Campaign in special education settings

By Ted Kenny

Federation will hold a Special Education Conference on August 21 in the Guthrie Theatre at the University of Technology, Harris Street, Sydney.

The conference will provide an opportunity for members working in special education settings to come together to consider some critical issues relating to their work. Members from across NSW will make some important decisions in relation to the ongoing campaign to improve teaching and learning conditions in special schools and special classes.

The refusal of state and federal governments to properly fund public education, and in particular threats by the Carr Government to slash the public education budget to pay for teachers' salaries, have dire consequences for the future of special education. While public education provides almost all special education services, this is not reflected in funding provided, particularly by the Commonwealth.

This paucity of funding is likely to severely impact on special schools and special classes desperate for additional resources.

For the past three years the Department of Education and Training has been engaged in a trial of a new staffing system for special schools and special classes. This system (known as Resource Based Staffing) is the result of the recommendations of the Comino Review. This review and the trial were the result of campaigning by the Federation and the Public Service Association for improved staffing of special education settings. While the trial is by no means perfect it does provide additional staffing resources to most participating schools. This trial and any expansion is now under direct threat. Other schools which have, through industrial action and other means, gained additional staffing to address urgent occupational health and safety concerns also now face the loss of those resources.

The conference will focus on these issues and on strategies to advance Federation's campaign to establish a safe and educationally sound environment for all staff and students in all special schools and special classes.

Ted Kenny is a City Organiser.

For further information

June 2004 contents