E, Comment 4 of 22, SOS sent to young teachers across NSW, Kate Sikora, The Dail

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E, Comment 4 of 22, SOS sent to young teachers across NSW, Kate Sikora, The Daily Telegraph, 8 December 2011: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/sos-sent-to-young-teachers-across-nsw/story-e6freuzi-1226216698710 Historical link preserved from the original page.

New South Wales: Why don't men want to become teachers?

The New South Wales Education Department has to do something with staffing to ensure teachers both female and male are not left temporary for more than 2 years.

This is why many males don't enter the teaching profession...job security!

Glen of Albion Park, Reader's Comment 3 of 22, SOS sent to young teachers across NSW, Kate Sikora, The Daily Telegraph, 8 December 2011: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/sos-sent-to-young-teachers-across-nsw/story-e6freuzi-1226216698710 Historical link preserved from the original page.

Casual teachers are constantly anxious about their next job. They have no financial security.

Kate is a Sydney schoolteacher, who is employed as a casual.

She gets no pay at all during school holidays, and spends Christmas and New Year anxious about whether she’ll have work the next year.

She’s currently living at home with her parents and is thinking about retraining in order to get a permanent job.

“Being casually employed, I am anxious, worried and under financial pressure,” she said.

Kate’s story isn’t unusual for a young teacher.

Teachers who have recently joined the profession are more likely to be on casual or contract employment than a secure full-time job.

Is this the best way to attract the best graduates to teaching?

A secure job is no luxury, Ged Kearney, Perth Now, 3 October 2011: http://www.perthnow.com.au/a-secure-job-is-no-luxury/story-fn6mhct1-1226157538760 Historical link preserved from the original page.

We need a serious revolution in education. We need it badly. We need it now.

I knew far more history and geography in Grade 6 than my students today have learned by Year 12.

In Australia, students studying English don't read literature: they analyse texts.

They don't get to actually see Hamlet performed: they READ Shakespeare's playscript, then write an essay on how the Bard addresses 'identity', or 'justice', or 'belonging'.

English exams are more likely to involve 'analysis' of a Leunig cartoon or a random song lyric than anything related to 'literature'.

Most students can't place either WWI or WWII in the right decade (that's not hyperbole).

And I teach students from the best schools... I can't imagine what the bottom 50% study.

Australia will pay for this in coming decades.

We need a serious revolution in education, badly. And we need it now.