Between 40% and 50% of graduate teachers leave teaching within the first five years. Surveys reveal that they feel burnt out, unsupported, frustrated and disillusioned. Research shows that long-serving teachers are retiring early 鈥 if they can afford to 鈥 and most are feeling utterly spent.
Mary Merkenich
Climate change is not just a scientific or technical problem, nor can it be solved in the 鈥渦sual鈥 way. Instead, people need to get organised and develop solutions that improve lives and communities as well as protect the environment.
This was the central theme behind the 鈥淐reating a climate for change鈥 public meeting held on August 11 in the Northcote Town Hall. The meeting was organised by the Melbourne Playback Theatre Company and Darebin Climate Action Now.
Boys at Xavier College, an expensive Catholic boys school, abused students from government schools on a Facebook VCE forum late last year, according to the Herald Sun.
The Xavier students' put downs included 鈥渞etards鈥 and 鈥減ovo fucks鈥. Girls were told to 鈥渓et the men handle business鈥 and 鈥淐ould all woman please refrain from expressing there (sic) opinions thank you.鈥 Obviously, the $25,000-a-year school isn't very good at teaching literacy skills.
The focus of discussion about women in sport 鈥 specifically the discrimination they face, the lack of support and promotion, the disinterest from the media and the huge pay differences between female and male athletes 鈥 has overwhelmingly been on the elite or national level.
Sport is a huge feature of Australian society, and the way it is promoted helps shape our view of men and women.
So it was refreshing to see a female sports commentator, Stephanie Brantz, leading the discussion on the ABC during the men鈥檚 football (soccer) Asian Cup held last month in Australia. The resources and media dedicated to this event, however, is something that women athletes and sports teams can only dream about.
Many women athletes and teams have achieved great success, but only a few achieve the esteem and popularity of Dawn Fraser or Kathy Freeman.
Elephants, rhinoceroses and lions are being killed in Africa in record numbers. Despite the work of authorities to stop the practice of poaching, 1020 rhinos were poached in South Africa last year. The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa says only 344 arrests were made that year. At the same time, more lions were killed in South Africa than rhinos. At this rate, lions will be extinct in the wild in less than 20 years.
Since 1971 the Leadbeater's possum has been a faunal emblem of Victoria. This possum is now critically endangered due to loss of habitat from decades of clearfell logging and bushfires.
The Leadbeater's possum is restricted to small pockets of remnant old growth mountain ash forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, north-east of Melbourne.
The recent media attention given to the case of 鈥渂aby Gammy鈥 鈥 the child of an Australian couple born to a surrogate mother in Thailand, and left in her care by his parents allegedly because he was born with a disability 鈥 has led to suggestions that rules around surrogacy should be changed.
The rates of surrogacy in Australia are very low. In 2011, only 80 women volunteered for it, the reported on August 10.
Three quarters of Victorians believe improvements in public transport are more important than the construction of the East West Link.
Although its stated aim is to ease congestion, in particular on one of Melbourne鈥檚 most congested roads, a government report revealed late last year that it would actually attract more cars and trucks and consequently increase traffic.
Victorian planning minister Matthew Guy approved stage one of the East West Link toll road on June 30, ignoring key recommendations from the planning panel to reduce impacts from the project.
Guy said he had granted relevant approvals for the project on the condition that the Linking Melbourne Authority redesign parts of the project.
Pasi Sahlberg is an educator and past policy advisor in Finland, author of books on education and currently a visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University鈥檚 Graduate School of Education. He spoke to a meeting of teachers and union activists in Melbourne on June 19.
He agreed with what Australian teachers have argued for years: that great schools are well funded on a needs basis, are not publicly ranked for performance, have small classes, have teachers that are highly regarded and trusted and value all subject areas equally.
Trade unionists and community activists held a forum called "After the budget, build the fightback" in Melbourne on May 24 organised by the Socialist Alliance to discuss joint actions to campaign against the federal budget.
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