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The Forum > Article Comments > Poor kids; poor parents; poor future > Comments

Poor kids; poor parents; poor future : Comments

By Phil Cullen, published 16/7/2010

Without a doubt education is a turbulent mess in Australia, for which we can thank Julia Gillard.

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Vanna, while we disagree on the finer details, always have and most likely always will, am I right in saying that we agree that Queensland's administration of education has been a mess for quite some time, and that it is inappropriate for one of the administrators of this mess to point the finger away from himself and at the federal government?
Posted by Otokonoko, Saturday, 17 July 2010 4:42:18 PM
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To clear up a misunderstanding
1. Individual creativity is not developmental learning.
Each child at any given time is operating at his/her own individual level of development and the teacher proceeds foolishly if he/she lacks an understanding of this development.
This can vary with general ability, experiences within the home or how much general preparation has been undertaken in the home or preschool both socially and motivationally
In a large group of 5 year olds e.g. a class of 25 a teacher will have children whose developmental age could, in some schools, be 3.5 years and in the same group children who have a developmental level of 6 or even 7 years...............some children come to school reading others will take months to reach that level
The same is true at each level of schooling

Mr Cullen headed up the Qld Dept in my time in the department and supported early childhood education encouraging the best practice available

Qld had an innovative and successful strategy (Reading Recovery)a few years ago where children were assessed for their level of development in reading writing and numeracy in Year two after about 18 months at school
Those children who were struggling were given an half hour daily to improve and support their skills and strategies
Extra teachers were trained to give these students the best strategies in reading writing and numeracy and in most cases it was successful.

I suspect cost was the reason for stopping the innovation.
These days teachers aides are engaged in this support.
Posted by GAJ, Saturday, 17 July 2010 4:58:32 PM
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Otokonoko,

"am I right in saying that we agree that Queensland's administration of education has been a mess for quite some time"

It is true that the fish always rots from the head down. However, any teacher in the system should have seen what a mess the education system had become, but none spoke out about it.

Instead, they asked for a pay rise. That pay rise will not fix the problems inside the education system, but will cost the QLD taxpayer nearly $3 billion over a number of years.

The extent that teachers and principals have used taxpayer's money to purchase imported equipment, textbooks and software is also inexcuseable, as it shows no interest in generating industry inside the state, or retaining wealth inside the state by using localy produced items.
Posted by vanna, Sunday, 18 July 2010 7:45:46 AM
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avanna

The fish rots at both ends in my experience

As an administrator in the public system I was appalled at the amount of Black line masters which were taken directly from books often with little reference to the matters being taught especially in language teaching. Discussion with teachers failed to stem the flow of this stuff. Blackline masters became the teaching strategy in fact. Im not sure what this said about teachers but I suspect the act of teaching and motivating had taken a step back....easier to use the BLM strategy

Language progams like the Mt Gravattt Reading Scheme were excellent but required a great deal of preparation and also supported individualisation. This was a Qld scheme well researched and the methodology was appropriate in indigenous schools

We seem to throw out the baby with the bath water. Research gives us pretty good idea of how children achieve strategies and skill but we persist with outdated methods
Posted by GAJ, Sunday, 18 July 2010 10:31:46 AM
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vanna,

I appreciate your concerns about the apparent silence of teachers when it comes to the 'rotten' system. I think you'll find that there are many teachers who have spoken out, and continue to speak out. The trouble is, if they speak out in public, their complaints aren't considered newsworthy or are blown up as 'more teachers whingeing'; if they speak out within their system, they are silenced by many layers of bureaucracy. I also appreciate your concerns about our claims for a payrise. I think we did have a case, though - certainly on my current payrate, I will never be able to afford to own a house or enjoy any of the luxuries enjoyed by other friends who spent less time studying and spend less time working. That said, I got myself into the job knowing that teachers are underpaid, and will continue to work in the profession knowing that. I will, however, take what I can get. I think the argument - that paying teachers better will attract more into the profession so we don't have to take inadequate teachers - does have some validity.

As for the concerns about teachers repeatedly using out-of-date resources (like blackline masters), one of the issues is the lack of funding within schools. Until recently, I worked in an English department with an annual budget amounting to approximately $7.00 per student. Take out $1.40 per year for task sheets, a further $1.40 per year for scaffolding and planners for assessment, and we were left with $4.20 per student - to cover any other photocopying, textbook purchases, professional development, IT supplies, chalk and any other expense that comes along. No wonder we were still using textbooks published in the late 1970s. This is not Mr Cullen's fault - he was a director of primary schools - but it is certainly a sign of the fish rotting from the head down. Despite our desire for more up-to-date resources and better PD, we simply couldn't afford it.
Posted by Otokonoko, Sunday, 18 July 2010 2:12:14 PM
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Otokonoko,
Pay rates do not necessarily bring about productivity gains. Some of the biggest financial collapses of companies have occured with very highly paid people at the helm.

Systems of measurement and accountability bring about productivity gains.

I have 2 jobs, but one company I work for (shift work) measures and reports on just about everything, from consumables coming in to the number of waste skips that leave each week.

It also measure the productivity of each employee on each day, and that goes into a report that is reveiwed in a face to face meeting with the company manager 4 times a year.

The wages for each employee are determined from those meetings, with company bonuses also given if the entire company meets performance targets.

Each employee is on staff (with no union backup) and is basically on call 24hrs a day 7 days a week. The annual wage from that job is about average wage in Australia, and teachers think they have it tough.
Posted by vanna, Sunday, 18 July 2010 3:09:05 PM
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