PM pledges to push for better teachers to make the grade

Bianca Hall ONLY the best and brightest will be able to get into university teaching courses under the federal government's reform package to improve the educational outcomes of the nation's children.

Top-of-the-class teachers at heart of education plan

Bianca Hall Only the best and brightest will be able to get into university teaching courses, under the federal government's reform package to improve the educational outcomes of the nation's children.

PM braces for Gonski challenge

Bianca Hall Prime Minister Julia Gillard will break months of uncertainty about the Gonski reforms on Monday - but the wait for more cash for the sector is far from over.

Data store plan sparks a chorus of disapproval

Bianca Hall, Ben Grubb, Lucy Battersby Proposed laws that would allow the web and telecommunications data of all Australians to be stored for two years have been dubbed ''characteristic of a police state''.

Hundreds more boat people found

Bianca Hall The navy has intercepted another suspected asylum seeker boat carrying 165 passengers off the West Australian coast.

Bianca Hall

Police to monitor net use by suspects

Bianca Hall New laws will allow authorities to collect and monitor Australians' internet records, including their web-browsing history, social media activity and emails and phone text messages.

Pyne defends leader over schools

Bianca Hall Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne said yesterday the idea public schools were underfunded was ''a myth'' propogated by the left of politics.

Public schools get too much: Abbott

Jewel Topsfield, Bianca Hall Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has provoked a storm of controversy over his suggestion that it is an injustice that public schools receive the majority of government funding.

Low-skilled jobs face a dim future

Bianca Hall Up to 180,000 low-skilled jobs will be obsolete by 2025, according to modelling to be released today, while professionals, community and personal service workers and managers will dominate the jobs...

Teachers risking 'irrelevancy'

Bianca Hall E-learning experts are warning that speedy technological changes, and the speed with which children can access information and communities online, will soon render traditional teaching methods...

ADF 'rapists' likely to stay in jobs: report

Bianca Hall, Judith Ireland A damning report on sexual abuse in the military has found un-prosecuted rapists will probably remain in senior positions in the armed forces.

Sex offenders may hold senior posts, says defence report

Bianca Hall, Judith Ireland A DAMNING report on sexual abuse in the military has found unprosecuted rapists are likely to remain in senior positions in the armed forces.

Broad-brush stroke for the arts in schools plan

Bianca Hall For the first time, all Australian students will study dance, drama, media arts, music and the visual arts until year 10, under a draft national curriculum issued yesterday.

Drone swarms no flight of fancy

Bianca Hall Lecturer studys how unmanned drones could be programmed to behave like flocks.

Push to add sex education to national curriculum

Bianca Hall With sexual infection rates among young people rising by 20 per cent in the past three years, there's never been a better time to talk about sex.

Long time to determine if alleged people smugglers are children

Bianca Hall Accused people smugglers can be held in detention for three to nine months before formal charges are laid, and their status as adults or children raised, a parliamentary committee has been told.

Digger's Afghan killing was an 'act of murder'

Bianca Hall The shooting of Lance Corporal Andrew Jones by an Afghan soldier 'a cowardly act of murder'.

Seven crew members going home

Bianca Hall Those to be released are thought to be children and will be returned to Indonesia.

Media test not a knee-jerk reaction to Rinehart - Conroy

Bianca Hall MEDIA owners will be forced to submit to a public interest test under a plan to be presented to the federal cabinet within weeks.