Australian Education
Australia: “Quality” teaching and the Labor/union assault on public education
By Erika Zimmer, June 12, 2009
Last month the media reported a shift in the position of the New South Wales Teachers’ Federation (NSWTF) on performance pay for the state’s teachers. According to one commentator, it signalled ...
Australia: Rudd Labor’s NAPLAN school “league tables”
“NAPALM that kills learning”
By Will Marshall, June 11, 2009
The Rudd Labor government is pushing ahead with the publication of school reports that will pit schools against each other across the country, and which are the precursor to league tables. Results fro...
Indian student protests spread to Sydney: “We came here to study, not to fight”
By Laura Tiernan, June 10, 2009
Protests by Indian students studying in Australia that erupted in Melbourne on May 31 have spread to Sydney over recent days.
Australia: Northern Territory teachers resist Labor government’s attack on public education
By Katrina Morrison, November 13, 2008
After voting down a proposed industrial agreement negotiated between the government and the union last September, teachers are now threatening further industrial action. The standoff in the NT comes a...
Australia: The 2008 Victorian teachers’ dispute, Teachers Alliance and the Socialist Equality Party
By Patrick O’Connor and Will Marshall, September 12, 2008
The World Socialist Web Site is publishing an interview with Mary Merkenich, a leading member of the Teachers Alliance organisation, on the recent struggle waged by Victorian public school teachers fo...
Pay-for-performance reintroduced into Australian schools
By Will Marshall, January 11, 2001
An agreement struck between the Australian Education Union (AEU) and the Labor government in the state of Victoria reintroduces, after nearly 100 years, performance-based pay for teachers.
Australian Labor Party votes for Bill to boost wealthy private schools
By Erika Zimmer, December 13, 2000
Just before the federal parliament shut down for the year in the early hours of December 8, the Australian Labor Party voted with the Howard government to pass an education funding Bill that showers t...
Australian government pours funds into private schools at the direct expense of public schools
By Erika Zimmer, July 19, 2000
Despite a nation-wide increase of 8,300 pupils in the government school system this year, $27.5 million, or around 6 percent of the total, will be cut from federal government funding to public schools...
Lack of alternative leads New South Wales teachers to accept union deal
By Erika Zimmer, June 19, 2000
New South Wales public school and Technical and Further Education (TAFE) teachers voted earlier this month to accept an award agreement between the union and the state Labor government, ending almost ...
Australia:
Teachers' union agrees to sellout deal with NSW Labor government
By Erika Zimmer, May 30, 2000
After almost a year of conflict between New South Wales teachers and the Carr state government over a new industrial award, the teachers' union executive has agreed to a settlement containing the gove...
Demoted Australian principal speaks out:
"The education department is pursuing this with the zealotry of the Spanish Inquisition"
By Erika Zimmer, May 12, 2000
Jim Carey, the principal of Dubbo High School, west of Sydney, was demoted, suspended and removed from the school two months ago on the grounds that he was a “danger to students.” Carey is...
Australia:
Bracks government keeps thousands of teachers on short-term contracts
By Margaret Rees, April 24, 2000
Early in March, Victoria's Education Minister Mary Delahunty announced that the Bracks Labor government, elected late last year, would virtually eliminate contract teaching in the state's government s...
