Great news from news-stretched Victoria now that its ‘Roadmap for Reopening’ is finally being dusted off with the expert pandemericans seeing light at the end of the virus tunnel, preparing to return to past practices, postings, professions, pursuits and positions as the pandemic pulls back from its precarious peril.
And how better to start the wheels of reopenment than by rolling them with a theme that even the least engaged community member will understand and accept.
The official announcement made it clear: “Learner permit and licence testing including drive tests are set to resume across regional Victoria in line with the Victorian Government’s roadmap to reopening.”
Smart thinking! What, PS-sssst! wonders, is the use of a Roadmap if people can’t drive on it?
While the suitability of such a way forward may be obvious to some, it appeared to bypass the State’s Minister for Roads however who commented that the Victorian community could now take “another significant step towards a COVID Normal way of life.”
Perhaps he ran out of petrol!
Snapped and shot!
To NSW now where the Department of Education has collected and collated a student statistic report on how many schoolgoers have signed up to sit for the State’s Higher School Certificate (HSC) this year.
According to the State’s stats, more than 60,000 scholars have their eyes on taking a HSC home including 879 sets of twins, 23 sets of triplets with Japanese the most foreign tongue, licking all the rest.
Taking credit for the considerable collection of stats, the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) compiles its findings in a printed and published ‘Enrolment Snapshot’ in September every year, covering where the HSC students are studying; their names, multiple birth numbers; Enrolments by region; and Enrolments by courses including general, VET, languages and Life Skills.
While the Authority deserves all the recognition in the world for its insight, enterprise and exercise compiling and conveying such important statistics the snapshot survey PS-sssst! would like to see snapped up is somewhat different.
How many of today’s high school students who make up NESA’s ‘Enrolment Snapshot’ would know – or have ever even seen – an actual ‘snapshot’?
To the Oxford Dictionary for guidance:
Snapshot. sb. An instantaneous photograph, esp one taken with a hand camera 1890.
Smile. They’re on Candid Snapshot!
Deep giveaway
To Rama Gaind’s weekly giveaway now, this week centring around the Australian cult film Black Water: Abyss starring Luke Mitchell, Jessica McNamee and Amali Golden.
To win one of three free DVDs of the adventure film, all we needed to do was name its co-director, that person being Andrew Traucki who co-directed with David Nerlich.
And the winners are: Suzanna A from the Australian Border Force, Ros M from the national Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, and Kate W from the Western Australian Department of Transport.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone who took part. The DVDs will be on their way very soon.
For another chance to join Rama’s Army of winning winners and win her current DVD at this PS News link or her latest DVD at this link simply click, click and away to be among the first to emerge from the PS News Barrel of Booty this time next week.
Good luck to all who do!
Unceremoniously unpicked
And finally, plans to upgrade Australia’s Citizenship Test so it becomes more Australian have drawn mixed commentary around the nation, but few commentarians are as personal as the modestly egotistical, low-key noisemaker than the editor of PS News, Mr PS-sssst! himself… ME!
As one of the Earth’s millions chasing 15-minutes of fame, it has been my exquisite delight over the years to enjoy a few minutes of pseudo-fame popping up repeatedly as one of many multiple choice answers in the dry-run practice citizenship tests given to would-be Aussies hoping to qualify as fair dinkum Strayans.
Asked in the test to identify the ‘person known to have eradicated the initial problems of Australia’s first years of white settlement’, the hopeful new citizen is invited to choose between notables Kevin Rudd, Arthur Phillip and John Hunter or pick the eminently non-notable me – Frank Cassidy! (See image)
To this day I wonder if starring as a ‘wrong’ answer in a multiple choice test qualifies as fame or is it more like a public acknowledgement of failure.
Either way, I can but wonder if the planned changes to the citizenship test will see me (and presumably Messrs Rudd and Hunter as well) downgraded from wrongster to unwantedster and whether it has any place at all – assuming it had one in the first place – on a personal CV.
Somehow I don’t think so!
Till next week…..
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