We Must Be Able To Sort The Good Apples . . . From The Bad

IN MOST jobs people can readily name the stars and the duds among their colleagues. Schools are no different. Public discussion of teacher performance is intensifying, with politicians at state and federal levels commenting regularly about the need to better reward the best teachers, improve teacher quality and the status of the profession. But there's a reluctance to talk about the flip side of this policy coin: what to do about the worst teachers in a school.

The Queen And I

A SENIOR Anglican cleric who supported Prince Charles after the death of Princess Diana believes he may have been misrepresented in The Queen, nominated for best picture in tomorrow's Oscars.

Best Thinkers Needed To Meet Terrorism Threat

The federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, has rejected calls to ban the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation). Whether there is enough evidence to outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terrorist group may be debatable, but the group's extremist propaganda encourages intolerance and radicalisation in Muslim communities.