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Australian Education Union SA branch calls for two years of preschool

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Australia / 24 de enero de 2018 / Por: Tim Williams / Fuente: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/

PROVIDING two years of preschool, initially for the most vulnerable children and eventually for all, must be on the next state government’s agenda, the teachers’ union says.

The Australian Education Union’s SA branch has released a position paper that is both an election wishlist and a longer term blueprint for public education.

It says the first priority for young children must be to boost the proportion who attend 15 hours of preschool a week in the year before starting school. While all SA 4-year-olds are enrolled, only 75 per cent attend the funded hours.

The union says whoever forms government after the March election must also develop a longer-term strategy to provide “two years of high quality preschool education for all children”, previously estimated to cost $60 million.

“Quality early education sets the foundations for cognitive, physical, emotional, social and language development …” the paper states.

“Such a strategy should make the provision of two years of quality preschool a priority for all children for whom 15 hours (a week) for a year is not enough to meet their development needs — significant numbers of children from low SES backgrounds, Aboriginal children, children with health problems, children with disabilities, children from non-English speaking backgrounds and children in rural and remote communities.”

The paper also calls for:

A GUARANTEE embattled TAFE SA will receive at least 70 per cent of vocational training funds, leaving no more than 30 per cent as “contestable” between the public and private sectors.

FUNDING all public schools to 100 per cent of the national benchmark known as the Schooling Resource Standard.

GENDER equity strategies, including research and possible employment quotas, to put more women into school and TAFE SA leadership positions.

The State Government currently funds 12 hours a week of preschool for 4-year-olds and the Federal Government the other three hours.

Last month Premier Jay Weatherill revived the idea of two years of preschool and suggested the Commonwealth fund a trial.

But federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said Mr Weatherill had “no proposal and no funding to roll out this idea” and was trying to distract from the crisis engulfing TAFE SA.

SA Aboriginal children and those in state care are already entitled to attend preschool from age three. Tasmania plans to offer 10 hours of preschool a week to disadvantaged 3-year-olds from 2020.

Fuente noticia: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/australian-education-union-sa-branch-calls-for-two-years-of-preschool/news-story/03507c3f6f0771696f075ff7ba35c1da

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Pay of Australian university heads called into question after UK protest

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Australia/Enero de 2018/Fuente: The Guardian

Resumen:

Los australianos deberían cuestionar cuánto ganan los vicerrectores de la universidad, ha declarado el ministro de educación, en medio de la controversia en el Reino Unido sobre el «escandaloso» salario del vicerrector de la Universidad de Bath, que era solo la mitad del equivalente mejor pagado de Australia.

Simon Birmingham dijo el jueves que las universidades deberían reconsiderar los pagos de sus altos ejecutivos, algunos de los cuales ganan más de un millón de dólares al año en beneficios salariales y de alojamiento.

El miércoles, la vicerrectora de la Universidad de Bath, Dame Glynis Breakwell, se retiró después de la controversia sobre su salario de £ 468,000 al año ($ 812,500). El furor provocó una conversación nacional y llevó a los estudiantes a las calles en señal de protesta.

Australians should question how much university vice-chancellors earn, the education minister has declared, amid controversy in the UK over the “outrageous” salary of the University of Bath’s vice chancellor that was only half that of Australia’s highest-paid equivalent.

Simon Birmingham said on Thursday that universities should reconsider the pay packets of their senior executives, some of whom earn more than a million dollars a year in salary and accommodation benefits.

On Wednesday, the University of Bath vice-chancellor, Dame Glynis Breakwell, retired after controversy over her salary of £468,000 a year ($812,500). The furore led to a national conversation and drove students to the streets in protest.

According to the Australian, 12 vice-chancellors in Australia took home more than a million dollars in 2016, and the University of Sydney’s Michael Spence nearly doubled Breakwell’s total pay at $1.44m.

Breakwell was paid less than UNSW’s Ian Jacobs ($1.25m) and the Australian Catholic University’s Greg Craven ($1.24m), among others. The vice-chancellor of Oxford, Louise Richardson, made even less at £350,000 ($600,000), putting her below the heads of Newcastle University, James Cook University, and the University of Southern Queensland.

Birmingham said the international comparison should prompt taxpayers to ask if they were “getting value for money”.

“While Australians recognise the high level of skills needed to run a university, many taxpayers would question why remuneration should exceed global benchmarks.”

Vice-chancellor salaries are set by each university’s board or senate without government input.

The president of the National Tertiary Education Union, Jeannie Rea, said the salaries were “extremely embarrassing” and “out of proportion”.

“It used to be the case that a vice-chancellor would be paid some proportion, or related to that of a senior professor, plus some. They saw themselves as leaders of an academic institution, now they see themselves as CEOs.”

Belinda Robinson, the chief executive of Universities Australia, said the minister’s attack on salary was an attempt to distract from the government’s recent $2.2bn cuts to university funding.

“This distraction strategy will not hoodwink the community,” she said.

Rea agreed: “It’s somewhat flippant to say you can redistribute vice-chancellor’s salary and be able to pay for a whole lot of things. The underfunding of university places is a much bigger problem than that.”

Guardian Australia contacted several universities about the salaries of vice-chancellors.

The ACU’s deputy vice-chancellor, Stephen Weller, said Craven’s salary included the accommodation costs of managing a national, multi-campus university.

The University of Sydney, UNSW and the University of Queensland similarly said the million-dollar sums included superannuation and a housing allowance.

A spokesman for the University of Queensland, whose vice-chancellor Peter Høj earns $1.15m a year, said “the combined annual salaries of all Australia’s vice-chancellors comprise about 2% of the government’s latest cuts to the university sector”.

“UQ has 52,000 students and is ranked in the top 50 of more than 10,000 universities globally. As a point of comparison, the University of Bath has 17,308 students enrolled.”

Fuente: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/22/pay-of-australian-university-heads-called-into-question-after-uk-protest

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Australia: Students’ skills ‘no issue’ for employers

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Fuente: The Australian

Resumen:

Las universidades y académicos han rechazado las afirmaciones de que algunos graduados están mal preparados para el trabajo, acusando al ministro de Educación, Simon Birmingham, de usar las tasas de deserción estudiantil como «forraje político» y cuestionando cómo los recientes recortes de fondos de $ 2,200 millones mejorarán el sector.

El Senador Birmingham dijo ayer que las nuevas cifras sobre las tasas de finalización y la idoneidad del grado en la fuerza de trabajo mostraron un aumento en las no finalizaciones y una caída en los niveles de satisfacción de los empleadores y los graduados, «así que tenemos que cortar eso de raíz».

Una encuesta anual de satisfacción del empleador financiada por el gobierno reveló que más del 10 por ciento de los graduados encuestados dijeron que su calificación «no era para nada» importante y otro 15 por ciento «no tan importante» para su trabajo al poco tiempo de comenzar.

Innes Willox, directora de la organización de empleadores Australian Industry Group, dijo que la encuesta mostró que algunos nuevos participantes en el mercado laboral estaban «llegando al desempleo» debido a que sus credenciales terciarias no eran relevantes para el campo en el que se encontraban.

Universities and academics have hit back at claims some graduates are being poorly prepared for work, accusing Education Minister Simon Birmingham of using ­student attrition rates as “political fodder” and questioning how ­recent $2.2 billion funding cuts will improve the sector.

Senator Birmingham said yesterday that new figures on completion rates and degree suit­ability in the workforce showed an increase in non-completions and a fall in employer and graduate satisfaction levels, “so we need to nip that in the bud”.

An annual government-­funded employer satisfaction survey found that more than 10 per cent of graduates surveyed said their qualification was “not at all” ­important and another 15 per cent “not that” important for their job soon after beginning.

Innes Willox, head of employer organisation Australian Industry Group, said the survey showed that some new entrants to the labour market were “verging on the unemployable” ­because their tertiary credentials were not relevant to the field they were in.

Universities Australia chief Catriona Jackson saidg employer satisfaction had risen in all categories of graduate skills since last year’s survey, including employability, teamwork, adaptability and general communication skills.

“This survey gives us important, transparent information to guide our understanding of the complex transition from study to work,” Ms Jackson said.

She said the research found that more than four in five ­employers were satisfied with university graduates who worked for them, and 88 per cent of ­graduates felt their qualification prepared them well for their current job.

She stepped up criticism of $2.2bn in funding cuts recently pushed through in the form of a two-year freeze in federal grants funding.

Senator Birmingham yesterday defended the cuts, saying they were designed to “actually see outcomes from unis that are a value to not only taxpayers but importantly to the students themselves and, of course, to our overall economy”.

National Tertiary Education Union president Jeannie Rea ­accused Senator Birmingham of creating “political fodder” out of university outcomes.

She said the question of whether ­students found their ­degrees relevant immediately upon entering the workforce needed to take into account “ongoing qualification needs” in many industries.

“The more interesting thing is to look five years out, so that someone might start in a job with an undergraduate degree, then in order to progress their career go on to a masters, and so on,” Ms Rea said.

“One of the things that’s also missed is that it’s not all people in their early 20s, but many are ­mature-aged students who’ve had to change their job; sometimes they’ve been made redundant and had to choose a new field where they start again at the bottom of the pile.”

Fuente: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/students-skills-no-issue-for-employers/news-story/388ba9ae9f2956157897028da50e95c9

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Brisbane is Australia’s most expensive city for faith-based education

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Australia/January 16, 2018/By: Felicity Caldwell/Source: http://www.watoday.com.au

Brisbane is Australia’s most expensive city for a faith-based education, according to research released on Tuesday.

The ASG Planning for Education Index predicts it will cost $251,866 to put a child born in 2018 through a Catholic, Anglican, Uniting Church, Buddhist, Islamic or Hindu school in Brisbane.

The cost jumped $7902 from 2017, unlike Melbourne, Perth and Hobart, where the forecast cost fell.

The Brisbane figure was $11,187 above the national metropolitan average ($240,679) and $63,124 more expensive than Hobart, Australia’s most affordable capital for a faith-based education.

But there was some good news for parents considering the private school system, with Brisbane predicted to be the most affordable capital city in the nation.

The forecast cost of a private education for a 2018 baby in Brisbane fell $3464 compared with last year, to $368,573 over the course of their schooling.

This was $106,769 below the national metropolitan average and $178,841 cheaper than Sydney ($547,414), Australia’s most expensive city for a private school education.

The index also discovered the forecast cost of a government education in Brisbane ($58,352) had dropped $1783 in the past year.

Brisbane was now significantly cheaper than Melbourne ($75,263), Australia’s most expensive government school system.

The forecast cost of a government education in Brisbane was $7968 below the national metropolitan average.

The fall in the forecast cost of education across Brisbane’s private and government schools was heavily influenced by slower price rises within secondary education.

But while school fees were a major education expense, there were other hits to the hip pocket, including extracurricular activities, computers, travel expenses, uniforms, school excursions and camps.

Based on more than 13,500 responses, the index predicted Brisbane parents who educated a child in the private school system for 13 years could fork out $49,365 for other non-fee education costs.

At faith-based schools it would cost $44,971 and $38,661 at government schools.

Brisbane mum Zhiqin (Grace) Cao, whose daughter, Emily, is in Year 2 at a Lutheran school, says she has already underestimated the costs of education.

«I calculated the costs of tuition, uniforms and textbooks but forgot to calculate other activities including ballet lessons, ice-skating and intensive school holiday classes, so I’ve had to budget for an extra $3000 a year,» she said.

«Emily also started gymnastics in the second half of last year because of the influence of her friends, and coding camps cost $150 a day and can last a week during the holidays.»

Ms Cao, an ASG member, said she valued a quality education despite the cost.

«As long as I can see Emily is benefiting, I will continue to support and encourage her,» she said.

Outside the capital cities, regional Queensland was Australia’s most expensive region for a faith-based education, with parents spending $198,012 for a child born in 2018.

Acting ASG COO Bruce Hawkins said the cost of education had risen at more than double the rate of inflation over the past 10 years and outstripped the growth in wages over the same period.

The overall cost of education had skyrocketed 61 per cent in the past decade, dwarfing the 34 per cent rise in wage growth in the same period.

«This means that education costs are demanding a far greater share of the family wallet than in the past, placing more burden on the average family, already challenged by the rising cost of living,» Mr Hawkins said.

«If you have three children, the cost of education at a Brisbane private school could top $1 million.

«That’s significantly more than the purchase price of the average family home.»

Originally published on brisbanetimes.com.au as ‘Brisbane is Australia’s most expensive city for faith-based education‘.

Source:

http://www.watoday.com.au/national/education/brisbane-is-australia-s-most-expensive-city-for-faith-based-education-20180115-p4yyi9.html

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Education a core pillar in Brunei-Australia ties

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Australia/Enero de 2018/Fuente: Borneo Bulletin

Resumen:

BRUNEI es un país importante en la región para Australia, y uno de los aspectos más significativos de la relación bilateral entre los dos países es la educación, destacó Nicola Rosenblum, Alto Comisionado de Australia a Brunei Darussalam durante una entrevista con el Boletín.

Explicando más sobre esta relación bilateral, el alto comisionado dijo que Brunei es «un país regionalmente importante para Australia» y que «Asean es realmente una parte clave de su vecindario».

«Para nosotros, Asean es estratégicamente importante, y dentro de ese (contexto) tenemos vínculos bastante estrechos con Brunei porque tenemos vínculos históricos de la Commonwealth, y también porque en realidad tenemos una historia militar compartida interesante», dijo, y señaló que Australia dirigió las fuerzas aliadas que desembarcaron en Brunei en 1945 como parte de la campaña para liberar Borneo.

BRUNEI is an important country in the region for Australia, and one of the most significant aspects to the bilateral relationship between the two countries is education, highlighted Nicola Rosenblum, the Australian High Commissioner to Brunei Darussalam during an interview with the Bulletin.

Explaining further on this bilateral relationship, the high commissioner said that Brunei is “a regionally important country for Australia” and that “Asean is really a key part of her neighbourhood”.

“For us, Asean is quite strategically important, and within that (context) we actually have quite close ties to Brunei because we have historical Commonwealth links, and also because we actually have an interesting shared military history,” she said, noting that Australia led the Allied forces that landed in Brunei in 1945 as part of the campaign to liberate Borneo.

“Our trading relationship is about half a billion dollars a year. A lot of that is petroleum – Australia buys oil from Brunei – but it’s also food in the other direction. So Australia supplies quite a lot of meat, in particular, to Brunei.”

Increasingly, this has come to include education and air services, she said, such as “Australians flying Royal Brunei Airlines, Bruneians choosing to study in Australia, and increasingly, Australians coming to Brunei”.

Nicola Rosenblum, the Australian High Commissioner to Brunei Darussalam. – DANIAL NORJIDI

“Australia is the second-largest desti-nation for Bruneian students studying overseas, so we have around 400-500 Bruneian students in Australia at any one time,” she said, adding that some of the students are on government scholarships and some on twinning programmes from Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD).

The high commissioner also shared that under the New Colombo Plan – an Australian Government initiative – Australians can study and work in the region.

“This year, we’re expecting probably 40 Australian students to come to Brunei for work and study placements,” she said. “Most will be (in Brunei) for a relatively short-term – a few weeks or a few months, doing things like environmental science, physiotherapy and disability studies… They’ll actually come to learn from Brunei in its area of expertise.”

Rosenblum also shared that the Study in Australia Fair will be held on February 9, where the Australian High Commission will bring Australian universities to Brunei to allow Bruneian students to meet directly with university representatives.

“We also have the Endeavour Awards, a scholarship programme that Bruneians are eligible to apply for. We have had some Bruneian students study in Australia under the Endeavour Awards,” she said.

The high commissioner also noted that Brunei’s Mahakarya Institute of Arts has formed a relationship with TAFE Queensland to set up a film school in Brunei. “That will actually be delivering Australian film studies qualifications to Brunei, so that will be a completely different way of kind of looking at that education relationship,” she said.

The high commissioner said, on the sidelines of the Asean-Australia Special Summit taking place in March, there will be a business summit gathering CEOs from each of the Asean member countries to Australia to meet with Australian CEOs.

“I’m expecting at least five CEOs from Brunei to participate in that summit, where attendees will be looking at ways to try and expand economic and business links between Australia and Asean,” Rosenblum said.

She also said efforts will be made at the summit to inform Australian businesses how they could expand into the Asean market and “how they can target Asean markets for development, for investment, or for expanding their own economic footprint”.

“For a lot of them, it might feel like a big step or they might not be aware of the opportunities that are available in Asean.”

Fuente: https://borneobulletin.com.bn/education-a-core-pillar-in-brunei-australia-ties/

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Australia: El deterioro de las condiciones laborales aumenta el estrés de los docentes

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Oceania/Australia/PrensaIE

Los docentes australianos han protestado contra el deterioro de las condiciones de trabajo en el sector de la educación técnica y superior en Victoria, que constituye una amenaza directa para la educación de calidad.

Los docentes y los defensores de la enseñanza técnica y superior (TAFE, por sus siglas en inglés) se reunieron el 12 de diciembre frente a la oficina de Gayle Tierney, miembro estatal de Victoria Oeste, para protestar contra el intento del Gobierno estatal de empeorar las condiciones laborales de los docentes de TAFE. Tierney es Ministra de Formación y Competencias y Ministra de Corrección en el Gobierno de Victoria dirigido por Daniel Andrews.

Dicha manifestación respaldó la campaña publicitaria específica puesta en marcha por elAustralian Education Union (AEU) en Geelong, la segunda ciudad más grande en el Estado de Victoria, que comprendió vallas publicitarias y anuncios en los periódicos.

«Los docentes de TAFE representan la base de nuestro sistema de enseñanza y de formación», afirmó la presidenta del AEU Victoria, Meredith Peace. «Les apasiona asegurarse de que sus alumnos consigan la mejor formación y las mejores oportunidades de empleo». El Gobierno de Andrews pretende aumentar las horas lectivas de los docentes de TAFE en casi un 20%.

Aumento de la carga de trabajo

«Los docentes de TAFE ya están sobrecargados, ya que trabajan una media de 6.8 horas extra semanales», insistió Peace. Nueve de cada diez profesores de TAFE declara que su carga de trabajo administrativo ha aumentado en los últimos 12 meses, según la encuesta de 2017 del AEU Victoria titulada “State of our TAFEs”.

El estrés laboral, debido a unos «niveles insostenibles de trabajo administrativo y de cumplimiento», hace que «el 75 por ciento de los docentes de TAFE se haya planteado abandonar su trabajo», añadió Peace.

«Sobrecargados hasta el límite», los docentes de TAFE ya están realizando horas extraordinarias excesivas, cuentan con menos tiempo para preparar las lecciones, pero ofrecen a los alumnos una educación y una formación de la más alta calidad. «Cuando pierden los docentes, también pierden los alumnos», sostuvo Peace.

Una juventud perdida

Y, con un índice de desempleo en Geelong que se sitúa actualmente en un 10 por ciento, la situación para los jóvenes no mejorará si el Gobierno de Andrews hace que cada vez resulte más difícil para los docentes de TAFE ofrecer a los alumnos las competencias, la formación y el apoyo que requieren para adquirir un empleo, añadió Peace.

Reiterando que Daniel Andrews fue elegido porque prometió salvar la TAFE, Peace destacó el hecho de que «abandonar a los docentes de TAFE y esperar que acepten un acuerdo empresarial que empeora sus condiciones laborales no significa salvar la TAFE ni tampoco actuar en interés de los alumnos y la comunidad de Victoria».

La encuesta completa del AEU Victoria de 2017 “State of our TAFEs”, publicada el 1 de diciembre de 2017, se encuentra disponible aquí.

Fuente:  https://www.ei-ie.org/spa/detail/15633/australia-el-deterioro-de-las-condiciones-laborales-aumenta-el-estr%C3%A9s-de-los-docentes

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Australia: NSW Education Department: Schools principals not ready for head gig

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Australia / 10 de enero de 2018 / Por: Kylar Loussikian / Fuente: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au

THE overwhelming majority of school principals say they are underprepared for the job because of a lack of proper guidance and support.

Only one-third of principals were confident there was “probably” a clear path for them in preparing for the kind of school they headed.

That applied for just 11 per cent for principals at special needs schools, according to federal Education Department analysis released through freedom of information.

The survey of nearly 1000 principals, marked “commercial-in-confidence” and prepared for the department by Orima Research, also found a majority of principals felt they did not have adequate support to prepare for the job.

“Less than half of principals (44 per cent) considered (structured professional development opportunities) to be adequately addressed, while only about one quarter as many (12 per cent) considered (improving the attractiveness of the principal’s role) to be adequately­ addressed,” the ­research analysis reads.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the government late last year asked the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership to come up with a new process to find and train principals.

“We need the best possible principals to get the best outcomes­ for Australian students,” Senator Birmingham said yesterday.

“It is absolutely vital that our principals have the skills and support they need to succeed­, so that our children succeed. Feedback like this is why AITSL is currently developing­ a pre-certification process­ to help ensure those on leadership pathways are equipped with the necessary skills to become­ successful school leaders­.”

The survey was conducted with 985 principals at primary, secondary and special needs schools in late 2016, and later separately analysed by the department­ last year. It also found a broader problem with frustration over workloads and relative salaries in teaching.

Businessman David Gonski is now reviewing how to improve the quality of teaching, after the Turnbull government last year passed major reforms to the schools funding system.

The survey warns that there is “anecdotal evidence to suggest­ teachers are more frustrated­ now than ever ­before that their salaries do not match the workload or expectation of the profession”.

“A number of teachers and principals are leaving because the demands of the profession are becoming unrealistic,” it reads. And there is “little incentive­ to undertake extra work for little reward” in a program to train senior teachers, known as Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers, which is also “complicated and requires high workload”.

“The level of system support for this is really poor,” was listed as a common response.

Fuente noticia: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/nsw-education-department-schools-principals-not-ready-for-head-gig/news-story/91cb8533fe8bcc86cf84a7159a55c1e9

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