Another new broom

By Diane Hague

Federation has made a submission commenting on the NSW Government's draft state plan.

Premier Morris Iemma launched A New Direction for NSW for the next 10 years on August 8.

He said the plan defines the goals and outcomes that the government and the community agree should shape public policy over the next decade. The plan is being consulted through a range of meetings across the state. The final plan is supposed to be released in October.

There are four main themes in the plan. These are Respect and Responsibility; Improving Services; Growing Prosperity across NSW; and Environment for Living. While education is identified as an important issue in the first three themes, overall, within the 29 priorities for success, there are only two priorities specific to education. They are:

"8. More students meet or exceed key national benchmarks for attainment.
"9. More students completing year 12 or equivalent across NSW."

However, there are other relevant theme priorities, for example:

"15. Increased proportion of children with skills for life and learning at school entry."
and
"20. More people with accredited skills."

Federation views these "plans" and "consultations" from government with some cynicism. Look what has happened to Department of Education and Training plans over the years. Nevertheless, the opportunity was taken to make a submission.

Key elements of the submission are:

• a high quality public school in every community for every child
• priority to pre schools attached to public schools
• priority to the early years of high school
• priority to making TAFE affordable and the pre-eminent VET provider.

Diane Hague is the Administration Officer (Media and Communications).

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September 2006 contents