With the raging success of performance-based pay for teachers in America, Australia’s Federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop, today announced that a trial for the same will start in 2009.
The proof of the success of this method of paying teachers is evidenced by the fact that teachers in America have been said to give students some answers to exam questions in order to improve their performance and ensure job security and a good salary.
When will governments learn that the best way to improve the standard of education is to pay teachers a fair wage and encourage them to stay in the profession rather than make their lives even harder through red tape and administrative tasks? Or perhaps the Australian government is actively trying to destroy the public education system in order to enhance the value of private schools and justify the exorbitant government grants
they receive.
Update
Just saw a related article in The Age which points to the Center for Teaching Quality web site, which hosts the 50 page PDF document describing the “Performance-Pay for teachers” plan. I haven’t read it in whole, but it’s interesting to note they look to Singapore as a reference of a successful implementation. They openly admit that
Singapore’s public education system equitably funds its schools, and well-prepared teachers have the resources and technology needed to help their students reach world-class standards.
Doesn’t it then stand to reason that this scheme will fail (as it did in 1920’s, 50’s and 80’s) again unless our education system mirrors that in Singapore even slightly?
It seems someone over at The Age concurs with my sentiments that the world is ever so slightly overpopulated. While humans cull species that overpopulate the world (kangaroos, rabbits, foxes, etc), the author of Memo humans: stop breeding like bunnies suggests more humane ways to reduce the population of the human species.
“…cut our population here and overseas and blind Freddy could see that we’d consume far fewer natural resources, reduce waste and pollution, and improve everybody’s quality of life…”
The article also draws attention to political issues with population, which I’ve tried not to dwell on previously, but links in to a recent change to Australia’s superannuation rules that mean people get more, and more are eligible for pensions. This news, after scare stories that the baby boomers will create an economic crisis when they start drawing their pension, seems a little backward, but makes perfect sense when you realise that the current generation retires later and saves more than the previous generation did.
On a related note, I heard an economists describe once how spending money to deal with the environmental issues the world is facing would not affect the economy as politicians would have you believe - it would not reduce the economy - it would simply reduce the rate of growth of the economy.
I just heard about VideoJug - yet another online video hosting service. I though nothing of it at first, but had a look anyway.
Not only do they accept user contributed films, they also produce their own, and say that every video they make available is vetted or produced, respectively, to ensure the highest quality and value. It looks like a combination of Wikipedia and YouTube (or Google Video).
Todays homepage highlights videos that help you give up smoking, live a greener life or improve your dating, while the most viewed films has a heavy bent on running small businesses. No sign of teenagers singing along to their favourite music or creating a video letter in response to someone’s cry for attention!
Drilling down and looking at one of these videos shows a really neat addition to the user experience: tables of contents. Each video has the ability to give the users way points in the film. Watching the movie on “Small Business and Pricing”? Why not skip right to the point where the presenter covers the definition of a price margin?
I haven’t had an in-depth look at this yet, but first impressions are pretty good. While I prefer to get access to text (most of my research is done with google and wikipedia), I imagine there will be numerous occasions were video is better. I’m not sure I’d like a video tutorial on configuring a new application, but my clients would probably appreciate a video tutorial to help them set up their email client.