New Look, But Still No Books

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday October 20, 2000

Julia Baird, Education Writer

Many schools are still lacking textbooks and basic resources almost a month after schools have started teaching the new HSC to next year's Year 12 students.

The staged introduction of the new HSC course for 2001 has been marred by delays with the printing and publication of key textbooks and equipment.

The subjects where teachers are having the most difficulty are science, history and English.

The head of the Science Teachers' Association, Mrs Jill Tacon, said although textbooks had started to trickle into science subjects, there was ``definitely a shortage of resources".

There was still no text on Earth and Environment Science for Year 12 students, with none in the pipeline, she said.

Although Excel published a summary of the physics course last week, there were still no comprehensive textbooks for the subject. It is understood they will be available next year.

``Teachers are just soldiering on. Earth and Environmental Science teachers would really like a textbook but publishers are not prepared to publish anything because they say it's not profitable," she said. ``It makes it very hard."

Many schools had now bought data loggers a piece of science equipment that attaches to a computer and electronically measures data with a one-off grant from the Government. Mrs Tacon said she hoped this would be ``the first step in good resourcing".

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Education, Mr Aquilina, said yesterday that in most cases, existing textbooks could be used for the new courses.

``We are ready to go, there's no way we would think of delaying," she said. ``Everyone has had months and months to prepare for it [the new HSC], and we are confident that at the beginning of next year everything will be ready to go."

The head of the English Teachers' Association, Ms Sue Gazis, said although there had been some difficulty in obtaining the required Star Wars video, the main problem for English teachers was adapting to the teaching of technology.

Teachers had to be prepared to fight for access to computers that were normally the preserve of other teachers, she said.

``At some schools, they don't have access to computers. It's about English teachers being able to get into the decision-making structure of the school."

Many teachers have opted out of the technological components of courses, such as setting up Web sites, she said, because they had not had enough training.

``Some decided as teachers we are not going to get everything, all the information at once. It's humanly impossible for us to keep up with it, so it's better to decide which parts to take first without knocking yourself out."

The president of the History Teachers' Association, Mr Denis Mootz, has also complained in a NSW Teachers Federation journal that most State schools lack funds for new textbooks and have not received ``one red cent" from the Government.

Teachers were forced to spend extra time pasting together potentially outdated information from the Net, he wrote.

Some students who have contacted the Herald started the new HSC three weeks ago and have almost no textbooks in their Year 12 subjects. They are concerned because they have only just received their Year 11 textbooks.