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AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION DIGEST
Volume 5 Number 41, 22 November 2011
- SCHOOL AUTONOMY: (2 items)
- INDIGENOUS EDUCATION: (3 items)
- TOWARDS A NATIONAL CURRICULUM: New focus on languages
- INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION: (2 items)
- CIVICS & CITIZENSHIP: 2010 NAP Public Report
- SCHOOL UNIFORMS: Schools take uniform approach to their image
- CREATIVITY & EDUCATION: Unlock creativity for successful education
- EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: Investing early is changing lives
- EDUCATION & SOCIAL MEDIA: Teachers fall into Facebook trap
- STUDENT PARENTS: Greens object to teen parent bill
- RELIGION & ETHICS: Australian religious education '19th century'
- SCHOOL LEAVING AGE: Why it shouldn’t be universal
- DRIVER EDUCATION: Support for compulsory driving courses
- AROUND THE STATES & TERRITORIES: (15 items)
- REMINDERS
- ACSSO EMAIL NEWSLETTERS
Federal schools program could lead to funding cuts
ABC News, November 20, 2011
The Australian Education Union (AEU) is worried a Federal Government plan to give schools more control over their own budgets will lead to funding cuts.
The 'Empowering Local Schools' Program will allow principals and parents to make decisions about hiring teachers and welfare staff.
It will also allow them to make decisions about budgets and capital works, as well as the length of the school day and year.
Federal Education Minister Peter Garrett says he wants to see 1,000 schools around Australia start rolling out the new program over the next twelve months.
He says it is designed to give schools more independence, with each state to decide what level of autonomy is right for schools.
"That could be something like hiring staff, managing the budget, how the school day is organised," he said.
Parents and principals to get more say in schools under new Gillard Government blueprint
Samantha Maiden, Sunday Herald Sun, November 20, 2011
PRINCIPALS and parents may have a say in hiring school staff and setting classroom hours under new education initiatives to be introduced by the Gillard Government.
The Sunday Mail can reveal a blueprint prepared by the Government that will allow parents input on who will be school principal.
Other options include determining the length of the school day and even the academic year.
Across Australia, 1000 public, independent and Catholic schools will participate from next year in the reforms known as the Empowering Local Schools program.
Building on the success of the My Schools website, the reforms aim to give parents a greater role in running their own local schools.
Defying teachers' unions who oppose the plan, Education Minister Peter Garrett wants to allow one in every 10 Australian schools to pick its own mix of teaching staff, including hiring truancy officers and mentors - if they choose to do so.
INDIGENOUS EDUCATION
A new wave of Year 12 Indigenous students bridge the gap
The Hon Peter Garrett MP, Minister for School Education, 21 November 2011
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, many from rural and remote communities across Australia, have graduated from Year 12 with the help of the Australian Government’s Indigenous Youth Leadership Program (IYLP).
Minister for School Education Peter Garrett today congratulated more than 60 students from the IYLP program, who travelled to Canberra with their parents and Program Partnership Brokers to meet the Minister at Parliament House.
“This year’s program has had a 99 per cent success rate, with 88 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students completing year 12 in 2011,” Mr Garrett said.
“These young Australians are to be commended for their hard work and dedication, and I look forward to hearing of their successes in the coming months and years.
Read more: http://ministers.deewr.gov.au/garrett/new-wave-year-12-indigenous-students-bridge-gap
The saving grace of a good education
Justine Ferrari, The Australian, November 19, 2011
BY the time Andrew Penfold was 15, he was running around the back streets of Glebe and Redfern in inner Sydney with a gang of local boys, skipping school, causing trouble and getting drunk in the park.
During the day, Andrew would crossed the tracks to attend one of Sydney's exclusive private schools on the affluent north shore.
But after school and on weekends he was one of a group of rough kids, hanging out in pinball parlours, riding the trains and loitering on the streets.
"By Year 9 it was very obvious to everyone that I was heading in a direction that was not good," he said. "There was a saying in my family: I'd either end up a lawyer or in jail."
The law did get Mr Penfold in the end; he graduated with honours and established a successful career as a commercial lawyer and banker, working in Sydney, London and Hong Kong.
What saved him, he believes, was a good education. It is this belief in the power of education to transform lives that lies behind Mr Penfold's latest and arguably most successful venture -- a scholarship program giving indigenous children the opportunity to study in some of the nation's elite schools.
The nation’s shame: A racist education system which excludes Indigenous children
Neil Hooley, The Conversation, 18 November 2011
There is no excuse for Indigenous education in Australia to be in such a terrible and shameful state.
Given the billions of dollars that are allocated to primary and secondary schooling Australia-wide, the basis of the problem must be deeply rooted ideologically and educationally.
The question of racism in the current curriculum must therefore be exposed.
We need an indigenous curriculum that will cater to the needs of aboriginal students and help strengthen their communities.
Indigenous communities around the world have long offered the principles by which they recommend an specialised curriculum should be built.
These principles include learning from the land, beginning from community interest, incorporating community culture, history and language, the centrality of practical experience and the respectful participation of Elders.
This is a democratic curriculum.
Why have non-Indigenous schools and systems found these ideas so difficult if not impossible to implement?
Neil Hooley is Lecturer, Education, Teacher Education, Curriculum, Literacy,Indigenous at Victoria University
TOWARDS A NATIONAL CURRICULUM
New focus on languages under Australian Curriculum
The Hon Peter Garrett MP, Minister for School Education, 21 November 2011
All Australian students will be entitled to learn a language other than English under the new Australian Curriculum, with curriculum for Chinese Mandarin and Italian the first to be developed, School Education Minister Peter Garrett said.
The Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Languages, released today, outlines how languages other than English will be taught in schools as the new curriculum is introduced. The shape paper is written on the assumption that all Australian students will learn a language in primary and secondary school.
Mr Garrett said curriculum content will first be developed for Italian and Chinese Mandarin. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) will begin work with states and territories to develop curricula for Arabic, Auslan, classical languages, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Greek, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.
Read more: http://ministers.deewr.gov.au/garrett/new-focus-languages-under-australian-curriculum
INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION
During school visit, Obama talks hoops, education, Bieber
Debbi Wilgoren, The Washington Post, 17 November 2011
President Obama didn’t spend all his time in Australia with government officials, military troops and other grown-ups. He also stopped in at Campbell High School in Canberra, a sort of mirror-image visit to one that he and Australian prime minister Julia Gillard made in March to Arlington’s Wakefield High School.
“On the way here, your prime minister was telling me about all the deadly animals that could kill you if they bite you,” Obama said to the students, evoking laughter. “There seems to be a surplus of those here in Australia.”
On a more serious note, the president said he is trying to correct educational inequality in the United States.
“A lot of poor children don’t get the support that they need when they’re very young, so by the time they get to grammar school, they’re already behind,” Obama said.
Statement on Education Cooperation
The Hon Peter Garrett MP, Minister for School Education, 16 November 2011
On the occasion of President Barack Obama’s November 2011 visit to Australia, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Australian Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth Peter Garrett reaffirmed their commitment to U.S.-Australian engagement in education.
The Secretary and the Minister emphasized their shared commitment to promoting equal opportunity and valuing diversity in education so that all students can benefit from a high-quality education. They highlighted the need to enhance teaching in the area of science and technology, and stressed the critical importance of global competencies, such as world languages and intercultural skills, in order to be effective in an increasingly interconnected world economy.
Read more: http://ministers.deewr.gov.au/garrett/statement-education-cooperation
CIVICS & CITIZENSHIP
2010 National Assessment Program Public Report
ACARA Update, 18 November 2011
This week ACARA published a report on the results of the 2010 National Assessment Program – Civics and Citizenship (NAP – CC) testing program. The NAP – CC national assessment has been conducted using a random sample of Year 6 and Year 10 students every three years since 2004 as part of the NAP Sample Assessment program.
In 2010, NAP–CC measured not only students’ skills, knowledge and understandings of Australia’s system of government and civic life but also surveyed their attitudes, values and participation in civic-related activities at school and in the community.
The Public Report presents a national comparison of Year 6 and Year 10 student performance against the assessment framework for NAP – CC, as well as results broken down in a range of ways, including by gender, cultural background, and location. Complementing the public report is a set of civics and citizenship school assessment materials that will enable schools to conduct their own assessments and compare their students’ results with national ones.
Read more: http://www.nap.edu.au.
SCHOOL UNIFORMS
Schools take uniform approach to their image
Caroline Milburn, Sydney Morning Herald, November 21, 2011
IN THE brutal world of teenage slang, there is a term for the cheap slacks and windcheaters worn by students at many state high schools: a povo uniform.
It describes a ''poverty'' look that often includes the wearing of runners or a variety of shoe styles, along with unisex, untidy uniforms.
Adolescents are not the only ones unimpressed with the dress code standards of public secondary schools. Government school principals, responding to parental concerns and a competitive education environment, are adopting a more rigorous approach to student attire.
A growing number of high schools are updating their uniforms to a smarter, formal style, similar to those worn at private schools.
CREATIVITY & EDUCATION
Unlock children's creativity for successful education
Victoria Laurie, 720 ABC Perth,8 November, 2011
Some teachers must wince when they are told an education guru is coming to town; they may even groan out loud if told that the guru has an answer to building creativity in our children.
How many times have teachers - and parents - heard it all before? But listen to this: a disadvantaged school involves every single child in acquiring a much-needed classroom. The kids have a brilliant idea - a full-size passenger airplane parked in the school grounds. Why not? the school responds. The kids are told to search e-Bay for a suitable plane, negotiate its purchase and write letters to council for permission to park it. They even get football star David Beckham's personal plane designer to come up with the interior refit plan - for free.
"Creativity is not a lot of good ideas, it's being able to make good ideas happen," he says. "What those young people installing the plane learned is they could have good ideas and make them happen, like all the best artists. But it was really a literacy project because they all had to draft letters frenetically."
Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/11/18/3370667.htm
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Investing early is changing the lives of young Australians
The Hon Peter Garrett MP, Minister for School Education; The Hon Kate Ellis MP, Minister for Child Care, 22 November 2011
Minister for Child Care Kate Ellis, today launched a new evaluation report on the Australian Government’s $32.5 million national rollout of the Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters (HIPPY).
The report shows that HIPPY is having a transformative impact on the lives of children and parents - helping bridge the gap between children from disadvantaged backgrounds with their peers, before they even start school.
“I’m thrilled to see that the Government’s investment in the early years is paying off and helping some of our most vulnerable children to develop a solid foundation for future learning and creating a culture of valuing education at home,” Ms Ellis said.
“This report estimates that this program is likely to deliver an ultimate return on investment of up to $4 for every $1 spent because the early years of a child’s life really can shape their future.”
Read more: http://ministers.deewr.gov.au/garrett/investing-early-changing-lives-young-australians
EDUCATION & SOCIAL MEDIA
Teachers fall into Facebook trap
Evonne Barry, Herald Sun, November 17, 2011
ONE in six school teachers is making "friends" with their students online, despite warnings Facebook can spell professional disaster.
A global study has found while educators are increasingly wary of social networking, thousands are still falling into the trap.
And the online risks include "cyber baiting", where teachers are taunted so their reaction can be filmed and posted online.
The survey of 10,000 children and adults (including 2379 teachers), found Australians were among the world's most savvy internet users.
But teachers are still vulnerable to electronic bullying, with one in six surveyed falling victim to - or knowing a victim of - cyber baiting.
More than 90 per cent of Australian teachers surveyed agreed that "being friends with students on social sites exposes them to risks", but 15 per cent still accepted pupils' requests.
STUDENT PARENTS
Greens object to teen parent bill
AAP, November 21, 2011
A PLAN to force thousands of teenaged parents to finish their high school education risks stigmatising vulnerable young people, the Australian Green says.
Debate on Labor's draft laws for a trial in 2012 that would require parents under 19, who have a youngest child under six, to enter talks about how to complete Year 12 or equivalent resumed in the Senate today.
A second trial, starting in July, will involve parents aged under 23 whose youngest is six years or under, who will be required to attend Centrelink interviews about how to back into the workforce and use childcare services.
The Government says the trials are about sending a clear message to parents about their responsibilities but also the opportunities available to them.
They risk having their payments suspended if they fail to attend Centrelink appointments.
Greens senator Rachel Siewert said there was no evidence a punitive approach works.
RELIGION & ETHICS
Australian religious education '19th century'
Barney Zwartz, The Age, November 21, 2011
RELIGION and ethics taught from a secular perspective might well be included in the new national curriculum, according to Professor Barry McGaw, head of the board responsible for the curriculum.
Professor McGaw, chairman of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, said religion and ethics would be included in a discussion paper early next year for the civics and citizenship course.
Macquarie University PhD student Cathy Byrne told a forum hosted by the curriculum board in Sydney last week that the approach to religion and ethics in Australian schools was decades behind other leading developed nations.
She told The Age that Sweden began compulsory core social science teaching on religion and ethics in 1962, while England began in 1988. Canada introduced it in 2007 in public and private schools, with no opt-out provision, a measure upheld by Canada's highest court, she said.
When Ireland introduced planned changes next year, it would leave ''only Australia and New Zealand doing 19th-century religious education'', Ms Byrne said.
SCHOOL LEAVING AGE
Keeping kids incarcerated: Why the school leaving age shouldn’t be universal
Susan Groundwater-Smith, The Conversation, 21 November 2011
We claim that society’s most important investment is in the education
of its people. But prescribing a school leaving age of 17 is not only
uncomfortable for some but downright constraining for others.
Economics
of schooling
In modern education policy, we focus solely on the economic returns from schooling without looking for the social and civic benefits. This is simply flawed. The principal author of this narrative is the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with its relentless attention to the neoliberal discourse.
Neoliberalism, with its emphasis on efficiency and international competitiveness, is thought to contribute to the economic health of the nation.
It leads, inexorably, to state control of the ways in which educational enterprises may function, presumably to the benefit of the state. What is good for the state is good for its citizens.
Susan Groundwater-Smith is Honorary Professor, Division of Professional Learning, University of Sydney
DRIVER EDUCATION
Ken Lay, Baillieu Govt support compulsory driving courses for students
Evonne Barry, Amelia Harris, Herald Sun, November 15, 2011
THE State and police have backed compulsory national driver education after a horror string of road deaths.
Jake Munro, 16, died in a shocking crash on Saturday night just 12 days after his best friend Ebony Dunsworth was also killed in a road accident.
Some 14 others have been killed on Victorian roads in the past two weeks.
Earlier today, new Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay reaffirmed his support for compulsory defensive driving programs for young drivers in the wake of the "desperately sad" case of two mums who will bury their children side-by-side.
AROUND THE STATES & TERRITORIES
ACT: Autonomy fear tactics 'scaring teachers'
Breanna Tucker, The Canberra Times, 15 Nov, 2011
The Australian Education Union has frightened teachers away from signing a new enterprise bargaining agreement with a school autonomy scare campaign that has gone ''too far'', a government representative says.
The head of the Education and Training Directorate, Jim Watterston, says the union's arguments against giving principals more hiring and firing powers have pushed beyond the reality of the ACT schooling system.
He was tired of hearing claims that students would suffer when their teachers changed jobs halfway through the year.
''People will not be sacked, we're not trying to curtail tenure, we're not trying to get the cheapest possible teachers into schools,'' he said.
''We are trying to give principals and school executives the opportunity to pick the most appropriate staff.''
NSW: Gillard wields big stick in education
Maralyn Parker, The Daily Telegraph, November 17, 2011
PERHAPS the best arguments for getting rid of state governments can be found in our schools.
The federal government is taking over all the big decisions around schooling -- from funding to what will be taught, and how schools should be run -- while the NSW state government fusses over things like exactly how many minutes of school time should be made available to volunteers for the teaching of scripture.
It is a growing chasm that I couldn't help but notice, having just arrived back after several weeks travelling overseas.
We have a premier and an education minister who are busy working on laws for minimum times for religious classes -- there is already a maximum -- in public schools, while Julia Gillard's education reform juggernaut inexorably rolls out a huge national curriculum that will be mandatory in every Australian classroom.
Read more: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/gillard-wields-big-stick-in-education/story-fn6b3v4f-1226197376707
NSW: Make education fairer by stripping elite schools of public funding
The Greens in Palerang, 17 November 2011
As long as the state and federal governments continue to hand over $200 million a year to NSW’s 79 wealthiest private schools, the gap between rich and poor will continue to grow, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye. (’Gap between poor and rich schools growing‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 October 2011, page 3)
Dr Kaye said: “It is time to get serious about educational disadvantage.
“It is grotesquely unfair to continue subsidising elite private institutions like Kings to the tune of $4,500 per student each year while disadvantaged schools struggle to overcome the effects of poverty on educational outcomes.
“Stripping NSW’s 79 wealthiest private schools of their $200 million a year taxpayer-funded gift would pay for an additional 3.7 educational professionals at each of the state’s 581 most disadvantaged public schools.
“While NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli is attempting to shift the blame onto teachers, the fault is his and his federal colleagues."
NT: Elders and representatives express anger over future of NT Intervention
Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, 18 November 2011
Drawing from the 18 October report, the Australian Government has announced new measures to tackle the priority issues for Aboriginal people living in remote communities in the Northern Territory. This includes the expansion of an initiative that links income support payments with school attendance.
SNAICC believes the newly announced measures to continue the Northern Territory Intervention are an extremely disappointing response from the Government to the communities in the Northern Territory. SNAICC supports the position presented by the Northern Territory Elders and stands in solidarity with them, calling for respectful discussion and negotiation with community Elders and a return of control to them over their communities.
The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples says it will look closely at the draft legislation for the new measures, and encouraged all interested parties to participate in the review process.
Read more: http://www.snaicc.asn.au/news-events/fx-view-article.cfm?loadref=32&id=694
Read the media release by the Hon Jenny Macklin: http://www.jennymacklin.fahcsia.gov.au/mediareleases/2011/Pages/m_m_strongerfutures2_14november2011.aspx
QLD: iPads for special students: Qld LNP
Luke Hopewell, ZDNet, November 21st, 2011
Special education students in Queensland will benefit from iPads in the classroom under a new initiative proposed by Liberal National Party (LNP) leader Campbell Newman.
"The LNP in government will provide tablets for use by students with special needs directly to state special schools, state schools and non-government schools with special education programs," according to policy documents.
Every state special school in the Queensland will see 20 of the tablets deployed for student use if the LNP is elected, while state schools and non-government schools with special education programs would receive 10 of the Apple tablets.
Newman's policy would see school IT departments administer the tablets.
"The tablets provided by this program will become the property and responsibility of the school to be covered under their existing IT provisions, and for connection with the school's existing internet," policy documents say.
The policy is a bid to ensure that students in Queensland state special schools get equal treatment to those in more "fortunate" institutions, Newman wrote, so that students can reach their full potential.
Read more: http://www.zdnet.com.au/ipads-for-special-students-qld-lnp-339326542.htm
QLD: Parents charged for NAPLAN preparation test materials
Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, November 18, 2011
PARENTS are being charged for NAPLAN
preparation test materials in at least one state school, with the
Education Department "unable" to reveal how widespread the practice
is.
Birkdale South State School is charging parents for NAPLAN-style practice test books as part of their "Students Requirements List" for 2012.
Excel Year 7 NAPLAN Style Tests is priced at $24.95.
This comes despite past exams being available for free on the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority website.
The charge is the latest in a string of new costs being passed on to parents by the state education sector.
Last weekend, The Courier-Mail revealed parents paid more than an estimated $170 million in fees, charges, voluntary and other P&C contributions in 2010.
SA: Truancy home visits raise safety concerns
Martina Simos, The Advertiser, October 20, 2011
TEACHERS and principals believe their personal safety can be put at risk when making home visits for students who are not attending school on a regular basis.
Australian Education Union SA president Correna Haythorpe said members were worried about duty of care and risks to their personal safety because students who were not attending school could be facing serious personal or family issues that should not be dealt with by teachers.
"The dynamics of any home visit make a student's home an unknown and potentially very unsafe work site for a teacher," she said.
"As well as possible threats to their physical safety and well-being, they (teachers) could also be accused of trespassing or inappropriate conduct."
SA: Call to put teacher pay bonus on hold
Sheradyn Holderhead, The Advertiser, November 18, 2011
HIGHER pay should be used to attract teachers to hard-to-staff subjects and schools, a report says.
But the introduction of the scheme to reward top teachers with cash bonuses should be deferred, it says.
The Productivity Commission's Schools Workforce draft research report, released yesterday, recommended the Federal Government defer the full-scale introduction of its proposed national bonus scheme for teachers given the uncertainty about how to design an effective system.
"In the interim, the Government should finance smaller-scale experiments with teacher performance pay," the report stated.
It also recommended that, in addition to the widely used location allowances for teachers in rural and remote areas, variations in pay could be used to address teacher shortages in other hard-to-staff positions, including particular subjects and some low socio-economic status schools.
TAS: Empowering Local Schools
Nick McKim, MP, Minister for Education and Skills, Monday, 21 November 2011
The Minister for Education and Skills, Nick McKim said today that Tasmania has not yet given any commitment to the Australian Government’s “Empowering Local Schools” initiative.
“The detail is still being worked out and it is therefore premature to discuss the issue in any detail,” Mr McKim said.
“We are participating on a working group that is considering the proposal but it has not being formally considered.”
Mr McKim said that Tasmanian schools already have considerable control
over their decision making as more resources have been transferred into
schools.
“Before any commitment is made I expect that there will need
to be consultation with the relevant stakeholders including school
communities,” he said.
Source: http://www.media.tas.gov.au/release.php?id=33702
TAS: Changes could hamper schools: union
Rosemary Bolger, The Examiner, 21 Nov, 2011
ISOLATED and more challenging schools may struggle to attract good teachers under changes to be trialled in Tasmanian schools next year, the Australian Education Union has warned.
Federal School Education Minister Peter Garrett yesterday confirmed the Empowering Local Schools program would include giving individual schools the power to employ teachers, with input from parents.
AEU Tasmanian president Leanne Wright said it was important the education department remained responsible for deploying staff to ensure disadvantaged schools did not miss out.
"Some schools are easier to staff than others because they're more attractive than others for one reason or another," Ms Wright said.
TAS: New $15 million Primary School for Hobart’s northern suburbs
Lara Giddings, MP, Premier; Nick McKim, MP, Minister for Education
and Skills, 18 November 2011
The State Government today
praised Hobart’s northern suburbs school community for seizing the
opportunities presented by school amalgamations.
The Premier, Lara Giddings, joined the Minister for Education and
Skills, Nick McKim, today to open the new $15 million Austins Ferry
Primary School.
It is one of two state-of-the-art schools
created through the merger of the former Abbotsfield, Claremont, Mt
Faulkner and Roseneath primary schools in Hobart’s northern
suburbs.
“It is an unfortunate reality of demographic change
that by 2013 Tasmanian schools will be filled to less than 60 per cent
capacity,” Ms Giddings said.
“Half empty schools do not
provide the best learning environment for our kids so we need to find new
and innovative ways of responding to this challenge.
“That is
exactly what this school has done by seizing on the opportunities
presented through the National Economic Stimulus Fund to create new and
vibrant learning spaces.”
Read more: http://www.media.tas.gov.au/release.php?id=33696
VIC: Schools sign up to cyberbullying initiative - Weller
Martin Dixon, Minister for Education & Paul Weller, Member for Rodney, Monday, 21 November 2011
Education Minister Martin Dixon and Member for Rodney Paul Weller today announced four schools in the region are among the first in the state to sign up to the Victorian Coalition Government funded $10.5 million eSmart cyberbullying program.
eSmart is a cybersafety program created by the Alannah and Madeline Foundation and will be available to every government school across the state and 300 Catholic and independent schools over the next four years.
So far, 290 Victorian government schools and 108 Catholic and independent schools have registered to be part of the program.
Echuca West Primary School, Kyabram P-12, Lancaster Primary School and Redesdale Mia Mia Primary School are among the first schools to sign up.
Read more: http://vic.nationals.org.au/news/Article.aspx?ID=13539
VIC: Victorian Government should stop playing blame game over kinder access
The Hon Peter Garrett MP, Minister for School Education, 18 November 2011
The Victorian Minister for Children Wendy Lovell needs to explain her comments today that the state will miss the deadline for early childhood education access.
Minister for Early Childhood Peter Garrett said the Victorian Government has no reason not to meet its obligations under the National Partnership for Early Childhood Education, which includes providing access to 15 hours a week of kinder education, for 40 weeks a year, by 2013.
“Just last week I released the 2010 annual progress reports under the agreement which showed that Victoria is well ahead of the other states and territories,” he said.
WA: New library 'without a librarian'
Bethany Hiatt, The West Australian, November 16, 2011
A state-of-the-art school library to be opened officially by Education Minister Liz Constable next month is unlikely to have any qualified staff.
WA School Library Association president Barbara Combes said Newton Moore Senior High School in Bunbury had decided to abolish the position of teacher librarian from next year.
She said it was one of an increasing number of State schools doing away with teacher librarians and replacing them with unqualified library officers, often parents working part-time because of resources issues.
Ms Combes warned that such schools were failing to prepare students for the future.
"To staff this library with unqualified people who are neither teachers nor information specialists fails to recognise the significance of just how important information skills are in the 21st century," she said in a letter to Newton Moore principal Susan Kerr and MPs.
Read more: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/11709883/new-library-without-a-librarian/
WA: Sport exam 'can't be answered'
Bethany Hiatt, The West Australian, November 16, 2011
The lead author of a Year 12 textbook for physical education studies has criticised the WA Certificate of Education exam, saying it contained poorly written questions that lacked logic or were "unanswerable".
Peter Whipp, who is also health and physical education director at the school of sport science at the University of WA, said the paper that students sat over a week ago included terms not commonly used in sports science.
"Some of the questions were lacking logic or were unanswerable," he said.
"And which some of our staff here, with their expertise, would not have been able to answer."
He said an extended answer worth 12 marks contained a table which listed training loads as percentages, even though they were not presented that way in the course syllabus, nor used in sports science.
Read more: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/11698022/sport-exam-cant-be-answered/
REMINDERS
6 December - Education Reform 2011 Conference - London, UK - http://govknow.com/event-detail.html?id=55
8-14 January - National Science Teachers Summer School - Canberra - http://www.asta.edu.au/media/2012_national_science_teachers
- Australian Education Digest : http://www.acsso.org.au/australian-education-digest/ (weekly)
- International News Roundup : http://www.acsso.org.au/roundup/ (monthly)
- Values Education : http://www.valuesineducation.org.au/news.htm (monthly)
- Languages Education : http://www.languageseducation.com/news.htm (monthly)
- Ensemble - Music Education : http://www.ensemble.org.au/news.htm (monthly)
- Public Education Voice : http://www.acsso.org.au/public-education-voice (quarterly)
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