Norrian Rundle

  • How NAPLAN is failing our students

    In late June, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland announced a joint review into the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy, known as NAPLAN. Many educators would be happy to see the end of standardised testing. But this review is no guarantee this will happen, even if NAPLAN is scrapped.

  • Gonski review right on need for more public education funding

    The recently released independent Gonski review into school funding reaffirms what many teachers and parents already knew. Current school funding arrangements are dysfunctional and inequitable and the failure to reform the way we resource our public schools has come at an immense social and economic cost. Gonski’s recommendations are far from perfect and recommend continued public funding of elite private schools. But they do highlight the need for an immediate injection of funds into public schools. The problem

  • Pay deal for Vic teachers

    On May 5, Victorian Premier John Brumby and education minister Bronwyn Pike announced that they had struck a deal with the Victorian Australian Education Union (AEU) over teachers’ pay. While there are several aspects of the agreement to be finalised, the government decided to go public and claimed that Victorian teachers are now the highest-paid teachers in Australia.

  • Victorian teachers\' pay dispute close to settlement

    Victorian public school teachers are close to reaching a settlement with the state Labor government on a new pay and conditions agreement. Their previous enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) expired in August, and they have not had a pay rise since October 2006.

  • Catholic teachers take stopwork action

    Over 4000 Victorian Independent Education Union (VIEU) members from Catholic schools stopped work for 24 hours on March 7 in support of their enterprise bargaining agreement.

  • Brumby forces teachers to strike

    Members of the Australian Education Union (AEU) employed in Victorian public schools will stop work for 24 hours on February 14 as part of their campaign for a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) with the state government.

  • Victorian teachers to strike

    The first negotiations between the state government and Victorian teachers following a 10,000 strong November 21 stop-work meeting bore no fruit according to a November 30 press release by the Australian Education Union’s (AEU) Victorian branch.

  • A rude schooling in the struggle for better education

    BY MARY MERKENICH & NORRIAN RUNDLE Victorian teachers have been sold out again by their union, following its decision to abandon a campaign for increased schools funding in the state budget. The Australian Education Union had called a stopwork

  • Victorian teachers offered sham agreement

    Victorian teachers offered sham agreement BY NORRIAN RUNDLE & MICHAEL O'REILLY MELBOURNE — After seven years of working under no certified agreement on pay and conditions, Victorian teachers have finally been offered one — but it

  • Teachers in front line against privatisation

    MELBOURNE — Australian Education Union (AEU) members at two state schools have taken action over moves to privatise state schools. Sandringham Secondary College and Blackburn High School are in the front line

  • AEU leaders replace industrial action with levy

    MELBOURNE — Victorian Australian Education Union members are very angry at the unprecedented votes in February by the union's council to impose a $100 compulsory levy on all members but to take no industrial action for the next