Monday 14 July

Tuesday 15 July

Wednesday 16 July

Thursday 17 July

Friday 18 July

Saturday – Sunday, 19 – 20 July

 

Monday 14 July

• The West Australian
  
  
  • At 13, TEE maths and physics are just a breeze for whizkid Amitesh
    by Bethany Hiatt
    
    "While most teenagers take five years to finish high school, this year's youngest TEE student, Amitesh Datta, 13, plans to wrap up his secondary education
    in just three.

    "The Shenton College student skipped from Year 8 to Year 11 for three of his subjects last year, which means he will sit for the TEE in calculus, applicable mathematics and physics this year. He will be just 14 when he finishes Year 12 after he completes chemistry and English next year.

    "His father, Amitava, who lectures in computer science at the University of WA, said he and his wife Lakshmi, a former university maths lecturer, fostered their only child's natural mathematics ability when he was younger.

    "They did not push him and never expected him to take to maths with such a passion. "He's largely self-taught," Mr Datta said. "He taught himself calculus two years ago."

    "Because he was so far ahead of other Year 8s who were still struggling to master fractions and decimals, it became difficult to motivate Amitesh to attend school last year. "It was too easy and too repetitive for him to sit in the class," Mr Datta said.

    "Towards the end of last year, they moved him from the elite private school he had attended to Shenton College, which allowed him to zoom ahead of his classmates.

    "To tell you the truth, I had completely the wrong impression of public schools before, but I really have learnt a lot in the last year," Mr Datta said. "They treated him according to his ability rather than his age. He's quite well accepted by his classmates
    as well, in Years 11 and 12."

    "Mr Datta said the only subject which presented problems was English, not because he had problems with writing but because he lacked the life experience of older students.

    "In his spare time, Amitesh studies maths courses online from Stanford University in the US. He said maths appealed to him because it was both abstract and logical. He hoped to study theoretical mathematics after he left school. "I might become a mathematician," he said."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Education fight
      
      "I write in support of Jessica Jackman's letter (12/7). Here is a young teacher disenchanted and obviously very experienced, having obtained her Level 3 status, leaving an education system in crisis. Like me she has no energy left to fight a battle that is unwinnable.

      "Like her I now realise after 28 years that no one in government cares for the people keeping the system together with great passion and goodwill. Instead they are "beating us down", squeezing the lifeblood from the very people who love teaching and children so much that we have had continuous governments underfund education.

      "The State Government will reap what it sows, just like Alan Carpenter as a former Education Minister has got to accept some of the blame for today's crisis.

      "It is shameful that the IRC will now have the power to decide the new enterprise plan for WAs public education system when they do not work on the inside.

      "Please read the Twomey Report; it is no surprise to those of us who are fighting to save the education system that we are in desperate need of help."

      D.Clarke, Hamilton Hill
      
      

    • Cause of crisis

      "I read through the enterprise order that has been delivered by the Department of Education and Training and discovered that for a pay rise of 3.9 per cent I would lose just over three weeks of my away-from-school time. This wouldn't include the non-specified amount of time during which I can be ordered to attend parent interviews, school camps or school socials, etc. What a deal.

      "It is incredible that Mark McGowan cannot understand why teachers are not grateful, that he cannot understand that the way the teaching profession is treated by the
      Government is directly responsible for the teacher crisis. I am very keen to see what pay deal the politicians arrange for themselves."

      Andrew Bell, Woodvale
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • Australian Islamic College charges denied
    by Alana Buckley-Carr
    
    "The director of one of Australia's best-known Islamic schools will fight charges that he defrauded the West Australian and commonwealth governments of more than $3 million.

    "In their first court appearance since being charged last week, Abdallah Saad Magar, 69, Aziz Magdi, 53, and Mark Brian Debowski, 50, were not required to plead to charges that they inflated enrolments at the Australian Islamic College in Perth to gain millions of dollars in extra funding from both state and federal governments..."

    Full story in The Australian at link
    
    
    

  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • Maths findings no surprise
      
      "It came as no surprise to see the National Numeracy Review report a parlous state of maths education in the nation’s schools ("In summary, maths is too simple”, 12-13/7).

      " The quality of maths and English teaching has been in a slow downward spiral for decades, but the rate is accelerating now that these subjects are being taught by people whose own basic skills are inadequate. This decline will become irremediable unless drastic action is taken very soon.

      "High-quality remedial teaching to teachers and the return of curriculums to addressing the elements of their subjects would seem to be the absolute minimal requirements."
      
      Michael D. Kellock, Foster, Vic
      
      

    • "Kevin Donnelly fights an admirable rear-guard action for the conservatives, but confining new technologies to the teacher-centred model of education is analogous to putting a rocket on a horse ("Don’t leave the kids alone”, Inquirer 12-13/7).

      "The power of technology is being constrained to work alongside a curriculum resolutely fixed in the teaching practices of an earlier age—instruction, memory skills and dexterity with pen and paper. How worthwhile is teaching and testing for knowledge that can be obtained from a quick Google search?

      "The conversation we should be having is about new relationships between teachers and learners and between what happens in school, home, and the community.

      "However, I endorse Donnelly’s claim that those responsible for developing curriculum must listen to classroom teachers about what does and does not work, and what best meets the needs of students."
      
      Cameron Paterson, North Sydney, NSW
      
      

    • "Self-directed learning with facilitators has always been in the altogether, but those in thrall to curriculum emperors can’t see it.

      "Imagine learning soccer, or any new skill other than the basics, by self-directed learning ... 22 kids playing 22 different ball games at once looks cute when they are little, but so does Brownian motion.

      "Student-centred, personalised learning doesn’t and can’t happen in sport, where talent (tall poppies) is praised and the good, the bad and the indifferent quickly sorted into different teams and levels.

      "Why is it so difficult and wrong to do this in schools? It doesn’t protect the less well-endowed from stress. All schoolkids know who is brainy and who is a duffer—even the duffers know. I was one."
      
      Howard Dewhirst, Burleigh Heads, Qld
      
      
      

• The Age
  
  
  • $50,000 to leave classroom
    by Farrah Tomazin, Education Editor
    
    "Unhappy teachers could get up to $50,000 to leave the classroom and find another job under radical plans designed to regenerate Victoria's teaching workforce.

    "In a move that has sparked concerns about value for money, the State Government is considering paying teachers tens of thousands of dollars to help them leave the profession if they have become disengaged and no longer want to work in schools.

    "The scheme will be modelled on a similar program offered by the Queensland Government. Teachers with more than 10 years' service could volunteer for payouts of up to $50,000 to move into other fields.

    "To be eligible, teachers were required to meet criteria, such as demonstrating a "shortage of contemporary teaching skills", must not resume work in a school again once they had received the payment, and ensuring that any workers' compensation claims had been settled.

    "The Victorian Government has committed to a similar program as part of its education blueprint. The so-called "exit strategies" also form part of the Government's $2 billion wage deal with teachers, which was signed off by the education union earlier this year.

    "The Age believes that $50,000 is being considered as a benchmark by senior education officials. Queensland's Career Change program, set up in 2002, issued grants to 1700 teachers.

    "Australian Education Union branch president Mary Bluett said she supported the Victorian program on the basis that it was voluntary, and would provide teachers with career advice."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Teachers 'fear' smart students
    by Caroline Milburn
    
    "Too many teachers fear having very bright students in class because they feel ill-equipped to deal with them, according to a visiting campaigner on gifted children.

    "Rosemary Cathcart, one of New Zealand's leading educators in the field of gifted education, says their lack of confidence is caused by a weakness in the way teachers are trained. Most undergraduate courses do not include gifted education as a routine part of teacher training.

    "The reality is that most gifted children are going to spend most of their time in regular classrooms, especially at primary school," says Mrs Cathcart, who is in Australia to speak at the Australian Association for the Education of Gifted and Talented national conference in Hobart.

    "But because teachers do not have gifted education built into their basic training they will have a limited understanding and recognition of gifted children. I've had a teacher say to me, 'That child must be gifted because her handwriting is so neat,' and another has said, 'We can't let that boy join the gifted program because he's too naughty'.

    "We haven't prepared teachers well enough... we need to equip them with the skills to help these children."

    "In Australia, a 2001 Senate inquiry into the education of gifted children found teachers were poorly trained to cater for highly able students, estimated to represent between 5% and 10% of all students. The inquiry found many gifted children were suffering from under-achievement, boredom and psychological distress because their needs were not being met at school.

    "It recommended all state and territory education departments should require teaching degree courses to include at least one semester unit on gifted children, including how to identify them.

    "Mrs Cathcart, a former teacher who now runs an education consultancy, led a successful campaign in New Zealand to get the government to acknowledge the special needs of gifted children. Education policy was changed to include a new regulation that simply says all schools are required to identify and provide for their gifted students. The initiative included extra funding for advisers to work with New Zealand schools and a handbook to be sent to all schools.

    "In Victoria, education department policy documents include the gifted under the umbrella of special needs students. But peak parent groups say the wording is so confusing few schools realise that gifted children fall into the special-needs category.

    "The 2001 Senate report acknowledged the problem and recommended all state and territory education department policies make it clear when they refer to special needs that it includes giftedness. Rhonda Collins, a Victorian parent involved in gifted education lobby groups, says scant progress has been made since the 2001 inquiry and parents hope the newly created National Curriculum Board will introduce a coherent policy.

    "The 12-member board, established by the Federal Government, is devising a national curriculum, from kindergarten through to the end of high school, for English, maths, history and the sciences.

    "It's an opportune time for the board to formally recognise gifted as special needs," Ms Collins says. "If it does that it will make it clear that this group of children, through no fault of their own, through a genetic predisposition, require a differentiated curriculum in all schools.

    "Giftedness occurs across all socio-economic groups but schools are not finding these children in ethnic groups or in Koori groups. Schools tend to still think of gifted children as being white Anglo-Saxons from the eastern suburbs. The focus is on performance instead of the child."

    "Mrs Cathcart says Victoria's decision to expand the SEAL scheme, a program aimed at bright students in government secondary schools, was a welcome development because research showed it was crucial for gifted children to share regular activities with other talented children. "Otherwise they can feel alienated in the classroom and they can shut down from expressing their ideas, even with a good teacher who tries to differentiate material for them."

    "She tells teachers that having a gifted child in the classroom is a bonus and strategies to engage them also enhance the learning of other students.

    "A lot of teachers think that having gifted children in the class means an immense amount of extra work or they can feel threatened if they think the child might ask them a question they don't know the answer to," she says. "I tell teachers not to be afraid of working with these children... there are simple strategies, such as introducing unexpected elements into a lesson, that children will pick up on. We have the opportunity to engage with minds that bring a different kind of freshness and new ideas to our lessons."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Vexed about sex
    by Denise Ryan
    
    "These are the facts of life that will make many parents cringe. Most young people in years 10 and 12 at Australian high schools have experienced some form of sexual activity. Twenty six per cent of year 10 students have had sexual intercourse, rising to just under 50% of year 12 students.

    "A third of sexually active year 12 students have had sex without a condom and 57% have had oral sex (56% of males and 58% of females).

    "You might think these statistics couldn't possibly apply to your teenager. But research by the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) at La Trobe University indicates that many teenagers are not as innocent as their parents think..."

    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    

  • Cheating - and the art of survival
    by Tammy Mills
    
    "Paul can't live at home any more. The 21-year-old doesn't speak to his parents and they don't speak to him. Frankly, his parents were more than happy to see the back of their youngest son when he moved out of home.

    "This, as far as Centrelink knows, is what is happening in Paul's home life. But it's all a lie.

    "The university student has been cheating the Centrelink system for two years. Paul* and his parents weaved this elaborate fantasy to gain access to Youth Allowance. "It was pretty easy," he says.

    "Paul, who moved to inner-city Melbourne from a rural town to study, filled out a few forms, got his parents to fill out more forms, then a family friend, acting as a neutral bystander, vouched for Paul's "situation".

    "I just had to say that I don't talk to my parents any more and they don't support me," he says.

    "Paul is just one of many students who are committing welfare fraud to receive the allowance..."

    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • Literacy and numeracy for all: Liberals
    
    "The State Liberals are promising to create a smarter Tasmania, where all students can read and write.

    "The Liberal leader, Will Hodgman, has already begun campaigning ahead of the 2010 state election and provided a taste of his vision at the state Liberal conference in Launceston on the weekend.

    "He blames the Labor Government for allowing Tasmania students to fall behind the rest of the country in literacy and numeracy, and wants to introduce smaller class sizes and extra help for students who fall behind.

    "Mr Hodgman says a Liberal Government would also introduce performance pay for teachers and extra help for student who fall behind.

    "Enabling every Tasmanian student to be able to, at least, read and write in line with relevant nation standards, at the very least," he said.

    "The Education Union's Leanne Wright doubts 100 per cent literacy could be achieved.

    "It's a very big claim to make and I'm surprised that anyone would make a commitment of 100 percent," she said.

    "Certainly there have been big efforts made to improve literacy and numeracy over the last few years and I'm not convinced that every child will be able to reach that level of success."

    "Mrs Wright says the union would not back the liberal leader's plans to bring in performance-based pay for teachers as part of an education overhaul.

    "The union certainly doesn't support performance based pay, it hasn't been successful in other countries and it doesn't seem to improve results,

    "It's very subjective and it's often not on a level playing field as teachers cannot choose which students they have in their classes."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    

  • Union warns of teacher shortage in remote communities
    
    "The Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) says there could be a staff shortage in remote Indigenous communities because of the State Government's welfare reform system.

    "If families do not send their children to school, the new Family Responsibilities Commission can quarantine welfare payments.

    "The scheme starts today at Aurukun, Hopevale, Coen and Mossman Gorge in far north Queensland.

    "QTU spokesman Steve Ryan says about 50 per cent of Indigenous children were not going to school in the Aurukun community, south of Rocky Point.

    "Then it means a very big increase in enrolments for that particular school and perhaps some of the others," he said.

    "The concerns there of course is, will there be enough teachers to teach them.

    "Students who haven't been at school for sometime will require quite a degree of assistance in terms of literacy and numeracy which obviously requires more teachers on the ground."

    "The Government says schools will be appropriately resourced to cope with an increase in enrolments."

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    

  • New action to protect children with allergic reactions
    
    

    New laws enforcing safety standards to deal with life-threatening allergies comes into force in Victorian schools and children's centres today.

  • Union says parental literacy plan will fail
    
    

    The Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) has criticised a State Government plan to offer literacy classes to parents.
    
    
    

Tuesday 15 July

• The Australian
  
  
  • Students to get taste of military life (update from Monday 14th July)
    
    The Australian Defence Force is planning to open the nation's army, navy and air force bases to high school work experience students in a bid to arrest the crisis in recruitment.
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Aide sues school over 'violent' pupil
    Peter Gregory
    
    "A teacher's aide who says she has been unable to work for almost five years after restraining an "aggressive and violent" student is suing a Catholic primary school.

    "Margaret Isabelle Rees, 50, said she suffered physical and psychological injury on June 13, 2003, while working at the Lumen Christi Primary School at Delacombe, near Ballarat.

    "Documents lodged at the Supreme Court said Ms Rees suffered injuries to her neck, back and right shoulder and developed depression.

    "They said she had been unable to work since July 25, 2003.

    "Ms Rees has claimed compensation for lost earnings and unspecified damages as a result of the school's alleged negligence.

    "She said it ignored her requests for help to adequately control aggressive, violent, student behaviour and failed to take heed of the unidentified student's conduct.

    "It was alleged the school failed to comply with occupational health and safety standards and to adequately train its then principal to properly direct Ms Rees.

    "According to a statement of claim, Ms Rees had been working at the school as an integrated teacher's aide for less than two years when she was injured. She was earning $265 net per week but was said to have been ready to work full-time, increasing her net weekly income to about $500.

    "In its defence to the claim, the school acknowledged that Ms Rees had alleged acute stress and a right shoulder injury in separate claim forms, but it denied negligence.

    "It also denied she suffered injury when restraining a violent and aggressive child, and the specific breaches of duty claimed by her.

    "According to its website, Lumen Christi has 267 students, after opening in 1990 with 73.

    "Ms Rees' statement of claim seeks a trial before judge and jury in Warrnambool. No date has been fixed for hearing."

    From The Age at link
    
    
    

• ABC News
  
  
  • $1m funding deal for school computers
    
    "The ACT Government says the Commonwealth has agreed to pay a $1 million funding shortfall to install more computers in Canberra schools.

    "Some states are refusing to apply for the second round of the Federal Government's computers in schools program because they say the running costs are too high.

    "ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr previously held concerns but says Canberra schools will apply for the next round to receive another 1,200 computers.

    "In terms of the ACT it's something in the order of $900,000 and $1 million a year so our ask is fairly small and the Commonwealth have indicated that they will be paying for the implementation of their election commitment," he said.

    "We are able to slot in new computers into our schools in a much easier manner than perhaps other jurisdictions are experiencing and that's because we've already done the behind the scenes work to enable a program such as this to roll out quite easily."
    

    From ABC News at link
    
    
    

  • Federal Govt dedicates $90m to school trade training
    
    "The Federal Government has announced it will spend $90 million to improve trade training in schools.

    "Thirty-four high schools will receive the funding in the first phase of the Government's Trade Training in Schools election promise.

    "The Brisbane-based Aviation High School will receive $1.4 million to build a new workshop, which will be used by 16 other Queensland schools.

    "Education Minister Julia Gillard says the funding will mean more secondary school students will be qualified in trades when they leave school.

    "We wanted to make sure that education and skills formation were part of the same process we wanted to make sure our high schools were linked with our industries," she said.

    "It's all about real training for real jobs."
    

    From ABC Online at link
    
    
    

Wednesday 16 July

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Education Department bureaucrats cost taxpayers $70 a head for dinner
    by Amanda Banks
    
    "Senior Education Department bureaucrats dined at the luxury Vines Resort in the Swan Valley last night, with taxpayers footing the $1700 restaurant bill as teachers continue a bitter battle for a better pay deal.

    "Shadow education minister Peter Collier said the extravagance of the dinner sent the wrong message and was likely to incense teachers further.

    "Education Department deputy director-general of schools Margery Evans said directors from across State and senior members the department executive regularly met during school holidays.
    
    "Because our directors' workplaces are spread from Broome to Esperance , it is important that we take the opportunity to meet when possible to talk through the future of education Ms Evans said. There would be conferences today.

    "The dinner for 25 staff works out to almost $70 a head.

    "Ms Evans said staff who travelled more than 50km to the meeting could claim an accommodation allowance.

    "Teachers and the department have hit a stalemate in negotiations over an enterprise bargaining agreement that ended in March. A new pay deal is being arbitrated in the WA Industrial Relations Commission."

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

  • Op Ed
    Education goes from impasse to paralysis (page 21)
    by Tony Rutherford
    
    "Here we go again. Once more, we have the spectacle of teachers declining (at least until the last possible moment) to renew their membership of the WA College of Teaching. It is a farce now becoming an annual event.

    "The teachers involved may indeed (as WACOT claims) be leaving the profession; that is, in fact, all too likely. They may also be terminally disaffected with a system which no longer works, and with the idea that a more or less useless quango should demand compulsory membership.
    
    "Teachers and the Government are now in a state of more or less permanent mutual hostility. Despite sound advice from everyone - the Government's own Twomey report, the Business Council of Australia and other business and employer organisations, various think-tanks the Government refuses to reach agreement over a reasonable increase in teachers' pay.
    
    "Teachers, understandably enough, point to the ability of State parliamentarians to have increase after increase (4.5 per cent in the last determination); the times when teachers and backbenchers had roughly the same remuneration is long since past. Money is only one part of a teacher's professional reward; but at a time when a teacher can chuck it all in and go north to be a truck driver, more money is indeed badly needed to keep numbers up.
    
    "With more teachers leaving and fewer young graduates choosing to make teaching their chosen profession, numbers are getting to the point where the public education system will soon breakdown entirely. The scheme to entice retired teachers back into the workforce was an utter failure.
    
    "Research has shown that older teachers are an indispensable attribute of successful schools, yet they are now leaving as soon as they can. No real incentives, in cash or in conditions, have been offered to them. As shortages increase, the department responds by reducing the number of subjects offered in our high schools, casually denying students access to the widest range of careers.
    
    "Although it has not received much attention in this State, education for Aboriginals in the north of our State is shockingly inadequate.
    
    "Conditions in classrooms in many schools are getting steadily worse: witness last week's story in The West Australian that teachers and other school staff were assaulted or abused more than 600 times in the past year - an unreliable figure, since many teachers no longer bother reporting such incidents, knowing that nothing will be done about them.
    
    "In many schools, parents no longer support teachers' decisions. The absence of good parenting is becoming a crucial factor in behavioural problems. There are credible stories circulating that teachers are now having to cope with children in Years 1 and 2 who are not even toilet-trained.

    "Even in good schools, students tend to avoid the harder options, such as maths and physics, despite the dumbing down of such options. The mismatch between what employers and universities need and what schools offer is growing."
    

    From The West Australian
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • No merger but unis debate systems

    The University of Canberra and rural NSW's Charles Sturt University have confirmed they are exploring the establishment of a US-style "system university".
    
    

  • Greer slams UK over cuts to scholarship program

    Outspoken feminist academic and writer Germaine Greer has attacked Britain for slashing a university scholarship program that has drawn hundreds of Australian students to England.
    
    
    

• The Sydney Morning Herals
  
  
  • The brutal reality about halls of higher earning

    The university, says John Ralston Saul, is "where civilisation's knowledge is divided up into exclusive territories", where academics daily invent "dialects sufficiently hermetic" to preclude internecine seepage. Each faculty, discipline or research team thus becomes a kind of Da Vinci Code cryptex, and university politics an arcane strain of gang warfare.

     

• The Age
  
  
  • Schools 'short-changed' on tech wings
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "The Rudd Government has been accused of backing away from its election promise to build or upgrade trade technical wings across the nation's 2650 secondary schools.

    "Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday announced that 96 schools would share more than $90 million in the first round of funding under its trade training centres program.

    "But the Government came under fire as it emerged that many recipients were being funded as "clusters", or groups of schools, rather than individually.

    "Wodonga Senior Secondary College, for instance, received more than $8 million to build a trade wing for engineering, electrotechnology and automotive subjects.

    "But the training centre will also be used by nearby schools in Mount Beauty, Tallangata and Beechworth, rather than each school getting its own funding for buildings and upgrades.

    "Teachers and the Federal Opposition accused the Government of departing fromits promise, which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had said would result in new centres and upgrades "in all of Australia's 2650 secondary schools".

    "Kevin Rudd promised there would be a trades training centre in every single one of Australia's 2650 secondary schools," said Opposition education spokesman Tony Smith.

    "The reality of what's being provided comes nothing close to this . . . somuch for an education revolution."

    "Ms Gillard defended the policy. "Many schools choose to come together in a cluster arrangement to maximise the value of the trades training opportunity that they want to offer students in each of their schools," she said.

    "Of the 96 schools selected, 62% are government schools and 38% are private. Ms Gillard said almost a third of the centres were located in rural or remote areas, and nearly half were in schools with a "significant indigenous student population".

    "The program, under which secondary schools can apply for funding of between $500,000 and $1.5 million, was created to tackle skills shortages and boost the number of students completing year 12 or an equivalent.

    "But critics claim the program lacks sufficient funding and does not take into account the extra teachers required.

    "$2.5 billion over 10 years is clearly a modest investment and won't offer a long-term solution to skills shortages," said Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos.

    "The real issues lie in planning and provision through guaranteed funding for TAFEs."

    "The second round of funding will open on July 23."
    

    From The Age at link

  
  

  • Robust economy proves boon for graduates

Last year saw the highest percentage of university bachelor graduates in full-time work in more than a decade.




• Overseas Newspapers
  
  
  • Teachers win right to frisk pupils
    
    Teachers are to be given the power to search pupils for drugs and alcohol in a fresh crackdown on unruly behaviour in schools, the government signalled today.
    
    
    
  • Unruly pupils drive new teachers out of profession
    
    "Disruptive pupils are causing an exodus of young teachers from the profession in search of more family time and less red tape, research indicates.

    "Four in ten new teachers quit the profession within two years because of unruly pupils and excessive workloads, the research from the General Teaching Council (GTC) suggests.

    "The first major study into why young teachers are fleeing the profession comes after official figures last month suggested pupil behaviour is at an all time low, with 2,200 disruptive children sent home every day.

    "The Government has blamed parents who forbid the school from disciplining their children for disruptive classrooms; it will next week outline plans for dealing with rowdy pupils..."

    Full story in The Times Online at link

     

Thursday 17 July

• The Canberra Times
  
  
  • Six-figure pay push for teachers
    by Emma MacDonald, Education Reporter

    "The ACT's best teachers could earn six-figure salaries within three years under an ambitious plan to halt a skills shortage and increase the status of the profession.
    
    "ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr will meet senior departmental bureaucrats today to begin implementing incentives for teachers to undertake professional development, teach unpopular classes and move into leadership positions within their schools as part of a $3.8million quality teaching budget commitment.

    "Mr Barr will hold discussions with University of Canberra over potential scholarships to lure Canberra's best and brightest into a teaching degree.

    "Mr Barr said yesterday the ACT faced a crisis if nothing was done to increase teacher numbers or to foster a new generation of school leaders given a third of the territory's principals are due to retire in the next five years.

    "He also said it was clear that cash incentives were required to increase the number of teachers in the shortage areas of maths, science and language, as well as providing bonuses for those who managed classes that were difficult or disadvantaged.

    "These issues will be the subject of discussion by a panel of national education and management experts who will arrive in the ACT today for a three-day workshop on improving teacher quality and leadership.

    "Mr Barr said increasing professional standards and increasing salaries went hand in hand when it came to improving the status of teaching.

    ''I think it is time that our best teachers hit the six-figure mark when it comes to pay,'' he said.

    ''I believe, in the case of our best teachers and the contribution they make, that earning $100,000 is only fair.''

    "Beginning teachers in the ACT currently earn about $52,000, rising to about $75,000 for teachers with 10 or more years of experience.

    "Mr Barr said a six-figure salary could be achieved through a combination of ACT Government and Commonwealth bonuses for teaching excellence. The ACT Government will begin negotiating a new pay deal for teachers in January, ahead of the current enterprise bargaining agreement which runs out next June.

    "A new wage rise comparable to the last 12 per cent three-year deal would boost salaries and Mr Barr said the agreement was likely to include incentives for professional development.

    "Federal Labor has also flagged bonuses of up to $10,000 for the best teachers in the states and territories.

    "The Ministerial Council for Education, Training and Youth Affairs is conducting a review of pre-service education and teacher preparation; incentives to address inadequate supply of teachers in specialised areas such as science, maths, language, and difficult students; the quality of entrants to teaching; and rewards, incentives and career structures for existing staff.

    "The first working group discussing the issue will meet later this month.

    "Mr Barr said the ACT would not be the only jurisdiction pushing the Commonwealth to help fund better qualified teaching workforces.

    ''We are all facing the same issues, of needing more teachers, needing them to stay in the profession and needing to provide incentives for them to teach in areas of shortage and in disadvantaged schools.''

    "The ACT's workforce already risked being picked off by other jurisdictions which were aggressively hiring such as Western Australia.

    "The Australian Education Union's ACT branch secretary, Penny Gilmour, said there was growing recognition that teachers deserved more money.

    ''Even the Business Council recently reported the need to pay teachers six figures, so to have the Business Council and the union singing from the same hymn sheet means a lot.''

    "Teachers had been sceptical about performance pay in the past because it had been tied by the Coalition government to the results of student literacy and numeracy test scores.

    ''We definitely support a performance pay scheme which is regulated by the achievement of externally measured standards ... and we would not want quotas included,'' Ms Gilmour said.

    "She noted no OECD country had trained a sufficient number of teachers to replace its ageing workforce and Australia needed to get serious about the problem.

    ''In the ACT in particular, we risk our workforce being picked off by other states and our superannuation regime also compounds the problem by encouraging early retirement.''

    "Many teachers were burnt out and were not offering themselves for contract or relief work which added further pressure to the system."
    

    From The Canberra Times at link
    
    
    

• The Australian
  
  
  • Fund management would hit learning council's standing (update from 16th July)
    by Guy Healy

    "Transferring the federal Government's flawed $227 million learning and teaching performance fund to the Australian Learning and Teaching Council would compromise the vital work of that body, commentators have warned.

    "Kerri-Lee Harris, from the University of Melbourne's Centre for the Study of Higher Education, said dramatic changes in the standing of universities in the competitive fund might represent mere statistical noise, not genuine shifts in performance.

    "The council had built a significant and positive profile in the sector and this would be seriously compromised if it were forced to take responsibility for the fund, Dr Harris said.

    "Centre director Richard James agreed, saying the fund was "a flawed concept". The council was doing a good job and its work would not be enhanced if it became a performance measurement agency as well, he said..."
    

    Full story in The Australian at link

• Standards on the slippery slope
  

  Aban Contractor reports on the UK debate over university entrance scores.

  "The British public, especially parents, are bombarded daily by stories, albeit mostly anecdotal of the drop in standards in schools and at the nations universities.

  "In the United Kingdom children under 11 are being tested at unprecedented levels. Standards, or so the government says, are improving. Gordon Brown's Labour government also boasts more children are staying on at school to take the General Certificate of Secondary Education and Advanced level examinations and posting better results than ever before.

  "Indeed, the number of students now scoring an A in those examinations is so high in some subjects that everyone from parents to school principals to university administrators _ and more than the odd newspaper editor _ have cried foul and decreed that standards must be slipping.

  "Imperial College London with Oxford and Cambridge universities part of the prestigious ``golden triangle'' certainly says so and is trying out a new entrance exam to help discriminate between the thousands of applicants with A grades in every A level.

  "At present some universities ask those applying for the ultra-competitive areas of law and medicine to sit an entrance test.

  "But what Imperial is proposing is a first. From 2010 it wants all students seeking to study there to sit an entrance exam, because it no longer believes the A level provides a viable means of selection.

  "Grade inflation at A level last year meant that one in four A level marks was a grade A and 10 per cent of students were awarded at least threes As.

  "The rector of Imperial, Sir Richard Sykes, told the Independent Schools Councils annual conference in London that all applicants came with four or five A levels and grade inflation had destroyed their use in selecting undergraduates.

  'Top institutions have great difficulty separating out the best students, the BBC reported him saying earlier this month.

  "As a consequence, Imperial is trialling an entrance test to assess general intelligence and creativity that it would like to see in place by 2010 at its own institution and perhaps across the sector.

  "That hopefully will become a national system if that was seen to be successful for selecting students, Sir Richard said.

  "A spokeswoman for Universities UK said admissions procedures were for individual universities to decide as autonomous institutions and, as a consequence, UUK would not comment on one of its own members decisions in this area.

  "UUK had, however, conducted some stock taking research on where the sector is in terms of admissions procedures and this would include some information on admissions tests. The briefing paper will be published later on this year.

  "The government has made efforts to combat grade inflation. Dr Ken Boston, the former director-general of education in NSW and now the head of Britain's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is charged with running the reforms. Among the many he has implemented is the A-star grade A level.

  "We are making (courses) more demanding, more difficult, he told HES. "In the political jargon of the day, ministers wanted stretch and challenge, and that's what we are giving them.''

  "As a consequence, fewer structured questions and more extended writing was introduced. And the A-star grade will only be awarded to those who score 90 or above.

  "But determining standards is not an exact science. As Sir Richard concedes, 40 per cent or Imperial's undergraduate intake comes from the 7 per cent of students who are privately schooled.

  "Like all education policy makers, he knows that most of the remaining 93 per cent being taught in the nations publicly funded schools are at a disadvantage.

  "The reality was bought home this month when it was revealed that about 60,000 of the highest achievers in those schools failed to reach university every year.

  "A spokeswoman for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said higher Education institutes admissions policies were a matter for the sector.

  "The Government does not want to see a proliferation of admissions tests for tests sake and would be concerned if additional tests were to impose burdens that particularly affect applicants from under-represented groups or schools.

  "We believe that the reforms of the A level will provide higher education institutions with the greater differentiation they have been seeking to enable them to select from a growing pool of highly qualified candidates.''
  

  From The Australian at link

• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    Money still talks at university - to a certain degree
    by Alan Robson

    "There are two things commonly said about universities. Some will say that, these days, it is so easy for people to get into university that anyone and everyone goes to get a degree. On the other hand, some say universities are elitist, and that only the rich are able to attend. It appears that neither view is correct.

    "In a recent Universities Australia study which I was pleased to be able to chair, we looked more closely at participation and equity in higher education. We confirmed that people of low socio-economic status are about one-third as likely as people from high socio-economic backgrounds to participate in higher education. And the share of places for people from low socio-economic status backgrounds - about 15 per cent of places - has remained virtually unchanged for 15 years despite the expansion of access to higher education.

    "We also found that people from these backgrounds are particularly under-represented in professional fields of study for which there is the most competitive entry. They are less likely to study law, medicine, dentistry and architecture, and more likely to study arts or science. Similarly, these students comprise less than 10 per cent of postgraduate students..."
    

    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

• Teachers to protest at minister's office
  AAP

  "South Australian teachers will take their dispute with the state government over pay and conditions to the Adelaide electorate office of Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith.

  "Teachers plan to rally outside the minister's office in support of their demands for a 21 per cent pay rise over three years along with extra investment to recruit and retain staff and reduce class sizes.

  "So far the government has offered a pay increase of 9.75 per cent over the period..."
  

  Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link

• ABC News
  
  
  • Teachers' union happy with wage negotiations
    

    "The Australian Education Union says progress has been made during the school holidays which could end the pay dispute between Northern Territory teachers and the Government.

    "Just before teachers went on holidays, the commissioner for public employment boosted the Government's offer to a 12 per cent pay increase over three years, with a maximum class size of 26.

    "President of the Territory branch of the Education Union, Nadine Williams, says the offer is getting closer to the acceptable mark and it will be discussed by teachers when they go back to work next week..."
    

    Full story at ABC News at link

• Principals concerned federal computers might be a burden
  

  "There are concerns a Federal initiative to put extra computers in Tasmanian schools may be more trouble than its worth.

  "23 public and independent schools in Tasmania have successfully applied for extra computers in the first round of the scheme.

  "The State Government is confident the extra machines will be a boon not a burden for students.

  "But the Tasmanian Principals Association's vice-president, Sheree Vertigan, says schools will need support..."
  

  Full story at ABC News at link

• Govt allots $6m for Trade Training Centre
  

  "The Broken Hill High School will receive almost $6 million to build a Trade Training Centre as part of the Federal Government's plan to address skills shortages.

  "The funding will also benefit Willyama High School and the Central Schools in Wilcannia, Menindee and Ivanhoe as cluster schools in the project.

  "The School Principal Darrell Ward says the funding will go towards new buildings and facilities at all five schools to bring them all up to industry standard.

  "The money will be spent on building a dedicated metals engineering school at Broken Hill High School, a dedicated construction facility at Willyama High School," he said.

  "Refurbishing both the kitchens to industry standard at both those schools, supplying the three central schools with a kitchen as well as a module including video conferencing equipment so we can liaise with the central schools."
  

  From ABC News at link

Friday 18 July

• The West Australian
  
  
  • No-school no-dole for families of truants [Front Page]
    by Kate Campbell
    
    "Welfare payments to more than 1000 Perth families could be suspended if their children skip school repeatedly under a radical Federal Government move which has sparked a warning from the State Opposition and a welfare group that the scheme could further disadvantage the vulnerable and exacerbate the truancy problem.
    
    "Under the pilot scheme unveiled yesterday, welfare payments will be suspended to parents in the Cannington district who fail to ensure their children go to school, which could have an impact on 11 government and three private schools from the start of next year.
    
    "About 1050 families in the Cannington area are depended on welfare.
    
    "Federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin said in Perth that Centrelink would soon have the power to demand that parents tell where their children were enrolled and to temporarily withhold welfare payments if the parents, after receiving help from the school and Centrelink, neglected their responsibility.
    
    "Parents would have up to 13 weeks to ensure their children attended school regularly and if they were successful their payments would be reimbursed in full.
    
    "The scheme is the first to be sued in any Australian metropolitan area.
    
    "We make these welfare payments available to parents to help them care for their children. Caring for your children very much includes making sure they go to school on a regular basis, Ms. Macklin said.
    
    "She said the trial would not focus just on Aboriginal students. In 2005, the Federal coalition government dumped a successful, near-identical scheme in Halls Creek because of concerns about the legality of the programme, instigated by the school.
    
    "State education minister at the time Ljiljiana Ravlich had branded the initiative a "blunt instrument" which punished those already disadvantaged.
    
    "But yesterday, WA Education Minister Mark McGowan said the initiative would trigger real change and help break the cycle of welfare dependency.
    
    "Mr. McGowan said the Cannington school district had a 92 per cent attendance rate, which was consistent with the State's norm, and stressed that only a small number of students were serial truants.
    
    "A spokeswoman for Mr. McGowan said legislation allowing the sharing of information between agencies that had been passed since 2005 had fixed a legal problem with the earlier scheme.
    
    "The Federal Government is also set to trial a welfare quarantine scheme in Cannington and the East Kimberley, which allow the Department of Child Protection to recommend to Centrelink that it set aside part of negligent parents' welfare payments to cover essentials such as food and accommodation. Welfare Rights and Advocacy Service executive officer Kate Beaumont feared the truancy scheme could inflict more financial pain on struggling families and possibly push them to the brink of homelessness.
    
    "She was also worried the welfare suspension period could extend beyond 13 weeks in some cases.
    
    "The difficulty is there's the potential that a family's income might be completely reduced down to nothing and how does that actually help to encourage to get children to school?" she said.
    "It doesn't necessarily fit in with some of the social inclusion agenda (of the Government) and also around homelessness. People could lose their accommodation because they're not getting income support payments."
    
    "Shadow State education minister Peter Collier said he was concerned that the punitive approach could further alienate children from their parents and the school system.
    "He supported the initiative as a last resort but only if the proper support was put in place."

    From The West Australian
    
    

• Teachers' union to lift ban (page 10)
  
  "The State School Teachers Union has voted to lift its ban on implementing curriculum changes after an order in the Industrial Relations Commission.
  
  "The union had said it would refuse to implement about 30 Year 11 courses next year because the Education Department had not provided the resources or the time to prepare them.
  
  "Secretary Anne Gisborne said last night the matter would be pursued in the Industrial Magistrate's Court."
  

  From The West Australian
  
  
  

• Letters to the Editor (page 21)
  
  
  • Education: should State opt out?
    
    "Congratulations to Tony Rutherford for his informed and insightful column on the parlous state of education in WA (Education goes from impasse to paralysis, 16/7). He is absolutely right when he pillories the Government over its behaviour in the teachers' pay dispute.
    
    "However, it must be remembered that the other mob was just as bad when it was in government; this situation has been brewing for more than 15 years. Successive governments have viewed teachers' salaries as potentially dangerous recurrent expenditure; there are lots of teachers and, if you give them all a pay rise, that means that Eric has to fork out a lot of money!
    
    "The alternative view, which the politicians can see when in opposition, is that a well-paid, stable and highly skilled teaching workforce is an investment in Australia's future. If State governments can't recognise that and act responsibly in the national interest, then education should cease to be a State responsibility.
    
    "The flight of males from teaching began in the 1980's as salaries started to erode. Teaching is now women's work and we all know the implications of that for remuneration. However, now even the women are jacking up and getting employment elsewhere. In the scramble to get warm bodies in front of classes, what is happening to quality controls? Boys are under-achieving in schools but it doesn't really matter because they can earn a lot more than a teacher by working in the mining or construction industries.
    
    "We are reverting to a frontier mentality and there will be a terrible hangover when the boom-fuelled party is over. In the meantime, our international competitors are giving education an absolute priority."
    
    Jeff Horner, Shelley
    
    
    
  • Only solution
    
    "Tony Rutherford is to be complimented for his column. One gets the impression that he has been listening to teachers' concerns and cares about public education. This would be a great leap forward for the WA Government.
    
    "One could also be forgiven for thinking that all the parents who give a toss have already got their kids installed in private schools where education is good and teachers get respect, even if not fiscally. This is my only way of comprehending why the public school parents have not expressed political and ethical outrage on a titanic scale at the present state of affairs.
    
    "What to do now? The Government has abrogated any right, due to its ineptitude, to direct education in this State and has failed not only teachers but the students it claims to care about so much - and, of course, the parents. It needs to outsource education. Rutherford made some reference to this by way of starting from scratch after sacking all the parasites who cling to what semblance of imaginary importance they fantasise as still possessing despite their obvious impotence to change anything.
    
    "Create an independent body for the propagation of learning and close down the Education Department. It has lost the plot and it is blatantly the Carpenter Government's fault. It has collapsed on Mr. Carpenter's watch. The buck stops with him.
    
    "Here's an idea. Why not let WACOT do something useful: let it run education. It cannot do worse than this Government because the drover's dog cannot do worse. What an embarrassing and disgusting mess. What self-respecting government would let this State of affairs to continue? There may be the answer."
    
    R.J. Higgins, Dianella
    
    
    
  • Sorry Day
    
    "I'm a long-serving (40 years) teacher and I heartily endorse every word Tony Rutherford wrote. I have enjoyed my time in WA's beautiful schools, at times teaching in sheds and at one stage walking the kids to the local hall when accommodation was tight. Why did we put up with the conditions at the time? Because we loved the job, we felt valued and we felt part of the ongoing educational process.
    
    "For the past 10 years (OBE time) teachers have been ground down by incessant demands and had their legitimate concerns squashed by bureaucrats who have staked their reputations on this now reviled system. To get teachers back on side we need an acknowledgement by the department of the impact that this has had on teachers and administrators and our schools - if you like, they need to say "sorry". A decent wage rise and better working conditions will also help.
    
    "Thank you for your excellent column - it will be on the staff notice board on Monday."
    
    Rob Thompson, Manning
    
    
    
  • Tony Rutherford
    
    "I must congratulate Tony Rutherford for his insightful review of this malaise we call WA education.
    
    "I was particularly struck with his comment: "The chances that the Premier and his Minister will wake up tomorrow, decide to sack their bureaucrats and start all over again with a reformed school policy area too small even to be reckoned." Therein lies the problem. The musical chairs played between the Curriculum Council and DET ensure that the ideologues who are committed to the failed OBE fiasco are still calling the shots. As long as they control not only education, but obviously the minister himself, there is very little hope for the advancement of education in WA.
    
    Patrick F. Whalen, Yokine
    
    
    
  • "I'm sick of reading the whines of teachers like Andrew Bell (Letters, 14/7) who do no more than state the bleeding obvious and flog the same dead horse. How about some meaningful debate on the real questions? Try the following for size.
    
    "Why haven't teachers received any pay rise in a year's campaigning? How have other government sectors and occupations managed to get theirs? Why have teachers' industrial agreements been so poor for so long? Why are good State school teachers going elsewhere? Why can't good replacements be found? Is it just money? Why have State schools lost 17,000 students to the private sector in the time this of this Government? Where are the letters from the community giving support for teachers' 20 per cent pay rise claim?
    
    "In the meantime, thank God for Tony Rutherford who presents the education "paralysis" in perspective.
    
    Rede Moulton, Bassendean
    
    
    
  • "Tony Rutherford once again attacks WACOT. Does he also believe that other compulsory registration authorities such as the Medical Board of WA, Dental Board of WA, Nurses Board of WA, Legal Practice Board and the Veterinary Surgeons' Board are all "useless quangos"?
    
    "The community expects, for example that doctors practising on patients should have their qualifications rigidly checked, be professionally competent, have a police clearance, be registered and engaged in ongoing professional learning: likewise, people teaching our children should also be registered by an authority and, importantly, one independent of stakeholders such as government, employers and unions."
    
    Brian Lindberg, chair of the board, Western Australian College of Teaching
    
    
    

• BBC News
  
  
  • 'Farce' warning on degree levels
    by Sean Coughlan
    
    'The lack of certainty over the value of university degrees is "descending into farce," says the chair of a committee of MPs investigating degree standards.

    "Phil Willis challenged the university standards watchdog, Peter Williams, about fears of inflated degree grades.
    
    "You're saying an institution can award as many firsts as it wants as long as it satisfies its own criteria of what a first means," said Mr Willis.
    
    "Mr Williams defended the need for universities' autonomy over degrees.
    
    "But Mr Williams, head of the Quality Assurance Agency, faced further scrutiny over how it was acceptable that universities could be assessed without objective comparisons with other institutions.
    
    "What value was there for employers, students or taxpayers in such an ambiguous system, MPs wanted to know.
    
    Outrage
    
    "There is no common definition of what a first is," Mr Williams told the House of Commons select committee on innovation, universities, science and skills.
    
    "The committee of MPs challenged the uncertainty about degree standards
    
    "There is no evidence of consistency between subjects or departments