WACOT - Will "Hercules" McGowan put Carpenter's Hydra out of its misery?
The Desert rat read in today’s “Sunday Times” that Mark McGowan the Minister for Education, is unimpressed with the Western Australian College of Teaching (WACOT) Board.
If you had any doubt about Alan Carpenter being the worst Minister for Education for decades, just examine the WACOT mess. Carpenter was responsible for the legislation and who better to make a mess of it. As usual, what was needed wasn’t what we got. The Desert Rat feels for Dr Susanne Parry who has been afflicted with this impossible job.
It has taken the threat of a shortage of teachers partly caused by WACOT and the threat of PLATO (the group against OBE) candidates being elected to the WACOT Board for McGowan to feign those concerns.
Mark, just front the creator of this expensive useless monstrosity, Alan Carpenter, and tell him you are going to strip it back to a Registration Board. Remember it was political interference that stopped the election of teacher representatives earlier this year because Carpenter thought PLATO would get control of WACOT and not the SSTUWA.
The Desert Rat wonders why we don’t have a simple Teachers’ Registration Board that vets teachers’ qualifications, police record and competency. All existing trained teacher should have just been required to fill out a statutory declaration that they held a recognised qualification for teaching, declare any offenses involving children or adults and attach a sworn resume. There are severe penalties for swearing false statutory declarations.
How many teachers employed under the old system have been refused registration under WACOT? None I expect!
New teachers should be vetted, checking qualifications, competency (if any) and police records. All teachers should be required to advise the Board of any charges pending for sexual abuse or neglect of children. In all cases the onus should be on the teacher to declare.
What have we got? An expensive headless chook that talks about leadership; is politics ridden; has the same failed “eternal” board members (politically connected) who were the authors of all the 1990’s Barnett inspired and his disciple Carpenter dumbing down of the education system.
Outcomes based education, the Curriculum Framework, and the incomprehensible meaningless school report system. They all will go eventually but face has to be saved so it will take years. The WACOT mouthpieces talk incessantly about leadership but how can such a body, burdenened with so much deadwood, ever show any?
We now have 600 teachers who haven’t paid their $70 fee, who are being threatened with deregistration when they already can’t staff schools.
The Desert Rat reregistered in 2002 and was promptly vetted by the small group of two or three officers in the Education Department at no cost and did 3 months relief teaching in remote areas. A fee of $20 was payable for a police clearance.
On wishing to help out last year with the shortage of maths, physics and chemistry teachers as well as literacy teachers, he enquired about a job as a relief teacher in the Kimberley or Pilbara only to be told that he had to reregister through WACOT. Well what a shambles. He had to pay $125 application fee, $25 for another police clearance and $70 to register. It took 3 or 4 months for them to register him and the new school year had started. In the meantime he returned his usual profession on four times the daily salary – and so they missed the opportunity of a sought after science teacher.
Since he registered, the nosey WACOT Board and bureaucrats want to know everything about what he thinks, what he wants, what he might want, what he thinks of them, what they should do. Well the Desert Rat is aware of a letter written to a Carpenter appointed WACOT board Chairman Brian Lindberg about an issue and never got the courtesy of a reply – so why should we bother responding to these eternal professional committee hacks who have little idea about what is needed!
WACOT in its latest bid to find some purpose is now commissioning research into classroom activities using teachers’ registration fees. What will these unelected idiots on the WACOT Board do next with OUR money?
Poor old Ljil Ravlich, well she struggled, but all of her trouble was the legacy of Carpenter’s incompetency when he was Minister for Education. Her crisis has given McGowan some political authority to change the bankrupt Carpenter legacy.
For God’s sake Hercules, hurry up!!
Months ago, McGowan had the opportunity to rein in the idiots at WACOT on his own initiative - and in doing so, demonstrate strength of character and a commitment to act forcefully in the public interest.
ReplyDeleteHe failed to take that opportunity and has now been forced to act - apparently unwillingly - in order to stave off a complete meltdown of the State School system and, regrettably, only after enormous harm has been done to teacher morale.
The situation demonstrates McGowan's immaturity and timid character. He is ill-suited to ministerial office and has survived only due to the patronage of Jim McGinty, who needs the support of McGowan (ever a willing lap-dog) and his factional colleagues to maintain the Socialist Left's control of the Labor Caucus.