Teachers delay reform, reports CIS

Sydney
9 December 2001

Ban all human cloning – bishops

‘Delight’ at Pope’s stand

Caritas sends an SOS

Bishops: open your hearts to refugees

Christian, Buddhist themes meld in Blake Prize winner

Depression: Governor sees hopeful signs

Cabin crew help needy

Language no barrier at World Youth Day

Editorial: In love with God and his creation

Letters: As ordained

Conversation: Inspired to be a ‘minstrel of God’ - Peter Kearney, singer and songwriter

Reflections: Stand up for principle or find safety in numbness?

This pilgrim’s progress

Doing it for themselves

Kids who make a choice in faith

Holy Spirit paid me a visit ...

Teachers delay reform, reports CIS

Inspirations: Treasures from the past: a holiday treat

Teachers delay reform, reports CIS

Many Catholic students attend public schools

By Chris Hook

The NSW Teachers’ Federation has stymied attempts over the past decade to reform the NSW public school system and make it more prod uctive, according to Sydney’s Centre for Independent Studies.

In a submission to the Public Education Inquiry, policy analysts Jennifer Buckingham and Dr Ross Harrold claim that the NSW Teachers’ Federation has “con sistently and systematically blocked” attempts to establish “characteristics that sustain a productive school system”.

The Teachers’ Federation, in consultation with and with some funding from the Parents and Citizens’ Association, established and funded the inquiry, which is chaired by Professor Tony Vinson.

Prof Vinson* has previously worked with Jesuit Social Services, and produced Unequal In Life, a 1999 report mapping social dis advantage in NSW and Victoria.

The federation says the inquiry was established to “provide a chance for parents, teachers and community members to challenge governments and the media about public education”.

Buckingham and Harrold commend the initiative of allowing policy issues to be discussed outside government, but note that there is “arguably a conflict of interest in an inquiry conducted by an industrial organisation”.

They also reject the nomination of social justice principles as a focus issue when “academic quality should be the first priority of any school or school system”.

“This submission will therefore be concerned mainly with those characteristics of a school system that promote educational quality rather than educational equality, in the belief that the latter will best be addressed through the achievement of the former,” they say.

Drawing on historical data nationally, they note that NSW education funding is equivalent to other states and territories and has sat at a stable proportion of Gross Domestic Product for the past 15 years.

But as the population ages, and fertility decreases, governments will be unwilling to sustain that level, let alone increase it.

Another reason governments are reluctant to increase education spending is the reluctance of education unions to agree to performance measures, the report says.

“So … what of the structures needed to facilitate the most efficient use of these resources,” it asks.

The authors claim that of a total of $6 billion in NSW school funding, less than five per cent is allocated as discretionary spending, giving schools little control over how their budget allocations are spent.

As the majority of recurrent funding is used for staffing, Buckingham and Harrold argue that this arrangement advantages metropolitan schools in high socio-economic areas because those schools will attract better qualified, more experienced teachers.

“This creates a funding discrepancy between these schools,” the authors said.

But statistics revealing per capita funding in the NSW government school system are unavailable, making it impossible to determine how funding varies.

Buckingham and Harrold argue that schools should be granted funding on a “publicly answerable per student basis” and allowed to determine their own mix of teachers.

Such a reform would mean, “there would be greater fiscal equity between schools and a greater capacity of schools to meet the needs of their students”.

The authors criticise the lack of information regarding schools’ performances, claiming that such information is critical for reasons of accountability and for parents to make informed choices, feel involved and even “advocate and agitate on (the school’s) behalf”.

And they blame the Teachers’ Federation for a lack of academic information on school performance because of the manner in which they had continually campaigned against state-wide standards testing.

Pointing toward the increasing proportion of students enrolling in the non-government school sector, Buckingham and Harrold warn that change needs to occur.

“Prevention of the establishment of these structures, out of fear of change or out of self-interest, is short-sighted and denies the present and future students and teachers in NSW public schools the oppor tunity to reap the benefits of what has been identified as world’s best practice in school management,” Buckingham and Harrold say.

* Tony Vinson, former head of the NSW Department of Corrective Services, and Emeritus Professor of Social Work at the University of NSW, has worked to establish a mentoring system at Cleveland St High School for students about to leave school.