Daily Archives: June 23, 2014

THE nation’s best students are increasingly deciding against becoming school teachers, research shows.

A REPORT compiled by the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership obtained by News Corp Australia shows more than 40 per cent of students entering the profession in 2005 were drawn from the top echelons but by 2012, the number had dropped to fewer than 30 per cent.

At the same time, the proportion of students entering teaching with poor Year 12 results rose to 13 per cent from less than 10 per cent.

Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos has told The Australian the union supports measures to increase teacher education entry levels and believes a cap on the number of places available is needed.

Mr Gavrielatos also questioned why Education Minister Christopher Pyne had commissioned a review of teacher education and excluded issues relating to enrolment standards from its terms of reference.

The institute’s report, which uses customised data provided by the federal Education Department, reveals a startling attrition of the brightest students out of teaching.

It also finds that one in five teaching students are from disadvantaged backgrounds, compared with 15 per cent in other degrees, and teaching also has a greater representation of students from regional areas: 26 per cent compared with 20 per cent.

source: theaustralian.com.au

Επί 73 ολόκληρα χρόνια τους «έκρυβε» στην αυλή του σπιτιού της.

Τα περισσότερα από αυτά τα χρόνια διακινδυνεύοντας την προσωπική της ελευθερία ή και τη ζωή της. Μολονότι δεν ήταν καν μέλη της οικογένειας της, φρόντιζε να μην τους «λείπει» τίποτα. Ακόμα και η δροσιά, τα ζεστά καλοκαίρια. Τώρα που ο ήλιος της ζωής της αρχίζει να δύει, και θα αναγκαστεί να τους «αποχωριστεί», θέλει να τους «παραδώσει» εκεί όπου ανήκουν: στις λαμπρές σελίδες της εποποιίας του έθνους.

Οι «φιλοξενούμενοι» της κ. Ερμιόνης Μπρίγκου είναι έξι νεκροί Έλληνες στρατιώτες. Τους είδε, εννιάχρονο κοριτσάκι τότε, να πέφτουν νεκροί μπροστά στο σπίτι της πολεμώντας τον ιταλικό στρατό στη Χειμάρρα της Αλβανίας και βοήθησε, με τις παιδικές της δυνάμεις, τους γονείς της να τους κουβαλήσουν και να τους θάψουν στην αυλή τους. Έκτοτε και μέχρι σήμερα δεν τους «άφησε» ποτέ μόνους. Ούτε ακόμα και όταν την εποχή της δικτατορίας του Χότζα όλα «τα ‘σκιαζέ η φοβέρα».

Όπως εξιστόρησε στην Καθημερινή, μια μέρα οι Ιταλοί χτύπησαν το σπίτι-στρατηγείο με όλμους σκοτώνοντας έξι στρατιώτες. Καθώς οι υπόλοιποι αναγκάστηκαν να μεταφερθούν, γιατί είχαν γίνε στόχος, μαζί με τον πατέρα και τη μητέρα της «σήκωσαν» τους Έλληνες στρατιώτες και τους μετέφεραν στην αυλή. Έσκαψαν, άνοιξαν εκεί δυο τάφους και τους έθαψαν. «Ένας από αυτούς πεθαίνοντας μας είπε: εγώ φεύγω, σας αφήνω το πορτοφόλι μου».

Στη «μακρά νύχτα» του Χότζα, οι Έλληνες στρατιώτες αναπαύονταν «εν τόπω χλοερώ», με τη φροντίδα της οικογένειας Μπρίγκου. Για τους Έλληνες κατοίκους του οικισμού ήταν ένα καλά κρυμμένο «ιερό μυστικό». Φρόντιζαν να μη μαθευτεί και μπουν σε περιπέτειες, με δεδομένη την εχθρότητα του καθεστώτος και του αλβανικού εθνικισμού, απέναντι στους Χειμαρριώτες. «Είχαμε φόβο, κρατούσαμε κλειστό το στόμα», λέει η κ. Ερμιόνη.

Πηγή:enikos.gr

SINGLE mothers earning a low income may be taking home just $3.44 per hour with their pay consumed by income tax, lost welfare benefits and childcare costs.

New research from the University of Canberra reveals how small the financial incentive can be to return to work after having a child.

It found a single mother being paid a low income would keep just $9.09 of her $16.37 hourly wage for working part time at 20 hours per week.

If she then went full time at 40 hours per week, those 20 extra hours would earn her an extra $3.44 per hour.

For a single parent on average wages, it would be closer to $10.20 an hour.

Principal research fellow Ben Phillips with the university’s National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling said despite the small wages, there were other reasons mothers returned to work.

“I think in this day and age, if you’re out of the labour force for three, four, five years or even longer, it doesn’t look particularly good on your resume,” Mr Phillips told ABC Radio.

Mr Phillips said on these calculations, childcare would be costing about $170 per day – rates charged near Sydney Harbour or in remote mining communities.

On average, this might be closer to $80 for a 10-hour day of care, or $50 per day in North Queensland, where daycare is cheapest.

source: whitsundaytimes.com.au

Support for Australia’s carbon pricing laws has grown as the Abbott government prepares to repeal them next month, with more people now in favour than opposed.

An annual poll by the Climate Institute found the number of Australians who disagree with the laws fell to 30 per cent, down from 52 per cent in 2012 when the Coalition’s attack on the carbon tax was at its peak. It also represents an 11 per cent decline in opposition from last year.

At the same time the percentage of Australians who supported the carbon price rose six per cent, to 34 per cent, over the past year. It is the first rise in support under the Climate Institute poll since the laws were first introduced by the Gillard government.

But more people were indifferent than supportive or opposed, with 36 per cent of people saying they neither agreed nor disagreed with the laws.

The poll – carried out by JWS Research, which surveyed 1100 people online late last month – also found just 22 per cent of people supported the government’s Direct Action scheme, which will replace the carbon tax.

Australians were also cynical of both major political parties when it came to climate change. Voters were particularly sceptical of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, with only 20 per cent saying they believed him when he said he was concerned about action on climate change. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten performed only slightly better, with 31 per cent trusting his approach to climate change.

In other results the polling found 61 per cent of people wanted Australia to be a global leader on solutions for climate change.

It comes as the independent Climate Change Authority said in a new research paper the international community expected Australia to present credible targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions after 2020 as part of the push to strike a historic new global deal on climate change.

In the paper, looking at what the new treaty could look like, the authority says if Australia led positively on targets and other issues it would enhance its influence in crafting the new agreement, which is due to be finalised at a meeting in Paris late next year, to come into effect from 2020.

Authority chairman and former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser said Australia had played an active role at past international negotiations and ”as a wealthy developed country and a high per capita emitter of greenhouse gases, it will be expected to carry a fair share of the post-2020 emissions reductions”.

In its report the authority says given Australia’s relative wealth and capacity it will be expected to produce an unconditional post-2020 target by April next year, as some countries were invited to do at United Nations climate negotiations in Warsaw last year.

In a previous report the Climate Change Authority – which the Abbott government plans to close –  recommended Australia adopt a 40-60 per cent emissions cut on 2000 levels by 2030.

The Abbott government has so far committed to a five per cent cut in emissions from 2000 levels. A spokesman for Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the government would review the 2020 emissions target next year considering further action and targets on the basis of ”comparable real global action”.

The authority paper also warns insisting on a global agreement similar to the current Kyoto Protocol – a universal, prescriptive, enforcement-oriented legal agreement – would likely be counterproductive as it is not achievable in the short term.

source: smh.com.au