Public education: the bedrock of a democracy
10 December 2019
Section: Columns
It was Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul who argued that any society that educates more than 10 per cent of its children in private schools can no longer call itself a democracy. Australia is well above that figure. Saul is right.
Auditor-General’s Report: a lost opportunity if changes are imposed without negotiation with the teaching profession
27 September 2019
Section: News
The NSW Teachers Federation has argued that rigorous and consistent professional teaching standards must be applied, met and monitored
Podcast interview raises key issues
25 September 2019
Section: News
Federation President Maurie Mulheron used the platform of Department of Education Secretary Mark Scott’s Every Student podcast to express the need for improvements in the areas of staffing and system-wide support for the work of teachers.
The pathology of NAPLAN
17 September 2019
Section: Columns
Let’s be clear: no child fails NAPLAN, but NAPLAN fails all children.
Facta Non Verba
30 August 2019
Section: Columns
The Latin motto at my school, Punchbowl Boys’ High School, was Facta Non Verba — deeds, not words. As young boys, we were told that people should be judged on their actions, not just their words.
Recurrent and capital funding key to essential resourcing and staffing levels
7 July 2019
Section: News
There are just not enough people employed in the NSW public education system, Federation President Maurie Mulheron declared at Annual Conference today.
A statement in support of our LGBTIQA+ students and colleagues
28 June 2019
Section: News
We are a union that champions equality because, as teachers, we want our children to grow up in a world that accepts all and celebrates diversity. After all, it is what we should practise, model and teach every day in our public schools.
NAPLAN must go
28 June 2019
Section: News
The announcement by the NSW Minister of Education, Sarah Mitchell, that she will be calling on the Education Council to undertake a full review of NAPLAN, with a view to replacing it, will be welcomed by teachers and principals across Australia.
Election setback strengthens resolve to keep fighting
14 June 2019
Section: Columns
Visitors to the Federation building in Mary Street, Surry Hills, will see black and white historical photographs scrolling on a screen in the front foyer.
A simple moral choice: some children or all children?
11 April 2019
Section: Columns
As a nation, we can decide to give our teachers in public schools the resources they need for the task at hand or we continue to advantage those private schools that are over-funded.
Federation supports student action on climate change
14 March 2019
Section: News
The NSW Teachers Federation supports the right of young people to join together to protest about the need for urgent and sustained action on climate change. This is their democratic right.
Radical push to destroy senior curriculum
1 March 2019
Section: Columns
Over the summer break, The Sydney Morning Herald exposed an attempt by the powerful and well-connected private school lobby to deregulate the HSC as an exit credential, and to allow for a plethora of commercial tests imported from overseas to replace it.
Federation: a proud history, a confident future
10 December 2018
Section: Columns
As we end our 100th anniversary year, we can look back proud of our union’s achievements over the decades.
Australia: silver medallists when it comes to creating disadvantage
15 November 2018
Section: Columns
The recent media commentary about private schools and discrimination may have opened up an important debate that, as a nation, is long overdue. And it will need to be much broader than the personal rights of LGBTIQ students and teachers, important though they are.
NSW public school system: only the best will do
21 September 2018
Section: Columns
Federation has been at the forefront of demanding that governments at federal and state level ensure that rigorous academics standards are applied at the point of entry into initial teacher education.
Teaching without teachers: A new business plan
15 June 2018
Section: Columns
I am concerned that teachers are in danger of losing control of who teaches, what is taught and how we teach, as “edu-businesses” move to directly influence politicians, advisers and policy makers.
Chaplains in schools: probably illegal, certainly immoral
18 May 2018
Section: Columns
In the recent federal Budget, an additional $247 million has been allocated to the schools chaplaincy program. This brings the total amount of funding for the scheme, since its introduction in 2006 by the Howard Government, to about $1 billion.
Proficient and committed
29 March 2018
Section: Columns
I am writing this in a hotel room in Canberra having spent the day wandering the corridors of Parliament House, accompanied by parents and teachers, dropping in on politicians to argue for a fairer funding model for public schools. It’s a quiet room and as the sun sets, I’m reflecting on the past 40 years.
The Tide is Turning
2 March 2018
Section: Columns
This year is the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy, known simply as NAPLAN. And it’s time to be frank.
Hasten slowly and stay in charge
1 December 2017
Section: Columns
Many years ago, as a young teacher in the late 1970s, I read an article about Japan and mathematics teaching in relation to what was then new technology — the overhead projector. It may have been apocryphal, but I still found the story to be thought provoking. The article told of a local school district in Japan that had decided to replace, with unforeseen consequences, all the blackboards with overhead projectors complete with scrolling plastic film on which teachers were to write.