Futures Project attempts to resurrect failed policies

By Angelo Gavrielatos

The report on the Futures Project reads like a poor quality undergraduate essay, riddled with dishonest, unsourced and anonymous Department of Education and Training (DET) comments.

The One size doesn't fit all report arising from the Futures Project was released on December 13. Commissioned by a former, already retired Minister, Dr Andrew Refshauge, the timing of its release illustrates that it was a politically motivated process from the outset.

While acknowledging a number of concerns, such as the need to expand pre-school provision (stupidly renamed as 'prior to school provision'), the need to better coordinate and resource the years 6-7 transition years and the badly neglected physical state of our schools, the report is a politically dishonest attempt to resurrect the failed policies of the late 1980s. It shows that remnants of the Metherell bureaucracy remain in DET.

This is particularly so with respect to the attempt to resurrect the total deregulation of staffing. This puts at risk the equitable distribution of staff to all schools across the state. This distribution provides a curriculum guarantee for all students irrespective of where they live. (Recent academic reports indicate that NSW has been able to deal with the teacher shortage better than the other states and countries because of the statewide staffing policy in existence.) The report also hints at the deregulation of curriculum, suggesting the abolition of mandatory minimum hours of study for subjects, further putting at risk a curriculum guarantee for all students.

In another section of the report, these bureaucrats have constructed the commentary to suggest stripping of protection and guarantees that are embedded in our recently renegotiated salaries and conditions award. They do this at the same time the Iemma Government proclaims its support for employees' rights at work and launches a High Court challenge against the Howard Government's extreme industrial relations laws.

The decisions evident in this report will have obvious political consequences.

Angelo Gavrielatos is the Deputy President.

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February 2006 contents