Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation

Call Number
Nef 331.8809944 EDU
Created/Published
Sydney : The Federation, 1919-2021
Issue
Vol. 82 No. 10 (17 Sep 2001)
Images
24
View Catalogue

Contents

EDUCATION JOURNAL OF THE NEW SOUTH WALES TEACHERS FEDERATION 1
Convention moves campaign along 1
Class sizes do matter and must be reduced 1 , 3
CONVENTION A call to action for public education 2
There were many questions 2
NEWS Union to conduct own HSC evaluation 3
THA conference covers many issues 3
Reactivate health and safety at work 3
Complete survey, please 3
Seeking more and less work 4
Have benefits paid into your account 4
Advertising 4
Officers 4
Executive 4
Rural numbers crisis 5
Vinson releases part of report 5
Advertising 5
Politicians speak on their vision for public education 6 , 7
Advertising 6
Students give back to a founding father 6
News as it happens 7
Full text of speeches 7
Plenty of vrrrrrroom 7
Q&A 7
Convention focuses attention on the issues 7
Dulwich High strikes 8
Sir Henry Parkes rises to occasion 8
Advertising 8
Minister addresses Corrective Services TA 9
Some Burma links severed 9
No links 9
VET teachers, don’t go on-call 9
in BRIE 9
Advertising 9
The President Writes Blowtorch on politicians 10
LETTERS to the Editor Classification confusion 10
Teacher morale 11
Keep door open to religion 13
Boys and girls 13
Carbon Copy CONsultation? 11
Major Major Aquilina 11
Advertising 11 , 12
2002 Tree Levy 13
Advertising 13
ELECTIONS Candidate statements for President 14
TUT Officer, City Organiser 14 , 15
Duty statement – Trade Union Training Officer 14
Candidate statements for Deputy President 15
Statements applicable to all Officers 15
Duty statement – City Organiser 15
Advertising 16
VIEWS Spiritual death disguised as English 17
Advertising 17
Tax dollars segregating along ethnic and religious lines 17
RETIRED REVIEWS Retired- TeacEers Association 18
Cheap WINE From Orange to McLaren Vale 18
Win double passes to wine festival 18
MUSIC Songs of freedom, justice, protests and Moz 19
Up, Up and Away The ideal bathroom 19
FILM Can’t live with them... can’t live without them 20
Computer Corner Creating your school web site 20
Sick baying Mr Yen’s World 21
Have we met? 21
Website Surfing inquiries 21
Advertising 22 , 23
DT SMITH 23
Abecedarian* 23
THOSE WHO CAN’T 23
INSIDE 24
Politicians face the Convention 24
Standing up for public education 24

Text

EDUCATION  

JOURNAL OF THE NEW SOUTH WALES TEACHERS FEDERATION  

Agreement No. PP255003 00104  

Vol. 82 No.lo September 17. 2001  

Convention moves campaign along  

by Dennis Long  

The Public Education Convention  

on September has progressed the  

Public Education campaign in this  

federal election year.  

An enthusiastic but smaller than  

expected crowd celebrated the values  

of public education, put four repre-  

sentatives of political parties on the  

spot, were entertained by an array of  

students and saw CD launched.  

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley  

committed Labor Government to  

reversing the trend towards “a greater  

and greater proportion of Common-  

wealth schools funding going to  

private schools” under the Howard  

Government.  

Mr Beazley announced plans for  

“National Public Education Alli-  

ance”, meant to commit all Com-  

monwealth, state and territory Labor  

governments to increase investment  

in public schools in real terms over  

the next decade.  

Mr Beazley declared that spending  

on health and education had to have  

priority over tax cuts, saying this was  

“fundamental disagreement” he had  

with John Howard.  

“I believe that we need to ele-  

vate the status of teachers to where it  

ought to be the chief of all profes-  

sions.”  

At one point, an inteijector said,  

“We know all this.”  

“I know you know this,” Mr Beazley  

departed from his script to retort, “but  

need to demonstrate that know it.”  

Mr Beazley spoke of the values  

and ethos of public education.  

“Along with our universities and  

TAFE colleges, these schools have  

been the great nation-building institu-  

tions of post-war Australia.  

“To the extent that Australia is an  

egalitarian, multicultural and toler-  

ant society, we can largely thank our  

public schools.”  

Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown  

identified with the audience who  

were “rallying for better educated  

Australia; more socially just Aus-  

tralia; for the egalitarian, big hearted,  

informed society that the rest of the  

world used to admire us for being and  

which we will be again”.  

Senator Brown described this as  

“not utopian dream” but as “in large  

part what we used to enjoy in this  

country”.  

Senator Brown asserted that “Aus-  

tralian public spending on education is  

the equal fourth lowest in the OECD”  

but that the “much touted...GST war  

chest” would be enough to bring up  

to the OECD average.  

He compared Howard Govern-  

ment policies to those of the Hawke/  

Keating years, saying current Federal  

education Minister Dr David Kemp  

“stayed on the same track and put his  

foot on the accelerator”.  

He quoted Tasmanian writer Rich-  

ard Flanagan’s description of the run-  

ning down of our public schools  

during the Hawke, Keating and  

Howard years as “robbery so slow,  

so carefully and artfully contrived, and  

so utterly audacious that we cannot  

fully comprehend the contours of its  

vast criminal achievement”.  

Distiguished educationist Lyndsay  

Connors, speaking for lobby group  

Priority Public, said she came “to  

speak of the need to bury the educa-  

tion policies of the Commonwealth  

and all that they stand for”.  

However, she praised Dr Kemp for  

the “rapid spread in understanding”  

of school funding issues.  

“It was mystery to me why there  

was so little public understanding, so  

little public outcry about the derelic-  

tion of duty to public schooling by  

successive Commonwealth Govern-  

ments,” she said.  

“But Dr Kemp changed all that!  

His Enrolment Benchmark Adjust-  

ment proved to be the tipping  

point.”  

Priority Public called for the repeal  

of the States Grants Act and an  

open and independent national review  

of funding arrangements for public  

schools.  

Australian Democrat Senator Lyn  

Allison called for “proper, independ-  

ent review of the funding of public  

and private schools” to “address the  

inequities that now characterise the  

system”.  

Senator Allison assailed the seven  

year decline in Australia’s retention  

rates.  

Teachers and parents travelled from many parts of the state to show their concern for the future of  

public education, including people from Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Lake Munmorah, Muswellbrook  

and Dungog (pictured).  

“There can be no better indicator  

of the health of our education system,”  

she said.'  

The Democrat spokesperson iden-  

tified school closures as major  

issue.  

“Schoolsare being closed without  

much consideration for the commu-  

nity that built them. In Victoria many  

of these schools, closed in the 90s  

because they were too small, have  

reopened as small private schools.”  

Senator Allison emphasised her  

party’s consistent opposition last year  

to the States Grants Bill.  

The day began with welcome  

to country by Colin Gale, represent-  

ing the Darug people, performance  

by vocalists from five public high  

schools and one TAFE college of  

“Let’s Get Loud” and “Teach your  

Children Well” (the singers are co-  

ordinated by the DET Performing  

Arts Unit).  

Further introduction came from  

dance, drama and didgeridoo perform-  

ance by students from La Perouse and  

Malabar Public Schools and the open-  

ing address by Federation President  

Sue Simpson.  

The heads of several organisations got together to promote the  

Public Education Convention to the media on September 6. Pic-  

tured (1 to r) Secondary Principals Council acting president Chris  

Bonner, NSW Primary Principals Association president John McMil-  

lan, Federation president Sue Simpson, Education and Training  

Director-General Dr Ken Boston, Federation of Parents and Citizens  

Associations president Bev Baker, Federation of School and Com-  

munity Organisations president Julie Collins and Public Schools  

Principals Forum chairperson Brian Chudleigh.  

Class sizes do matter and must be reduced  

Evidence supports Fed-  

eration's claims that  

smaller class sizes have  

lasting benefits for stu-  

dents, writes  

JENNIFER  

LEETE.  

Federation’s Annual Conference  

determined that in the lead up to  

the next state election, Federation  

would seek commitments from the  

major political parties to reduce  

class sizes in kindergarten, year  

and year to an absolute maximum  

of 20 students.  

The next government in this state  

should do what has now been done  

in many states in the USA and in  

some Australian states: to recognise  

that the case for smaller class sizes  

is not just based on the good sense  

and instincts of parents and teachers  

but is now supported unequivocally  

through sizeable body of academic  

research.  

Dr Pat Thomson, an associate  

professor from the University of  

South Australia, presented Annual  

Conference with an overview of the  

research. Pat began by explaining  

the clear difference between class  

size and pupikteacher ratio. Many  

earlier studies of class sizes from  

the USA and UK produced no clear  

evidence that smaller class sizes  

have any beneficial effect. It is now  

understood that the great majority  

of those studies made the funda-  

mental error of using pupikteacher  

ratio data rather than real class size.  

Australia statistical collections in  

the past have been very limited but  

have also focused on pupikteacher  

ratio, not class size.  

The key studies conducted in the  

USA which did focus on real class  

size and are now world recognised  

as providing the solid research base  

we need are:  

• the Tennessee STAR project which  

commenced in 1985  

• the Burke County Carolina project  

which commenced in 1990  

• the California class size reduction  

project 1996  

• Michigan class size reduction project  

1994  

• project SAGE Wisconsin 1996.  

The largest and most significant  

of these projects is the Tennessee  

STAR project. It began in 1985 as  

huge project involving 12,000  

students over four years. The great  

advantage has turned out to be that  

there is now huge database avail-  

able of the long-term beneficial  

effects of reduced class sizes in the  

early years of schooling. The STAR  

project focused on kindergarten  

through to and including grade 3.  

Pupils entering kindergarten in 1985  

were allocated at random to small  

class (13-17 students), regular  

class (22-26 students) or regular  

class with full-time teacher’s aide,  

within each participating school.  

Teachers were then allocated at  

random to the classes. The class  

arrangement was maintained all day,  

all year long. There was no other  

intervention, for example, no special  

training and development and no  

differentiation in the curriculum or  

teaching materials. Pupils were kept  

in the same class grouping for up to  

continued on page  

Cite

Citation options:
Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-680978562

APA citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation & New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. (1919). Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation Retrieved August 6, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-680978562

MLA citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation and New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation Sydney: The Federation, 1919. Web. 6 August 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-680978562>

Harvard/Australian citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation & New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. 1919, Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation The Federation, Sydney viewed 6 August 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-680978562

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=N.S.W. Teachers' Federation.
  | author2=New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation.
  | title=Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation.
  | year=1919
  | section=volumes.
  | issn=0013-1156
  | issue=Vol. 82 No. 10 (17 Sep 2001)
  | location=Sydney
  | publisher=The Federation
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-680978562
  | id=nla.obj-680978562
  | access-date=6 August 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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