-
School pay deal fails to end ban (page 5)
by Bethany Hiatt
“The State School Teachers Union says its members will continue to ban unpaid overtime such as supervising school balls, camps and sports events and maintain their anti-Government campaign, despite a deal which will hand them pay rises of up to nearly 22 per cent over three years.
“In a deal hammered out before the bitter pay dispute was to go before the WA Industrial Relations Commission, the Government and the union agreed on increases of between 15.85 per cent and 21.67 per cent over three years.
“Education Minister Mark McGowan claimed yesterday the agreement would make WA teachers the highest paid in the nation. The deal is still subject to acceptance by union members by early September.
“Union president Anne Gisborne said the union would push ahead with industrial action because a series of issues was still unresolved, including the teacher shortage, the poor state of country housing for teachers and excessive workloads.
“But Mr McGowan said such action was unnecessary: “I urge the teacher’s union to reconsider.”
“Ms Gisborne said union rallies and letter-drops in marginal electorates had forced the Government to increase teachers’ pay.
“I think it has been a backdown by the Government,” she said.
“She said teachers would be “well-advised” to accept the deal which would grant most teachers more than 17 per cent over three years. The last offer, which union members overwhelmingly rejected in December, would have given most teachers an increase of about 13 per cent.
“Under the “in-principle agreement”, which was revealed first by thewest.com.au yesterday, a graduate teacher’s salary would rise from $50,025 to $57,696 by 2011. A classroom teacher’s pay at the top of the automatic incremental pay scale would go from $69,132 to $84,114 and a senior teacher would go from $72,844 to $86,953 over the life of the agreement. Highest-paid teachers would go from $77,744 to $91,394. The first increment would be back-dated to July.
“Even though the union had called for across-the-board increases of more than 20 per cent over three years, Ms Gisborne said the union’s executive had endorsed the agreement because it offered “significant movement” in salaries. “For our members this is a big win,” she said.
“The Government refused to reduce class sizes by primary-school teachers will receive an extra 10 minutes a week for non-teaching duties next year and another 10 minutes in 2011.
“The union agreed to more flexible school hours, which means that schools will be allowed to run classes between 7am and 6pm. Teachers will also have to do 15 hours of professional development a year outside school time. Mr McGowan denied the new deal had anything to do with the next State election.”
From The West Australian
-
Another piece in the puzzle as Premier clears decks for election (page 5)
by Robert Taylor
“At a calculating pace, Alan Carpenter is steadily working his way through the Government’s “things to do” list before calling an election.
“At the weekend the Premier turned the first sod at the Fiona Stanley Hospital site in Murdoch.
“This will later be followed by the poring of the first concrete pad, the laying of the first brick, the opening of the first bed and the changing of the first sheet, although most if not all will be well after the election result is known.
“Back in the lead-up to the 2005 election when Geoff Gallop was premier, Colin Barnett the Opposition leader, Chris Connolly the coach of the Dockers and Ben Cousins better known for playing football, Labor said the first 600-bed stage of FSH would begin in 2007 with a 2010 completion date. But the Government only managed to let the earthworks tender for the site this month so Sunday’s sod turning was not before time.
“Yesterday it was time to settle the teachers’ pay dispute, which had dragged on for more than nine months and was getting dangerously close to the election red zone.
“Although the Government described its original offer as the most generous teacher-pay deal in the country, Labor still managed to find an extra couple of percentage points to sweeten the pie, even though it was still believed to have been touch and go whether the SSTU executive would roll over and recommend the deal.
“Votes on the deal from the rank and file are expected to be returned by early September and, barring surprises, the whole package should be bedded down before Parliament is due to sit in the marginal seat of Bunbury on September 9 and 10, which some are predicting will be the last official gig before the poll is called.
“We’ve already had the museum and stadium announcements and the decision to relocate King Edward and Princess Margaret hospitals to Charlie Gairdner’s, although this time there’s no timetable for KEMH and the PMH start won’t be until 2013, when the election after this one is due, with a finish date some time in 2016.
“That probably leaves the public servants’ pay claim and legislative adjustments to truth-in-sentencing laws aimed at fixing the problem highlighted by a Supreme Court decision still to come.
“Truth in sentencing could be an election issue and may be the only reason to go back to Parliament on August 12, although there is still nervousness in Government ranks about going to the polls too early.
“There’s also the prospect of something going wrong with the gas situation before Apache Energy’s timetable for bringing half its production back online by mid-August.
“With the Olympic Games due to start on August 8, political parties will struggle to get noticed over the following two weeks and by then we’re into footy finals, although with the Eagles and Dockers both at the bottom of the table an election might be a welcome distraction.
“Conversely, November is TEE month and parents don’t want anything upsetting the study timetable. After that we’re into daylight saving and who knows which party the punters might blame for that.
“All of which points to an October campaign with polling day October 25 or November 1.”
From The West Australian
-
Schools ‘need to make fat kids run’ [Front Page Headline]
by Cathy O’Leary
“Every school child should be made to do at least 30 minutes of daily exercise, such as running or swimming laps, to tackle an obesity crisis that is causing children as young as 10 to develop high blood pressure, dangerous cholesterol levels and type 2 diabetes, health experts have warned.
“The Children’s Physical Activity Coalition will call today for the State Government to spend at least $10 million a year over the next decade to curb the number of children with health conditions related directly to being overweight and inactive.
“Its 10-point plan says all students should do a minimum of 150 minutes a week of physical education with properly trained teachers to meet half the Federal Government’s recommendations that children have an hour a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity, which includes brisk walking and team sports.
“Princess Margaret Hospital’s head of cardiac services, Andrew Bullock, said he was alarmed by increases in the number of cases of grossly obese children aged 10 to 12 presenting with what were once considered adult conditions such as high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
“A growing number of young obese children were showing subtle abnormalities in their heart function that were markers of future heart disease, though they were potentially reversible if children lost weight and exercised more.
“The concern for us is that we’ve seen what’s been happening in the US for a bit longer and if we continue that way, we’ll be mirroring those changes,” Dr Bullock said.
“We’re already seeing more children and adolescents being diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, which is the culmination of high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol and type 2 diabetes, and which substantially increases their risk of heart disease and stroke.
“Many are also developing muscular-skeletal problems such as joint disease related to obesity and inactivity.”
“Dr Bullock said he was particularly concerned about inactive 13 to 18 year-olds who were still at school and living at home because their sedentary lifestyles had to be reversed before they started driving.
“Coalition chairman Trevor Shilton, who heads cardiovascular health at the Heart Foundation, said the time for talk-fest was over and while parents played a role, it was important for State Government departments and their ministers to act.
“This is a call for changes in policies of the WA Government to tackle the major crisis of physical inactivity and overweight and obesity in WA children,” he said. “For example, the national physical activity recommendations are for children to have an hour a day and because children spend half their waking hours at school, then it’s up to schools to meet their responsibilities.”
“Education Department policy states that students from Years one to 10 should have a minimum of two hours of physical activity each week but Mr Shilton said his group was calling for a minimum amount of properly-resourced physical education.
“Rob Thompson, of the WA Sports Federation, said apart from having at least an hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day, children should not spend more than two hours a day using electronic games.”
From The West Australian
-
Letters to the Editor (page 23)
-
My shameful classroom
“As school returns for another term I feel compelled to give a scenario of my classroom.
“I am 54 and have been teaching in public schools (pre-primary) for three years. My school is classified as a “difficult to staff school” and my classroom is old and run down. It comprises broken equipment and furniture (including broken toilets that are single flush, hence waste enormous amounts of precious water), the children play and sleep on threadbare, heavily stained mats and a high proportion of my equipment come via kink donations from my family and friends (one visiting friend was so shocked she donated cash for me to buy some games and new equipment).
“I offered to paint my classroom (in my own time, at my own cost) but this was rejected.
“My minimal classroom budget must include supplying cleaning products and basic pre-primary necessities such as paper, glue and paint. In the 20 years this classroom has been used, I am sure none of the equipment has been replaced – I am embarrassed when other professionals visit.
“I am also curious about my $70,000 the Government state teachers are paid. My grou0p certificate this year clearly identifies my annual salary as $48,000, out of which I supply much of the material required to teach in my classroom.
“I love teaching and I know my students and their families love being a part of my class. I am trying not to follow many of my colleagues who are leaving the teaching profession for alternative employment that respects them and pays them accordingly.
“One young male colleague has recently resigned to start an apprenticeship. What an indictment of a profession that was once admired.
“Oh, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I have the aged pension to look forward to once I have paid my $14,000 HECS debt.
“Shame, WA, shame.”
Verna Hurst, Bassendean
-
No comparison
“Brian Lindberg has enough confidence in WACOT to include it among professional bodies such as the Medical Board of WA and the Nurses Board (Letters, 18/7).
“I regularly see Rosanna Capolingua speaking out on behalf of GPs, seeking improved conditions for her members and expressing concern over the lack of services as a result of the limited resources made available for health care.
“What does WACOT do? Botch two elections and complain about any members who are late to pay. Perhaps if something was being provided for its members and perhaps if the professional standards for which it calls were modelled from the “top” then teachers might be more faithful to its body.
“Registering teachers isn’t the problem – that’s merely administrative and if that’s WACOT’s primary function (as Mr Lindberg suggests) then there are many people being paid very high salaries to carry out this process.
“Before WACOT earns the right to associate itself among the company of the dental, nurses and medical boards of WA, it needs to work for the needs of its members. And given the current state of education, this is both urgent and expected, ahead of criticism of Tony Rutherford.”
Trish Dowsett, Manning
-
“Brian Lindberg needs to worry less about what Tony Rutherford thinks of WACOT and ask himself why teachers despise their own professional organisation. Solve this one, Brian, and you may swing teachers to your side. At the moment, Rutherford is talking a lot more sense.”
David Sargent, Joondalup
- Exam results soar as school bans street slang in classrooms (21 July: page 28)
London
“A school has banned its pupils from using “street slang” as part of a strict behaviour policy which is transforming exam results.
“Pupils are not allowed to use the phrase “innit” or other examples of “playground patois” when talking to teachers. Formal language must be used at all times in communications with adults, and pupils have been told that street slang should be “left at the school gates”.
“The measure, along with a strict uniform policy, is part of a tough stance on discipline at Manchester Academy, in the city’s deprived Moss Side area. Since the school became an academy in 2003, exam results have improved and the proportion who left without a job or college course to go to is down from 26 to 6 per cent.
“Head teacher Kathy August said: “Language is really important and we have to make sure pupils realise that. You can get good results in your exams but if you go to an interview and you can’t shake hands, look someone in the eye and speak in the appropriate register, you are not going to get the job or place at university.”
“She said that the message had been drummed into pupils that street slang was “just not academy”.
From The West Australian