Howard’s failures

A clear and concise reporting framework for student reports is needed, not one that ranks and sorts, writes MAREE O'HALLORAN.

The first graders in Armidale are tall; they're also happy. When I saw them last week they'd just finished making gingerbread dough in the staff common-room and were drawing their gingerbread people. Some of the drawings looked remarkably like best friends with pigtails and ribbons, some looked like biscuit shapes but all were brown and all were fabulous. They're not a shy class either at Ben Venue. Each child rushed forward to show and describe their drawing, and I thought to myself, which ones get an A? Which ones get an E? And what is the purpose of that decision and that grade?

The only possible effect would be a withering of the hope and the trust that each child places in their teacher, their school and public education. Some will never come forward again.

If the Prime Minister, John Howard, has his way every child would be ranked in their cohort at their school and graded across every school. The ranking and sorting process would start at six and proceed across every key learning area for the whole of the child's life at school. You get to know your place in life pretty early in John Howard's world.

Working together, teachers, parents, and principals in NSW have successfully opposed the quartile ranking system within each school. That success shows that the Federal Government's reporting regulations are not immutable.

The State Government has been complicit in perpetrating the Howard Government's reporting policies. The State Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, argues that a set of Es on a six year old's report card lets parents know that something is wrong. Teachers know that a list of Es at the end of term 2 is too late. Parents need to be alerted much earlier for any significant intervention.

Public school principals and teachers have always worked hard with their parent communities to get student reporting right. Federation called for the Eltis Review in 2002 to secure reporting practices in primary schools that were easy for parents to understand and did not require excessive workload.

The work of the Eltis Review was nearing completion when it was hijacked by the federal and state governments' imposition of a "one size fits all" report card on schools. Schools have developed professional and productive relationships with their communities over many years. To completely override these relationships and impose one standardised report card is to downgrade and insult the work of school communities.

Federation has called for and continues to support the development of clear and concise reporting framework or options. Within those options school staff would have the professional discretion to meet the needs of their school community.

The breathtaking hypocrisy of the Federal Government continues apace. In the lead up to the 2004 federal election, we had the unedifying spectacle of the then Education Minister, Brendan Nelson, eschewing any Federal Government responsibility for public schools. The Federal Government, according to Brendan Nelson, was responsible for private schools. Never mind the constitutional position, the history or the morality. The truth is that the Federal Government policy decisions are aimed at accelerating the flow of students from public to private schools.

The "no responsibility for public schools" line apparently applies to funding policies but not to regressive reporting policies.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported a 3.9 percentage point increase in enrolment share to private schools over the decade 1995 to 2005. During that time federal government direct recurrent funding to private schools grew exponentially.

Between 2005 and 2008, the Howard Government will hand over 73.7 per cent of direct federal recurrent funding to private schools which enrol 32 per cent of students.

Even the Investing in our Schools Program (capital works and maintenance funding) announced by the Federal Government in 2004 as a direct result of the public education campaign, has been configured to advantage private schools. The $1 billion funding over four years was apportioned 70 per cent to public schools and 30 per cent to private schools. However, the method of distribution allowed private schools to allocate their money in an orderly method via block grants. The result is massive windfalls to some private schools while public schools receive relatively small amounts. The most blatant example is the Dobell electorate where 18 public schools shared $726,539 and one private school received $2,073,873. The sheer effrontery of the Federal Government's funding choices signals a government that knows no bounds.

Despite the massive funding surge to private schools, 67 per cent of parents continue to choose public schools. Indeed a short survey of secondary and central schools conducted by Federation in the week beginning February 27 showed well over 2000 former private school students had enrolled in the first five weeks at approximately 150 public schools. The reasons for the enrolments included curriculum choice, bullying, teacher quality, cost of fees and moving into the area.

John Howard's WorkChoices legislation, like his student reporting requirements, would have each employee knowing his or her place in life. WorkChoices allows virtually unfettered managerial prerogative, turning back a century of trade union advance.

If the Prime Minister had had his way over the past decade, the minimum wage would current be $50 a week or $2600 a year lower than its current $25,188.

The extreme industrial relations legislation introduced by the Howard Government is a gift to big business and a blatant political attack on employees and their families.

Federation has joined with Unions NSW in its High Court challenge to WorkChoices. This legal action, combined with continued political campaigning and protest action, should finally defeat the Howard Government's extreme and dangerous industrial laws.

The Howard decade is no cause for celebration. His government underfunds English language programs for non English speaking background migrant and refugee children by $23 million per annum in NSW alone. All structures for indigenous self-determination as they relate to education have been demolished. Since 1997 the Howard Government has cut TAFE funding by 26 per cent in real terms.

If the Howard decade is no cause for celebration, the resilience of public education, teachers and the union is such a cause.

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March 2006 contents