For Our Future Campaign
Australia’s public schools are among the best in the world. They
deliver high quality education to millions of students every day.
But for too long they have been neglected by federal government, which allocates only one third of its schools funding to our public schools.
Everybody who cares about the education of our children and the
quality of public education in Australia is welcome to get involved.
Keep TAFE Safe!
Keep TAFE safe - don't let TAFE be privatised!
The Australian Education Union is calling on the Federal Government to abandon changes to TAFE funding that would undermine quality and push the burden of cost onto students.
The call comes with the release of new polling conducted for the Australian Education Union that shows 93% of Australians agree that providing extra funding to TAFE is essential to meet the skills crisis and ensure all Australians have access to low-cost training and education.
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Teacher Shortage
Western Australia faces a teacher shortage of epic proportions. Recent reports have estimated that within a few years Western Australia will be more than 2000 teachers short. DET already forces teachers to teach in subjects for which they have no formal training to plug the gaps! This situation MUST be addressed now!
Unless the state government acts quickly and decisively to solve this situation, the future of public education is dire. Band-aid solutions will not work, the State & Federal Governments must listen to teachers and make teaching an attractive career choice before it is too late. They can start by acting on the recommendations of the Twomey Report before it is too late.
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For Our Future - AEU Campaign -
Updates
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Thursday, 18 December 2008 |
 With schools shutting down it’s time for a quick end of year update on the For Our Future public education campaign. The good news is that the campaign is already making a difference.
We delivered 16,871 emails to the politicians before November’s COAG meeting urging them to better fund our public schools. It was the first time teachers and parents across the country have joined together in this way to demand a better deal for kids.
The outcome of the COAG meeting between the Commonwealth and the states and territories was $3.5 billion in additional funding for schools over five years. That includes:
- An additional $635 million funding for government primary schools
- An extra $807 million for the implementation of the computers in schools programs
- New funding of $1.1 billion over five years for approximately 1,500 schools in low income communities.
You can download our fact sheet to read the full details. It’s a significant outcome but unfortunately not enough given the long history of under-funding of public schools.
Next year will be another critical year. With rising unemployment and an economic downturn looming we need to ensure every young Australian gets the best possible education. Only by investing more in public schools can we ensure that happens.
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TAFE -
Negotiating News
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Thursday, 18 December 2008 |
 TAFE Committee has endorsed in principle, a replacement Agreement for
TAFE lecturers. The replacement Agreement will be prepared for a vote
during the January break.
Your Union will provide briefing sessions on the replacement Agreement when TAFE recommences.
Arrangements for voting on the replacement Agreement will occur during
February 2009. Please ensure that your mailing and contact details are
up to date in order that the necessary voting materials can be posted
to you.
Members will be advised of further information as
it comes to hand. A summary of the proposed changes to our current
Agreement which will form the basis of the replacement Agreement is available by clicking the read more link.
 TAFE Negotiating News Round 37 (296.84 kB)
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Campaigns -
TAFE EBA 2008
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Tuesday, 16 December 2008 |
 Members will be aware that the Union under the direction of TAFE committee, has been in negotiations with DET and TAFE for just over one month. Negotiations for the most part have been constructive and at this stage we are close to reaching an agreement in principle provided that assurances on a number of key issues such as the Flexible Hours Arrangement are honoured by DET.
Despite this positive progress, it will not be possible to put an agreement to members before the end of the academic year which is already upon us. It is the union’s intention to provide briefing sessions to branches on a prospective agreement before members are asked to vote on it. This will take place in February 09, contingent on agreement in principle being reached.
Members will be advised of further details as they come to hand.
Negotiating News Round 36 (207.29 kB)
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Women's Focus -
News
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Monday, 15 December 2008 |
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 The SSTUWA Women's Conference sold out in record
time this year, with not only regulars signing up but at least a third
of the 130 delegates attending for the first time. The
theme was “Women's Time to Shine”, and fittingly, the first keynote
address after the customary welcome to country was from UnionsWA
president Meredith Hammett. Meredith, who is also acting assistant
secretary of the Australian Services Union, spoke about the importance
of women's efforts in the union movement, the value of making community
connections and her own experience in supporting teachers as a parent
of young children.
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Public Access -
News
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Friday, 12 December 2008 |
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The Australian Education Union today welcomed the announcement of additional funding for TAFE capital works and maintenance. Australian Education Union Federal President, Angelo Gavrielatos said that the funding announced to address skills shortages should be targeted to TAFE colleges in the interests of maintaining high quality provision of training, efficiency and avoiding duplication.
“The AEU looks forward to further funding announcements to assist TAFEs in further addressing areas of skills shortages,” Mr Gavrielatos said.
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Public Access -
News
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Wednesday, 10 December 2008 |
 New results on Australian student performance in maths and science
highlight the need to increase overall school funding, said the
Australian Education Union today.
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)
assessment conducted in 2006 showed that while Australian year 4
students performed above international averages in maths and science,
and year 8 students were on par in maths, achievement in year 8 science
had declined.
AEU Federal President, Angelo Gavrielatos said the TIMMS results should
be viewed alongside the OECD report, Education at a Glance, released
earlier this year that revealed Australia is ranked second last
compared to other OECD nations for direct public expenditure on public
institutions.
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Campaigns -
EBA Updates
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Wednesday, 03 December 2008 |
 Members of the State School Teacher’s Union of WA (SSTUWA) have voted to accept the salaries and conditions package negotiated between the Union and the Department of Education and Training.
92.93% of teachers voting supported the EBA.
The package included a 6 per cent interim payment already being received by teachers along with increased allowances – and further salary increases over the next two years.
President of the union Ms Anne Gisborne said this afternoon that the
new EBA took Western Australian teachers to the top of the national
salary scale but pointed out that there were still issues to be
resolved over the next year including workload and behavior management
problems.
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Public Access -
General Articles
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Wednesday, 03 December 2008 |
The Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2009 provides a useful
blueprint for achieving greater equality of opportunity and improved
quality of education for learners of all ages around the world.
“Education International applauds the report team for its comprehensive
analysis of the multiple factors contributing to the growing
inequalities in education,” said Fred van Leeuwen, EI General
Secretary. “Teachers and their unions are deeply worried that
disparities will continue to widen unless governments focus their
efforts on measures to enhance equality as they pursue the Education
For All agenda,” he added.
The Global Monitoring Report entitled “Overcoming inequality: why
governance matters” is scheduled to be released today in Geneva. It is
the seventh report examining worldwide progress towards the six
Millennium Development Goals agreed to by the international community
in 2000.
It warns that, although much progress has been made, this progress is
undermined by a failure to tackle persistent inequalities due to
gender, race, ethnicity, language, location, disability or other
factors. “Unless governments act to reduce disparities through
effective policy reforms, the EFA promise will be broken,” it states.
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Public Access -
General Articles
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Tuesday, 02 December 2008 |
 Educational consultant Gary S Stager writes: As an American teacher
educator and consultant I have enjoyed the great privilege of working
with dozens of Australian schools and thousands of teachers over the
past 18 years. My work has taken me from the most-troubled to the most
affluent schools across your nation. The world is indebted to
Australian educators for their innovations in primary education,
literacy development and 1-to-1 computing.
Therefore, it is from a position of expertise and vast experience that
I question November's tour of Australia by New York City Schools
Chancellor Joel Klein. Had Deputy Prime Minister Gillard not invited
Chancellor Klein to “share his reform experience,” I might have
suggested he visit Australia to learn a thing or two about education.
His seven years in New York City have failed to demonstrate even a
rudimentary understanding of teaching, learning or leadership. There is
not a sliver of difference between Chancellor Klein’s education
policies and those of George W Bush. In fact, you might call Klein, the
“Donald Rumsfeld of education”.
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Public Access -
General Articles
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Monday, 01 December 2008 |
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LABOR’S EDUCATION COUNTER-REVOLUTION by Rob
Durbridge, AEU Federal Industrial Officer State and Territory Labor
governments are “pattern bargaining” against the AEU and its associated
state unions to remove education quality guarantees from industrial
agreements.
Howard’s Workchoices proscribed staffing guarantees as unlawful;
Minister Gillard recently announced that the new IR laws will proscribe
matters which don’t pertain to employment. This breaks an ALP promise
to allow free collective bargaining.
Some of the quality guarantees in public education systems have
stood for thirty years or more following union campaigns to reduce
class sizes and workloads, to improve the quality of public education.
In one way or another, these are now under threat.
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