that outcomes-based education assessment methods were imprecise. The rewritten courses have overcome most of those concerns.

    “Tensions between teachers and the Government intensified late last week after the W A .Industrial Relations Commission agreed to an Education Department request to arbitrate the long-running pay dispute. Teachers are seeking pay rises of more than 20 per cent over three years.

    “Union president Anne Gisborne called a media conference on Saturday to announce that half-day strikes would start at selected schools within weeks. But yesterday she refused to confirm the boycott of reports and courses, saying information should be communicated to members before it appeared in the newspaper.

    “Mr McGowan said the Twomey report would not be released until it was fully considered by Cabinet, which was unlikely to be before school reports are due in the next few weeks.

    "If the union does withhold school reports and bans the implementation of the new Years 11 and 12 courses it would only serve to hurt students and anger parents," he said. "Until the union executive confirms this, I have no further comment to make."

    “Mr McGowan also said strike action would be counter-productive. "If the union leadership proceeds with this course then the Government will examine its options to protect the education of students," he said.

    “WA Council of State School Orga­nisations president Rob Fry said for­mal written reports were not essential if parents could talk to teachers.

    “Boycotts and strikes would make children suffer and further alienate parents but the Government had left teachers with little choice.

    "If we don't pay (teachers) more, people are not going to enter the profession, it is as simple as that," he said. "We support their venture but we don't support some of their tactics."

    From The West Australian
    
    Also see the reports from ABC News

    
    

  • Letter to the Editor (page 23)
    
    
    • Cleaners lament

      “As a cleaner in charge at a primary school, I echo Kim Craig’s lament (Letters, 3/6) regarding a dearth of school cleaners, and the convenient subterfuge of the Education Department being “unaware” of this situation.

      “Might one of the major reasons for using this façade be a virtual acknowledgement that the hourly rates of pay, which fall short of what cleaners are currently paid elsewhere, are insufficient to attract quality staff? This situation is further compounded when replacements are needed (covering for sickness or absenteeism).

      “This is just a more localised example of problems endemic within the department, in its interface with schools, and the greater dysfunction which is characteristic of the Carpenter Government.”

      K.Crotty, Dianella

      
      

• ABC News
  
  
  • Release teacher shortage report, says Buswell
    
    "Western Australian Opposition Leader Troy Buswell says the public has a right to know what is in a report into the state's teacher shortage.
    
    "The Twomey report was presented to the Education Minister in December and is believed to recommend significant pay increases for teachers.
    
    "The Government and the teachers' union are heading into arbitration to resolve a pay and conditions dispute.
    
    "The Premier says the report will not be released until the union's industrial action is resolved. [emphasis added]
    
    "Mr Buswell says it is a disgrace the report has not been made public.
    
    "For the Government to sit on it is completely unacceptable, this Government operates in a web of political spin," he said.
    
    "Obviously there are things in the Twomey report that the Government don't want school teachers and/or the broader public to know in Western Australia."
    
    From ABC News online at 4:12 pm [but no longer on the ABC News website at 7:35 pm]
    
    Footnote: As of 9:07 pm, the story is available on the Channel 7 [Yahoo] news site, attributed to ABC News, at this link
    
    
    
    
    
  • Teachers to hold back report cards amid pay dispute
    
    "Parents of state school students will have to contact teachers directly for their children's term two results because of an industrial ban on report cards in Western Australia.

    "Under the new action, members of the State School Teacher's Union will compile reports for all primary and secondary school students, but will refuse to issue hard copies of the information to parents.

    "The WA Government and the union have been at loggerheads over pay negotiations since November last year.

    "Teachers want a 20 per cent pay rise over three years.

    "The matter has now been referred to arbitration.

    "The union's Anne Gisborne says parents and students will not unfairly suffer because of the action.

    "In many instances the teacher's actually run report meetings for parents at the semester break," she said.

    "We'd expect that that may well go ahead."

    "She says the move to withhold report cards will form just one part of a broad range of tactics.

    "The half day rolling strikes - executive will be meeting on Wednesday to determine the program for that and we will communicate with our members later in the week," she said.

    "The resolutions around continuing campaigning - that's the lobbying and the work around marginal seats and community awareness raising will continue."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • [NT] Teachers to strike again this week
    
    The Australian Education Union has announced another three days of rolling strike action this week. Twenty-eight schools, mostly outside Darwin, will be affected from Wednesday.
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Poor get priority in school funding
    by Patricia Karvelas, Political correspondent
    
    "Children from the poorest and most disadvantaged backgrounds will be given first access to preschool services under the Rudd Government's carve-up of education funding.

    "Projects to receive funding include mobile preschools and buses to drive toddlers to and from existing early childhood education venues.

    "Education Minister Julia Gillard and the Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education Maxine McKew will today announce the first $10million round of funding to improve access to high-quality early childhood education programs over the next year.

    "The Government is partnering state and territory governments to ensure all children have access to an early learning program in the year before formal schooling by 2013.

    "The Government is investing $533.5million over the next five years to improve access toaffordable early learning programs across Australia, including to indigenous children living in remote communities.

    "Within five years, all Australian children will have access to 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year, of high-quality, play-based learning and development programs in the year before school.

    "Ms Gillard said that research showed disadvantaged children benefited the most from high-quality preschool. Currently these are the children most likely to miss out.

    "Up to 20 per cent of all Australian four-year-olds do not go to preschool in the year before school, and crucially about half of all indigenous four-year-old children miss out," she said.

    "Ms Gillard said the first projects to receive funding would conform to long-term planning in the delivery of universal early childhood education and childcare.

    "Funding would be increased each year until 2013..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Banned teacher 'stripped of justice'
    
    The NSW Education Department was yesterday accused of denying natural justice to a teacher and damaging her career after it temporarily suspended her for posing nude for a magazine.
    
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • First Byte
      
      "Fancy that, a country that can’t organise a national health or education system, or drivers’ licences, is now proposing to create an Asian Union."
      
      John Van Gorp , Holland Park, Qld
      
      
      
      
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Academies are creaming off best headteachers, research suggests
    by Polly Curtis, education editor
    
    · Study shows increase in £100k salaries for heads
    · Neighbouring schools cannot match incentives
    
    "The government's flagship academies are today accused of creaming off the best headteachers from neighbouring schools by outbidding them with six-figure salaries.

    "New research seen by the Guardian reveals a surge in headteacher posts advertised above the £100,000 mark, fuelled by the expansion of the academy programme. The schools secretary, Ed Balls, will tomorrow announce plans to drive up standards in 638 of the worst-performing schools which will include a new wave of academies and trust schools.

    "Ministers say academies have nearly doubled the proportion of their pupils getting five good GCSEs from an average of 22% to 42%. But teacher unions claim this has been at a cost to other state schools, which are helpless to compete against the high wages and prestige of academies..."

    Full story in The Guardian at link
    
    
    
  • College lecturers go on one-day strike over pay
    
    Lecturers in London have gone on strike today after unions representing staff at further education colleges rejected a pay offer of 3% from employers.
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • State schools are best for progress
    by Richard Garner, Education Editor
    
    "State schools in Britain offer pupils a better chance of improving their test performance than those in the independent sector, according to an international study.

    "The results of tests for 14-year-olds in English, maths and science show the gap between the state and independent sectors is wider than anywhere else in the world. On a ranking system, private schools are 80 points ahead of the state sector."But this gap is wiped out when the results are adjusted to take into account the social background of the pupils and compared with what could be expected from them when they first arrived at their school. The figures then show that state school pupils do slightly better than those in the private sector.

    "The findings, from a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development comparing test results in 30 member countries, were revealed at a conference at London University's Institute of Education..."

    From The Independent at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Minister's job on line: Premier seeks account
    by Andrew Clennell and Paul Bibby
    
    "The Education Minister John Della Bosca's future in cabinet was in doubt last night after the Premier demanded he produce a full written account of his actions at a nightclub amid accusations he abused his power and threatened staff on Friday night.
    
    "Mr Della Bosca is under pressure to resign after the verbal altercation at Iguanas Waterfront in Gosford in which his wife, the federal MP Belinda Neal, is alleged to have told an operations manager the club would have its "f---ing licence" taken..."
    
    "Six staff members, including two managers, swore statutory declarations on Friday night, alleging the couple were abusive and threatening..." *
    
    "The Herald has learned the minister spoke at least four times by telephone to the owners of the nightclub on Saturday night and yesterday morning, before they issued an apology withdrawing the versions detailed in statutory declarations signed by several staff detailing the actions of Mr Della Bosca and Ms Neal.

    "Despite the apology, last night two of the club's staff, Thomas Crocker and Paul Trotter, told the Herald they stood by their statutory declarations.

    "The phone calls from Mr Della Bosca to the owners raise concerns that the minister may have pressured the club into changing its version of events..."

    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    *  The SMH website has gone so far as to reproduce the six hand-written statutory declarations by members of the nightclub staff (plus two sidebar stories)!
    
    See also the AAP story in The Age (and other newspapers)

 

Tuesday 10 June

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Again the call goes out for the Twomey report (page 20)
    
    “There are two possible reasons for the failure of the State Government to produce the Twomey report into WA’s alarming teacher shortage. One is that Education Minister Mark McGowan has not had the political skill or clout to ensure that the report made its way through Cabinet in the six months since it was handed down.

    “The other, more likely reason, is that it contains information that Mr McGowan does not want in the public arena as teachers escalate their campaign for better wages and conditions.

    “Whatever the reason, the result is the same. A report paid for by the taxpayer and containing material self-evidently relevant to the exodus of teachers from the profession sits uselessly on a Government-guarded shelf.”
    
    From The West Australian
    
    

  • Online Blog [reader responses invited]
    Why all the secrecy with the teacher shortage report?
    by Pam Casellas
    
    "Education Minister Mark McGowan has dilly-dallied long enough. He must release the Twomey report.

    "He keeps peddling the line that it cannot be released until it has been scrutinised by Cabinet. Fine. So he must hand every Cabinet member a copy of the vexed report and tell them to take it home for bedtime reading. How hard can that be for him to achieve?

    "The report into WA teacher shortages, which was paid for by the State’s taxpayers, was handed to him in December last year. The State Government is in the middle of bitter negotiations with teachers over a new enterprise bargaining agreement. Information acquired by Lance Twomey in compiling the report clearly is essential in considering how teachers should be remunerated, given that low pay is an obvious cause of teacher dissatisfaction.

    "Cabinet scrutiny of the report, if indeed it is essential before release, should have been expedited by Mr McGowan. How can it take more than six months for a document to be examined, particularly when the document is extremely important to the future of education in this State?

    "It is perfectly obvious to all of us that the report contains information which will not be useful to Mr McGowan and his negotiators. But that is not for him to decide. It is a report paid for by taxpayers and they have every right to know what it says. [emphasis added]

    "The teachers’ union has threatened to withhold school reports until the report is released. Mr McGowan says he will take the teachers to the Industrial Relations Commission if they do so.

    "But really, wouldn’t it be simpler all round if he just released the report?

    "The action threatened by the teachers is perfectly justified. Restrained, in fact.

    "Mr McGowan is behaving shamefully and taxpayers have every right to be furious with him. He is exacerbating tensions in the long-running dispute.

    "He must release it and allow the community to assess what it says. If its findings are relevant to the EBA negotiations then they should considered in that light.

    "Mr McGowan’s intransigence, or plain stupidity, serves only to inflame tensions in an already difficult situation. But more than that, he is withholding from the community information for which it has paid and which will help address the pressing problem of teacher shortages.

    "He is selling short the future of WA education." [emphasis added]
    
    From The West Australian online at link [post your comments at the same link]
    
    
    

  • Fines threat to teachers over strike (page 19)
    by Bethany Hiatt

    “Education Minister Mark McGowan has threatened to punish the teachers’ union if it pushes ahead with strike action by taking it to the State’s industrial umpire.
    
    “Mr McGowan yesterday attacked the State School Teachers Union’s decisions to disrupt classes with a series of half-day strikes and to withhold students’ reports as part of its wages campaign.
    
    “I will take the union to the Industrial Relations Commission, the independent umpire, if it proceeds with any action that damages students’ education,” he said. “That includes any of these sorts of actions that they’re proposing, because whilst this matter is before arbitration it is entirely inappropriate that they undertake these sorts of threats of industrial action which can only hurt students in schools around WA.”
    
    “Penalties the union could face for taking industrial action could include deregistration or a fine of up to $2000.
    
    “The commission could also decide to prosecute the union without Mr McGowan’s intervention.
    
    “The union was fined $1500 for going ahead with a half-day stop-work meeting in February after the commission ordered it to call off the rally.
    
    “Relations between the union and the Government plunged to new lows last week after the commission agreed to a Department of Education and Training request to arbitrate the pay dispute.
    
    “Teachers are angry that after eight months of negotiations the Government has failed to meet its demands for a 20 per cent pay rise over three years, smaller class sizes and more preparation time.
    
    “The West Australian revealed yesterday the union would withhold students’ report cards, which are due to be sent home in the next few weeks, until the Government releases a report with it commissioned into the teacher shortage.
    
    “Mr McGowan received the report by respected academic Lance Twomey six months ago but is refusing to release it.
    
    “The union claims the commission needs the information contained in the Twomey report to be able to make decisions on conditions and salary.
    
    “In a fax to schools late yesterday, the union directed members to refuse to release written information on students’ progress until the Twomey report was released. Teachers could still discuss children’s progress with parents.
    
    “Shadow education minister Peter Collier said threats to penalise the union were counter-productive. “It’s just going to inflame the situation further,” he said.” [emphasis added]

    From The West Australian
    
    
    
  • Pressure on as low wage jumps (page 15)    
    by Peter Kerr
    
    “The State Government is under increasing pressure to sweeten its current pay offer to public servants after the WA Industrial Relations Commission granted a 5.5 per cent pay rise to the State’s lowest paid workers.

    “The increase is well in excess of the 3.9 per cent the Government has offered the State’s teachers.
    
    “Unions WA secretary Dave Robinson welcomed the tribunal’s decision, saying it was a great result for the State’s lowest paid but added that it set a solid benchmark for the protracted negotiations between the Government and its workers.
    
    “Anyone in WA knows how much prices for things like food and petrol have jumped, so the wage rise does help those low-income earners to a significant extent,” he said.
    
    “It’s very clear from what the commission was saying in their decision that we’ve got a buoyant economy, it’s hard to attract and retain people and this was part of the reason for the increase. Those are the arguments that public servants and school teachers are running as well.”
    
    “The WAIRC yesterday announced that the State’s minimum wage would increase from $528.40 per week, to $557.40. The $29 per week or 5.5 per cent rise takes effect from July 1.
    
    “Employment Protection Minister Jon Ford said the rise was sustainable and affordable, reflection the continuing positive outlook for WA.
    
    “The decision will automatically flow on to all State awards but does not affect current enterprise bargaining negotiations, including teachers, because public sector employees subject to these negotiations are already earning well above minimum rates,” he said.
    
    “State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne said the decision would be used as part of its talks with the Government. “As decisions come down that reflect increases significantly more than the one that was on the table from the Government – which was around 4 per cent – it certainly bodes well for the strength of our case,” she said.
    
    “The union is seeking pay rises for teachers of more than 20 per cent over three years. Members of the Community and Public Sector Union are fighting for a 23 per cent pay rise over three years. [emphasis added]
    
    “The CPSU has claimed that under a second recent Government offer most workers would get an increase of 4.3 per cent a year, which was only the same as the inflation rate.”

    From The West Australian

    
    
  • Letters to the Editor (page 24)
    
    

    • In Short

      “My retired ex-truckie grandfather is thinking about returning to the workforce as a school teacher. He is willing to be patient and undertake the new 12-week crash course. Can anyone help and steer him in the right direction? God save our kids!”

      Ken Finch, Helena Valley
      
      

    • Fast-track to chaos

      “At the end of 2007 I retired after completing 10 years of supervising student teachers (known as pre-service teachers) in the schools. Before that I was a teacher/principal for 43 years. I believe I am well qualified to comment on Mark McGowan’s ridiculous fast-track teacher training proposal (Fast-track scheme to train more teachers, 7/6).

      “There seems to be an assumption in some circles that because a person has completed a university degree they know how to teach. I do not wish to denigrate some fine teachers who have completed the one-year Dip Ed course but I believe most of them would agree that they would have benefited from more time on practice in the schools.

      “I supervised many of these students and after a five-week practice they were just coming to grips with the skills of motivation, questioning and control. Another five weeks would have seen them blossom into more capable practitioners.

      “This belief was held by mentor teachers, practice co-ordinators, school principals, university staff and the students themselves. The proposed summer school program from November to February would lack the practice element that is so sorely needed.

      “I am pleased that Greg Robson at Edith Cowan University doesn’t wish to “ram people through a six-week course” and that Anne Gisborne at the teachers’ union has a major concern if the minister thinks that the skill of teaching can be watered down.

      “If the Director-General and the university people can’t convince the minister that the Dip Ed course is already short enough, then his proposal will have caused further damage to our schools.”

      Ken Waters, Maida Vale
      
      

    • It’s an insult

      “Mark McGowan continues to disrespect the teaching profession and yet clearly can still not understand why there is a problem gaining and retaining staff.

      “I worked hard to achieve my qualification and I am proud of the work that I and many others do. To insinuate that anybody with another qualification could step into our shoes after only three months of training is an insult and again undermines the public image of teachers.

      “Teaching is consistently undervalued, both financially and socially, and this to me is the key reason we struggle to get quality people into the profession. Entry requirements have dropped in recent years, yet teaching still competes with cleaning on a mine site as a career. I acknowledge there are problems and a solution must be found, but perhaps the Government needs to start recognising what an important job is being done and appropriately reward staff.

      “Can someone adequately be given the vast content knowledge plus the education psychology background and the teaching practice skills in three months? Absolutely not!

      “Could I work as a “geologist” after only three months of training – or how about a neurologist? Would Mr McGowan trust the health of his family with someone who has trained in the field for only three months? Surely the education of our children is just as valuable and those who educate them should also be treated with value.”

      Heather Brett, Geraldton
      
      

    • Set example

      “Mr McGowan has now come up with yet another idea to ease the teacher shortages. May I suggest he leads by example and resigns from Parliament, completes a six-month Diploma in Education and becomes a fulltime “political and legal” teacher in some hard-to-staff school on a base salary of $52,000 a year – or maybe he will just stay where he is on his six-figure salary and expect those in the mining industry to do what he is not willing to do himself.”

      Brendan Hart, Bicton
      
      

    • Why should I?

      “If the Education Minister thinks that I am willing to give up great pay, including housing, cheap utilities and travel, to become a teacher he is off with the pixies.

      “Teaching is by no means an easy job and it is an unbelievable insult not only to teachers but parents and students to say that teaching is a “lifestyle” choice.

      “When is this Government going to its eyes and see that the reason there are not enough young school leavers going into teaching and the experienced teachers are leaving in droves is because of the working conditions and poor level of pay that is heaped on them. Why be a teacher when you can earn better money elsewhere? This goes for all our services.

      “Politicians are constantly saying “pay peanuts and get monkeys” when they get a pay rise. Well, I for one don’t want monkeys teaching my kids or nursing me in hospital and I certainly don’t want them brandishing Tasers or guns in a police uniform.”

      Tanya Hunter, Canning Vale
      
      

    • Big report

      “So, Mr McGowan won’t avert the pending industrial action that now threatens the release of students’ reports. He tells us that he won’t release the Twomey report until Cabinet has a chance to study it (it must be a pretty big report if it has already taken seven months and they still haven’t read it).

      “It appears to me that the report will be as difficult to get released as was Nelson Mandela or the fellows at Guantanamo prison camp. So much for open and transparent government.”

      Andrew Bell, Woodvale
      
      

    • Speedy solution for Cabinet

      “How much time does the State Cabinet need to read the Twomey report?

      “Why not send the members of the Cabinet and their partners on a weekend down south on a “speed reading course”. That’s what Cockburn City Council did.”

      Mary Jenkins, Spearwood
      
      
      
      
• Peter Collier Media Statement
  
  
  • Premier joins Education Minister in not respecting teachers
    
    Refusing to release the Twomey report until wage negotiations with teachers have been completed underlined the Opposition’s continual criticism of the Carpenter Government’s Education policy.

    Premier Alan Carpenter and Education Minister Mark McGowan have defended keeping the report, charged with identifying the areas of need with regard to the state’s teacher shortage, a Cabinet secret since last December.

    While the Education Minister has repeatedly said the Twomey report would not be made public until considered by Cabinet, it appeared his leader had another excuse.

    Yesterday, the Premier said the report would not be released until the state schoolteachers’ enterprise bargaining award was finalised:

    ‘It’s a report that doesn’t just sit in the Education portfolio, it goes across a whole range of activities in government and has to be done properly. In the context of an industrial dispute, we need to resolve that first’

    Shadow Education Minister Peter Collier said failure to release the report would continue to provide a stumbling block in stalled wage negotiations.

    “The Premier and his Education Minister don’t appear to have got their stories straight,” Mr Collier said.

    “Dissatisfaction is rife in WA teaching and, for whatever reason, the government’s refusal to release the Twomey taskforce report has become the meat in the sandwich of the pay negotiations.

    “Teachers felt grossly undervalued awaiting this report and feel even less valued now because of the Carpenter Government’s intransigence by not releasing its contents.

    “By its refusal, the government continues one of the teachers’ major concerns - a lack of transparency in Education.

    “For its part, the government will not release the report because it almost certainly exposes basic flaws with the Department of Education and Training or it feels it will lose face in the negotiations.

    “How can teachers feel on an equal footing in wage negotiations when a report is kept from them?

    “The Carpenter Government has continually failed to show respect towards its teachers and the Premier’s arrant refusal to provide them with access to Prof. Toomey’s report continues this failure.”
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Minister critical of teachers union campaign
    
    "The Education Minister Mark McGowan believes latest round of industrial action by teachers will impact on students.

    "Members of the State School Teacher's Union plan to withhold hard copies of student report cards from all primary and secondary school students.

    "The move is the latest in a growing list of industrial action the union has taken while it negotiates a new teacher pay deal.

    "Mr McGowan says many teachers will be acting on the union's directive whether or not they agree report cards should be withheld.

    "All the teacher's union will do by its action is damage our students education, damage public education and bring down the reputation of our schools around Western Australia," he said.

    "It's really not a very good strategy on their behalf."

    "The President of the WA Council of State School Organisations Rob Fry says the move will be inconvenient for parents.

    "However he says parents should not be relying solely on report cards for information about their children's progress.

    "Our advice to parent's is that if parent's are genuinely concerned about their child's progress they would be actively involved in the school and obtaining that information on an ongoing basis."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Govt paper could prompt higher education shake-up
    
    "The Federal Government has released a discussion paper for its review of higher education, which will be finished by the end of the year.

    "The discussion paper shows it will focus on issues like funding, research, links to industry and social inclusion.
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard says the review will allow universities to specialise in particular areas.
    
    "We think for too long the country has treated universities as if they were a one-size-fits-all job," she said.
    
    "They're not. Each university in this country, in my view, is straining to define its distinctive mission, its distinctive role in the nation's future."
    
    "Ms Gillard hopes the review will lead to one of the biggest shake-ups of the sector in decades. [emphasis added]

    "We're interested in a genuine collaboration, the best of ideas brought together to define the future for Australian universities," she said."

    From ABC News at link
    
    Julia Gillard's media release
    
    
    
  • 'Gang activity, bomb threats' at NT school
    
    "The Northern Territory Government has revealed disturbing disciplinary problems involving bomb threats at Casuarina Senior College in Darwin's northern suburbs.

    "More than 50 students have been suspended at the school this year.
    
    "Headlines have focused on Casuarina youth gangs for much of the year, and with law and order emerging as a major election theme, Opposition Leader Terry Mills adopted the issue in Question Time.
    
    "We have received information that numerous children have been suspended from Casuarina Senior College for gang related activity," he said.
    
    "Can you state how many student suspensions have been made at that school?"
    
    "Education Minister Marion Scrymgour then revealed this disturbing problem at the school:
    
    "There have been a number of bomb threats, Madam Speaker and the police are investigating," she said.

    "The Government says the actual figure is 51 suspensions since the start of the year."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • School English too hard: principal
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "The head of one of the nation's elite private schools has questioned whether English should be compulsory for the senior years, saying the courses being taught are beyond the intellectual ability of most students.

    "The headmaster of Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore) in North Sydney, Tim Wright, told a symposium on a national curriculum in English at the weekend that parents felt alienated from the English syllabus and were deeply cynical about it.

    "In his speech, Dr Wright said the NSW English course for Years 11 and 12 was a major challenge for many students.

    "The intellectual challenge is, in fact, beyond many students," he said.

    "It is seen as arbitrary and from time to time the anguished cry comes: 'Why can't we just read the book?'

    "I question whether it (English) ought to be compulsory ... at senior level. It is not enough to simply say that like cod liver oil, English is good for you."

    "The symposium, hosted by the University of Sydney's Arts English and Literacy Education Research Network in the education faculty, was opened by NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca and also heard from the NSW representative on the National Curriculum Board, Tom Alegounarias.

    "Mr Alegounarias said the content of any national curriculum had to capture what the community - not teachers - thought was essential for students to learn.

    "The test for inclusion of content will not be what the teaching profession wants, or teacher educators or bureaucrats for that matter," he said.

    "Its contents should be measured against its purposes, which are to meet the community's interests. It is an expression of the community's intent and expectations."

    "Mr Alegounarias dismissed the idea of a curriculum as a technical document or specialised product for teachers alone.

    "The curriculum should be direct, transparent and accessible," he said. "Informed parents and community members need to be able to understand and recognise what learning will be required."

    "The point was echoed by Dr Wright, who said one of the difficulties in developing a national curriculum was that developments of the past 15 years had failed to win over the community.

    "Everyone is an expert. There is no subject upon which any school parent body feels more qualified to give an opinion," he said.

    "Opening the symposium, Mr Della Bosca said he agreed with recent comments by federal Education Minister Julia Gillard that school curriculum be based on the traditional disciplines.

    "Mr Della Bosca rejected the idea of a separate curriculum of utilitarian knowledge focused on employment skills for the bottom one-third of students, saying all students had a right to core knowledge."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Furniture please, says bush school at Hermannsburg
    
    Teachers in central Australia have resorted to bringing their own furniture for students to sit on as their under-funded school struggles with an explosion in attendance.
    
    
    
  • Deafness calling for young who pump up the volume
    
    New research shows more than two-thirds of young Australians may have suffered some degree of hearing loss from listening to loud music. Despite warnings of the danger that MP3 players, including iPods, pose to hearing, 60 per cent of Australians who use them have the volume up sufficiently high to damage their ears.
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Restaurant blues
    
    NSW power couple are an embarrassment for Labor
    
    
    "For a federal Government that claims to understand the concerns of working families, Labor MP Belinda Neal's reported altercation at a NSW central coast restaurant on Friday is deeply embarrassing. Ms Neal's husband, NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca, was quick to negotiate a withdrawal of six statutory declarations made against the couple by restaurant staff. Despite this, serious questions have been raised about Ms Neal's use of her parliamentary position to intimidate people with whom she was having a disagreement. Most concerning is the claim that Ms Neal threatened to have the restaurant's liquor licence cancelled.

    "Given Mr Della Bosca's factional strength and the tightly balanced issue of NSW power privatisation, taking disciplinary action against the couple is a sensitive issue for Labor. Nonetheless, Mr Iemma has ordered Mr Della Bosca to explain himself to state parliament. And Kevin Rudd cannot simply pretend nothing has happened. The affair is another reminder of the small gene pool that exists within the ALP, which should be able to do better than recruit spouses and progeny of influential powerbrokers to fill sought-after seats in federal parliament."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    • Sydney Morning Herald Editorial: Time to cut the minister loose
      
      
      
      
• The Guardian
  
  
  • I will close up to 270 failing schools to improve standards, says minister
    by Patrick Wintour and Polly Curtis
    
    · New role for academies and trust-run colleges
    · Balls plans detailed look at primary education
    
    "Ed Balls, the schools secretary, will reveal today that up to 270 schools will be closed in the next three years for underperformance and replaced with academies and a new generation of trust schools.

    "The move represents a further quickening of the pace of the city academy programme, a reform that Gordon Brown as chancellor did little to embrace.

    "In an interview with the Guardian, the minister also suggests he will take further measures to tackle incompetent teachers and start a school-by-school assessment of primary education.

    "Balls will unveil substantial plans today to drive up standards in the 638 schools identified as seriously underperforming, offering local authorities the option to provide intensive support to the schools or replace them with academies and schools supported by businesses, charities and other education institutions.

    "He said he expected, on the basis of analysis of persistently underperforming schools, that about 200 of the 638 will not improve fast enough and will be replaced by academies..."

    Full story in The Guardian at link [Similar stories in virtually all UK media]
    
    
    
    
• The New York Times
  
  
  • Report Takes Aim at ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype of Asian-American Students
    
    The image of Asian-Americans as a homogeneous group of high achievers taking over the campuses of the nation’s most selective colleges came under assault in a report issued Monday.
    
    Similar story in The Washington Post

Wednesday 11 June

• The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
  
  
  • WA Teachers resolve to strike this term [7:43 pm update]
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "WA teachers put families on notice tonight to expect strikes before the school term ends early next month.

    "State School Teachers' Union general secretary David Kelly said this afternoon that the union executive had met today and resolved to proceed with rolling half day strikes.

    "Nothing will happen this week and it's highly unlikely next week, but the intention is that strikes will occur this term,'' Mr Kelly said.

    "Mr Kelly said next week was Week Eight of the 10-week term, so strikes would likely be soon after.

    "He said the union executive would meet again next week and give the community sufficient notice of any action.

    "The union's members would also stick to their resolution to withhold student reports, which were due in the next few weeks, until the WA Government released a report by education academic and former Curtin University vice-chancellor Lance Twomey, Mr Kelly said.

    "But he said teachers would still meet with parents to discuss their children's progress.

    "Prof Twomey was commissioned by the Government to look into the teacher shortage and his report went to Education Minister Mark McGowan about six months ago.

    "Last week, the Industrial Relations Commission took over arbitration of the teachers' pay and conditions deal because the Government and the union could not reach agreement after more than eight months of wrangling.

    "The Union has said that information in the Twomey report would help the commission make decisions on teachers' pay and conditions.

    "Mr McGowan this week threatened to take the union to the commission if it proceeded with industrial action.

    "Union president Anne Gisborne has said that the Government's decision to push for the commission to arbitrate had added to teachers' frustration because it would take up to a year to finish.

    "She has called on the Government to come back to teachers with "a decent offer'' and halt the proceedings.

    "The commission previously fined the union $1500 for refusing to call off a February stop-work meeting which forced 35 schools to close.

    "The union is pushing for a 20 per cent-plus pay rise over three years. It wants smaller classes, more preparation time for primary teachers and "appropriate'' administration time for principals and their deputies.

    "The Government's last offer, which it withdrew, was nearly 14 per cent, rising with allowances and other factors."

    From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
    
    
    
    
• The West Australian

Short-listed for Letter of the Year Letter to the Editor (page 22) New Magazine “I wonder whether you’ve heard about the new education magazine which is about to be released. It will be thin and easy to read, with lots of glossy colour photo spreads, eye-catching headlines and very short articles.  It will be published by the Department of Education and Training, edited by Minister Mark McGowan, and will showcase all the innovative ideas the minister and his department are developing to improve the standard of public education in this State.  Featured will be stunning new ideas about curriculum and devilishly schemes to attract and retain quality teachers.  To cap it all off the consultancy team contracted to research and develop this bold new project has selected an unbelievably imaginative, catchy and refreshingly honest title.  I can’t wait to get my copy of the first edition of No Idea.” Trevor Stace, Argyle

 

• State pupils down under Labor (page 3)
  by Bethany Hiatt
  
  “The massive loss of confidence in the State education system under the Labor Government has been high­lighted with the release of figures showing the total number of students in public schools has fallen by more than 14,000 in the seven years since the party won office.

  “Figures provided to State Parliament show the number of students in Years 1 to 12 in public schools dropped from 229,743 in 2001 to 215,298 this year.
  
  “At the same period, enrolments in private schools increased by nearly 17,000, from 94,902 to 111,650.
  
  “The revelation came as principals warned that State high schools were struggling to provide students with basic educational needs because the voluntary payment required from parents had not increased in years.
  
  “Opposition MP Colin Barnett, a former education minister, said the common perception was that the State school system was growing, but at a slower rate than the private system.
  
  “But the number of students in State schools had shrunk significantly.
  
  "I don't think we've ever seen a period in WA history where government school enrolments have been in decline," he said. "I think the present Government has to accept responsibility for that. Over their period of administration the government school system has gone backwards."
  
  “Two-thirds of all WA children still attend public schools. Enrolments plummeted in both sectors in 2003 because of a change to the school starting age resulting in a smaller than usual Year 1 group. But State schools were harder hit, losing about 10,000 students in 2003 compared with a drop of 1500 at private schools.
  
  “Education Minister Mark McGowan said the strength of the WA economy and increasing affluence meant some parents chose to send their children to private schools. ”This is an option fewer parents had under the last coalition government when the economy was shrinking," he said.
  
  “Independent and Catholic sector chiefs said the drift to private schools had slowed in recent years as the number of new schools stabilised.
  
  “The controversy over student numbers flared as WA Secondary School Executives Association president Rob Nairn called for a review of the $235 cap on voluntary contributions towards the costs of educating children in Years 8 to 10. The parent contribution goes towards the cost of text books and equipment.
  
  “Mr Nairn said schools had to stretch the voluntary payment further because costs had skyrocketed while the cap had not changed significantly in more than a decade. More parents were also failing to pay.
  
  "Schools are finding it increasingly difficult to manage on $235," he said.
  
  “There is no maximum charge for Years 11 and 12 courses. Schools can charge extra for optional lower school courses, such as outdoor education, but the $235 cap must cover the costs of all compulsory subjects.
  
  “In some State schools, students in Years 8-10 are not allowed to take text books home because they are provided for use in class time only. Mr Nairn said most schools used the voluntary payment to buy class sets of books for subjects such as maths or English, which were lent to students.
  
  "I know some schools photocopy relevant pages out of books so the kids can take them home and there's no disadvantage there," Mr Nairn said.
  
  “WA Council of State School Organisations president Rob Fry said the Government should increase its contribution in line with inflation rather than ask parents for more.

  “Mr McGowan said voluntary fees were increased at primary schools in 2002 from $9 to $60 and in Years 8-10 from $225 to $235.”

  From The West Australian
  
  
  

• ABC News
  
  
  • Teachers Union steps up campaign over pay claim
    
    "The State School Teacher's Union has been unable to come to a decision about the exact dates and times it will implement rolling stoppages.

    "The union's executive has met to discuss the stoppages which will form part of a campaign for better pay and conditions for teachers."The union's Anne Gisborne says it is likely there will be stoppages before the end of the school term but no dates have been set.

    "Executive has sat today to consider the issue of the rolling stop work they are determined to go ahead but at this stage we've got some further planning to undertake and some further questions about how best to manage this and how we can communicate with teh braoder community." she said."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Teachers vow to strike
    
    "South Australian public school teachers have vowed to press ahead with a 24-hour strike next Tuesday.

    "Teachers are seeking a 21 per cent pay rise over three years.

    "The State Government has offered less than half that and Correna Haythorpe from the Australian Education Union says today's revised offer has not sweetened the deal.

    "She says next week's strike will go ahead, even if the Industrial Relations Commission tries to prevent it. [emphasis added]

    "Next Tuesday all of our pre-schools, schools and TAFE institutes, 85 per cent of our members will be taking stopwork action," she said.

    "But Industrial Relations Minister Michael Wright says the Government will try to get the strike blocked in the Industrial Relations Commission.

    "For students and parents to be disadvantaged in this way is simply not acceptable to the Government," he said.

    "We will be making a case that we are negotiating in good faith and we don't want our classes disrupted next Tuesday."

    "The matter is expected to go before the Commission tomorrow.

    "Up to 165,000 students could be affected by the strike."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Teachers storm Della Bosca's office
    
    "About 120 angry teachers have stormed the foyer of the New South Wales Education Minister's Sydney office, demanding a meeting.

    "The striking south-west Sydney teachers were led into the State Government's offices by Teachers Federation president Maree O'Halloran to protest changes to the staffing transfer system.
    
    "They asked for Education Minister John Della Bosca to come down to discuss the system, which they say will disadvantage public schools in remote and less desirable areas.
    
    "Every single one of the people here today are here because they are worried about the students in their school," she said.
    
    "We have got a Minister for Education who won't even come down and speak to them knowing that they would be here. Shame."
    
    "The teachers left when Mr Della Bosca's chief of staff accepted a letter on his behalf.
    
    "It has been a tough few days for Mr Della Bosca, who has been under scrutiny over his role in a dispute in a central coast nightclub.
    
    "Teachers are angry about the Government's decision to allow school principals to hire staff directly.
    
    "The Teachers Federation says the move will undermine an incentive scheme, under which teachers are encouraged to work in regional areas in exchange for a placement on the top of the transfers list for a more desirable posting later in their careers.

    "The Government says the formula used to allocate the number of teachers to schools will not change and the transfer system will never be dismantled."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
  • Neal admits she needs counselling
    
    Federal Labor MP Belinda Neal [wife of the NSW Education Minister, whose behaviour at a Sydney restaurant become news recently] has admitted that she needs counselling, after a phone call from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd this afternoon telling her he could not guarantee her political future.
    
  
  
  
  
• The Adelaide Advertiser
  
  
  • Threat to stop teacher strike as new pay offer branded 'disgusting'
    
    "UPDATED: The State Government will go to the Industrial Relations Commission to try and stop a strike next week by more than 10,000 public school teachers.

    "Industrial Relations Minister Michael Wright said today: "Any behaviour that impacts on parents and students is simply not acceptable to the Government. The Government is simply not going to stand by and let a strike take place."

    "Mr Wright said the latest "very good offer" in the ongoing and increasingly bitter pay dispute was worth almost $309 million and included a new student-based funding model.

    "His tough stance came after Australian Education Union state president Correna Haythorpe said the new offer was appalling and had been unanimously rejected this afternoon by the union executive.

    "All public school teachers are now expected to go on a full-day strike on Tuesday next week - June 17. [emphasis added]

    "The union has also threatened a new campaign of weekly rolling stoppages.

    "The Government had previously offered teachers a 9.75 per cent pay rise over three years while the union wants 21 per cent over the same period.

    "Ms Haythorpe said the Government's new enterprise agreement proposal did not improve on the previous pay offer and provided no extra funds to reduce class sizes or to attract and retain staff.

    "It defies logic that the Government would make a renewed offer which fails to address the absolute essentials, particularly attraction and retention measures, via a better wage offer to achieve professionally competitive salaries," Ms Haythorpe said.

    "No salary improvement, thus cementing SA as the least attractive place for teaching in the nation, no reduction in class sizes to improve student learning conditions, no measures to attract and retain staff, no workload initiatives.

    "Instead what we see is a measly $16 million from 2010, which the Budget papers show will be sneakily eaten away by a requirement for education to find $15 million in savings in 2011.

    "I predict that our AEU executive will be utterly disgusted by this parsimonious offer that is against the best interests of educators, school leaders, staff and, importantly, students."

    From The Adelaide Advertiser at link
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • 'Fallacy' of learning grammar by osmosis
    by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
    
    "School English courses are based on the fallacy that students studying literature will pick up grammar and writing style by osmosis.

    "In a paper presented to a symposium on the national English curriculum, Monash University lecturer Baden Eunson argues that literature has subsumed school English to the exclusion of a study of the language, grammar, punctuation, spelling and usage.

    "English is not too hard, but too easy," he said yesterday. "It's easy in the sense that in the past 30 years, virtually all aspects of English language ... have not been evaluated and we are the poorer for it.

    "This has occurred because of the osmosis fallacy: get them to read enough and they will write. English became a de facto literature, to the detriment of both."

    "Mr Eunson, a lecturer in English who teaches professional writing courses in second and third year, was responding to comments reported in The Australian on Monday by the head of Sydney private school Shore, Tim Wright, who questioned whether English should be compulsory, and said "the intellectual challenge (of the NSW English courses) was in fact beyond many students".

    "Mr Eunson said the pendulum had swung too far towards a study of literature instead of balancing it with language.

    "We need to teach English teachers how to teach English, and instead of maintaining a false dilemma between language and literature, reconceptualise these areas as two sides of the one coin," he said. "There is no literature without language, and no language without literature."

    "Mr Eunson said English was the only subject in the curriculum that had been deskilled, so that students had no terms with which to discuss language. "Every other subject has a meta-language of its own but English doesn't have a technical language any more. It's a study of opinions and comes down to 'the books I like'."

    "Mr Eunson told the symposium the entire debate about an English curriculum was built on a false dilemma: either literature or language. Yet until the 1970s, students were assessed on literary texts as well as on grammar and style.

    "The great fiction of Australian English teaching, (is) that all that matters is fiction," he said. "In fact, non-fiction may be just as important, and language -- grammar, expression, style -- may be even more important.

    "Marking criteria specifically mentioning sentence construction, spelling and punctuation have not appeared on any senior English examination paper for 30 years."

    "Mr Eunson said questions posed in Year 12 examination papers in the 1970s asking students to analyse sentence construction and language use were now taught to second or third-year linguistics students at universities. Year 10 students in Victoria in 1963 were asked to compile a table with the noun, verb and adjectival forms of the same word, such as protect, exceed or service.

    "Mr Eunson said the 1973 NSW Higher School Certificate exam contained a question worthy of the most committed critical literacy theorist: "How possible is it to justify the use of the word 'correct' as applied to language forms (meanings, grammar, pronunciation, etc) by appeals to such things as authority, democracy, aristocracy, logic, or even aesthetics?"

    From The Australian at link
    
    See related story in The Sydney Morning Herald
    
    
    
  • Editorial
    Make books enjoyable
    
    Literary theory is generally better suited to university
    
    "The fact that the head of an elite private school has questioned whether English should be compulsory for senior study is a sad reflection on how the subject has been mistaught for years. Tim Wright, headmaster of Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore), told a weekend symposium that current courses were beyond the intellectual ability of most students. If so, one of the main reasons, as The Australian has long argued, is that much of the literary theory employed in various states would be better suited to university, after students have received a thorough grounding in literature. Forcing students to read Shakespeare, Jane Austen or Patrick White for the first time through a prism of contemporary preoccupations with race, class and feminism can be confusing and off-putting, compared with a more straightforward themes-characters-plot approach that fosters enjoyment. Performing and seeing classic plays is also important.

    "Far from suggesting a dumbing-down, another aspect of the problem is the paucity of literature studied in the early years of secondary school. In eschewing introductory classics and giving protracted attention to ephemeral pop culture such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Big Brother and the like, students miss the grounding that would prepare them for more sophisticated literature in Years 11 and 12.

    "To their credit, NSW, Western Australia and Queensland have moved recently to boost the study of literature. Making novels, poetry and plays as enjoyable as they should be will boost students' success."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    

  • Officials admit bid to gag nude teacher Lynne Tziolas
    by Ean Higgins
    
    
    "NSW bureaucrats have admitted trying to silence a teacher who was suspended for posing nude for a magazine, in exchange for paying her to perform non-teaching duties.

    "In another backdown in the controversy surrounding the Department of Education's treatment of primary teacher Lynne Tziolas, the department agreed its earlier denials had been untrue and said it "regrets any inconvenience this has caused".

    "The department has been under pressure since it last month summarily dismissed Ms Tziolas, 24, from teaching her Year 1 class at Narraweena Public School, on Sydney's northern beaches.
    
    "It acted after she and her husband of four years, Antonios, appeared in a discreet nude embrace and talked about their sex life in Cleo magazine.
    
    "After widespread publicity about calls from parents and students for her to be reinstated, the department progressively retreated and at the weekend restored her teaching rights.
    
    "Two departmental spin doctors, Meredith Jones and Mark Davis, in statements to The Australian, had categorically denied the claim by Ms Tziolas and her then lawyer Neale Dawson that the department had tried to gag her. Mr Dawson this week complained that the statements by Ms Jones and Mr Davis suggested he had lied to his client in outlining the offer presented by the department.
    
    "As revealed by The Weekend Australian, Mr Dawson had said in an email to Ms Tziolas on May 14, a few days after the story broke: "The department has come back with the following offer: 1/ if you cease speaking to the media and ask your husband not to speak to the media on your behalf; 2/ if you respond to the show-cause letter in a timely fashion; and 3/ the matter is not resolved by May 23, the department will place you on alternate duties whilst discussions continue."
    
    "This week, Mr Dawson said: "I stand by the content of my email."
    
    "When confronted with Mr Dawson's comments, the department's deputy director-general, Peter Riordan, yesterday admitted Mr Dawson was right.
    
    "The department did indicate that it wanted Ms Tziolas to stop making public comment as continued publicity may make it difficult to place her in a school," Mr Riordan said in a statement to The Australian. "At the time of responding to your questions, none of the department's media officers were aware of the legally privileged discussions."
    
    "Ms Tziolas said yesterday she had been vindicated in her claim that the department had tried, unsuccessfully, to silence her. "I made it clear that my rejection of their initial proposal was as a result of my feeling coerced into toeing the line," she said.

    "I feel as though I have strived to build a teaching career for myself in what I believed was a progressive society, and one in which I have many valuable qualities to instil within children- this has all changed as a result."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Bradley sets terms of unis debate
    by Stephen Matchett, Higher education editor
    
    "The quality of university education is set to decline, with few staff teaching more students, a reduction in academic career opportunities and an increasing reliance on full-fee paying students to balance the books, according to the much anticipated discussion paper, released yesterday, from the Bradley committee reviewing higher education.
    
    "And to correct the quality crunch the committee has put a government-supported industry restructure on the table, in a wide-ranging discussion paper that has the potential to transform post-school education more completely than any reform since Labor education minister John Dawkins created the unified national system in the late 1980s.

    "According to the paper by Denise Bradley and her colleagues, the Government's existing indexation formula is unlikely to cover the cost effect of anticipated wage inflation and infrastructure funding shortfalls and will put increased cost pressures on universities.
    
    "These factors combine to produce a strong incentive for universities to increase staff-student ratios, increase the rate of casualisation of the academic workforce and pursue revenue from the same, limited number of other sources," committee chairwoman Professor Bradley and her colleagues argue.
    
    "The much anticipated discussion paper sets the context for the committee's end-of-year report, which is expected to provide the Rudd Government with a policy basis for a radical restructure of teaching, research and community engagement across the entire university system.
    
    "Pointing to the possibility of an end to the existing single system, the discussion paper suggests competition for resources, staff and students may force universities to focus on their strengths.
    
    "To achieve this concentration, some universities could abandon a full-service approach.
    
    "Higher education providers may seek to merge and reconfigure in different ways in order to achieve competitive advantages, increased critical mass to sustain key areas or benefit from economies of scale," the paper says.
    
    "While avoiding a specific policy position, the paper does acknowledge the need for concentrated research funding. "Research funding and research infrastructure support should be directed primarily to those areas within universities that can demonstrate both high performance in research and a research operation at a scale (that) is competitive in an international context."
    
    "It places at centre stage the most contentious issue in higher education, stripping some institutions of a research role, inviting comment on the question whether "there is a place in Australia's higher education system for universities that are predominantly 'teaching only"'. [emphasis added]
    
    "The Bradley paper also highlights the prospect of government intervention to restructure the university system, arguing "it could be appropriate for government to play a facilitating role in supporting restructuring of the industry where the changes are in the public interest".
    
    "Defining the issues that are likely to shape higher education for a generation, the committee invites comment on issues ranging from the financial importance of international students to relations between universities and the technical and further education communities. It also calls on the sector to address the role of government in financing and regulating the system.
    
    "While the report is careful to avoid endorsing any administrative approach, there are some hints of the Bradley committee's level of interest in issues.
    
    "The widely discussed issue of compacts between Canberra and individual institutions is acknowledged briefly.
    
    "Concerns about a possible lack of transparency in such an approach have been raised. The Government has committed to introduce compacts, but the precise nature of these arrangements will be the subject of consultations with the sector and decisions on how they will operate in practice are still to be taken."

    "However, the report discusses at length ideas on the creation of an independent public sector agency charged with monitoring, or regulating universities, using the Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission (1977-88) as an example of one approach."

    From The Australian at link
    
    
    • Op Ed: Time for talk is over
      
      
      
      
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Uni fees system branded irrational
    by Harriet Alexander Higher, Education reporter
    
    "A review of higher education will examine how to make the inconsistent fee system fairer.

    "A discussion paper released by the federal Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, at Macquarie University yesterday describes the funding system as "at best complex and at worst anomalous, inconsistent and irrational".
    
    "Students can incur debts of between $12,000 and $102,000 for courses of similar length.
    
    "While agriculture students pay 28 per cent of the cost of their course, with the rest subsidised by the Federal Government, law students pay 84 per cent of theirs.
    
    "Within the current system of financing, higher education students pay widely differing amounts towards the costs of their courses, contribute widely differing proportions of the costs, and have different degrees of access to income support and income-contingent loans," the discussion paper says.
    
    "The higher education review, chaired by Denise Bradley, the former vice-chancellor of the University of South Australia, will report at the end of the year and could lead to an overhaul of the HECS funding system.
    
    "It will investigate matters including the ability of the higher education sector to cater to workforce demands, the adequacy of university funding arrangements and how to measure the quality of the student experience.
    
    "Ms Gillard said past reviews of the sector had been piecemeal. "We want to make sure there's a vision for our universities for the next 15, 20 years," she said. "We want that vision to include the ability of the poorest Australian to … aspire to go to university and to have a fair chance of doing so."
    
    "The discussion paper says not all students have access to loans, with loan limits depending on the courses.
    
    "The president of the National Union of Students, Angus McFarland, welcomed the review of HECS and student income support. "We're happy they want to go over HECS with a fine-tooth comb … but the big one is student income support," he said.

    "The Opposition education spokesman, Tony Smith, said Labor's promises of an "education revolution" had fallen flat. "This discussion paper is proof Kevin Rudd really had no policy or plans of his own for the university sector," Mr Smith said."

    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    

• SSTUWA
  
  
  • Schools need help - NOW! [10 June]
    
    As teachers returned to school to face the 2008 school year the true level of teacher shortages remained hidden. We know that the number was in the hundreds – but how many more were asked to teach outside their area of expertise? There is a crisis in education across Australia. Politicians of all persuasion talk the talk about teacher salaries, but none seems capable of facing up to this national problem. The results of a national poll show the majority of Australians agree that there will be no “education revolution” unless the Labor Government invests substantially more in public education.

    AEU Federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said Australians have a clear expectation of that the Rudd Government will make investing in schools their top priority.

    “A properly funded education system is the key to ensuring all children have an opportunity to get a high quality education,” he said.

    Conducted among 600 voters by research and communication company Essential Media Communications, the poll showed that

    • 82 per cent agree or strongly agree there will be no education revolution unless the Labor Government invests substantially more in public education
    • 71 per cent of Australians say education was important or very important in determining their vote, versus only 27 per cent for whom it was not important.
    • 60 per cent of people who switched their vote from the Coalition to Labor in the 2007 election said the Howard Government’s neglect of public education was an important determining factor in determining their vote.
    • 67 per cent agree or strongly agree that the Rudd Government should make investing in public schools their top priority.
    
    “Well-funded public schools give every child the opportunity to reach their full potential. Public education remains the key for a vibrant, socially cohesive and prosperous Australia,” he said.

    Meanwhile, the largest ever survey of Australian teachers and school principals confirms Kevin Rudd’s assessment that the time is right for an education revolution.
    
    The survey reveals the teacher shortage is so bad that 43 per cent of secondary school principals have had to ask teachers to take classes that they’re not qualified to teach.
    
    If there is to be a revolution, a survey by the Australian College of Educators and the Australian Council for Educational Research has added ammunition.
    
    Over 14,000 teachers and principals from all school sectors around Australia participated in the survey.
    
    The study does show some strong indications that there are shortages, more so in secondary schools than in primary schools, more so in government schools than in non-government schools.
    
    One indicator of the shortage is that around 43 per cent of secondary schools principals are requiring teachers to teach classes in areas outside which they are fully qualified.
    
    Around half the school principals surveyed indicated that in the past 12 months they had either a moderate or a major difficulty in attracting suitable staff.
    
    About 70 per cent of those surveyed agreed that higher pay based on competence or extra qualifications would retain teachers.
    
    Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard, says the Rudd Government will take the findings and recommendations of the report to a working group of education ministers.
    
    In Victoria, students are turning their backs on teaching careers, with experts blaming poor pay and job security, As first round offers for 2008 tertiary entrance revealed there had been a 6.8 per cent drop in first preferences for undergraduate teaching.
    
    Australian Education Union’s Victorian State President Mary Bluett said relatively low pay in state schools was turning Victorian students away from teaching in droves.
    
    The first step in the Rudd Government’s Education Revolution must be to invest $2.9 billion in a national literacy and Numeracy strategy. Government research shows that public schools are under-funded by a minimum of $2.9 billion per year.
    
    To support the national strategy, the AEU has outlined six key areas that require significant additional targeted funding to ensure the Education Revolution is successful.
    
    AEU Federal President Angelo Gavrielatos announced the principals for success in his speech to the 2008 AEU Federal Conference following the release of the new polling that shows that the neglect of public education by the Coalition was a key issue in switching votes to Labor in the 2007 federal election.
    
    “We call on the Rudd Government to meet voters’ expectations by addressing the current $2.9 billion annual shortfall in public education funding,” said Gravrielatos. “The $2.9 billion investment should support the development and implementation of a comprehensive national literacy and Numeracy strategy in public schools.
    
    “This would be the first step in addressing over a decade of neglect by the Howard Government of public education.
    
    “The key to educational success is the attainment of the highest possible literacy and Numeracy standards for students.

    “To support the national literacy and numeracy strategy, the AEU is calling for further targeted funding for six key areas:

    • 1. A curriculum guarantee for all students
    • 2. The reduction of class sizes
    • 3. Competitive professional salaries so we can recruit and retain the best teachers
    • 4. The provision of 21st century learning environments including modern buildings and equipment.<