Tick for Govt ‘report card’

The
Catholic Weekly
Online

Sydney
8 February 2004

First day fun? It’s all smiles at All Hallows

Needy hit by Christmas credit card crisis

Rice to feed needy

Tick for Govt ‘report card’

Rome youth forum

‘Holy lawyers’

Young help elderly priests

Pregnant pause: Ready-made friends waiting for our baby

Orchestra performs at violinist funeral Mass

HSC at St Edmund’s

Stamps can help missions

Editorial: Suffer the children

Letters: HSC results

Conversation: Fr Arthur Bridge, patron of the arts - Parish priest who likes to face the music

Fathers and sandcastles

Tribute to ‘the Chief’

Parish Profile: A gifted beginning ...

Life in a seminary

Law challenged in many ways: bishop

Kicking goals with kids

Tick for Govt ‘report card’

By Chris Lindsay

Catholic schools have welcomed new regulations detailing how they must report their activities to the school community, saying the government and taxpayers are entitled to see how schools measure up.

Dr Brian Croke, executive director of the NSW Catholic Education Commission, says he has no problems in principle with the new regulations.

“We have been involved in consultations with the government on this issue over the last two years,” he said. “They are not draconian rules, and we were actively involved in the shaping of them.

“They should also put an end to the misinformed notion that non-government schools are not accountable.”

The new regulations require mandatory annual reports from schools to their communities detailing:

• Financial information such as income from all sources, including Federal and State government grants and subsidies; fees and donations; expenditure on staffing and administration, and costs such as servicing loans.
• Performance in statewide exams such as the Basic Skills Test and HSC, measured against the state average.
• Student welfare, discipline and enrolment policies.
• Complaints resolution policies.
• High school retention rates.
• Teacher standards.

Dr Croke said that, like all new regulations, how they are implemented might result in a few problems, but he expected they would be minor.

“These new requirements will be part of registering or keeping registered a school, and that, of course, is crucial for us,” he said.

“Without registration you cannot operate a school or get government funding.

“The government and the taxpayers are entitled to see that schools measure up, that they provide quality teaching and that they teach the curriculum ... all schools have to meet certain requirements.

“They have to have safe buildings, have qualified teachers, and teach what the curriculum demands. If you can’t prove you do that you can’t run a school.

“What’s new is the requirement to report to the school communities such matters is the public exam data, and an annual financial report of where the money to run the schools comes from and where it goes.

“This is already largely done within the Catholic school community. It is not a big deal.

“One way of meeting the new requirements would be to put the information on the school website. Then it will be available to the entire community, not just the school community.”

Dr Croke said there was no form to fill out and send to the government.

“This is about reporting to the people involved in and interested in the school,” he said. “These new rules just tidy up a lot of things that needed to be done. They introduce good practices of reporting, but most of our schools had them in one way or another.”