WHAT A DISGRACE!

Australian kids are having to go to hospital in order to learn how to read. The problem is particularly bad in the State of Victoria -- which has Australia's most Left-wing government. That the schools are being run for the benefit of the teachers rather than for the students is the obvious conclusion

Children's clinics at hospitals across the country are clogged with patients whose real problem is their inability to read rather than a medical ailment, says the chairman of the Federal Government's inquiry into reading. Ken Rowe, appointed last week to head the national inquiry into the teaching of literacy, said psychology clinics at hospitals were straining to cope with the deluge of children seeking medical attention for problems caused by their failure to learn to read at school. "Hospitals are complaining that their clinics are being filled with kids who are being referred for things like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder," he said. "But once the pediatricians sort out the children's literacy problems, the behaviour problems disappear. What is essentially an education issue has become a health issue."

The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne is overhauling its clinical services after an internal audit revealed that a quarter of all children who attended the emergency department and other outpatient services for medical help were diagnosed as having non-medical conditions such as learning difficulties and behaviour problems. Vicki Anderson, director of the hospital's department of psychology, said she and her colleagues were stunned by the audit's findings on all outpatient referrals to the hospital. "The figures show that families and GPs are voting with their feet to see pediatricians to deal with these kinds of non-medical problems, when they should be dealt with in the education department," Professor Anderson said.

About 500 children have been treated at the hospital's Learning Difficulties Centre in the past year; demand for its services has almost doubled each year for the past five years. Professor Anderson said many children who were sent to the clinic because their teachers, families and GPs believed they had ADHD did not have the condition. Rather, the child's inattention or poor behaviour in class was secondary to their failure to learn to read at school.

"ADHD is clearly overdiagnosed," Professor Anderson said. "The appeal of a pill for ADHD is much easier than arranging twice-a-week remedial reading sessions. It's cheaper for the school and much less time-consuming to put an ADHD label on these kids. By doing that, you put the problem on the child, not on the system." Professor Anderson said specialists in charge of child psychology clinics at large hospitals in other states had similar concerns about the growing number of struggling readers attending their clinics. She said families often sought help at the hospital's learning difficulties clinic because they faced long waiting times at schools - sometimes up to six months - to have their child's learning problems assessed by educational psychologists employed by the education department.

A spokesman for Victoria's education department said the department was unaware of long waiting lists for assessment of learning problems. "The department is quick to assist any students who are struggling to learn," he said.

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CHOICE FOR BLACK PARENTS ONLY (IN AUSTRALIA)

Why not for all?

Aboriginal parents will have a say in selecting teachers and managing public schools that will open for extended hours under sweeping changes to be announced by the State Government. Reclassifying schools with high concentrations of Aboriginal students as "community schools" would eventually affect 50 to 150 schools, the Minister for Education, Andrew Refshauge, confirmed yesterday. Aboriginal parents on new school management boards would hand-pick staff in consultation with the principal, the schools would have flexible hours - for after-hours and holiday use - and be able to focus on Aboriginal culture and languages. The measures are recommended in a yet-to-be-released review of Aboriginal education obtained by the Herald.

In another state first, Dr Refshauge indicated yesterday that community school teachers may be paid based on their performance, rather than the union award, a measure supported by the Federal Government but opposed by teacher unions. He said the community schools and personalised study plans for 33,600 Aboriginal school students would be implemented in 2006 as part of a 10-year scheme to raise the low academic standards of indigenous students. The study plans will be developed between the school and family and could include home reading strategies and school attendance agreements.

The Government has not decided if the boards of the community schools would control their budgets, which would set a precedent in NSW public schools, where funding is allocated for specific purposes by a centralised bureaucracy. "We haven't determined what is the best way of handling that," Dr Refshauge said.

The senior vice-president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Angelo Gavrielatos, said devolving budgets to schools would "cut them adrift" from the Department of Education and allow the Government to shift responsibility for poor academic performance to the Aboriginal communities. He said the union was prepared to vary teaching awards so these schools could open for 48 weeks a year and negotiate other industrial issues that were "above minimum staffing agreements". "But we will not tolerate the politics of deregulation ... where governments devolve budgets and in doing so shift responsibility and, more importantly, blame," he said.

The review by the Department of Education was ordered by Dr Refshauge after decades of poor school results by Aboriginal students. Now comprising 4.5 per cent of public school enrolments, fewer than 40 per cent of Aboriginal students finish year 12 - half the rate of all other students - and truancy is a serious problem from late primary school onwards. The new school model will include financial incentives to attract experienced teachers to remote towns, with the "possibility that performance pay could be part of it", Dr Refshauge said.

More here

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

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