ISP ban holds in south western Sydney

By Jennifer Leete

Federation members in south western Sydney are holding strong in support of the union's ban on the ISP (Web Services) project despite the Department of Education and Training (DET) offering inducements to be involved.

South western Sydney is proposed to be the first phase of the statewide rollout of the ISP web services or 'e-learning' system.

One large high school was offered funding equivalent to 15 release days to support implementation for 2004. While this is clearly completely inadequate for a teaching staff of almost 100 at the school, it far exceeds what was provided to similar sized schools which were involved in the pilot of the project.

Premier Bob Carr's recent public announcement that the rollout would proceed represents the Government reneging on commitments given in writing to the Federation that the rollout would only occur when Federation was satisfied that all our concerns had been addressed.

Federation has held discussions with the DET over a period of 18 months in an effort to secure assurances and action to address the following issues:

• the inadequacy of technical support to schools
• agreed protocols concerning privacy, workload, training and professional development, child protection and security.

While 18 months may sound like a long time for negotiations, any delays have been caused by technical and procedural issues associated with the system itself which delayed the pilot getting underway. Despite assurances that the pilot in 51 schools would be properly evaluated before the project proceeded, the Government has decided to proceed regardless. Perhaps the Government fears the evaluation will tell them something they don't want to know.

The announcement by the Premier highlights the political nature of the ISP project. It is not driven by the learning needs of students nor the professional requirements of teachers or schools. It is pure political gimmickry.

In May 2001 the then Education Minister, John Aquilina, announced that by March 2003 all students and all teachers would have their own email accounts. The politicians are now keen to deliver this (albeit much later than planned) regardless of any practical issues.

When Director-General Jan McClelland signed a $84 million contract with a private corporation known as UNISYS, to provide the system which provides a standard system of email, forums, chat, web-browsing, list services, web publishing and remote access. It is intended to be the standard system-wide window or portal through which each school accesses the internet. All existing systems used by schools would be shut off.

Members are reminded Federation's ban includes any activity in schools, by DET officers or others, including private providers, in preparation for the rollout. This includes any 'training' or 'briefings' and reconfiguring of computers to receive the system.

The ban does not extend to the use which teachers and others already make of emails and the internet in administration and teaching and learning that is accessed by means other than the 'e-learning' or the ISP web services system. Schools should continue to use the access they currently have to email and the internet.

Jennifer Leete is the Deputy President.

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