Education bidding war begins

By Owen Hasler

The lead up to Federation's Small Schools Conference on June 17 provoked a bidding war between state politicians on education issues.

On June 3 Opposition education spokesman Brad Hazzard announced that under a Coalition Government schools and parents "would be empowered to have choice in reporting systems that give real information in clearly understood terms without labelling students in Years K to 3 as failures".

"For years 4 to 6 the Coalition will work with parents and teachers to develop options for reporting that will allow local school communities to choose their preferred method of reporting and the process will not be rushed!" Mr Hazzard said.

At the conference he said he was "opposed to the labelling of little children with A to Es".

The day before the conference Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt announced the state's 158 smallest public schools (PP6s) would have two adults on duty at all times during the school day from 2007.

At the conference, Mr Hazzard re-iterated the statement of Nationals leader Andrew Stoner that if the Coalition achieved government in 2007 it would increase the budgets of schools with a student population of 20-25 by the equivalent of an experienced teacher's salary and allow schools the choice of increasing classroom teacher numbers or employing specialist aides on a part-time basis.

NSW Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon made a clear commitment to support retention of small schools and a review of the present bussing policies which clearly adversely affect many of our small and large public schools by providing free bus transport past the nearest local public school.

Mr Hazzard said the Coalition had "absolutely no intention to hand over teachers, nurses and police" to the Federal Government's industrial relations system.

NSW Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon said teachers and other unionists and workers should be extremely circumspect about the claims of Coalition politicians who claim that they do not support their federal colleagues' industrial relations agenda. Ms Rhiannon said the record of these politicians in State Parliament did not support such claims.

Responding to a question from Capertee Public School principal Michelle Simkin in relation to the possible closure of some small schools, Mr Hazzard stated there was no intention to have wholesale closure of such schools.

When Cattai Public School teacher Karen Conte asked about extra release time for principals, Ms Tebbutt noted that there had been an improvement since 1996 but could not make a further commitment on the day.

However, the Minister re-iterated her claim that the Federal Government had indicated to the State Governments that it would lose federal funding if they did not conform to the time frame for introduction of the new report format. This claim was hotly contested by many in the audience quoting other states' responses as evidence.

The Minister indicated the Government was proud of its rollout of computers but recognised the provision of only 129 support staff was limited but was all that had been budgeted for.

She agreed there already "were issues" regarding training of principals and teachers about student reports and that the Department of Education and Training would have to "lift our game" and that "what had been done to date was unacceptable".

Senior Department of Education and Training staffing officers, presenters from the Centre for Learning Innovation and DET finance and information technology units also addressed the conference.

Mallanganee Public School principal Kathleen Johnston said the conference "was a great opportunity to network with other principals and teachers, discuss concerns, share ideas and get some answers to issues that affect us all in small schools and much more".

Owen Hasler is a Country Organiser.

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