Lyndsay Howarth, B Ed, Skennars Head
What a sad, sad federal government we’ve got! It’s supposed to be a Labor government. Its following comes from those who care about the future of our kids. It’s the party who are in it for the long haul (especially education)… not just the quick profit like the Liberals… or so I thought!
Gonski never said to undermine the universities! Gonski didn’t say we should tear down our kids’ future in order to satisfy the short term needs of schools now!
What this is really all about is their legislation, which makes kids stay at school or Centrelink’s Youth Allowance won’t be available to them. This is a terrible thing to do to our brightest… making them study in their senior years when things get serious alongside resentful, underemployed, disruptive kids who demand a lot more teacher attention and could be more positively directed to find their strengths.
Universities are also to suffer enrolment shortages in the education faculty due to this particular deal with the states, which will be required to set a minimum HSC (whatever it is now called) result for entry level teachers.
This is a bad thing. Some of the best teachers are those who struggled to get there… and suddenly their world opens up when they hit uni and all those high school insecurities disappear. They are grateful to be there and work hard and they make excellent teachers as they understand the learner. This is most certainly what happened to me.
What unis will be left with are some who genuinely want to do teaching and happy with their lot. But mostly they will be left with those who tried so very hard to get into law or medicine but couldn’t make the grade. They are unstable and resentful and make terrible teachers. Teaching is unlike any other study…
Gillard is setting up our schools to be training camps, forcing universities to be self funding and reducing the quality of the students they will get. This is not a plan for the future and will see us become the laughing stock of the world with our ‘The DUMB Country’ branding.
So where do you get the funding for Gonski? Casinos, mining, booze. They are all ripping off our future and ripping off our families and ripping off our heritage… they should pay!
Julia Gillard must be a Liberal Party ‘plant’… I can’t think of any other reason this stream of injustices (not to forget the single parent fiasco) has entered into Labor Party policies. Attacking families is not the way to win votes and I am positively frightened at the prospect of Abbott as it stomps forward as a reality each time the Labor Party open their mouths.
Where are you, Paul?
RIP sanity or any hope of social equality – one percenters have the floor!
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
