Friday 29th of March 2024

educashun priorities...

educashun priorities...

 

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli says a protest in Sydney over education cuts will do nothing to change the government's mind.
Premier Barry O'Farrell is slashing the state's education spending by $1.7 billion, impacting on schools, public and private, as well as TAFEs.
The government has remained firm since it made the announcement in September, despite criticism from teachers and the risk of industrial action."Of course we have heard the message," Mr Piccoli told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

"We are in difficult budget times and I think the responsible thing to do is to take measures in the back office, in the bureaucracy, to make sure we've got those dollars to invest in the front line," he said.
"This year we've got more than 500 more teachers than we had last year."
Mr Piccoli said reports of an extra billion dollars in the NSW budget because of accounting errors were inaccurate and the restructure within the education department was already underway.
"There are lots of elements to it. Most of them have begun, some of them have indeed finished, but it is a big process...
"We have made no secret that we are deleting positions from the bureaucracy...
"The government has made it pretty clear what it needs to do, we won't be changing the decision that we have made."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-government-remains-firm-on-education-cuts-20121118-29jwc.html#ixzz2CZ7QicFR


Meanwhile at the coal face:

Local Member and Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli today announced that Junee High School has been granted funding to record and document the oral history of local veterans.

Mr Piccoli said that the grant was part of the Youth Category of the Anzac Community Grants Program.

"These recordings will be lodged with the State Library and curriculum support websites and will be a real help in educating school children and young people in general about the Anzac legacy," Mr Piccoli said.

Mr Piccoli said that Junee High was one of 16 successful applications by schools, which is something to be very proud of.

"I congratulate the school community on the effort they have made to prepare an application for this grant funding.

Environment Trust Grants for Murrumbidgee Electorate

Member for Murrumbidgee Adrian Piccoli congratulates Hanwood Public School and St Patrick's Catholic Primary School which have both been awarded Food Gardens in Schools grants totalling $7,000 from the NSW Government's Environmental Trust.
The NSW Environmental Trust is an independent statutory body established by the NSW government to fund a broad range of organisations to undertake projects that enhance the environment of NSW."Hanwood Public School will receive a grant of $3,500 to expand the existing school garden by at least double, sell the produce to the local community and then use market garden profits to continue to improve the school's garden," Mr Piccoli said.
"St Patrick's Catholic Primary School will receive a Food Gardens in Schools grant of $3,500 to establish and run a food garden built from recycled materials and planted with heirloom varieties that represent students' varied cultural backgrounds". "These two Schools are only two of 25 schools across NSW to receive a Food Gardens in schools grant, which is an excellent, practical learning experience for the school's students, teaching them about sustainable horticultural practices and encouraging healthy eating habits at the same time," Mr Piccoli said. "This is an excellent outcome for both of these schools and I congratulate the teachers and students for achieving such a great result for these highly sought after grants." Minister for the Environment, Robyn Parker, said:  "The NSW Government has committed more than $2 million to this round of environmental trust grants and the benefit this investment will bring will be many times greater."
"It is great to see both of these schools taking such an active role in environmental education and undertaking projects that will provide a great learning effect," Mr Piccoli concluded.
ENDS Media Contact: Murrumbidgee Electorate Office 6962 6644

http://www.adrianpiccoli.com.au/

AND IN THE TRENCHES:

Wednesday 17 October 2012 
CHILDREN TAUGHT TO KEEP ANZAC SPIRIT ALIVE 
Special projects funded by the NSW Government to help school children and young people learn about the Anzac legacy, were today announced by Minister for Citizenship and Communities Victor Dominello. 
Mr Dominello said 16 schools and not-for-profit organisations will share in more than $60,000 in the first round of youth grants as part of the Anzac Community Grants program. 
“It is vital that our younger generations understand and honour the enormous sacrifices that Australian soldiers have made throughout our nation’s history,” he said. 
“This funding enables schools and other organisations to engage children in the Anzac legacy, with a particular focus on using web and multimedia technologies to share old stories with a modern audience. 
http://www.communities.nsw.gov.au/assets/pubs/media/citizenship_communities/121017_Anzac_community_grants.pdf
NOTE: ALL THE RECIPIENTS APPEAR TO BE IN THE NATIONALS ELECTORATE...
 

fighting the morons in the NSW government...

Organisers say more than 3000 people gathered in Sydney's Darling Harbour on Sunday to protest against sweeping education cuts in NSW, which will affect the state's public and private schools as well as TAFE colleges.

Similar events were staged in towns around the state.

The sun came out for the fair-style protest in Sydney and children clapped along to performances from public school students and local singers.

Some of the loudest applause was reserved for NSW Teachers Federation president Maurie Mulheron, who was given a standing ovation as he promised to fight the government's cuts.

"While ever we've got fight within us, we will fight this for as long as it takes," he told reporters earlier on Sunday.

"The community of NSW will not stand by idly and allow them to rip jobs and courses out of our TAFE colleges and schools."



Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/nsw-govt-remains-firm-on-education-cuts/story-e6frfku9-1226518959972#ixzz2CZCD1EYx

an unethical NSW government...

 

PARENTS will not be told of the availability of ethics classes in their school until after they have opted out of special religious education, or scripture, under changes to be adopted by the state government.
A government-initiated parliamentary inquiry into ethics classes advocated the approach in April, angering supporters who claimed it was designed to impede their take-up in schools.
The Education Minister, Adrian Piccoli, confirmed on Tuesday that ethics classes will be retained in NSW schools but said the government would introduce the new system. This means parents will be first offered a place in scripture classes and only told about ethics in a follow-up letter if they opt out.
The Greens MP John Kaye described the change as ''a massive road block'' to parents being informed of ethics classes.
''The government will now force schools to hide the existence of ethics classes,'' he said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/opting-out-of-religion-only-way-in-to-ethics-20121204-2atad.html#ixzz2E75DbPr9

 

water over the bridge...

 

EXPLOSIVE documents reveal the family of Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid secretly has a $3.4 million investment in a water company with an exclusive 25-year agreement with the O'Farrell government.

This is despite the company's head, Nick Di Girolamo - a close associate of the Obeid family - denying in December that the Obeids were involved in Australian Water Holdings.

The financial records revealing the stake were tendered on Wednesday to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, which began its hearings last month into allegations that a former NSW minister for energy, Ian Macdonald, provided inside information to the Obeids about coal exploration licences.

The ICAC inquiry follows a long-term investigation by Fairfax Media journalists into the granting of coal licences and, more recently, into Australian Water Holdings.

Mr Obeid's pecuniary interest forms tabled in Parliament have indicated that for many years his sole source of income was his upper house salary of $130,000.

However, documents tendered to the commission on Wednesday revealed that some of the $18 million which has flowed through the Obeid Family Trust No.1 over recent years found its way to Mr Obeid. For instance, in May 2010 Mr Obeid was ''loaned'' $220,000 for the purchase of a unit in Port Macquarie.

The corruption inquiry also heard yesterday that Mr Obeid used some of the $15 million in profits from his family's sale of shares in allegedly corruptly awarded mining tenements to acquire a $400,000 Mercedes-Benz, while his wife, Judith, made a deposit on an $8.5 million waterfront mansion in Woolwich. The sale was due to be completed after the March 2011 state election but did not proceed.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/revealed-obeids-3m-water-stake-20130123-2d7j3.html#ixzz2IpmrFMTp

Meanwhile Bazza in chief  has decided to discriminate against public service workers... I suppose this could make intresting news about whose private company would get "public works" contracts... A recipe for more corruption?... Who knows... but definitively discriminatory... See toon at top...

 

ethical decisions ....

Providers of ethics classes will be given the same tax deductions as for scripture classes, alleviating the threat of the lessons becoming financially unviable.

The federal government will announce on Monday that it has reversed its decision not to grant deductible gift recipient status to ethics providers, which means they will now be able to collect tax deductible donations.

Primary Ethics, which provides the classes in NSW schools, said the decision would enable it to train more volunteers and reach more students.

Last month Fairfax Media reported that the Labor government had rejected Primary Ethics' request for gift recipient status and the organisation warned that lack of funds threatened the future of its program.

The decision was criticised by the NSW Greens and Verity Firth, who, as Labor education minister, introduced the classes in 2010. But in a surprising turnaround, the government said it will expand the gift recipient categories to include organisations approved by state or territory governments to provide ethics classes in public schools.

The present tax laws allow deductions for special religious education class providers but not for ethics class providers.

Primary Ethics chairman Bruce Hogan said that if the situation had not changed, his organisation was heading towards a financial ''cliff edge'' by the middle of next year.

The organisation is the only approved provider of ethics classes in Australia and its 800 volunteers teach about 8000 students in 200 NSW schools.

But, as revealed this year, many students are turned away because there are not enough trained volunteers to meet the demand.

Mr Hogan said Primary Ethics, which receives no government funding, would now be in a position to train some of the 350 volunteers who had registered interest on their website. ''We will be able to continue to grow towards our target of 4000 volunteers and build the infrastructure needed to implement our strategy to extend Primary Ethics' reach into western and south-western Sydney and across regional NSW,'' he said.

Assistant federal Treasurer David Bradbury said the earlier request from Primary Ethics was rejected because amending tax laws to name individual organisations would be a time-consuming and uncertain process.

"The Gillard government wants to support ethics classes in government schools through the provision of the … tax concession but making individual organisations jump through hoops to be specifically named in the tax laws is not the right approach,'' he said.

"Expanding the … categories … to providers of ethics classes is a better and more principled way.''

A spokesman for the Parents4Ethics lobby group, David Hill, said parents would be grateful to Mr Bradbury for finding a solution that would allow the teaching of ethics to continue.

The amendment is expected to be presented to Parliament in the winter session.

Ethics Come In From The Cold After Labor U-turn