Public Education for Public Good

SCHOOLS will have to produce performance plans outlining how they will improve students' results in exchange for increased funding and control over their own budgets under the Gillard government's blueprint to boost the education system.

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THE NSW government has not met its own targets for a key election commitment of delivering 900 more literacy and numeracy teachers by 2015.

"By year 3, around 40 per cent of Aboriginal students are at or below minimum standard for reading. Unfortunately, this is almost triple the rate of non-Aboriginal students," Mr Achterstraat said. "By year 5, around 50 per cent of Aboriginal students are at or below the minimum standard.''

THE Coalition has backed away from suggestions private schools are hard done by, with opposition education spokesman, Christopher Pyne, denying the current level of funding for independent schools was an injustice.

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STUDENTS from poorer families are less likely to receive several sound teaching methods that have been shown to significantly improve reading literacy performance, according to a new NSW study.

The hidden issue of gender

While those who say the teaching profession needs to be fixed claim a variety of supporting evidence for action, there is one important factor that does not make it into public debates – the influence of gender stereotypes.

CLOSE to 1000 teachers at Australia's top university are being told to make their students happy at the expense of confronting their fledgling thinkers with rigorous lessons, says the union representing lecturers.

''My research shows that 40 to 50 per cent of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years in the job,'' he says, ''This is the norm in the US and Europe, and now we're seeing the same in Australia. What's more, this trend appears to be increasing.''