As part of National Science Week, the Turnbull Government will provide $10 million for CSIRO to extend the Scientist and Mathematicians in Schools programme. The programme links practising scientists, mathematicians, engineers and IT professionals with classroom teachers and their students. “The Turnbull Government is focused on inspiring the next generation of young Australians to…
E&OE TRANSCRIPT 12/08/2016 Simon Birmingham: Thanks Ian for that introduction. Always a pleasure when somebody goes back and looks at your maiden speech especially when it’s a speech given almost 10 years ago and with a tiny element of trepidation when you’re sitting in the audience and somebody says they’re about to quote from it.…
The latest data from the early education and care sector shows the Turnbull Government has continued the downward trend in child care price increases. Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham said new departmental data showed average child care hourly fees grew by 5.2 per cent in the year to September 2015, well-below the…
Matthew Abraham: David always hits the live button to Facebook as if it’s a ticking bomb on his phone. Nothing can possibly go wrong, in his spare time he has devised the census computer system. Penny Wong: That’s working as well [indistinct]. David Bevan: I think it’s working. Matthew Abraham: Yes, yes, yes, the Facebook…
I would like to acknowledge: • Elder Songwoman Maroochy for the Welcome to Country and pay my respects to all of Australia’s Indigenous people and in particular the Turrbal nation, the traditional owners of the land on which the Conference is being held. • Professor Geoff Masters AO, Chief Executive Officer, ACER • Distinguished international…
Steve Austin: Well earlier this year it was revealed that nearly three-quarters of state high school teachers weren’t adequately qualified to teach maths and science. The Australian Education Union report which revealed this was rejected by the State Education Minister Kate Jones but the Queensland Teachers Union at the time said they weren’t surprised. Well…
Interviewer: Minister, I really appreciate your time for us here at Seven. Can I ask you, how bad is the shortage of maths and science teachers? Simon Birmingham: Well, we know there are potentially hundreds of vacancies for maths and science teachers around the country, but many, many more who are underqualified in terms of…
David Penberthy: Well the big education story this week was the release of the very depressing NAPLAN figures yesterday morning, where across the entire country there’d been no significant improvement across the board in the literacy standards of our kids, and in South Australia it was a particularly bleak result where improvement was only registered…
Adam Shand: Right, let’s talk about NAPLAN. The results are in, and there’s a plateauing of performance of students in the NAPLAN according to the results. The only one to buck the trend is Western Australia. When NAPLAN was on, okay, we had a number of calls from parents in Western Australia who said our…
Carrie Bickmore: Well, Senator Simon Birmingham is the Education Minister and he joins us now. Minister, as we’ve just heard, NAPLAN results are plateauing. We’re falling behind by international standards. Our education system just doesn’t seem to be in a good place at the moment. As Education Minister, that can’t be a great feeling? Simon…