Challenging the world order

By Maree O’Halloran

Newly elected President of Education International, Thulas Nxesi of South Africa said "We have truly analysed the world; the point now is to change it." In Thulas' words: "We dare not fail".

We must challenge the prevailing world and national order that sees public education as a liability rather than a public good. Creating, leading and winning the debate about the value of public education is critical. When public education in its full dimension -- universal, secular and free -- is acknowledged and valued by governments and the people they govern, funding to our schools and TAFE colleges will increase significantly. Better teaching and learning conditions will invariably follow.

It was inspirational to be part of the Education International Congress this year and hear 1400 teachers from across the globe discuss the same issues which confront us. The right to teach and learn, devolution and deregulation, recruitment and retention of qualified teachers -- the agenda items were the same as those challenging us.

The most powerful debate was about education for peace. Not only was the war against Iraq clearly condemned in the final resolution, but the responsibility for teachers not to be cowed by those in power was emphasised.

The struggle of Australian teachers for quality public education, better teaching and learning conditions, and social justice was put into perspective for me by the momentous struggle and sacrifice of teacher unionists in many other countries. Nonetheless, it's also clear that if quality public eduction and workers' rights are diminished in Australia and other developed nations, then there will be less hope for those confronting the worse circumstances.

Federation's investigation about the possibility of a constitutional challenge to private school funding certainly upset the establishment. The decision in the Catholic teachers' salary case gave rise to a small possibility that the funding of private schools might be unconstitutional. However, before Federation could even get a legal advice, the wolves were baying. The vociferous response by the right-wing commentators, private school lobbyists and the major political parties was frankly amazing. Their tactic was obviously "to cow" rather than "to dismiss". I believe their response indicated a "consciousness of guilt" that must be explored.

The conservative composition of the High Court is clearly a problem for any challenge but the law is not immutable; there is no fixed world order. The challenge does not only or even necessarily need to be based on Section 116 of the Constitution which deals with religion. The construction of Section 96 "tied grants" itself can be challenged.

However, we should not shy away from promoting our schools as secular. In western democracies individuals practice religion, societies are secular. Our secular public schools do not bar entry on the grounds of religion, race or ideology. They defend both freedom of religious practice and freedom from religious practice.

Such a position greatly contrasts with the ethos of at least some Christian schools. Take for example Coffs Harbour Christian Community School which has been forced to apologise to its neighbouring schools.

Their leaflet quotes the words of a Catholic Archbishop from 150 years ago criticising public schools for being "seed plots of future immorality, infidelity and lawlessness, being calculated to debase the standard of human excellence and to corrupt the political, social and individual life of future citizens". The leaflet goes on to say "Today it is clear that he was correct."

While a legal challenge will not on its own be successful, it is worth pursuing as one strand of our public education campaign.

The prevailing world view about public education is dominated by the economic priorities of government treasuries. The provision of a universal system of schooling is seen more and more as a funding "burden", not as a right. Under this world view, parents must be convinced to pay more their children's schooling. In Treasury's view it is cheaper to subsidise a child at a private school.

As this world view has come to dominate, the distinctions between "public" and "private" are deliberately being blurred.

The concepts of universal, secular and free are under constant attack as governments push to extinguish the unique qualities of public education. We experience these attacks in our schools in three major ways:

1. funding shortfalls
2. destabilising of employment conditions and tenure
3. governments divesting themselves of responsibility.

The NSW Government has begun a new offensive against the employment conditions and tenure of all teachers. This process began in 1990 with Brian Scott's "Schools Renewal" report. It was followed in 1999 by a wholesale attack on our award. In 2004 this attack is being repeated using the Government's legislative powers.

The NSW Government aims to politicise the teaching service and force it into the same subservience as the Senior Executive Service.

The Premier's blatant interference in the ICAC Inquiry into former Health Minister Craig Knowles' handling on nurses' complaints came as no surprise. The Premier's modus operandi is well known. On May 12 he issued a clear warning to the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) not to pay what he termed "unaffordable wage increases". One can only lament that the IRC, while calling the Premier's comments "offensive" and "wrong", did not choose the more robust action taken by the ICAC Commissioner, John Clarke QC. Mr Carr has been summonsed to appear before ICAC on September 10 to explain why he should not be referred to the Supreme Court to face a contempt charge.

In the face of the Premier's clear intentions to gag the profession, we must signal that we will continue to fight cost-cutting and flawed government policy.

Maree O'Halloran is the President.

Teachers band together to make change

Private school furore over Constitutional challenge

Government moves to gag profession

For further information

August 2004 contents