Category Archives: Australian education

Academics welcome Australian Research Council overhaul following controversial grant decisions

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Researchers and Greens raise concerns about ‘national interest test’ introduced by Coalition which Labor has signalled will remain

The Australian Research Council, the national body responsible for administering non-medical research funding, will be reformed in a development welcomed by the research community after grant delays and longstanding accusations of political interference.

The federal education minister, Jason Clare, announced on Tuesday a review of the agency, which administers around $800m in funding each year to Australian researchers.

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Business cuts to on-the-job training have made Australia increasingly reliant on migrants, experts say

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Academic says companies ‘squealing’ to government about worker skill shortage are contributing to it

Businesses have demanded governments invest more in skills training even as they reduce such spending themselves, leaving Australia reliant on skilled migrants to avoid falling further behind comparable nations, academics and unions say.

The assessment, made public days before the jobs and skills summit in Canberra, comes as the federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, released draft legislation on Monday that would give $1.5bn in tax incentives for small businesses to lift the skills of employees.

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Radioactive rock at Randwick Girls High ‘no cause for alarm’, NSW inquiry told

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Education minister Sarah Mitchell tells budget estimates that ‘no harm was posed’ by the 17 August find at Sydney school

A radioactive rock that was found at a Sydney high school did not pose a danger to students or staff, the New South Wales education minister, Sarah Mitchell, has told a budget estimates hearing.

Mitchell was questioned on Tuesday about the radioactive substance that was found at Randwick Girls High in Sydney’s east on 17 August.

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Australian education ministers agree to draft national plan to combat teacher shortages

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Proposed plan will tackle workload, pay structures and attracting and retaining teachers, but does not address increased school funding

Education ministers have agreed to a national plan to consider better pathways into teaching, new pay structures and a decreased workload as means to combat the teacher shortage.

After a meeting in Canberra on Friday, state and territory ministers said the new federal education minister, Jason Clare, offered a “breath of fresh air”, but the commonwealth remained tight-lipped about increasing schools funding.

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Sisters of African descent suspended from Victorian private school for not tying hair back

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Amayah and Safhira Rowe say hair requirement of Highview College in Maryborough causes them pain

Two secondary students have complained to the Australian Human Rights Commission after being suspended from a private regional Victorian school over “disgusting” uniform requirements.

Year 10 and 11 students Safhira and Amayah Rowe were sent home from Highview College in Maryborough on Tuesday after refusing to wear their hair tied back – a school policy – because they said it caused them pain. They both wear their African hair in braids.

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Calls for employers to allow working from home as 75 Covid deaths recorded – as it happened

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Victorian students aged eight and over are being urged to wear masks when indoors to help counter the Covid-19 surge.

The request comes in a joint letter from the state education department and independent and Catholic schools.

I respect the fact that people on the crossbench were elected to deliver action on climate change and our government wants to work with them to do just that.

That’s why one of the very first acts of the new government will be to legislate that higher ambition. They want more than the 43% that Labor is offering though.

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Letter urges Victorian parents to send children to school in masks as Covid surges

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While masks remain optional in schools nationwide, authorities in several Australian states have strengthened requests for action

The Victorian education department and independent schools have written a letter to parents urging students over the age of eight to wear masks at school.

While masks are not currently mandated for general student populations anywhere in Australia, a letter signed by the heads of the Victorian government, Catholic and independent schools sectors asks students aged eight and over to wear masks during class and if travelling on public transport. The state opposition has seized on the recommendation, labelling it a “mandate by stealth”.

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Nation records 60 Covid deaths as SA reports first monkeypox case – as it happened

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Nation records 60 Covid deaths; SA records first monkeypox case; Anthony Albanese meets Justin Trudeau at Nato summit. This blog is now closed

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has renewed his calls for China to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, declaring that Vladimir Putin “has made a strategic mistake because what his actions have done is unite the democratic world”.

Albanese – who has been in Madrid for a Nato summit – spoke to reporters yesterday after having a meeting on the sidelines with the leaders of Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

There we discussed the important focus of this Nato’s summit on the Asia-Pacific region. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has solidified the support amongst democratic countries for the rules-based international order and a determination to continue to provide support to the government and the people of Ukraine who are suffering as a result of this breach of international law and this brutal invasion by Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Vladimir Putin has made a strategic mistake because what his actions have done is unite the democratic world and provide a real determination to make sure that the resilience being shown by the Ukrainian people is backed up by resilience and support from democratic countries, including Nato, but also countries throughout the world.

Well, what we saw is prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we saw a without-limits partnership between Russia and China. We’ve seen a failure of China to condemn any of the Russian aggression that has occurred against Ukraine. China must look at what is happening and look at the resolve that is there from throughout the world and should be condemning Russia’s actions.

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Education system ‘run by Marxists’: Jason Clare takes aim at Liberal senator over comments on teachers

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Hollie Hughes told a Sydney Institute forum parents need to ‘turn the internet off’ as she gave reasons for the party’s election defeat

The education minister has blasted Senator Hollie Hughes for “crazy” comments blaming the Liberals’ low youth vote on “Marxist” teachers.

On Sunday Labor’s Jason Clare responded to the remarks, made by the New South Wales senator at a Sydney Institute federal election postmortem on Tuesday.

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Public service shake-up continues with four new secretaries for government departments – as it happened

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Dominic Perrottet called on to halt Barilaro appointment pending inquiry; at least 63 Covid deaths recorded nationwide. This blog is now closed

NSW teacher strike ‘about politics, not pay’, Kean says

Matt Kean has hit out at plans by public and Catholic school teachers to strike next Friday after receiving a 3% pay rise offer, well below the rate of inflation.

Our 3% pay increase is far more than the Labor government’s 1.5% pay increase for public servants down in Victoria.

So the same unions complaining about our generous pay rise up here in NSW and protesting aren’t marching in the streets down in Victoria.

A senior woman, a senior public servant with knowledge of financial markets and trade particularly with the United States was offered the job, it was rescinded by the New South Wales government.

We don’t know by whom. And then John Barilaro mysteriously was given it just last week.

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Queensland budget’s record health spending meaningless without wages boost, unions say

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Pressure grows on state government to increase public sector salaries to meet cost of living

Record health funding promised in the Queensland budget is meaningless without a wages policy that attracts essential workers and keeps pace with cost of living increases, unions say.

Michael Clifford, the general secretary of the Queensland Council of Unions, said the 2022 budget surplus should be channelled into a fair pay increase for public sector workers after years of stagnant wages.

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Union launches dispute with Deakin University over payments for casuals

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Accusations of academics being paid per piece, rather than per hour, comes amid widespread higher education wage complaints

The National Tertiary Education Union has accused Victoria’s Deakin University of paying casual academics per student assignment marked, rather than an hourly rate, in a formal dispute notice lodged with the institution.

The alleged breach of the institution’s enterprise agreement comes amid an underpayment scandal that has plagued Australia’s tertiary sector for the past two years. The Fair Work Ombudsman is investigating 11 cases of potential wage theft at universities.

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Australia news live updates: Albanese extends Covid funding as nation records 51 deaths from virus; energy supply will meet weekend demand, Aemo says

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NSW premier says health funding ‘a great start’ after national cabinet meeting; electricity reserves improve across National Energy Market; ASX plunges to lowest level since November 2020; nation records 51 Covid deaths. Follow live

The PM is making the rounds this morning, appearing on Sunrise and repeating his line that almost a decade of “delay and denial” under the former Coalition government led to the current energy crisis (I feel like this will be a recurring theme today.)

People want an end to the nonsense that’s gone on for the last decade.

You can’t fix 10 years of inaction in just 10 days but we are taking immediate action through Aemo to make sure that the lights stay on. At the same time, we’re making sure that we create the investment environment to make sure we get it right.

The gas is actually the property of the people of the state, whichever state that is, and there should have always been enough for the state and the country in question. It just seems to me to be very strange that there’s no gas for local people yet.

Coal-fired power generation is very old technology and very difficult for coal plants to cope with renewables coming onto the grid, basically, new renewables every minute

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NSW education department launches legal action against teachers union over May strikes

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State government accuses New South Wales Teachers Federation of breaching orders from Industrial Relations Commission

The New South Wales Teachers Federation is facing potential court-ordered penalties because of widespread strikes in May over pay and conditions in public schools.

In a lawsuit, the state’s Department of Education accused the union of breaching orders made by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) in November last year ordering it to refrain from further industrial action.

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Sacking of Melbourne worker homeschooling children found to be discriminatory

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Tribunal finds dental assistant was unlawfully discriminated against during Victoria’s Covid restrictions

A Melbourne dental assistant has been awarded $12,000 after she was sacked during the Covid-19 pandemic while forced to homeschool her children.

Fiona Carpenter took her former employer Pearly Whites to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, claiming she was discriminated against because of her family responsibilities and a broken foot.

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NSW and Victoria to push Albanese government to close public school funding gap

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Education ministers say they will demand increase in federal investment to reach 100% of Gonski funding benchmark

A fresh battle over the underfunding of public schools is brewing, with Victoria and New South Wales vowing to push the new Albanese government to lift its contributions to close an investment shortfall.

The new federal education minister, Jason Clare, said boosting the results of Australian school students against international benchmarks and revisiting the needs-based Gonski reforms that aimed to end inequities in the distribution of public money will be among his top priorities.

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Brisbane Catholic school asked students to seek approval for formal dresses

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Mary MacKillop college student says many were worried to show photos of outfits ‘in case they were declined’

A Brisbane student says her school asked girls to submit photos of their formal dresses for “approval” after giving them an “outdated” booklet outlining the event’s dress code.

Guardian Australia has seen an email sent by Brisbane’s Mary MacKillop college on 17 May, a week before the year 12 mid-year formal asking students to submit photos of their planned attire.

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One child a month left on a bus across Australia over the past five years

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Lawyer acting for families says it is ‘happening more than people would believe or understand’

At least 68 children have been left on buses in Australia in the past five years – a rate of more than one a month.

Earlier this month, three-year-old Nevaeh Austin was treated in intensive care after being found unconscious on a bus outside her Queensland childcare centre. She had been left on the bus alone for six hours in temperatures over 30C .

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Surge in NSW flu cases sparks concern over hospital capacity with Covid numbers high

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State’s chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, urges people to get flu vaccinations as 2,000 cases reported in last week

Surging cases of the flu are putting extra demand on emergency departments around New South Wales, with major outbreaks in boarding houses contributing to a doubling in cases in a week.

According to NSW Health, 2,000 flu cases were reported in the week to 7 May – up from 1,024 the week before.

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NSW education staff say they are being sent to schools without adequate training to ‘plug the casual crisis’

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Workers concerned they will be covering flu-related teacher absences in coming months with no end date for scheme given

Education department staff being “conscripted” to fill Covid-related vacancies at New South Wales schools have said they are being sent into teaching environments without adequate training, and were just plugging holes in a broader “casual crisis”.

One employee, who has never worked with or been specifically trained to care for special needs students, claimed they were sent to teach a class of students with disabilities.

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