More things to worry about with education

FEDERAL Education Minister Simon Birmingham, described the Naplan results as a “real concern”.

Results for writing have particularly slumped. For Queensland Education Minister Kate Jones and her ministry bureaucrats, there are more pressing issues to pursue than Naplan improvements.

The ministry mandarins must be losing sleep thinking how to stop those pesky primary age Christian children, talking about Jesus in the playground or worse still, giving out Christmas cards.

The only silver lining in this issue is, if the kids are unable to write properly, what harm can be done if what they write cannot be easily understood?

Honestly, there is a classic case here in Education Queensland, of idiotic policy clouding very real problems and the Minister with her bureaucrats have their heads in the sands of education. What are they doing about knives and other weapons brought into schoolyards?

Another issue, in Sydney almost 20 high schools have had instances of students being victims of attempted Islamic radicalisation. It would be naive to suggest this could not happen in Queensland. Add to all this the violence against teachers and work stress they endure, then surely there are worse things to worry about than Christmas cards from little kids. — PETER KNOBEL, Toowoomba

Republic issue

SO FEDERAL opposition leader, Bill Shorten, says “We need an Australian head of state”.

I have some news for you, Mr Shorten – we have an Australian head of state – the Governor-General.

This was made clear by former secretary to five Australian Governors-General, Sir David Smith, in an interview with Peter Hardwick (The Chronicle, Feb 15, 2005).

The first paragraph of this feature surely sums up our constitutional arrangements, when Sir David is quoted as saying, “Australia did not need to move to a republic to seek independence; it was already independent and our Governor-General is our head of state.”

The preceding paragraph raises the question: is Mr Shorten really ignorant of the role of the Governor -General, or is he deliberately attempting to mislead us?

Some more news for you, Mr Shorten.

In the 1999 referendum, a majority of people in a majority of states voted against Australia becoming a republic.

I suggest you leave it there and concentrate on more serious matters such as Australia’s escalating debt.

Another interesting quote by Sir David Smith:

“There’s no such thing as ‘A’ republic.

“By my count, there are 104 republics in the world and they are all different”. — G. PATCH, Toowoomba