Australian Politics
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Hard lesson for dropout university teacher degrees
Teacher training courses have always had easy entry and dumbed down teaching but it is chronic now that the classroom experience has greatly deteriorated. So university education departments have to enrol just about anyone who has a head
The only real solution is to make the teaching experience more attractive -- and that means a revival of discipline. But Leftist dogma forbids that -- so it won't happen in schools that they control.
Smart young people will always opt for a more congenial environment than teaching in chaotic government schools. Private schools are much more orderly so dedicated teachers will always gravitate there.
I have taught in both a high discipline (Catholic) High School and a low-discipline ("progressive") High School and there is no doubt about where the pupils learnt more
I sent my son to a private school, which even featured male mathematics teachers! Partly as a result of that he majored in mathematics at university
Is it any wonder that private schools are so numerous in Australia? About 40% of Australian teenagers go to them
Universities that lower entry standards for teaching degrees to cash in on students doomed to fail will be targeted in a government review of courses with high drop-out rates to make them “fit for purpose”.
Education courses have the highest drop-out rate of any degree except hospitality, an analysis of federal Education Department data reveals.
As schools grapple with a worsening teacher shortage, The Weekend Australian’s analysis shows a clear correlation between low Australian Tertiary Admission Rank scores and high drop-out rates among student teachers.
But universities are refusing to raise the bar for admission to teaching, with the Australian Catholic University declaring that higher standards will only worsen the teacher shortage.
At one university, just 20 per cent of students completed a four-year teaching degree within six years, including those studying full-time or part-time.
Students enrolled in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses are twice as likely as engineering or science students to drop out of their degree.
One in three ITE students who started university in 2015 had dropped out by 2020 – including one in seven who failed to return after the first year of study.
The high drop-out rate results in a waste of taxpayer funding for university degrees, as well as tuition debts for students who still have to repay their loans despite abandoning study.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare on Friday pledged to review the quality of university teaching degrees to boost the number of graduates. Universities with high drop-out rates or poor course quality risk losing commonwealth cash.
“At the moment, only about 50 per cent of students graduate from a teaching degree,’’ Mr Clare said. “That needs to be higher if we want to tackle the teacher shortage. I will work with universities on this to make sure they are fit-for-purpose and delivering quality education for students.’’
Mr Clare said ITE degrees would be examined in a review by University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott, who is a former teacher and NSW Education Department secretary.
The Australian Catholic University, one of the biggest providers of teacher training, is resisting calls to raise the bar for ITE students. ACU enrolled students with a raw ATAR of 50 to its teaching degrees last year – school leavers in the bottom 20 per cent of academic results in NSW.
Universities often inflate the raw ATAR scores with bonus points to compensate for illness or social disadvantage.
ACU has told the NSW parliamentary inquiry into teacher shortages that the “blanket imposition of a minimum ATAR for entry into ITE will exacerbate the growing teacher shortage’’.
“(It) does nothing to attract more high-achieving school leavers into teaching, conveys a negative message to all students considering enrolling in ITE (and) disregards the capacity for student growth over the course of university study,’’ ACU states in its submission.
“ITE candidates, irrespective of their background, are alienated by the suggestion that the teaching profession is increasingly populated by unintelligent or underperforming students that necessitates the need for a minimum ATAR.
“Many academics in ITE know from their own experience that numerous students who performed poorly at school end up becoming great teachers.’’
ACU says most ITE students enrol through non-ATAR pathways – such as mature-age entry or on the basis of a diploma – and there was no evidence to support higher ATAR entry barriers.
However, university data provided to the federal Education Department shows that universities that admit students with low ATARs suffer some of the highest drop-out rates.
Across all university ITE degrees, one in three students dropped out of a degree started in 2015, with barely half graduating within six years.
University of Sydney associate professor Rachel Wilson, who analysed the link between ATAR scores and teacher performance in a 2018 report, The Profession at Risk, declared it wrong for universities to be allowed to enrol students unlikely to finish a degree. She said more students were studying ITE online, and were less likely to finish their degree than students attending lectures on campus.
Associate Professor Wilson said Australia had been “complacent and let the system slide’’.
“I think it is unethical for governments not to monitor these things,” she said.
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Leftist tax-grab stymies mining
Mining giant BHP has shelved plans for a $1 billion Central Queensland coal mine, predicted to create 2000 jobs, as it pauses investment in the state due to the Palaszczuk Government’s controversial royalties regime.
BHP CEO Mike Henry made the shock announcement to the stock market on Tuesday as the global mining giant released its results for the year.
BHP Mitsubishi Alliance also noted in its results that it could close some mines earlier due to both the royalties increase and the long-term outlook for metallurgical coal shifting as key countries announce new climate policies.
But Treasurer Cameron Dick hit back, saying the company had been moving away from coal “for the last 20 years” and that the proposed project’s construction is not due to start until the end of the decade.
The Blackwater South metallurgical coal mine, near Emerald, is currently going through approval processes. But Mr Henry said this should not be mistaken for a decision to invest.
“We’ve had the changes with the Queensland royalty regime, which were quite sudden, (and) didn’t involve any engagement with industry which has been a significant increase in the sovereign risk associated with Queensland,” he said during a press conference.
“(It) has caused us to say, we really can’t deploy further capital into that business for the time being and we’ll go back and reassess what the plans for the business are going forward.”
The mine was expected to be a $1 billion investment, create up to 750 construction jobs and 1200 operation jobs over a 90-year life as it extracted coal for steelmaking, with a construction start date of 2029.
Mr Dick said he congratulated BHP and its workers for achieving record profits “thanks to Queensland coal assets”.
“While BHP has been moving away from coal mines for the last 20 years, other coal companies have already confirmed new bipartisan progressive coal royalty arrangements will not have an adverse impact on mining investment decisions,” Mr Dick said.
“BHP’s own submission to the Queensland Coordinator-General says construction on the Blackwater South project would not start before 2029, so a final investment decision would be many years away.”
BHP completed its sale of its 80 per cent stake in BHP Mitsui Coal to Stanmore Resources earlier this year.
It is the latest salvo fired at the Queensland Government over the royalty regime by BHP.
Mr Henry has previously warned the royalty changes “threatens investment and jobs”, while BHP Mitsubishi Alliance asset president Mauro Neves reached out to the Electrical Trades Union saying the tax would undermine the industry’s ability to deliver jobs.
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Kiwi ditches New Zealand and moves to Australia as the cost of living soars under Jacinda Ardern’s government – and it’s saving him more than $2,000 a month
The heavily Leftist policies of the New Zealand government have taken their toll
The cost of living crisis under Jacinda Ardern's government in New Zealand has become so bad that Kiwis are moving to Australia to save money.
One New Zealand man, Dmitro Mikalshevskiy, swapped his homeland for Australia in November, 2021 and claims he and his partner are now $2,000 a month better off.
Mr Mikalshevskiy told Discovery NZ he decided to move to Melbourne when he was left struggling to afford beers with mates in Auckland without having to work additional hours.
'When we were living in Auckland we had everything we wanted, the house, the beautiful cars and the great friends but it got to a point where we were living right up to the edge of our means,' Mr Mikalshevskiy said. '[In Australia] it’s things like paying $1 less per litre for petrol.
'We can put away $2,000 a month in savings.' Mr Mikalshevskiy said there is no way he could have saved anywhere near that much living in Auckland and therefore decided to move to Melbourne with his partner.
He said he is so satisfied with the move to Australia he has put an offer on an apartment in Southbank.
Mr Mikalshevskiy said in Melbourne there is also more work, better pay and it is all-round cheaper than living in New Zealand.
In New Zealand inflation has skyrocketed to a record 7.3 per cent as the country experiences a cost of living crisis.
David Farrar, a leading political pollster who works as a consultant for New Zealand's National Party, told Daily Mail Australia he believes it's 'more likely than not' Ms Ardern will be voted out at the next federal election as a result of the spike in day-to-day living costs.
'The National Party has led most polls in the last few months. It's going to be very close, but I'd say it's more likely than unlikely there [will be] a change in government,' he said.
Mr Farrar said there were 'warning signs' Ms Ardern's government ignored, instead choosing to spend big and borrow from the reserve bank, which has crippled the country's economy. 'That's the biggest issue for Kiwis at the moment,' Mr Farrar said.
'Women voters gave Labor and her a massive lead in the polls, but the cost of living is a much bigger factor with female voters than males. 'Twice as many women as men say the cost of living is the biggest issue. That's where she's losing.'
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Red tape threat to miners, agriculture in draft environment law
Mines, gas projects, farms and other industries in Australia’s second-biggest resources market and third-biggest agriculture sector could be shut down by a bureaucrat’s decision, under secret legislation drafted by the Queensland Environment Department.
Industry stakeholders were forced to sign an unprecedented confidentiality deed by the department’s strategic policy team – led by former Wilderness Society campaign manager and anti-mining activist Tim Seelig – gagging them before they were allowed to see proposed Environmental Protection and Other Legislation Act amendments.
Several high-level sources said the draft bill as circulated would give a bureaucrat, likely the Environment Department’s director-general, the power to wind back retrospectively existing environmental approvals, licences, and permits to slash production capacity.
That means farms could be told they need to cut the number of livestock they can have, mines could be told to dig up less coal and gasfields could be instructed to extract less gas, in defiance of existing environmental authorities awarded by the department.
An industry source said: “It’s frankly outrageous. It would give power to a bureaucrat to unilaterally and retrospectively close businesses. It’s sovereign risk of the highest order.”
The legislation, if passed in the original form, could threaten Queensland’s $90bn resources and $14.5bn agriculture industries, as well as aquaculture and other sectors. There is concern it would also increase the amount of red tape involved in new environmental approvals, such as environmental impact statements.
After The Australian asked about the plan on Monday, a spokesman indicated the Environment Department had changed its mind about pursuing retrospective powers. “DES (the Department of Environment and Science) is not considering any amendments to legislation that would apply retrospectively,” the spokesman said.
But fresh amendments to the EPOLA Act have not yet been drafted, and industry sources say they are still concerned about the department’s plans and unsure how its new promise to not introduce retrospective powers would apply to existing projects.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
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