Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts

Thursday 22 December 2016

"I know words, I have the best words."


Now that Donald John Trump has been certified by at least 270 of the 538 members the US Electoral College, there is no getting away from the fact that come 20 January 2017 the most powerful nation in the world will be ruled by an incredibly ignorant man with an inflated opinion of his own abilities.

Trump has said of himself “I went to an Ivy League school, I’m very highly educated, I know words, I have the best words.”

One has to wonder if family wealth purchased his college degree, because his command of the English language is nothing short of woeful for a college graduate.

His grammar and word choice appears never to have developed beyond that of the average eight to nine year-old Australian child while his spelling is best described as highly erratic.

A charitable person might suggest that Trump’s use of language is the result of the political choices he made during the presidential election campaign and is geared to a belief that American voters are uneducated and downright stupid.

However his spelling gives the game away. He is not faking ignorance, he is ignorant.

Anyone could be forgiven these typos – after all who hasn’t suffered from ‘fat thumb’:

However, errors such as these indicate a man who never really learned the basics:

Unpresidented for unprecedented, waite for wait, rediculous instead of ridiculous, Phillies for Phyllis, creats instead of creates, there for their and moch for mock, all give the general impression that U.S. president-elect Donald Trump rarely has the best words.


Thursday 17 November 2016

The 7th Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report released today


Australian Government, Productivity Commission, 17 November 2016:

In April 2002, the Council of Australian Governments commissioned the Steering Committee to produce a regular report against key indicators of Indigenous disadvantage. The Steering Committee is advised by a working group made up of representatives from all Australian governments, the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

The Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report measures the wellbeing of Australia's Indigenous peoples. The report provides information about outcomes across a range of strategic areas such as early child development, education and training, healthy lives, economic participation, home environment, and safe and supportive communities. The report examines whether policies and programs are achieving positive outcomes for Indigenous Australians.

The most recent edition of the report is, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2016, released on Thursday 17 November 2016.

ABC News, 17 November 2016:

The report points to a failure of policy and oversight, with the commission estimating only 34 of 1,000 Indigenous programs are been properly evaluated by authorities.

Productivity Commission deputy chair Karen Chester told the ABC's AM program the findings are a wake up call for all levels of government about the reality of Indigenous wellbeing and whether the $30 billion budget is being properly spent.

"You want to know that money is being spent not just in terms of bang for buck for taxpayers, but that we're not short-changing Indigenous Australians," Ms Chester said.

"Of over a thousand policies and programs, we could only identify 34 across the whole of Australia that have been robustly and transparently evaluated.

"At the end of the day, we can't feign surprise that we're not seeing improvement across all these wellbeing indicators if we're not lifting the bonnet and evaluating if the policies and programs are working or not."

The report is being billed by the commission as "compulsory reading" and the most comprehensive report on Indigenous wellbeing undertaken in Australia….

But Ms Chester says it was now up to state, territory and federal governments to take the report on board to determine what is working and what is failing.

"I think the clock has been ticking for a while already," Ms Chester said.

"We have the data, we have the analysis and we know what indicators are linked to the others."

While the report includes case studies of examples of "things that work", it says the small number available underscores the lack of Indigenous programs that are being rigorously evaluated for effectiveness.


Key points

 This report measures the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and was produced in consultation with governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Around 3 per cent of the Australian population are estimated as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin (based on 2011 Census data).

 Outcomes have improved in a number of areas, including some COAG targets. For indicators with new data for this report:
– Mortality rates for children improved between 1998 and 2014, particularly for 0<1 year olds, whose mortality rates more than halved (from 14 to 6 deaths per 1000 live births).
– Education improvements included increases in the proportion of 20–24 year olds completing year 12 or above (from 2008 to 2014-15) and the proportion of 20–64 year olds with or working towards post-school qualifications (from 2002 to 2014-15).
– The proportion of adults whose main income was from employment increased from 32 per cent in 2002 to 43 per cent in 2014-15, with household income increasing over this period.
– The proportion of adults that recognised traditional lands increased from 70 per cent in 2002 to 74 per cent in 2014-15.

 However, there has been little or no change for some indicators.
– Rates of family and community violence were unchanged between 2002 and 2014-15 (around 22 per cent), and risky long-term alcohol use in 2014-15 was similar to 2002 (though lower than 2008).
– The proportions of people learning and speaking Indigenous languages remained unchanged from 2008 to 2014-15.

 Outcomes have worsened in some areas.
– The proportion of adults reporting high levels of psychological distress increased from 27 per cent in 2004-05 to 33 per cent in 2014-15, and hospitalisations for self-harm increased by 56 per cent over this period.
– The proportion of adults reporting substance misuse in the previous 12 months increased from 23 per cent in 2002 to 31 per cent in 2014-15.
– The adult imprisonment rate increased 77 per cent between 2000 and 2015, and whilst the juvenile detention rate has decreased it is still 24 times the rate for non-Indigenous youth.

 Change over time cannot be assessed for all the indicators — some indicators have no trend data; some indicators report on service use, and change over time might be due to changing access rather than changes in the underlying outcome; and some indicators have related measures that moved in different directions.

 Finally, data alone cannot tell the complete story about the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, nor can it fully tell us why outcomes improve (or not) in different areas. To support the indicator reporting, case studies of 'things that work' are included in this report (a subset in this Overview). However, the relatively small number of case studies included reflects a lack of rigorously evaluated programs in the Indigenous policy area.

Saturday 17 September 2016

Butterflies in the Clarence Valley, Overview Presentation, 5.30pm Monday 19 September 2016 Grafton Primary School, Queen St, Grafton


EARTH MATTERS - Butterflies in the Clarence Valley


In the fourth Earth Matters session of the year Fig Forest, Landcare Project Officer, local botanic expert and butterfly enthusiast, will give an overview of the basic ecology of butterflies. He will talk about the 110 species, mainly from the Clarence Valley, that he has observed, identified, researched and photographed.

Fig’s presentation will cover what plants to use to attract butterflies to your garden, how to identify the butterflies you have and what butterflies feed on and more.

Earth Matters is a session on environmental issues which is conducted every two months by the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition in conjunction with the Clarence Environment Centre.

Time: 5.30 pm, Monday September 19.  Venue: Staffroom, Grafton Primary School, Queen St, Grafton.


Sunday 31 July 2016

Young Libs foul their political nest again


This article excerpt was removed due to a confidential defamation settlement between Fairfax and unidentified parties.
Note that the details of this web address registration were altered on 28 July 2016

Tuesday 24 May 2016

Australian Federal Election 2016: something is seriously wrong when private school students get more in government support than the government's own students


The Australian Constitution grants the Commonwealth no specific powers in relation to education. Nevertheless under Section 96 of the Constitution it has partially funded government and non-government schools since the Menzies era, with recurrent funding for private school students beginning in 1970 under Liberal Prime Minister John Gorton.

Some of these private schools belong to organizations holding considerable wealth. The Sydney Catholic archdiocese alone controls funds worth more than $1.2 billion and has regularly made multi-million dollar tax-free profits and nationally the Australian Catholic Church is thought to be worth an est. $100 billion.

On 18 May 2016 The Age reported on the growth in that federal government funding for non-government schools:

Something is seriously wrong when private school students get more in government support than the government's own students. Just as it is when private superannuants get more in government support than the government's own pensioners.
Yet it's happening, and neither side of politics wants to talk about it.
You can check out examples in your own suburb by scouring the MySchool website.
In Balwyn, the government-run Balwyn Primary gets $7214 of government funds per student, while down the road the privately run St Bede's Parish Primary gets $7974, plus what it charges parents.
In Preston, Newlands Primary gets $10,362 but Sacred Heart gets $11,488. In Spotswood, Spotswood Primary gets $8008 while St Margaret Mary's gets $11397. In Ballarat, Ballarat North Primary gets $8158 while St Patrick's gets $8499.
That's by no means a complete list, and the schools I have mentioned are roughly matched for size and socio-economic status.
Right now, on average, Catholic and independent private schools get less per student than government schools, but if present trends continue they'll overtake government schools in four years. An analysis by a former president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Chris Bonnor, and education researcher Bernie Shepherd entitled Private School, Public Cost finds that by 2020 the typical Catholic student will receive $850 more than the typical government student, and the typical independent student $100 more.

In the Lower Clarence Valley (Page electorate) on the NSW North Coast similar examples can be found.

Net recurrent income 2014
$ Total
$ Per student

Australian Government recurrent funding
969,340
10,536

State/territory government recurrent funding
207,246
2,253

Fees, charges and parent contributions
98,101
1,066

Other private sources
55,836
607
Total gross income
(excluding income from government capital grants)
1,330,523
14,462


Net recurrent income 2014
$ Total
  $ Per student

Australian Government recurrent funding
607,352
1,586

State/territory government recurrent funding
3,030,464
7,912

Fees, charges and parent contributions
86,124
225

Other private sources
7,982
21

Total gross income
(excluding income from government capital grants)
3,731,922
9,744


Net recurrent income 2014
$ Total
$ Per 
student

Australian Government recurrent funding
1,346,008
9,970


State/territory government recurrent funding
540,393
4,003


Fees, charges and parent contributions
150,565
1,115


Other private sources
56,717
420


2,093,683


15,509


Net recurrent income 2014
$ Total
$ Per student
Australian Government recurrent funding
366,999
1,932

State/territory government recurrent funding
1,738,097
9,148

Fees, charges and parent contributions
61,132
322

Other private sources
42,194
222

Total gross income
(excluding income from government capital grants)
2,208,421
11,623


Sunday 15 May 2016

Australian Federal Election 2016: spot Amanda Vanstone's attempts at political deception in The Age newspaper


This was former Liberal Senator for South Australia and former minister in the Howard Government, Amanda Vanstone writing in The Age on 9 May 2016 in an article titled Turnbull or Shorten? The choice seems clear:


Let’s break that down a little.

Schooling

Yes, Malcolm Turnbull went to a public primary school at Vaucluse in Sydney’s affluent Eastern Suburbs for about three years and, yes he went to Sydney Grammar School from the age of eight with the assistance of a scholarship for at least part of that period. He graduated from university during the years when undergraduate and post-graduate tertiary education was free of course fees in Australia. He was the child of divorced parents. All this is on the public record.

Bill Shorten went to a local Catholic primary school before attending Xavier College’s junior & senior schools in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne – his mother taught at Xavier and presumably there was some degree of discount on his school fees. So yes, he also had a private education in affluent suburbs. He graduated from university during the years when tertiary education was free of course fees and undertook a post-graduate degree during a period when course fees were re-instituted. His parents divorced when he was about 20 years of age. All of which is also on the public record.

Wealth

Malcolm Turnbull inherited assets worth an est. $2 million from his hotel-broker father before he turned 29 years of age according to one of his biographers Paddy Manning and, he and his wife independently and jointly went on to garner considerably greater wealth which was last estimated to be in the vicinity of $200 million. His last Statement of Registrable Interests lists a veritable slew of financial investments and an expensive property portfolio shared between he and his wife. It is not known if he inherited any money from his mother.

It is not known to the writer if Bill Shorten inherited any money to speak of from his dry-dock manager father or his mother, however his last Statement of Registrable Interests lists very little in assets held by either he or his wife beyond their mortgaged family home.

What essentially separates these two men are the differences in their personal and political philosophies and the wide gap between their different levels of personal wealth.

Although this is something Amanda Vanstone is trying hard to distort in this federal election campaign and something The Age appears to be so indifferent to that its editor is not reigning in her excesses.  

Monday 9 May 2016

THE NATIONALS SAY THEY WANT TO HEAR FROM ELECTORS


Some weeks ago people in the Northern Rivers – and presumably other parts of the country – received an email from Fiona Nash, the Nationals’ Deputy Leader.  Ms Nash stated that she was committed to giving regional Australians a proper voice at the top table and wanted help in representing us.

She continued with:  “The new Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce and I are renewing our commitment to people in small towns, on family farms and small communities. Those on our pristine coast, and deep in the bush. We will fight every day for the hospitals, roads and essential services regional people deserve. Our party, uniquely, has never forgotten who we represent – and who we work for. This is your chance to tell us what YOU think we should be prioritising in 2016.”

The person who told me about the email was rather bemused that she had received such a communication from the Nationals.  However, she decided that, since she had emailed the local federal MP about an issue some time ago, that must have been how her email address was obtained.

A MESSAGE TO FIONA NASH  - SOME VIEWS ON THREE OF THE ISSUES THE NATIONALS SHOULD PRIORITISE

EDUCATION

Gonski should be fully funded until 2020. The Gonski education reforms which provide needs-based funding are about fairness and equal opportunity in education – of vital importance to our national future – particularly a future in which we have been told innovation will be important.

Needs-based resourcing for education is extremely important in rural areas which often suffer from socio-economic disadvantage. 

Before the 2013 election there was a bipartisan commitment to full Gonski  funding – something the Government has since reneged on.  This is one of a number of promises broken by the Coalition following that election.

Some time ago the Prime Minister suggested public schools funding could become the sole responsibility of the states.  This justifiably angered many community members who support public schools and believe they perform a vital role in our society. The Commonwealth must continue to share responsibility for public school funding.

HEALTH

There is considerable room for improvement in dealing with health issues in regional areas.  For example hospitals are often poorly equipped and funded; mental health services are lacking in many areas; and specialist services are minimal except in the larger regional centres.  It is often difficult to attract and keep GPs in rural areas – let alone specialists.

The Medical Research and Rural Health Garvan Report 2015 pointed out that people living in rural and remote areas  make up 30% of the population but do not receive anywhere near 30% of health funding.

A recent article in The Daily Examiner, the Clarence Valley’s daily newspaper, discussed  the major health issues in the Clarence and the fact that local residents are disadvantaged in relation to preventative health care as well as in obtaining medical assistance for health emergencies. (Saturday April 30th)

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is a major and urgent issue which has been woefully neglected by the Coalition Government.  It’s not surprising that the Nationals have been dragging their heels when Deputy Leader Fiona Nash claims the science isn’t settled – and she obviously isn’t the only climate sceptic in the party. 

Despite these views, the Nationals need to realize that an increasing number of Australians – including those in regional areas – are very concerned about climate change and the impact it is already having in Australia and elsewhere.  And that number is going to rise.  There will be an increasing demand from the electorate for effective measures to limit carbon emissions and to transition to renewable energy.  This transition has huge benefits for our economy and for jobs – benefits that the Government is recklessly ignoring.

Just how much do the Nationals know about the potential benefits that renewable energy can bring – and is already bringing – to rural areas?   Are the National aware of moves towards setting up community energy projects?  Are they aware of Enova, the new energy retailer being established in the Northern Rivers?  As well as knowing about these developments, they should be enthusiastically supporting them.  These are examples of important innovations and ones the Government as a whole should be supporting.

SO, FIONA  NASH,  RURAL  PEOPLE DESERVE  ACTION  ON  THESE  MATTERS.  ARE  YOU  AND  YOUR  COLLEAGUES  GOING  TO  FIGHT  FOR  THEM ?

Hildegard
Northern Rivers
6th May 2016

GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com.au for consideration. Longer posts will be considered on topical subjects.


Thursday 28 April 2016

Australian Federal Election 2016: the face of private education


A report card on private education in Australia......

The New Daily, 25 March 2015:

More than 40 per cent of Australian secondary children now attend private schools – either so-called independent or religious schools. Australia has one of the most privatised school systems in the OECD….
New figures from the Productivity Commission show that government funding increases between 2008-09 and 2012-13 massively favoured private schools over public schools.
Funding for private schools in Victoria, for example, increased by 18.5 per cent per student, or eight times that of public schools.
Across Australia, the dollar increase for private schools was nearly five times that for public schools. The average increase for private schools was A$1,181 per student compared to only A$247 for public schools.
Other research indicates clearly that the equity gap between our school systems has continued to grow since the Gonski review in 2011.
Each private school pupil now receives, on average, a non-means-tested public subsidy of over A$8000 per year at the expense of the less privileged public school student. So much for the end of the age of entitlement.
In addition, pupils with disabilities in public schools receive A$12,000 of extra support while those in private schools get over A$30,000.

The Conversation, 24 April 2015:

PISA results from 2012 show that independent schools do better than Catholic schools, which in turn do better than government schools. However, when school-level socioeconomic background is taken into account, the differences in performance across school sectors are not significant.
recent study by researchers at UQ, Curtin and USQ has allowed the simmering educational debate to come to the boil again. Drawing on data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, it finds that sending children to Catholic or other independent primary schools has no significant effect on cognitive or non-cognitive outcomes.
What is interesting is that researchers aligned this study with evidence from the US and UK and were able to draw the same conclusions. That is, for students attending non-government schools the returns are no different to public schools.

The Australian, 6 July 2015:

Taxpayer funding for private schools has grown twice as fast as for government schools, official data reveals.
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Author­ity statistics show that federal, state and territory government funding for independent and Catholic schools grew by 23 per cent, on a per-student basis, betwee­n 2009 and 2013.
Taxpayer funding to government schools grew by just 12.5 per cent over the same period.
Taxpayers contributed $11,864 for each student in government schools, $9547 for those in Catholic schools and $7790 for other private school students in 2013.
Private school fees and donations boosted the total net recurrent income per student to $12,548 per government school student, $12,177 per Catholic student and $16,601 per private student, on ­average, in 2013.

The Conversation, 9 July 2015:



The Advertiser,11 November 2015:

ELITE Adelaide private school Prince Alfred College has been found liable for the sexual abuse of one of its students by a boarding master in the 1960s.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 January 2016:

A Sydney private school has been accused of underpaying its employees by the Independent Education Union. 
Reddam House, headquartered in Sydney's eastern suburbs, faced the Fair Work Commission in December over allegations that it had not paid some of its early learning staff overtime, penalties or provided them with pay slips.
The allegations relate to a "state of the art early learning centre" that the 800-student school established on the north shore, last year.  
The Reddam ELS centre for children aged between one and six years features "interactive piazza spaces, critical thinking studios and breakout areas", the Reddam House website says. 
Despite Reddam's promotion of the early learning centre based in St Leonards as "one of the highlights of 2015", the school said the early learning staff were never employed by Reddam itself, a K-12 institution that earned $18 million in student fees last year. 
Reddam's barrister, Christopher Parkin, told the commission that the staff were employed by Crawford Education Pty Ltd and were therefore not subject to the award agreements negotiated between Reddam House and the IEU.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 February 2016:

Thousands of students of at least four colleges have been left in limbo with huge debts following the collapse of one of the country's largest vocational education companies.
At least 500 administration and teaching staff have also been affected by the collapse.
Aspire College of Education, The Design Works College of Design, RTO Services Group and the Australian Indigenous College were placed in voluntary administration on Tuesday. Aspire alone has about 20 campuses around Australia. 
All of the colleges are owned by Global Intellectual Holdings, which is also in administration with debt owing to ANZ Bank.
The fallout follows a federal government crackdown on the scandal-plagued vocational education sector, which included bans on inducements like free laptops and freezing funds to private colleges accessing VET FEE-HELP to 2015 levels.
There has been widespread rorting of VET FEE-HELP, a HECS-style loans system for vocational training students…..
Global Intellectual Holdings made $83 million in revenue in the year to June 2015, making it one of the largest vocational education companies in Australia.
The group's collapse comes despite Global Intellectual Holdings making a profit of $17.95 million in 2015. During the year it paid $14 million in dividends to its directors Roger Williams and Aloi Burgess. The accounts show the company held $19 million in debt.

News.com.au, 31 March 2016:

The Prime Minister said there was “a very powerful case” for giving state governments total responsibility for payments to state schools from income tax revenue, while the Commonwealth funded private education, such as Catholic schools….
Mr Turnbull’s proposal was among suggestions made in the Reforming the Federation white paper delivered to the Federal Government last year.
It’s options included give states and territories complete funding responsibility for education; and limiting federal spending to independent schools while states and territories fully fund public schools.

On Monday, the Malek Fahd Islamic school in Greenacre lost an appeal to have $19 million in federal government funding reinstated. 
The decision came after a Federal Department of Education investigation found the private school was operating for profit following allegations of six-figure loans to board members while basic services went unfunded…..
The decision from the Federal Department of Education means funding will dry up by Friday, the last day of term. Despite being a private institution, the school and five others operated by AFIC rely on public funding for 75 per cent of their income. 

ABC News, 5 April 2016:

Some of Australia's most prestigious private schools are being sued for millions of dollars by men who allege they were sexually abused by teachers and staff.
Sydney lawyer Ross Koffel is bringing multiple claims for damages in the NSW Supreme Court against schools including The Scots College, Knox Grammar, Waverley College and De La Salle, Revesby Heights.
Mr Koffel told the ABC he had been approached by a large number of men who allege they were abused at private schools around the country.
"It just seemed to me to be the same problem in school after school after school and it surprised us how many schools, how many students are affected," Mr Koffel said.
"It is a systemic problem in the institutions, in the schools. We're alleging sexual abuse of the students during school hours in most cases and on the school premises, and it just really couldn't be worse."
Ten separate claims against The Scots College, Knox Grammar, Waverley College and De La Salle College, Revesby Heights have been lodged and another two claims will be lodged in coming months.
Mr Koffel said he is investigating another eight claims against other schools.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 2016:

Twenty of Sydney's wealthiest private schools received $111 million in taxpayer funding last year, new data has revealed, allowing the institutions to subsidise plans for tennis courts, flyover theatre towers, and Olympic pools with underwater cameras. 
The schools, including The King's School, Trinity Grammar and SCECGS Redlands, have offset parents investments through the public purse courtesy of an $11 million increase in combined state and federal funding since 2012, according to MySchool data. 
On Friday, Fairfax Media revealed that the oldest girls school in Australia, St Catherine's in Waverley, had won a battle to build a $63 million auditorium complete with an orchestra pit, a water polo pool, and a flyover tower for state-of-the-art theatre productions…..
It is illegal for private schools to invest recurrent funding in building works, but the public injections allow schools to produce savings in their recurrent staff budgets, and direct school fees and donations towards capital projects, where they can also receive separate dedicated capital funding from the government. 

The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 April 2016:

More than 20 federal police officers raided Australian Careers Network last week after 16,000 students were left in limbo and hundreds of jobs were lost at the company. The action came after the ACCC launched action in the Federal Court in November against one of ACN's colleges to recover $106 million in taxpayer funding,
The ACCC has alleged the college acted unconscionably in enrolling students with intellectual disabilities and preying on people in Aboriginal communities while enrolling them in up to $18,000 in public debt. It also allegedly signed them up to online courses despite not having access to the internet.
The allegations could help to explain why Boston Consulting found ACN to be 224 per cent more efficient than TAFE in its use of physical assets.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 April 2016:

The multi-millionaire chief executive of an embattled private training empire has been accused of running a bizarre harassment campaign against a senior police officer during his former career as a cop on the Bass Coast. Ivan Brown co-founded the Australian Careers Network..... Before Mr Brown was propelled onto the BRW Young Rich List in 2014 with a stake in an estimated $177 million fortune, he worked as policeman in Wonthaggi. But the extraordinary circumstances of his departure from the force have never been made public. Fairfax Media can reveal Mr Brown was the subject of an internal investigation by the former Ethical Standards Department over claims he launched a vindictive bullying campaign against Senior Sergeant Steve Gibson in 2009…..