Futures Project threatens public education

By Angelo Gavrielatos

The Department of Education and Training's (DET's) consultation paper Excellence and Innovation (The Futures Project) represents a threat to an equitable and inclusive public education system.

It is not a benign document. It cannot be ignored.

The Government intends to use its Excellence and Innovation project to legitimise its own pre-determined plans. Recent public statements by the Director-General, Andrew Cappie-Wood and the Premier, Bob Carr, demonstrate this.

The consultation paper ignores the recent report and recommendations of the Vinson Inquiry, the most comprehensive independent inquiry into public education since the Wyndham Report.

Under the guise of discussion about emerging educational themes and international trends, the document contains three common threads which in combination represent a threat to an equitable, inclusive public education system in which all students are guaranteed access to a quality and broad curriculum.

These themes are:

• greater "autonomy" for principals
• "flexibility" in staffing and school organisation
• abandonment or loosening of mandatory hours provisions.

In an era of decreasing resources for public education, the government is seeking, under the façade of greater flexibility and local control, to shift responsibility and ultimately blame to the local level. If greater "flexibility" is to enhance public education then it must be delivered through additional resourcing over and above current resourcing levels.

Angelo Gavrielatos is the Senior Vice President.

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