Corpun file 17350

The Herald Sun, Melbourne, 10 February 2006

Parents get fee shield

By Kate Rose

(extract)

PARENTS will be protected from schools trying to make them pay voluntary fees, but the schools will not be penalised.

The Education Training and Reform Bill [in the State of Victoria - C.F.], which will affect more than 1.3 million students, also removes any right of appeal to the Ombudsman over school closures.

[...]

The Bill will also raise the leaving age to 16; give a free place to all under 20 to complete Year 12 or a TAFE equivalent; ban all corporal punishment; create an authority to monitor all education providers, including home schoolers; and require annual reports.

Corpun file 17349

The Weekend Australian Magazine, Sydney, 11 February 2006

Goodbye the cane

By Anne Lim

The cuts, as schoolkids called the cane, used to be a mainstay of school life, causing fear and loathing and much blowing on hands. However, a swift stroke across the palm was often preferred to hours of detention. From 1981, Victorian parents and unions campaigned to ban the cane, citing instances of abuse. In 1983, the Cain government outlawed it in Catholic and government schools; Tasmania, NSW, the ACT and South Australia followed suit by banning the practice entirely. It lives on in private schools in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, though new legislation is set to outlaw the practice in Victoria.

Comment by C.F.: The picture isn't explained, but looks posed, and clearly dates from the 1970s, to judge from the clothes and the haircuts. The reference to "a swift stroke across the palm" is a bit misleading if it is supposed to be a generalisation about Australia with particular reference to the impending legislation about private schools in Victoria. In New South Wales that used to be the normal method of caning in state (though not necessarily in private) schools, and this item is from a Sydney (NSW) paper. However, in Victoria the norm in state schools was the strap (now abolished), and anecdotal evidence suggests that, in private schools in Victoria, boys were generally caned or strapped on their bottoms. It may be that, in the few Victorian schools allegedly still using CP, they still are.