<\/p>\n
<\/span>Credit:<\/span>Illustration: Cathy Wilcox<\/cite><\/p>\n Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge rejects the link between increased school funding and increased student performance (The Age, 27\/4). Indeed this is obvious on one level \u2013 the PISA results confirm what our research has long shown: once the socioeconomic background of the students is allowed for, outcomes are statistically equal across government, Catholic and independent schools, despite the large difference in funding per student.<\/p>\n However, it is nonsense to suggest that the level of funding does not matter. Taxpayer funds given to an independent school that charges parents $30,000 per year in fees cannot be expected to lead to any increase in educational outcomes, but give the same money to a government school with a high level of disadvantaged students and it can make a difference. As the current funding model is not fully needs based, it is inevitably wasteful. The clearest trend in funding and outcomes over recent decades is that while more government funding has been provided to the private schools, our overall educational outcomes have progressively declined. I work beside amazing secondary teachers providing highly effective, evidenced-based learning experiences. Rather than a focus on recruiting \u201chigh\u201d-quality teachers (implying they are not there already), outcomes will improve if class loads are reduced, with more time for feedback and individualised attention to students. The juice is totally squeezed out of the education system, and for the federal government to say funding is adequate shows its ignorance of the current situation. As the crushing workloads of passionate and committed teachers reduce, staff retention and teaching quality will improve with more funding, and so will measured outcomes. I agree with Alan Tudge that the quality of teaching needs to improve. This will only happen when pre-service teachers are given more practice time in the classrooms. Having supervised student teachers in primary and secondary schools, I have been horrified by their dismal lack of spelling and grammar skills. It is no coincidence that education standards have declined every year since the 2008 introduction of NAPLAN tests. Inevitably teachers teach to the test, and the constraints of NAPLAN have overwhelmed meaningful curriculum. Even in primary schools, creative, stimulating teaching has been strangled by bureaucracy and a curriculum that is constructed around what can be put in boxes, ticked and graphed.<\/p>\n Scandinavian countries, universally acknowledged as educational leaders, have shunned performance regimes like NAPLAN. Teachers need to be responsible for assessment for they best know their students. NAPLAN is destroying what was once a proud and progressive education system. I agree that quality of teaching is paramount but for Alan Tudge to suggest standards have declined despite a 60per cent increase in per-student funding over the past 10years is disingenuous. That increase has largely gone to private schools while seriously needy schools have gone without. It is time to look at \u201cvalue adding\u201d to use current \u201caccountability speak\u201d. In my lengthy experience in education, I have found quality teachers are flexible, understanding, passionate and patient professionals who are always looking to improve their performance. I sincerely hope that the \u201cskilled, mid-career professionals\u201d keenly sought by our new federal minister have these qualities. I agree with Marnie Vinall (Opinion, 29\/4) that consent needs to be taught when children are young, so why wait until they get to school? Children learn by what they see around them from a very young age. By the time they hit secondary school, many behaviours are firmly ingrained and frankly, difficult to shift. There is a place for these conversations in education but that should not be the first port of call. I have been in education for more than 30years and have observed that all society\u2019s ills end up with schools; most recently social media misuse and consent. Education shares a responsibility, with families, not instead of families. About 400,000 Christian voters abandoned Labor at the 2019 election. This was the finding from Labor\u2019s own inquiry into the failed election (the Emerson-Weatherill Report). This figure is 7per cent of Labor\u2019s primary vote. Had they voted Labor, Bill Shorten would have easily won with a 20-seat majority. The report said: \u201cThe party would be wise to reconnect with people of faith\u201d and \u201cemphasise its historic links with mainstream churches\u201d. So far nothing has happened and the Christian vote will continue to move away from Labor. What will the ALP do to regain these voters? I find it interesting that the Prime Minister is criticised for his religious beliefs and practices. Organisers of Earth Day claim more than 1billion people spread throughout almost 200 countries will participate in this year\u2019s activities. Earth Day was the brainchild of the late John McConnell, a son of one of the founders of one of the largest Pentecostal churches in the world. McConnell met his wife at a charismatic prayer meeting. Scott Morrison, l would like to see you lay hands on the $30million paid to a Liberal Party donor for land at Badgerys Creek. Land that was valued at $3million. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn\u2019t this taxpayers\u2019 money? It makes the Cartier watches look like a bargain. A well-balanced article by David Crowe (The Age, 28\/4). He was respectful of the Prime Minister and religious belief, while making the point that there is something to scrutinise here. David Crowe said the Prime Minister \u201cshould be treated with respect for his personal beliefs\u201d, yet on the same day The Age printed 11 short letters (and a Wilcox cartoon) showing a complete lack of respect. And then yesterday, more puerile insults in \u201cAnd Another Thing\u201d ridiculing him for his belief in God (which I do not share) and a Golding cartoon. Should David Crowe wish to know more of Scott Morrison\u2019s religious beliefs, would he be enlightened by reading the Gospel? I think not. In Matthew\u2019s gospel, Jesus clearly says that man cannot serve both God and mammon (money). And yet every jot and tittle of Liberal Party policy is about the pursuit of money. In the kingdom of Mr Morrison, the hungry are not filled with good things and neither are the rich sent empty away. Praise to the ABC for broadcasting the brave, beautiful documentary, Laura\u2019s Choice, which followed a 90-year-old Australian woman\u2019s choice to end her life by assisted suicide, albeit by travelling to Switzerland to accomplish it. I hope palliative care staff watched it and listened to her passionate plea that we all be provided with the right to choose assisted suicide, should we so wish, wherever in Australia we live. The situation in India regarding the pandemic is alarming and very sad. However, I am getting a bit sick of hearing about Australian citizens \u201cstranded\u201d there and appealing for government help to return here. The pandemic has been active globally for more than a year so I do not believe anyone is \u201cstranded\u201d anywhere. They are in a country they chose to visit, knowing full well that conditions could deteriorate at any time. Haven\u2019t we all learnt that over the past year? I am 74, an inner-eastern resident and was unable to be vaccinated at my regular clinic due to the limited supply of vaccines. I was advised to call a number which took me to a general centre in Ringwood.<\/p>\n On attending my appointment there, I was dismayed to find that with four available nurses for vaccination, a doctor supervising the \u201cwait after\u201d room (set up for about 40 people) and three administration staff, I only saw two other customers in the hour that I was present.<\/p>\n Even primary school-level arithmetic could calculate the cost per vaccination of this staff load vis a vis attendees. I am appalled and do not understand why there is no visible promotion anywhere of this available service. A daily listing in metropolitan newspapers would cost a fraction of that obvious wastage. Mary Wise (Letters, 27\/4), the infrastructure for quarantine centres is everywhere. I stayed in a tourist park on the periphery of Canberra \u2013 more than 400 individually heated, airconditioned and plumbed cabins of assorted sizes spaced out in pleasant surroundings with a high fence right around it. Ideal.<\/p>\n The government could hire all the cabins, the existing management and staff (with some training) could continue their roles, and the quarantining customers could have their food and other needs delivered to the office. I am sure there are hundreds of similar facilities near towns and cities throughout Australia, ready and waiting. The Age, April 29, page 10: \u201cApartment prices too have tumbled, but not as dramatically as rent\u201d. Then, on page 11: \u201cApartment prices also soared to a median of $567,793 \u2013 a rise of 2.2per cent, or more than $12,000 \u2013 over the same period\u201d. I had hours of entertainment trying to reconcile the two. Thanks. Chris Uhlmann (Opinion, 28\/4) berates federal and state governments for lockdowns and closed borders, and asks: \u201cWhat have we built in our splendid isolation?\u201d This reminds me of Monty Python asking what the Romans have ever done for us.<\/p>\n Here are a few things that our splendid isolation has built: I can travel across Australia, go to restaurants, shop and hug my grandchildren. I can work, entertain friends at home, and go to the footy. I can read frightening reports of people dying in other countries where the governments did not introduce lockdowns until too late, leading to exponential increases in case numbers and deaths. And, not incidentally, I can still breathe. A properly funded and accessible national archives is a litmus test of a nation\u2019s capacity to learn from its past and inform its future without fear nor censorship. It can also be a treasure trove of stories and a vital source of information for professional historians like me who rely on official and authoritative records for our research and writing of histories of every type of organisation in Australia. If our national records are not preserved, we will be consigned to relying on subjective historical memory and our organisations and their people will be doomed to repeat history\u2019s mistakes. Archives all over the world are confronting similar problems of managing rapidly increasing digital records while preserving vast print, oral and other records in different, often fragile formats. They all need the government financial support that is necessary to do this securely and durably. Ours are no exception.<\/p>\n Australian historians now report inordinate delays in gaining access to records not yet examined for access clearance. Delays of more than five years are commonplace. There is even a reluctance for supervisors to recommend doctoral research topics that might draw on archival records, for fear that it would not be possible to complete a thesis in a timely manner. A nation that does not appreciate and adequately fund the preservation of its historical records, to my mind, is not fit to be called a free and open democracy. What philistines are in charge of allocating funding for the safe storage, preservation and easy access of these vital records? Could it be the same government that raised university fees for those students wishing to study humanities? How short-sighted and uneducated these people must be. Not only are the National Archives in a perilous state, but state records are also not adequately funded. Recent headlines in the media: \u201cWomen abandon Coalition\u201d. Watch out for the Margaret Thatcher-style diversionary tactics of talking up war (eg, \u201cthe drums of war\u201d). The trouble is, China is not the Falklands. <\/span>Credit:<\/span>Illustration: Matt Golding<\/cite><\/p>\n Dutton and Pezzullo seem determined to turn the Department of Defence into the Department of Offence. Australians are happy to sell iron ore to China when it comes back as whitegoods. Not so happy when it comes back as military ordnance. The family on Christmas Island would appreciate the laying on of hands to alleviate their anguish of being detained for three years. We should be very concerned to be in the hands of a PM who\u2019s been \u201ccalled to do God\u2019s work\u201d. As George Orwell might have put it in Animal Farm: Liberal debt good, Labor debt bad. If the Pfizer vaccine is good enough for Scott, it\u2019s good enough for me. If someone is a dual citizen and stuck in their other country, aren\u2019t they home already? When infection escapes quarantine, lockdowns follow. Why isn\u2019t vaccination on arrival for returned travellers mandatory?To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number.<\/h3>\n
EDUCATION<\/h3>\n
For the needy schools, more money is critical<\/h3>\n
Richard Fone, Camberwell<\/strong><\/p>\nThere is no more juice in the education system<\/h3>\n
Peter Gould, Moonee Ponds<\/strong><\/p>\nThe minister is right about better quality teaching<\/h3>\n
Mary Fenelon, Doncaster East<\/strong><\/p>\nBlame the NAPLAN tests for the drop in standards<\/h3>\n
Bryan Long, Balwyn<\/strong><\/p>\nWhere the extra funding has really gone<\/h3>\n
Susan Mahar, Fitzroy North<\/strong><\/p>\nThe qualities that make a good teacher<\/h3>\n
Terry White, Lilydale<\/strong><\/p>\nTHE FORUM<\/h3>\n
Education begins at home<\/h3>\n
Xenia Pappas, Balwyn<\/strong><\/p>\nPower of Christian voters<\/h3>\n
John Hayes, Wheelers Hill<\/strong><\/p>\nPrayer and environment<\/h3>\n
John Capel, Black Rock<\/strong><\/p>\nPraying for the $30 million<\/h3>\n
Kerry Murphy, Seaford<\/strong><\/p>\nA need for scrutiny<\/h3>\n
Michael Helman, St Kilda East<\/strong><\/p>\nShameful lack of respect<\/h3>\n
Hugh Saunders, Brighton East<\/strong><\/p>\nBeliefs and practices<\/h3>\n
Kenneth Ormerod, Mentone<\/strong><\/p>\nChoosing our own deaths<\/h3>\n
Marina Holland, Blackburn South<\/strong><\/p>\nSome chose to risk it<\/h3>\n
David Parker, Geelong West<\/strong><\/p>\nSuch a waste of staff<\/h3>\n
Helen Hayes, Burwood<\/strong><\/p>\nSo many suitable centres<\/h3>\n
Mary Burbidge, Newport<\/strong><\/p>\nPlease explain: on prices<\/h3>\n
Stephen Duckett, Melbourne<\/strong><\/p>\nBenefits of our lockdowns<\/h3>\n
Neville Nicholls, Viewbank<\/strong><\/p>\nLearning from history<\/h3>\n
Helen Penrose, Newport<\/strong><\/p>\nCreating our shared future<\/h3>\n
Studying our past and telling our stories is critical to our sense of belonging, to recovering hidden and awkward histories, and to creating our shared future. Our National Archives are the core resource for these stories as well as the indispensable repository of official records. We cannot afford to compromise on which records are kept or on the quality of their maintenance.
Professor Peter McPhee, History Council of Victoria<\/strong><\/p>\nFund state records too<\/h3>\n
Marie Rogers, Kew<\/strong><\/p>\nFollowing Maggie\u2019s lead?<\/h3>\n
Val Pollard, Woodend<\/strong><\/p>\nAND ANOTHER THING<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
Politics<\/h3>\n
Denny Meadows, Hawthorn<\/strong><\/p>\n
Chris Lawrence, Attwood<\/strong><\/p>\n
Jane Taylor, Newport<\/strong><\/p>\n
Lidio Bertelli, Dallas<\/strong><\/p>\n
Les Aisen, Elsternwick<\/strong><\/p>\nCOVID-19<\/h3>\n
Rob Fraser, Coburg<\/strong><\/p>\n
Rohan Cresp, Port Melbourne<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dr Ralph Frank, Malvern East<\/strong><\/p>\n