18
Welcome to QETA Newsletter 5 2012. QETA NEWS 1. QETA CONFERENCE 2012: QETA is very pleased to announce that we will again be running a Conference in 2012 and the date is Saturday 21 st July at Brisbane Girls Grammar School. The program is currently being developed and you will be advised as soon as possible with regards to details of speakers, costs etc.. It will be a great Conference (as QETA Conferences always are) and you should put this in your diary now. A great opportunity to gain 7 hours of PD credit for QCOT too. We look forward to seeing many teachers of Economics at the Conference. 2. RBA SEMINARS: QETA wishes to express our thanks and appreciation to Karen Hooper, Senior Representative of the RBA in Queensland, for the seminars she presented f or students in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Toowoomba. Over 1000 students and 60 teachers participated in this program. Her presentation on the current conditions of the Australian economy is always well - received and is very useful to students. Aspects of both international and domestic economic activity are covered. Many thanks Karen! 3. MEMBERSHIP: Thanks for your subscription to QETA for 2012. Those who have not rejoined from 2011 are no longer receiving information from QETA. If you know of teachers of Economics who are not members, please do try to convince them to join. We need to remain strong as an Association, especially with the development of the Economics Curriculum as part of the Australian Curriculum. 4. QSA STATE ECONOMICS PANEL REPORT: We have placed the State Panel report for 2011. While it was largely reporting on the old syllabus, there is some interesting reading and everyone should note what it says. 5. BEA CONFERENCE: It’s just over 6 months now to the BEA Conference to be held in Sydney on4 th and 5 th October. The National Conference covers Business, Economics, legal Studies, Accounting and Technology as well as areas of wider interest and is always a great opportunity to meet professionals from other states. Details should be available in Term 2. PROFESSIONAL LEARNING QSA ECONOMICS B29 STATE PANEL REPORT This report is based on information gathered from districts and at statewide comparability. Syllabus The Economics 2004 syllabus is in its seventh and final year of implementation. The Year 12 cohort of students in 2011 was the final group to exit using this syllabus. In 2011, the Economics 2010 syllabus was implemented for the first time with Year 11 students. Schools were required to submit work programs during 2011. The 2010 syllabus is available from the QSA website at <www.qsa.qld.edu.au/11543.html>. Assessment design Across most assessment packages, it was evident that schools are designing quality assessment instruments. This provides opportunities to gather information on the extent to which students demonstrate achievement in the general objectives of the 2004 syllabus (pp. 57). The design of assessment instruments requiring research were characterised by the Inquiry approach (2004 syllabus, pp. 1617). This is also rel evant to Research assessment when implementing the 2010 syllabus (pp. 2627). Using the Economics inquiry process (2010 syllabus, p. 17), the design of most research assessments should include: • the establishment of a research question or economic problem • the generation and/or collection of primary and/or secondary data/information • independent collection of information/data from a variety of sources • the sorting and analysis of information/data examining relevance, validity and value • synthesis of information/data • development of research conclusions with justifications.

2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

  • Upload
    lynhi

  • View
    225

  • Download
    3

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

Welcome to QETA Newsletter 5 2012.

QETA NEWS1. QETA CONFERENCE 2012: QETA is very pleased to announce that we will again be running a Conference in 2012 and thedate is Saturday 21st July at Brisbane Girls Grammar School. The program is currently being developed and you will be advisedas soon as possible with regards to details of speakers, costs etc.. It will be a great Conference (as QETA Conferences alwaysare) and you should put this in your diary now. A great opportunity to gain 7 hours of PD credit for QCOT too. We look forwardto seeing many teachers of Economics at the Conference.

2. RBA SEMINARS: QETA wishes to express our thanks and appreciation to Karen Hooper, Senior Representative of the RBA inQueensland, for the seminars she presented for students in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Toowoomba. Over 1000 students and 60teachers participated in this program. Her presentation on the current conditions of the Australian economy is always well-received and is very useful to students. Aspects of both international and domestic economic activity are covered. Many thanksKaren!

3. MEMBERSHIP: Thanks for your subscription to QETA for 2012. Those who have not rejoined from 2011 are no longerreceiving information from QETA. If you know of teachers of Economics who are not members, please do try to convince themto join. We need to remain strong as an Association, especially with the development of the Economics Curriculum as part of theAustralian Curriculum.

4. QSA STATE ECONOMICS PANEL REPORT: We have placed the State Panel report for 2011. While it was largely reportingon the old syllabus, there is some interesting reading and everyone should note what it says.5. BEA CONFERENCE: It’s just over 6 months now to the BEA Conference to be held in Sydney on 4th and 5th October. TheNational Conference covers Business, Economics, legal Studies, Accounting and Technology as well as areas of wider interestand is always a great opportunity to meet professionals from other states. Details should be available in Term 2.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

QSA ECONOMICS — B29 STATE PANEL REPORTThis report is based on information gathered from districts and at statewide comparability.

SyllabusThe Economics 2004 syllabus is in its seventh and final year of implementation. The Year 12 cohort of students in 2011 was thefinal group to exit using this syllabus. In 2011, the Economics 2010 syllabus was implemented for the first time with Year 11students. Schools were required to submit work programs during 2011.The 2010 syllabus is available from the QSA website at <www.qsa.qld.edu.au/11543.html>.

Assessment designAcross most assessment packages, it was evident that schools are designing quality assessment instruments. This providesopportunities to gather information on the extent to which students demonstrate achievement in the general objectives of the2004 syllabus (pp. 5–7).

The design of assessment instruments requiring research were characterised by the Inquiry approach (2004 syllabus, pp. 16–17). This is also relevant to Research assessment when implementing the 2010 syllabus (pp. 26–27). Using the Economicsinquiry process (2010 syllabus, p. 17), the design of most research assessments should include:• the establishment of a research question or economic problem• the generation and/or collection of primary and/or secondary data/information• independent collection of information/data from a variety of sources• the sorting and analysis of information/data – examining relevance, validity and value• synthesis of information/data• development of research conclusions with justifications.

Page 2: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

For each assessment instrument, the instrument-specific standards are drawn from the syllabus dimensions (2010 syllabus, pp.3–5) and the relevant standards descriptors (2010 syllabus, pp. 31–32).

Application of standardsJudgments about student achievement are made by matching the evidence in student responses with instrument-specific criteriaand standards drawn from the syllabus standards.In the majority of sample folios, there was evidence to support the on-balance judgments which were made by schools.

Most concerns about on-balance judgments were associated with the evidence within sample folios related to Criterion 2,Interpretation, and Criterion 3, Decision-making (2004 syllabus, pp. 70–71). The A standard in Criterion 2 includes constructingcomplex meanings, the critical use of economic ideas and concepts and the identification and explanation of interrelated causes,effects, trends and patterns. For Criterion 3, the A standard includes the critical selection and use of information from diversesources and the use of established criteria to appraise the extent to which alternative ideas are appropriate, effective orsatisfying. The standard awarded is an on-balance judgment about how the qualities of the student’s work match the standardsdescriptors overall in each criterion. When making an on-balance judgment on the standard awarded, it is not necessary forstudents to have met every standard descriptor for a criterion (2004 syllabus, p. 69).

For the 2010 syllabus, the descriptors for each dimension are within the Standards matrix (pp. 31–32). The dimensions areKnowledge and understanding, Investigation, and Synthesis and evaluation.

SupportSupport materials for the Economics 2010 syllabus are available from the QSA website at <www.qsa.qld.edu.au/11543.html>.These include:• Work program requirements.• Work program review checklist.• Subject-specific advice (Highlighted standards). This document highlights different aspects in the standards and how theseaspects vary across the different standards.• Designing effective assessment instruments. This document helps teachers design effective assessment instruments that givestudents the opportunity to cover the syllabus general objectives and demonstrate the syllabus standards.• Quality assuring senior assessment instruments: A tool for schools. This is a useful tool to evaluate and refine an assessmentinstrument after it has been constructed.• Highlighted syllabus standards. This information supports schools in implementing the assessment requirements of thesyllabus. The advice supports school decision making about the approaches to assessment design and making judgments.

To receive regular updates on support materials, teachers can subscribe to the QSA News RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed.This is available from the QSA website at <www.qsa.qld.edu.au/index.html>.

QSA memos also provide educators with important information. These can be received through the memo subscriptions service.This service is available at <www.qsa.qld.edu.au/qsa_secure/memos.act>.

For information about future workshops for Economics refer to the QSA website at <www.qsa.qld.edu.au/3323.html>.

Karen Swift John LangerState Review Panel Chair Senior Education Officer

HUMAN RIGHTS WORKSHOP8:30 am – 2:30 pm, Tuesday 8 MayPresented by the Global Learning Centre, this professional learning program will feature a keynote address by criminologist andchildren’s rights advocate Gwenn Murray as well as practical advice and free resources to assist teachers to implement thisessential element of the Melbourne Declaration. It is recognised by the Queensland College of Teachers.Location: St Patrick's College, ShorncliffeCost: $33 GLC members, $44 non–GLC members, $22 pre-service teachersRegistration: via the website, glc.edu.au

AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM UPDATECivics and Citizenship: Lead writer appointedACARA is pleased to advise that Professor Murray Print has been appointed as the lead writer for Civics and Citizenship, a keysubject identified for curriculum development in the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians.Professor Print, from the University of Sydney, is a recognised leader in civics and citizenship education within Australia andinternationally.

Page 3: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

Professor Print has taken the lead role in developing an Initial Advice Paper for the Australian Curriculum: Civics and Citizenship,which outlines the proposed purpose, broad objectives and overall framework for the subject. This work has been undertakenwith the assistance of an advisory group, consisting of members with expertise in civics and citizenship education, including:

David Brown – Senior Manager (Learning Services), Education Services Australia Professor Peta Goldburg – Professor of Religious Education, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane Pat Hincks – Manager (Humanities), Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority Dr Harry Phillips – Parliamentary Fellow (Education) at the Parliament of Western Australia, Honorary Professor at Edith

Cowan University and Adjunct Professor at Curtin University of Technology Professor Alan Reid – Professor Emeritus of Education, University of South Australia Libby Tudball – Senior Lecturer (Social education), Monash University

The Initial Advice Paper for the Australian Curriculum: Civics and Citizenship is to be discussed at a National Forum to be held 19March 2012.

SHAPING TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSAThe 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor, is being held in Brisbane on 26–27 April. Asuite of promotional flyers highlights the conference sessions of particular relevance to kindergarten, early years, middle yearsand senior secondary teachers, school leaders and schools delivering VET.At less than $600 for two days, the conference is the best value for money event on the education calendar and an ideal way tomeet the continuing professional development required for renewing your registration with the Queensland College of Teachers.

MAKE THE MOST OF LITERACY AND NUMERACY INDICATORSA new information statement describes how schools can use the P–10 Literacy and Numeracy Indicators to support planning forteaching, learning, assessment and monitoring of literacy and numeracy across learning areas.

STUDY PROGRAM OPPORTUNITY FOR BUSINESS EDUCATORS

An excellent opportunity is now available for business educators to be involved in an in-country Study Program to China, takingin the four key cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.

Departing on 1st July and returning on 12th July, the ‘Riding the Iron Rooster of Economic Reform’ Study Program will assisteducators to gain insight into the historical and socio-political forces behind China’s modernisation through visits to key sites,interactions with locals and briefings from experts. Additionally, all AEF Study Programs offer activities that build capacity toimplement the Australian Curriculum.

Registrations close Friday 11 May – to view itineraries and register your interest, please visit:http://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/studytours

INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESSThe Council for International Schools invites participants to register for their conference on “International-Mindedness”, beingheld in Townsville, Queensland on 24-25 May, 2012. The conference will focus on International-Mindedness and the keyunderpinning concepts of intercultural and global competency. To find out more and register, visit the Accreditation andWorkshops tabs at: http://www.cois.org

RESOURCES1. FROM THE FEDERAL TRASURY:Speech:Secretary's Addresss to APSC Leader to Leader Series - Speech by Dr Martin Parkinson PSM - 28/2/2012http://www.treasury.gov.au/contentitem.asp?NavId=008&ContentID=2327National Accounts - December Quarter 2011The National Accounts for the final three months of last year were solid given the world was facing the most dire conditions inthe global economy since the height of the financial crisis.Read more

2. FROM THE IMFFinance and Development -- March 2012: Young people, hardest hit by the global economic downturn, are speakingout and demanding change. Coming of age in the Great Recession, the world’s youth face an uncertain future, withlengthening job lines, diminished opportunities, and bleaker prospects that are taking a heavy emotional toll. In this issue ofF&D, we look at the need to urgently address the challenges facing youth and create opportunities for them. -Harvard professorDavid Bloom lays out the scope of the problem and emphasizes the importance of listening to young people in Youth in the

Page 4: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

Balance. -“Making the Grade” looks at how to teach today’s young people what they need to get jobs. -IMF Deputy ManagingDirector, Nemat Shafik shares her take on the social and economic consequences of youth unemployment in our “Straight Talk”column. -“Scarred Generation” looks at the effects the global economic crisis had on young workers in advanced economies, andwe hear directly from young people across the globe in “Voices of Youth.” Renminbi’s rise, financial system regulation, andboosting GDP by empowering women. -Also in the magazine, we examine the rise of the Chinese currency, look at the role ofthe credit rating agencies, discuss how to boost the empowerment of women, and present our primer on macroprudentialregulation, seen as increasingly important to financial stability. People in economics: C. Fred Bergsten, American Globalist. Backto basics: The multi-dimensional role of banks in our financial systems. The best of our Back to Basics columns are now availablein one convenient page.http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/index.htmPress Release: Statement by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on G-20 Ministerial Meeting in Mexico Cityhttp://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2012/pr1258.htm"Global Challenges to Financial Stability: the Global Outlook and the Role of Macroprudential Policies" Speech byInternational Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director Min Zhuhttp://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2012/030112.htmIMF Survey: Debt Can Reshape Current Economic, Political Order—Coggan Current debt levels, which have led to asovereign debt crisis in Europe and turmoil in world markets, threaten to reshape our economic and political world order, sayseconomist Phillip Coggan.http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2012/int030812a.htmPress Release: G20 Quarterly Gross Domestic Product, fourth quarter 2011http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2012/pr1279.htm

3. FROM THE RBAFor your information the Reserve Bank of Australia this afternoon issued the Index of Commodity Prices for February 2012.You can view this statistical release at:http://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/frequency/commodity-prices/2012/icp-0212.htmlFor your information the Reserve Bank of Australia issued the Financial Aggregates for January 2012. You can view thisstatistical release at:http://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/frequency/fin-agg/2012/fin-agg-0112.htmlThe Bulletin for the March Quarter 2012 has been released by the Reserve Bank of Australia.http://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2012/mar/index.htmlThe Reserve Bank of Australia has released the March 2012 issue of the Chart Pack.You can view the Chart Pack at:http://www.rba.gov.au/chart-pack/index.htmlAn audio webcast file of Dr Philip Lowe’s speech to the Australian Industry Group 12th Annual Economic Forum isavailable on the website via the link below.http://www.rba.gov.au/speeches/2012/index.html

4. FROM THE ABS8731.0 Building Approvals, Australia (Media Release), January 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/MediaRealesesByCatalogue/8F919D91E9992461CA2568A9001362B8?OpenDocument5625.0 Private New Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure, Australia, Dec 2011http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/5625.0?OpenDocument6227.0 Education and Work, Australia, May 2011 (Replacement Content)http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/6227.0?OpenDocument8731.0 Building Approvals, Australia, January 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/8731.0?OpenDocument8501.0 Retail turnover rises 0.3% in January 2012 (Media Release), Jan 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/MediaRealesesByCatalogue/676AC4CC578D6559CA25773400204519?OpenDocument1350.0 Australian Economic Indicators, Mar 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/1350.0?OpenDocument8501.0 Retail Trade, Australia, Jan 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/8501.0?OpenDocument8755.0 Construction Work Done, Australia, Preliminary, Dec 2011http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/8755.0?OpenDocument5676.0 Business Indicators, Australia, Dec 2011http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/5676.0?OpenDocument8731.0 Building Approvals, Australia (Media Release), January 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/MediaRealesesByCatalogue/8F919D91E9992461CA2568A9001362B8?OpenDocument5625.0 Private New Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure, Australia, Dec 2011http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/5625.0?OpenDocument

Page 5: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

6227.0 Education and Work, Australia, May 2011 (Replacement Content)http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/6227.0?OpenDocument8731.0 Building Approvals, Australia, January 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/8731.0?OpenDocument6202.0 Australia's unemployment rate increased to 5.2 per cent in February 2012 (Media Release), Feb 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/MediaRealesesByCatalogue/46DFE12FCDB783D9CA256B740082AA6C?OpenDocument6202.0 Labour Force, Australia, Feb 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/6202.0?OpenDocument6321.0.55.001 Industrial Disputes, Australia, Dec 2011http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/6321.0.55.001?OpenDocument5671.0 Lending Finance, Australia, Jan 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/5671.0?OpenDocument6291.0.55.001 Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery, Feb 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/6291.0.55.001?OpenDocument6291.0.55.003 Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly, Feb 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/6291.0.55.003?OpenDocument9314.0 Sales of New Motor Vehicles, Australia, Feb 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/9314.0?OpenDocument5609.0 Housing Finance, Australia, Jan 2012http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/5609.0?OpenDocument5206.0 Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, Dec 2011http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/5206.0?OpenDocument5302.0 Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia, Dec 2011 (Replacement Content)http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/5302.0?OpenDocument

5.AUSTRALIAN DEBT CLOCKAustralian Debt Clock.com.au is dedicated to informing the Australian Public of our dependence on rising debt levels thanksto the aspirations of national economic growth and prosperity.Have a look at the massive levels of aggregate debt that Australians (and their Governments) are accumulating in real time!http://www.australiandebtclock.com.au/

6. A LESSON FOR TREASURER WAYNE SWAN... THE ECONOMICS OF "STIMULUS"

Two Economists and a Bird

www.youtube.com

http://www.objectobot.com/?p=183 Makes fun off Paul Krugman and John Maynard Keynes and theeconomic fallacies that they support. Quick funny animation that ...

6. SOMETHING IN COMMONThe Australian Human Rights Commission’s Something in common engages users with current human rights issues by startingwith facts, digging deeper into its history and inspiring action through the sharing of personal stories. Stories can be browsed bytype, author, and theme: freedom, equality, respect, and belonging. Users are invited to respond through polls, discussion andcreating their personal action plan.Check it out now at www.somethingincommon.gov.au.

7. GLOBAL POVERTY PROJECTThe Global Poverty Project’s interactive multimedia presentation 1.4 Billion Reasons for Youth is designed to educate and inspiresecondary students to get involved in initiatives tackling extreme poverty. For more information or to preview the presentationvisit www.globalpovertyproject.com.

8. CONSUMERS AND CARBON PRICE CLAIMS

Date published: 14th March 2012A carbon price will apply to certain greenhouse emissions, with some large businesses being required to purchasecarbon credits against their emissions.Some businesses may choose to absorb additional costs associated with the carbon price, while others may choose to

Page 6: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

pass additional costs on to customers by increasing the price of their goods and services.If a business tells you its prices have gone up due to the carbon price, the business has a legal obligation to ensure this is notfalse or misleading, and should seek to ensure its claim is right.A HTML version of this publication is available.No printed version of this publication is available.An electronic version of this publication is available at no cost.

Consumers and carbon price claims.pdf (241.1 KB)

9. NEW WEB 2.0 RESOURCE SUPPORTS YOUNG AUSTRALIANS TO CONNECT WITH PEERS ACROSS ASIA AND THEGLOBEThe Asia Education Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of Travelbugs, an online social learning network that allowsstudents to investigate other countries and cultures and participate in collaborative activities with peers.Through virtual travel to focus countries of China, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, students canexperience a range of teaching and learning activities online that supports them to connect with peers across the globe.Students have the opportunity to share information about themselves, write articles about the country in which they live, andcollaborate with new friends as they explore the world and share information through articles, diaries and photo albums.Travelbugs is accompanied by a resource for teachers which explores how the program can be incorporated into curriculumprograms.Travelbugs was recently launched at Marlborough Primary School in Melbourne in conjunction with the Australia-IndonesiaBRIDGE Project.To find out more about this resource, please visit: http://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/travelbugs

10. ASIA WISE COMPETITION: ENRICH STUDENT LEARNING ON ASIAThe Asia Wise Competition represents an exciting opportunity to consolidate and extend student learning about Asia.

The competition is open to all Australian students between Years 7 – 10 and can be completed online, at any stage in the schoolyear.

What teachers say: “Students really enjoy the research aspect of the Asia Wise Competition. It is more than just a memory testand is accessible to all abilities’ - Bernie Kurz, Head of SOSE – Bunbury Cathedral College, WA.For more information and to register your students visit: http://www.giantclassroom.com.au/

11.NEW OECD VIDEOS ON STRONG PERFORMERS AND SUCCESSFUL REFORMERS IN EDUCATIONA new series of documentaries produced by the OECD captures the policies and practices high performing education systemshave adopted to drive improvements in quality, equity and efficiency. The videos capture how Japan rebuilds its educationsystem in the face of the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake, how the digital age comes to Korean classrooms andSingapore’s plans for preparing its teaching force for the 21st century.To view the documentaries follow the link:http://www.oecd.org/document/7/0,3746,en_2649_35845621_49428807_1_1_1_1,00.html12.BUSINESS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIABusiness Tax Cut Debate Highlights the Pitfalls of Policy on the Run14 March 2012The BCA has issued a statement from Chief Executive Jennifer Westacott arguing that today’s debate in the federal parliamentover whether to deliver business tax cuts linked to the Minerals Resource Rent Tax legislation highlights the pitfalls of developingtax policy on the run.Comprehensive tax reform, particularly lower company tax, provides one of the greatest opportunities to support the next waveof Australia’s growth.Ms Westacott said that if the parliament gets bogged down in political brinkmanship over which businesses need a morecompetitive tax environment, or refusing to support an economy-wide reduction in the company tax rate, it will not be servingthe nation well.Read the statement at:http://www.bca.com.au/Content/101954.aspx

13. WORLD ECONOMIC FORUMReport Predicts Energy Sector to Lead Global Economic Recovery* Report highlights energy sector as engine of global economic growth with its high "employment multiplier effects", butcautions against seeing additional energy sector jobs as a universal remedy* 9% of US jobs created by the oil and gas sector in 2011* Indirect impact of energy sector on economic recovery is far greater than its direct effects suggest*Read the interactive report and watch the video

Page 7: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

New York, USA, 7 March 2012 – The energy sector has a major role to play in global economic growth and recovery, with itsindirect contributions outweighing the already considerable direct effects, according to a new World Economic Forum reportlaunched today at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas.For the full release and supporting information, please visit:http://www.weforum.org/NR_EnergyForGrowth

14. ONE DAY ON EARTH

15. ARGUS' GRIM WARNING TO AUSTRALIARobert Gottliebsen

Published 8:20 AM, 1 Mar 2012 Business Spectator

If you want to believe that all is well with the Australian economy do not read this commentary. Its inspiration comes fromformer NAB chief executive and BHP chairman Don Argus, who, fresh from setting out a blueprint which is already revitalisingAustralian cricket, has turned to the Australian economy.He has produced a set of graphs that are truly scary and show we have a deep underlying problem. Next time you hear agovernment politician say that, deep down, Australia is in good shape, understand that it’s pure spin.And just as Don Argus frightens us, so Paul Bloxham, chief economist at HSBC Australia, explains that Australia’s poorproductivity means we must brace ourselves for lower growth, higher inflation and higher interest rates. Bloxham had not seenthe Argus graphs but came to a similar conclusion with his own material.So now fasten your safety belts and study the Argus graphs. The first graph is sourced from Bank of America Merrill Lynch’sAustralian chief economist, Saul Eslake, and shows how dramatically Australia’s labour productivity has declined when comparedto the US.

click the image to enlarge

Argus says that Australian workers’ productivity relative to their US counterparts is back where it was in the late 1970s. Putsimply, over the past decade we have unwound the improvement in relative productivity that took 25 years to build between the

One Day on Earth: Women at Work

On Nov. 11, 2011, women from around the world tooka moment to answer the question: “What does it meanfor you to have a job?"

Video Playlist

Page 8: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

late 1970s and the turn of the millennium. It's easy to blame workers but in fact it's more about managers who were driven byshort-term profits and did not invest or who did silly deals with their workers which made investment uneconomic.If you were scared by the first Argus graph then cop the second, which was prepared by Treasury boss Martin Parkinson toshow where Australia generated its gross national income in the 1990s compared to the first decade of the twentieth century.

click the image to enlarge

The second Argus graph shows that Australian labour productivity growth – the blue bars – more than halved since the 1990s,but this was largely offset by the boost in the terms of trade – the red bars. We were lucky because, ordinarily, fallingproductivity would slash Australian living standards, but the deterioration in productivity growth has been masked by theunprecedented boost to the terms of trade that has occurred because of China’s rapid economic development.

My take on that second graph is that we need China more than any other country on earth.

But our plight is getting worse. The third Argus graph shows the number of working days lost in industrial disputes.

click the image to enlarge

Instead of improving productivity we are going headlong in the other direction, with many businesses facing strikes and therising power of unions. Those strikes are often about reducing productivity as well as wage rises. The strikes go way beyond thehigh-profile cases of Qantas and Patrick and are now reaching very serious proportions because in the September quarter lastyear, we lost over 100,000 working days. That was the highest number of working days lost in one quarter for seven years.

And it gets worse because the biggest area of industry disputes is in the industry that has provided the wealth to cover ourfalling productivity – mining.

Page 9: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

click the image to enlarge

Again, most of the mining strikes are not about pay but are about reducing the productivity of the mining industry.

As I have written, the strikes may succeed in causing BHP to mothball its Queensland coal expansion (Is BHP the new Qantas?February 27) but they will cause other miners to look elsewhere.

Because of the mess we have made of the rest of Australian employment we can’t afford that.

While it’s true that the Fair Work Act went too far and has propelled this attack on Australian living standards, the problem goesmuch deeper and relates to a malaise among Australian managers in both the private and public sectors.

And so we go back to Paul Broxham – get ready for lower Australian growth, higher inflation and higher interest rates which willdecimate Australian high mortgage households.

Maybe we should encourage people to put the Argus graphs on the fridge so that people can see why they must pay more fortheir mortgages.

The Argus graphs and commentary were contained in Don Argus’ Angus Mitchell Oration, delivered to the Rotary Club ofMelbourne yesterday.

16. CHINA: THE CASE FOR CHANGE ON THE ROAD TO 2030February 27, 2012 The World Bank

New research report calls for a shift of China’s development and growth modelBEIJING February 27, 2012 - China should complete its transition to a market economy -- through enterprise, land, labor,and financial sector reforms -- strengthen its private sector, open its markets to greater competition and innovation, and ensureequality of opportunity to help achieve its goal of a new structure for economic growth.These are some of the key findings of a joint research report by a team from the World Bank and the Development ResearchCenter of China’s State Council, which lays out the case for a new development strategy for China to rebalance the role ofgovernment and market, private sector and society, to reach the goal of a high income country by 2030.The report, “China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society”, recommends steps to deal withthe risks facing China over the next 20 years, including the risk of a hard landing in the short term, as well as challenges posedby an ageing and shrinking workforce, rising inequality, environmental stresses, and external imbalances.“China’s leaders have recognized that the country’s growth model, which has been so successful for the past 30 years, will needto be changed to accommodate new challenges,” said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick.“The case for reform is compelling because China has now reached a turning point in its development path. Managing thetransition from a middle income to a high-income country will prove challenging; add to this a global environment that will likelyremain uncertain and volatile for the foreseeable future and the need for change assumes even greater importance.”“China has an opportunity to avoid the middle-income trap, promote inclusive growth, without further intruding on theenvironment, and continue its progress towards becoming a responsible stakeholder in the international economy,” he said.The report lays out six strategic directions for China’s future: completing the transition to a market economy; accelerating thepace of open innovation; going “green” to transform environmental stresses into green growth as a driver for development;

Page 10: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

expanding opportunities and services such as health, education and access to jobs for all people; modernizing and strengtheningits domestic fiscal system; and seeking mutually beneficial relations with the world by connecting China’s structural reforms tothe changing international economy.“Central to the report’s findings is the need for China to modernize its domestic financial base and move to a public financialsystem-- at all levels of government -- that’s transparent and accountable, overseen by fewer but stronger institutions, to helpfund a changing economic, environmental, and social agenda,” Zoellick said.“The reform agenda, with a stronger and more flexible financial sector, the promotion of innovation, and green growth asdrivers of development, can lead to opportunities for creating new jobs and additional productivity within China as well as newopportunities for foreign firms.”There is growing recognition, supported by the findings of the research report, that China’s growth will decline gradually in theyears leading to 2030 as China reaches the limits of growth brought about by current technologies in its current economicstructure. The report advocates Chinese policymakers should shift from a focus entirely on the quantity of growth to include thequality of growth as well.The report makes the case for the government to redefine its role -- to focus more on systems, rules and laws -- to boostefficient production, promote competition, and reduce risks. It recommends redefining the roles of state-owned enterprises andbreaking up monopolies in certain industries, diversifying ownership, lowering entry barriers to private firms, and easing accessto finance for small and medium enterprises.Reforms should include commercializing the banking system, gradually removing interest rate controls, deepening the capitalmarket and further developing independent and strong regulatory bodies to support the eventual integration of China’s financialsector within the global financial system. Financial reforms in the next two decades should be decisive, comprehensive and wellcoordinated, following a properly sequenced roadmap. A priority is to liberalize interest rates according to market principles.On land reform, priority should be accorded to protect farmers’ rights over agricultural land, expanding land registration andrental rights. To assist with labor reforms, changes in the residency permit system – the hukou – are a priority. While progresson hukou reforms will depend on fiscal reforms that balance revenue raising and spending authorities across different levels ofgovernment, it should begin and be completed by 2030.To accelerate the pace of innovation, the report advocates greater efforts to build countrywide research networks, steps toimprove the quality of tertiary education and links with global networks, supported by a stronger rule of law and intellectualproperty rights enforcement. It says such an open innovation system would be a prerequisite to benefit fully from globalinnovation links.For China to advance the “going green” development agenda, it will need to look at long term market incentives to encourageenterprises and households to go green. This should include more public investments, and the better design and enforcement ofregulations to complement market incentives, such as taxes, fees, tradable permits and quotas, and eco-labeling. China canestablish itself as a global green technology leader by implementing stringent and effective policies to reduce greenhouse gasemissions. Stringent emissions reduction policies, such as carbon trading or carbon taxes, could spur innovation in greentechnologies.To reverse rising inequality, the report says China will need to focus on a social protection system appropriate for China in 2030,with a special emphasis on the poor. It lays out the case for “flexicurity”. This can include reforms in pension and unemploymentsystems so workers have reasonable support in their old age or when jobless. This can ensure comprehensive coverage ofpension insurance, especially for rural people and migrant workers in cities. The report also warns that extending the currentlevel of urban services and social protection to rural residents and migrants -- well over half the population -- will pose asignificant fiscal burden and should be implemented prudently.To fund China’s priorities in the decades ahead, and to deal with external shocks, the report calls for further fiscal systemreforms. These should include improving the efficiency of raising revenue and changing fiscal relations between different levelsof government as well as strengthening the efficiency of public spending. There is untapped potential for revenues throughhigher taxes on energy consumption, taking dividends from state-owned enterprises, and levying taxes on personal incomes,motor vehicles, and property.The report proposes a sequencing of reforms, as well as quick wins and actions to address short term risks. Support for reformswill be stronger if the plans are based on full participation throughout all levels of society. The biggest risk is that vestedinterests will try to thwart reforms.As a key stakeholder on the global economy, China can consider how its structural reforms relate to rebalancing changesglobally. China should support free trade and back a multilateral agreement on investment. China’s long-term interests lie inglobal free trade and a stable and efficient international financial and monetary system, relying on multilateral frameworks tohelp shape the global governance agenda.China’s growing weight in world trade, the size of its economy and its role as the world’s largest creditor will make theinternationalization of China’s renminbi inevitable. Acceptance of the RMB as a major global reserve currency will depend on thepace and success of financial sector reforms and opening of its external capital accounts.For the full report which will be release at 4 pm Beijing time on Monday (3 am DC time on Monday and 8 am London/GMT) andmore information on this, please visit: www.worldbank.org/china

17.WORLD BANK SEES PROGRESS AGAINST EXTREME POVERTY, BUT FLAGS VULNERABILITIES

Page 11: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

WASHINGTON, February 29, 2012—In every region of the developing world, the percentage of people living on less than$1.25 a day and the number of poor declined between 2005-2008, according to estimates released today by the World Bank.This across-the-board reduction over a three-year monitoring cycle marks a first since the Bank began monitoring extreme

poverty.

An estimated 1.29 billion people in 2008 lived below $1.25 a day, equivalent to 22 percent of the population of the developingworld. By contrast, in 1981, 1.94 billion people were living in extreme poverty. The update draws on over 850 household surveysin nearly 130 countries. 2008 is the latest date for which a global figure can be calculated. This is because, while more recentstatistics for middle income countries are available, for low-income countries newer data are either scarce or not comparablewith previous estimates.

More recent post-2008 analysis reveals that, while the food, fuel and financial crises over the past four years had at times sharpnegative impacts on vulnerable populations and slowed the rate of poverty reduction in some countries, global poverty overallkept falling. In fact, preliminary survey-based estimates for 2010—based on a smaller sample size than in the global update—indicate that the $1.25 a day poverty rate had fallen to under half of its 1990 value by 2010. This would mean that the firstMillennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty from its 1990 level has been achieved before the 2015 deadline.

“The developing world as a whole has made considerable progress in fighting extreme poverty, but the 663 million people whomoved above the poverty lines typical of the poorest countries are still poor by the standards of middle- and high-incomecountries. This bunching up just above the extreme poverty line is indicative of the vulnerability facing a great many poor peoplein the world. And at the current rate of progress, around 1 billion people would still live in extreme poverty in 2015.” saysMartin Ravallion, director of the Bank’s Research Group and leader of the team that produced the numbers.

The $1.25 poverty line is the average for the world’s poorest 10 to 20 countries. A higher line of $2 a day (the median povertyline for developing countries) reveals less progress versus $1.25 a day. Indeed, there was only a modest drop in the number ofpeople living below $2 per day between 1981 and 2008, from 2.59 billion to 2.47 billion, though falling more sharply since 1999.

"Having 22 percent of people in developing countries still living on less than $1.25 a day and 43 percent with less than $2 a dayis intolerable. We need to increase our efforts. On the policy and program side, we need to continue attacking poverty onmany fronts, from creating more and better jobs, to delivering better educational and health services and basic infrastructure, toprotecting the vulnerable. And on the measurement side, countries need to expand data collection and strengthen statisticalcapacity, particularly in low-income countries,” says Jaime Saavedra, director of the World Bank’s Poverty Reductionand Equity Group.

The public can access all statistics underlying the new international estimates via the online tool,PovcalNet http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet. The site also provides estimates more recent than 2008.

“PovcalNet is the Bank’s interactive Open Data tool for poverty and inequality measurement. With PovcalNet, users get access tothe data and can replicate the Bank’s estimates or calculate poverty rates using any poverty line or country groupings they like,”says Shaohua Chen, Senior Statistician in the Bank’s Research Group.

The World Bank’s methodology is based on consumption and income, adjusted for inflation within countries and for purchasingpower differences across countries.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

East Asia and the Pacific: About 14 percent of its population lived below US$1.25 a day in 2008, down from 77 percent in1981, when it was the region with the highest poverty rate in the world. In China, 13 percent, or 173 million people, lived below$1.25 a day in 2008. East Asia achieved MDG1 about 10 years ago.

In the developing world outside China, the extreme-poverty rate was 25 percent in 2008, down from 41 percent in 1981.The number of people living in extreme poverty, however, was about the same in 2008 as 1981 at around 1.1 billion, after risingin the 1980s and 1990s and falling since 1999.

South Asia: The $1.25 a day poverty rate fell from 61 percent to 39 percent between 1981 and 2005 and fell a further 3percentage points between 2005 and 2008. The proportion of the population living in extreme poverty is now the lowest since1981.

Latin America and the Caribbean: From a peak of 14 percent living below $1.25 a day in 1984, the poverty rate reached itslowest value so far of 6.5 percent in 2008. The number of the poor rose until 2002 and has been falling sharply since.

Page 12: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

Middle East and North Africa: The region had 8.6 million people—or 2.7 percent of the population—living on less than $1.25a day in 2008, down from 10.5 million in 2005 and 16.5 million in 1981.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia: The proportion living on less than $1.25 is now under 0.5 percent, having peaked at 3.8percent in 1999. 2.2 percent lived on less than $2 a day in 2008, down from a peak of 12 percent in 1999.

Sub-Saharan Africa: For the first time since 1981, less than half of its population (47 percent) lived below $1.25 a day. Therate was 51 percent in 1981. The $1.25-a-day poverty rate in SSA has fallen 10 percentage points since 1999. 9 million fewerpeople living below $1.25 a day in 2008 than 2005.

For a six-page summary with key data points, a background paper on methodology, graphics and feature content, goto: http://econ.worldbank.org/povcalnet

In addition, graphs and tables of international and national data on poverty and inequality can be accessedvia http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home.

18. A ZERO-SUM CARBON GAMEOliver Marc HartwichPublished 6:09 AM, 1 Mar 2012 Business Spectator

As Groucho Marx once put it, you have to learn from the mistakes of others because you can never live long enough to makethem all yourself. If Australian policymakers heeded his warning they could save the $10 billion they are prepared to commit tothe Clean Energy Finance Corporation.In this case the mistakes of others were previously made by the Germans. For more than a decade, dating back to the electionof the Social Democrat-Green coalition government under Chancellor Schröder in 1998, the Germans have pioneered theintroduction of renewable energies. However, in designing policies to move closer to a clean energy future they made somebasic mistakes of economic logic – mistakes that Australia is just about to repeat.

The Schröder government was keen to promote renewable energies like solar and wind power and passed the RenewableEnergies Act (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz, or EEG). The law, which came into force in 2000, guaranteed high feed-in tariffs forrenewables. Without these guarantees, clean energies could have never competed with traditional energy sources such as coal,gas, oil and nuclear.

So far so good, if you support reducing carbon dioxide emissions and are not particularly worried by either granting subsidies orthe resulting higher energy prices. Unfortunately, it soon turned out in Germany’s case that the interaction of the EEG withanother climate change policy rendered it completely useless.

While Germany was trying to drive down greenhouse gas emissions by promoting alternative energies, the European Unionstarted a different climate change policy by installing an emissions trading scheme. This scheme was based on the ‘cap-and-trade’ principle: Total emissions were capped, and carbon prices resulted from trading rights to pollute.

Two wrongs don’t make a right but in this case it was rather two rights that made one wrong: There is no point trying tosubsidise reductions in carbon emissions if the total amount of emissions is capped anyway.

Economist Kristian Niemietz at London’s Institute of Economic Affairs recently offered an apt analogy to what is happening inGerman energy policy. “It is like imposing an overall annual cap on the amount of alcohol that can be consumed, and thensubsidising the production of low-alcohol beers and wines: these subsidies would not reduce total consumption below the overallcap, but taxpayers’ money would be squandered, and consumers would end up with flabby drinks they would never have boughtat market prices.” Precisely.

Replace ‘amount of alcohol’ with ‘carbon emissions’ and ‘low-alcohol beers’ with ‘renewable energies’ and you see whysubsidising renewables and emissions trading do not work together. The physical effect of energy subsidies is precisely zero inan environment where the total emissions are predetermined by a trading system. Not a single gram of carbon dioxide is savedby pumping money into renewables. That is not due to any mismanagement within the system but simply follows the inherentlogic of two incompatible environmental policies.

It’s not as if economists had not spotted this problem. As early as 2004, the academic advisory council to the German economicsministry issued a unanimous call for the abolition of the EEG. The German government’s experts concluded that this law, despiteimposing enormous costs on businesses and consumers, would yield a zero effect on emissions because of the simultaneouspresence of the European emissions trading scheme. Last year, the Monopoly Commission, the German equivalent of theAustralian Productivity Commission, came to the same conclusion in a special inquiry on energy policy.

Page 13: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

Despite such fierce criticism from two official and well-respected bodies, the subsidies provided under the EEG continue. Thoughthe German government has now indicated that it wishes to reduce the feed-in tariffs by up to 30 per cent, particularly for solarpower, this does not solve the fundamental dilemma. You can sponsor alternative energies, or you can have an emissionstrading scheme. But you cannot sensibly have both.

If the Germans are silly enough to waste their economic resources on a policy that yields no gains, that would be bad enough.But it is even sillier that despite the German experience the Australian government is now bound to repeat their mistakes.

To be sure, the precise modus operandi of the planned Clean Energy Finance Corporation is different from the German EEG. Thesubsidies towards renewable energies are channelled in another way, namely by providing capital for investment rather thanguaranteeing feed-in tariffs. However, the main problem remains.

As the Gillard government intends to move Australia towards an emissions trading scheme, scheduled to commence in 2015, wewill end up in an environment where the total emissions for the economy will be capped once the ETS is fully implemented. Asthe German example makes clear, under such circumstances further support for renewable energies can only result in lowerprices for the rights to pollute, not in a further emissions reduction.

If a policy does not make any sense from an economic perspective, why are politicians implementing it nevertheless? Theanswer is quite cynical: The emissions reductions resulting from a cap-and-trade scheme are not visible enough. They happenautomatically without any direct involvement of politicians.

Politicians keen on photo opportunities would therefore rather funnel finance to concrete projects as that offers ampleopportunities to appear at construction sites wearing hard hats and safety vests. Lobbying from the renewable energies sectoraside, there is no better explanation for this waste of taxpayers’ money. From a rational, disinterested perspective, there are nojustifications to pursue policies that have no benefits but only costs.

This is not an argument against alternative energies per se. But governments keen to promote them should at least have apolicy that is inherently consistent. As it stands now it is only inherently wasteful.

Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies. His report ‘A Waste of Energy - Why TheClean Energy Finance Corporation is redundant’ was released today.

19. UNIONS SEEK TO IMPROVE WORKERS’ RIGHTS AND ENSURE SKILLED WORKFORCE THROUGH BETTERAWARDS SYSTEMPublished: 8/03/2012Workers’ rights and the pay and conditions of apprentices can be improved through further changes to awards, say unions in anapplication to Fair Work Australia’s Modern Awards Review.

The unions’ submission to the review will focus on a positive agenda for all workers, in contrast to employers who are seeking toslash the take-home pay of hundreds of thousands of Australians and worsen their job insecurity, said ACTU Assistant SecretaryTim Lyons.

The key components of the union submission are to standardise public holiday entitlements for all workers, and to increaseapprentice completion rates by lifting training wages.

Mr Lyons said unions would seek public holiday equity for employees who work non-standard hours, and often miss out whenthey are rostered on a public holiday.

“The current system is weighted against employees who work a non-standard week,” Mr Lyons said. “At present, many of theseworkers are not entitled to the same number of days off in a year as employees who work a typical Monday-Friday roster.

This is because if a public holiday falls on their rostered day off, they are then not entitled to a day off for compensation.

“These workers still only get two days off across a week that includes a long weekend. This is extremely inequitable and unionswant to ensure these workers receive the same number of days off as their counterparts working standard hours.”

Page 14: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

Unions are calling for changes to the awards system that ensures these workers can choose to receive either an additional day’swages, an alternative day off, or an extra day of annual leave.

“This inequity is particularly evident at Christmas, especially when the holiday period falls at the weekend, which it has duringthe last couple of years,” Mr Lyons said.

The ACTU is also calling for Fair Work Australia to establish a new, fairer safety net for hundreds of thousands of apprentices byensuring that all adult apprentices earn at least the minimum wage in their industry, benefiting more than 200,000 workers.

“Our positive agenda will help ensure we have a skilled workforce into the future, in a workplace system that is fair andequitable,” Mr Lyons said. “In contrast, employer groups’ applications to the review is yet another example their concertedcampaign against hard-working Australians.”

Mr Lyons said that in the retail sector, employers want to slash pay rates, increase the irregularity of employees’ hours and cuttheir penalty rates, overtime and allowances.

“The awards review process has now also exposed employers’ plans to replace permanent teaching roles with more insecurecontract work.

These attacks are not limited to teaching and retail sectors, with attempts to slash the take home pay of hospitality workers, cullthe entitlements of local government employees, decrease allowances in the pharmacy industry and force construction workersto pay for their own safety equipment.

“Unions will vigorously fight this latest campaign against workers by employers because the only way to create a stronger andmore skilled workforce is to improve entitlements and conditions, not take them away like we saw under WorkChoices.”View the article here

20. AN END TO THE RISING YUAN?Karen MaleyPublished 8:52 AM, 13 Mar 2012 Business Spectator

Is China about to put an end to the yuan’s rise?

That’s the speculation among foreign exchange traders after China reported a $31.5 billion trade deficit in February, muchhigher than analysts were expecting.

Even after allowing for the distortions caused by the week-long Lunar New Year holiday by combining the January and Februarytrade figures, the numbers were far from reassuring. China’s exports and imports grew by only 6.9 per cent and 7.7 per cent peryear on year, compared with 14.3 per cent and 20.7 per cent respectively in the final three months of 2011. As a result, thecombined trade deficit in the two months came in at $US4.2 billion (compared with a deficit of $890 million in the first twomonths of 2011).

Chinese authorities have been quick to argue that the country’s growing trade deficit means that there’s no need for furthersharp rises in the yuan. Last week Yi Gang, the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, told the National People’sCongress that the yuan had “never been closer to equilibrium”, while Chen Deming, China’s commerce minister, said the yuanhad reached a “reasonable range”.

However, China’s major trading partners – the US and Europe – are likely to be deeply disturbed by signs that China intends toput an end to the yuan’s rise. They’ve long argued that China has been keeping its exchange rate undervalued, which has madeits exports artificially cheap. Even though the yuan has risen by about 30 per cent against the US dollar since 2005, they believethe Chinese currency should rise further.

China’s currency manipulation is likely to be a flashpoint in the upcoming US presidential elections, because China continues torun huge trade surpluses with the United States. In the first two months of this year it ran a $26.2 billion surplus with the US, upfrom $21.5 billion in the same two months in 2011.

Although US president Barack Obama has resisted formally labelling China as a “currency manipulator”, Mitt Romney, the front-runner to become the Republican candidate, has indicated he will be quick to do so if he is elected.

In an interesting piece, Louis Gave, from the respected research group GaveKal, points out that China’s sluggish trade figurescome on top of data which painted a somewhat disappointing picture of the Chinese economy in the first two months of the

Page 15: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

year, with industrial production and retail sales both decelerating, while loan growth was weaker than expected.

But, he notes, even more disappointing was the reaction of the Chinese central bank. It fixed the yuan/dollar exchange rate at6.3282 on Monday, up 209 pips from Friday’s fix (an upward move means that the yuan is depreciating). As he notes, “this wasone of the biggest depreciations in the daily fix in the past year and raises the obvious question: is the Politburo panicking in theface of weaker growth and trade and reacting with a return to tried-and-true weak-currency mercantilist ways?”

Gave argues that this is unlikely to be happening. He argues that although the move was large by recent standards, it wasn’t outof line with longer-term movements. Instead, Gave says that there are two other possible explanations for the PBoC’s move.

In the first place, it could be trying to inject some short-term volatility in the market in order to dissuade investors from believingthat a rising yuan is a one-way bet. A second explanation is that the PBoC is starting to adjust to a world in which the US dollaris no longer structurally weak. With both the euro and yen now falling against the US dollar, China may be moving to adjust thevalue of its currency against a basket of currencies, rather than just the US dollar.

As Gave notes, “while this shift would in part be motivated by a desire to maintain Chinese export competitiveness, it is muchless crassly mercantilist than a swift devaluation in response to bad trade data.”

However, Gave points out there could be implications for global markets if the Chinese yuan continues to depreciate. It could, heargues, “lead to a pullback in risk assets, because markets will be in doubt about the true intention of Chinese policy: vigorousmercantilism, tactical volatility or an adjustment to a strong-dollar world.”

He adds that “this is doubly true since risk assets have had a good run in the past few months and most sentiment indicators(put-to-call ratios, investor surveys, etc) seem to point to higher odds of a pullback.”

21. MOBILE PHONES AND APPS MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF POOR FARMERS

Accessing the info they never had and producing more, better

February 23, 2012―A farmers’ organization in Western Kenya uses mobile phones to access a digital marketplace and bypass middlemen. Now tradingdirectly with exporters, the group is seeing dramatic increases in income. Newmobile applications are also being used to provide timely information aboutdisease outbreaks to farmers in Eastern Africa, so they can prepare and preventthe pests from affecting their livestock.

Understanding and addressing global agriculture developments—both positive andnegative—are critical to improving smallholder livelihoods. These are just twoexamples of how the use of information and communication technologies (ICT)can improve smallholder farmers’ income and increase agricultural productivity.Expanded and increasingly affordable connectivity and tools, especially mobilephones, as well as advances in data storage and open access, have made ICTrelevant to agriculture.

Now, the World Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department (ARD) hasteamed up with infoDev to connect smallholder farmers to knowledge, networks,and institutions.

“The missing link to achieving smallholder farmer growth has always been accessto timely, cost-effective, and personally relevant information on improvedpractices, markets, prices, inputs, weather―and impending disasters,” said Mark Cackler, sector manager for ARD.

Smallholder farmers, who still provide a significant portion of the world’s food,need information to advance their work just as much as industrial-scale producers,but they often lack access to simple tools and technologies that can provideessential information on prices, markets, varieties, production techniques,services, storage, or processing. As a result, smallholder farmers remaindependent primarily on word of mouth, previous experience, and local leadership.

Main Points

Smallholder farmers, who still provide alot of the world's food, often lack accessto tools and technologies to help themmake decisions.

This is changing as the types of ICT-enabled services useful to improving thecapacity and livelihoods of poorsmallholders are growing quickly.

With the increased affordability anduptake of new technologies, the Bankhas increased opportunity to invest inand impact small-scale farmers moredirectly. The new ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook is a step towards this.

Page 16: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

But this is changing as the types of ICT-enabled services useful to improving thecapacity and livelihoods of poor smallholders are growing quickly. For example,short messaging service (SMS) is now enabling mobile phones to be used as aplatform for agricultural information exchange.

Reuters Market Light services over 200,000 smallholder subscribers in 10 differentstates in India for a cost of $1.50 per month. The farmers receive four to five SMSmessages per day on prices, commodities, and advisory services from a databasewith information on 150 crops and more than 1,000 markets. Preliminary evidencesuggests that collectively, the service may have generated $2–3 billion in incomefor farmers, while over 50 percent of them have reduced their spending onagriculture inputs.

The World Bank has actively participated in the integration of ICT in largeagricultural investments. After Uruguay was struck by a virulent outbreak of Footand Mouth Disease (FMD) in 2001, the Bank provided $25 million through loansand grants to generate and scale out an innovative animal tracking system thatcontributed to the eradication of FMD in Uruguay, which has become a globally-recognized model for effective food safety and surveillance. Portfolio reviews showthat 80 percent of Bank agriculture projects already contain ICT components;however, most of these components are for administrative purposes such asdelivering computers to client country offices. With the increased affordability anduptake of new technologies, the Bank has increased opportunity to invest in andimpact small-scale farmers more directly.

Related Content

ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook

Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentDepartment (ARD)

infoDev

The recently launched ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook produced by ARDand infoDev (a technology and innovation trust fund program in the Financial andPrivate Sector Network), with funding from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs ofFinland, is an online resource that provides both technical as well as policyguidance to practitioners and decision makers in developing countries,international organizations and bilateral agencies. The goal is to capture therapidly evolving ICT environment as a pivotal change factor for agriculturalproductivity and rural development.

“ICT in agriculture is at present an area of ‘let a thousand flowers bloom’ withplenty of exciting anecdotal evidence,” said Eija Pehu, science advisor with theARD and one of the coordinators of the report. “It can be transformative. It givesa voice and access to information to small-scale farmers including women, whonever had such direct access before.”

The e-Sourcebook is a compilation of modules related to 14 agriculturalsubsectors. Each module covers the challenges, lessons learned, and enablingfactors associated with using ICT to improve smallholder livelihoods in thesesubsectors. Over 200 examples and case studies across the regions are presented.It is fully and freely available on the web at http://www.ICTinagriculture.org.

"It was a conscious decision to publish the report as an e-Sourcebook, and thenhost an interactive e-Forum with partners," says Tim Kelly, lead ICT specialist andone of the coordinators of the report. "ICTs continue to evolve rapidly and so toremain relevant, this has to be an open source of information, with ampleopportunities for knowledge exchange and updating," he explains.

22. WORLD BANK SEES PROGRESS AGAINST EXTREME POVERTY, BUT FLAGS VULNERABILITIES

WASHINGTON, February 29, 2012—In every region of the developing world, the percentage of people living on less than$1.25 a day and the number of poor declined between 2005-2008, according to estimates released today by the World Bank.This across-the-board reduction over a three-year monitoring cycle marks a first since the Bank began monitoring extreme

poverty.

An estimated 1.29 billion people in 2008 lived below $1.25 a day, equivalent to 22 percent of the population of the developingworld. By contrast, in 1981, 1.94 billion people were living in extreme poverty. The update draws on over 850 household surveys

Page 17: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

in nearly 130 countries. 2008 is the latest date for which a global figure can be calculated. This is because, while more recentstatistics for middle income countries are available, for low-income countries newer data are either scarce or not comparablewith previous estimates.

More recent post-2008 analysis reveals that, while the food, fuel and financial crises over the past four years had at times sharpnegative impacts on vulnerable populations and slowed the rate of poverty reduction in some countries, global poverty overallkept falling. In fact, preliminary survey-based estimates for 2010—based on a smaller sample size than in the global update—indicate that the $1.25 a day poverty rate had fallen to under half of its 1990 value by 2010. This would mean that the firstMillennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty from its 1990 level has been achieved before the 2015 deadline.

“The developing world as a whole has made considerable progress in fighting extreme poverty, but the 663 million people whomoved above the poverty lines typical of the poorest countries are still poor by the standards of middle- and high-incomecountries. This bunching up just above the extreme poverty line is indicative of the vulnerability facing a great many poor peoplein the world. And at the current rate of progress, around 1 billion people would still live in extreme poverty in 2015.” saysMartin Ravallion, director of the Bank’s Research Group and leader of the team that produced the numbers.

The $1.25 poverty line is the average for the world’s poorest 10 to 20 countries. A higher line of $2 a day (the median povertyline for developing countries) reveals less progress versus $1.25 a day. Indeed, there was only a modest drop in the number ofpeople living below $2 per day between 1981 and 2008, from 2.59 billion to 2.47 billion, though falling more sharply since 1999.

"Having 22 percent of people in developing countries still living on less than $1.25 a day and 43 percent with less than $2 a dayis intolerable. We need to increase our efforts. On the policy and program side, we need to continue attacking poverty onmany fronts, from creating more and better jobs, to delivering better educational and health services and basic infrastructure, toprotecting the vulnerable. And on the measurement side, countries need to expand data collection and strengthen statisticalcapacity, particularly in low-income countries,” says Jaime Saavedra, director of the World Bank’s Poverty Reductionand Equity Group.

The public can access all statistics underlying the new international estimates via the online tool,PovcalNet http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet. The site also provides estimates more recent than 2008.

“PovcalNet is the Bank’s interactive Open Data tool for poverty and inequality measurement. With PovcalNet, users get access tothe data and can replicate the Bank’s estimates or calculate poverty rates using any poverty line or country groupings they like,”says Shaohua Chen, Senior Statistician in the Bank’s Research Group.

The World Bank’s methodology is based on consumption and income, adjusted for inflation within countries and for purchasingpower differences across countries.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

East Asia and the Pacific: About 14 percent of its population lived below US$1.25 a day in 2008, down from 77 percent in1981, when it was the region with the highest poverty rate in the world. In China, 13 percent, or 173 million people, lived below$1.25 a day in 2008. East Asia achieved MDG1 about 10 years ago.

In the developing world outside China, the extreme-poverty rate was 25 percent in 2008, down from 41 percent in 1981.The number of people living in extreme poverty, however, was about the same in 2008 as 1981 at around 1.1 billion, after risingin the 1980s and 1990s and falling since 1999.

South Asia: The $1.25 a day poverty rate fell from 61 percent to 39 percent between 1981 and 2005 and fell a further 3percentage points between 2005 and 2008. The proportion of the population living in extreme poverty is now the lowest since1981.

Latin America and the Caribbean: From a peak of 14 percent living below $1.25 a day in 1984, the poverty rate reached itslowest value so far of 6.5 percent in 2008. The number of the poor rose until 2002 and has been falling sharply since.

Middle East and North Africa: The region had 8.6 million people—or 2.7 percent of the population—living on less than $1.25a day in 2008, down from 10.5 million in 2005 and 16.5 million in 1981.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia: The proportion living on less than $1.25 is now under 0.5 percent, having peaked at 3.8percent in 1999. 2.2 percent lived on less than $2 a day in 2008, down from a peak of 12 percent in 1999.

Sub-Saharan Africa: For the first time since 1981, less than half of its population (47 percent) lived below $1.25 a day. The

Page 18: 2012 Number 5 - QETA TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE ASSESSMENT FACTOR QSA The 2012 QSA conference, Shaping teaching and learning: The assessment factor,

rate was 51 percent in 1981. The $1.25-a-day poverty rate in SSA has fallen 10 percentage points since 1999. 9 million fewerpeople living below $1.25 a day in 2008 than 2005.

For a six-page summary with key data points, a background paper on methodology, graphics and feature content, goto: http://econ.worldbank.org/povcalnet

In addition, graphs and tables of international and national data on poverty and inequality can be accessedvia http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home.

For more information about World Bank research, go to http://econ.worldbank.org/research. For information on World Bankregional and country work on poverty, go to http://www.worldbank.org/poverty

WEBSITECANADIAN FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMICS EDUCATION : This has some useful resources for teachers of Economics, thoughsome are starting to date. Best of all is a registration is free and gives you 12 months access!

Doug CaveQETA [email protected]://www.qeta.com.auIf you wish to unsubscribe from this newsletter, send an email to [email protected] with the word “unsubscribe”in the subject line.If you know of others who would like to subscribe, have them send an email to [email protected] with“subscribe” in the subject line. To subscribe, they or their school must be a member of QETA.