Chatswood High School teachers aide Mark Jepson with teachers Lee Chaloner, Anthony Ryan and Deb Jepson in the cramped PE staffroom.

Funding needed to improve working conditions

By Kerri Carr

The teaching staff at Chatswood High School has written to local MP Brendan Nelson outlining how they might spend the more than $2.77 million extra the school would receive if the school received the same federal government funding per child as the average private school child.

Writing on behalf of the staff, Federation Representative Murray Williams documented over three pages how such extra funding would go a long way towards providing appropriate facilities and additional staffing positions at the school, which has 800 students.

Staff want "provision of appropriate facilities for staff and students that approximate what might be commonly expected in industry and Federal Parliament".

Listed examples of appropriate facilities included: "adequate staffroom facilities so that staff do not feel as cattle in a pen (a minimum allocation of space per staff member)", hot and cold water in toilet areas, adequate shower facilities for students following PE lessons and sport, and adequate facilities to allow staff to have their own laptop for professional use.

Funding for adequate staff professional development by acknowledged experts; ergonomic seating rather than plastic, fixed seating for computer workstations; and a fulltime technical support person to oversee the school's information technology infrastructure were also on the long list.

Mr Williams also faxed the letter to Prime Minister John Howard, ALP leader Kevin Rudd and shadow education minister Stephen Smith.

The letter described the $3464 that the Federal Government spent more per private school student, on average, than it did per public school student in 2004/05 as an "astounding discrepancy".

"The staff at Chatswood High School is understandably dismayed yet hopeful that, with your support, this iniquitous situation can be remedied and our students may finally benefit from the resources and programs they have always deserved," Mr Williams wrote.

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