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Union faces legal threat
Over 45,000 teachers went on strike in NSW in May . Picture : Jenny Evans / Getty Images .
NSW government sues union over strikes .
The NSW education department has launched legal proceedings against the state ’ s largest education union over a series of teachers ’ strikes held in May .
According to Supreme Court documents obtained by the Daily Telegraph , the NSW Teachers Federation ( NSWTF ) breached orders to refrain from industrial action by the NSW Industrial Relations Committee ( IRC ).
The lawsuit claims the IRC ordered the union to not engage in any strike action from December till May 31st this year .
The May strikes , which involved more than 45,000 union members , saw thousands of teachers march on NSW
Parliament to demand better wages and working conditions .
Court documents allege that around 450 schools were closed as a result .
In a statement to the Telegraph , NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said the government was only interested in “ silencing teachers and principals ”.
The lawsuit filing followed a joint statement from the NSWTF and the NSW Independent Education Union of Australia ( IEUA ), which gave the NSW government a one-week deadline to fix the “ teacher shortage crisis ”.
Both unions have rejected the NSW government ’ s 3 per cent pay rise offer for public sector workers .
The statement said the premier had seven days to increase his wages policy for teachers or else “ an appropriate course of action ” would be taken .
“ The policy does nothing to address unsustainable workloads or staffing shortages ,” said IEUA NSW branch secretary Mark Northam .
“ It still represents a real pay cut for school staff while keeping workloads at unsustainable levels .”
In March , a Guardian analysis showed that more than 4,000 extra high school teachers will be needed nationally over the next four years , with NSW predicted to be one of the hardest hit states .
According to ‘ secret education department documents ’, teacher pay has fallen relative to pay in other professions since the late 1980s , said Gavrielatos .
“ At a time when inflation is more than 5 per cent , the Government ’ s updated policy represents a real wage cut ,” he said .
“ Unfortunately , the Perrottet Government continues to fail students , their families and the teaching profession .” ■
Boys to the back
Persistent gender gap in HSC , first-year university results .
Young men are less likely to attain an ATAR and are performing lower in their university courses than women , University Admissions Centre ( UAC ) data has shown .
In 2020 , boys were “ significantly underrepresented ” in the 38-98.7 ATAR range , despite accounting for 46.9 per cent of students attaining an HSC that year .
The median ATAR for girls has been consistently higher . In 2021 the median ATAR for girls was 71.80 and the median for boys was 68.70 .
The UAC analysis , which looked at ATAR scaling data since 2017 , concluded that boys were 16.9 per cent less likely to be awarded an HSC .
Analysts believe this is due to a range of factors , including “ a combination of boys not performing as well as girls placed at similar points in the gender ability spectrum , and , more importantly , boys choosing study patterns that do not make them eligible for an ATAR or an HSC ”.
In NSW , young boys are seven times more likely to be suspended from school than girls .
Gender disparities in school continue into university , the UAC analysis found , with boys enrolling at lower rates and more likely to fail their subjects than girls .
This has occurred across socioeconomic backgrounds , the report said .
“ Boys enrol at university at lower rates and have worse outcomes than girls ,” the authors concluded .
“ The effect of being male was greater than any of the other recognised disadvantages we looked at .” ■
2 | educationreview . com . au