Staring down the Federal Government

By Maree O’Halloran

Thirteen hundred schools across NSW have already decided they "cannot and will not" implement the federal and state governments' unsound student reporting requirements.

Federation calls on the NSW Government to reach agreement with teachers about an educationally-sound reporting framework for 2007. The NSW Government could then, with parents and principals, take a courageous but necessary stand against the Federal Government's persistent, and increasingly childish, threats of funding blackmail. If schools and their communities can stare down the Federal Coalition Government, then so can a state Labor government. Or even better, eight state and territory Labor governments could stop jockeying for position with each other, and the Federal Government, and take a stand in the interest of education and children. They might even find that sound educational policy and practice is good politics.

To date the NSW Government has acquiesced to every federal Coalition Government policy attached to a funding price tag. Notoriously, one of the recent chain of NSW Labor Education Ministers told Federation's Senior Officers that the State Government would "roll over" each and every time funding was threatened. And so it has proved to be.

Acquiescing is one thing. The NSW Government, however, has exploited the political situation to impose even more regressive policies than the Federal Government in the area of student reports and annual school reports. Thus, the State Labor Government has imposed "one size fits all" mandatory A-E grades for all children from year 1 to year 10. The Federal Government requires only A-E or an "equivalent". On top of the Federal Government's annual school report requirements, the NSW Government wants to force schools to report test data against both statewide and "like school" averages. The publication of statewide test data in this form will inevitably lead to media-constructed "school league tables". (Federation has banned the 2005 Annual School Report format.)

The NSW Government has seized on "Plain English", "rigour" and "consistency" as their political catchwords. Reporting about student achievement, however, cannot be reduced to mere catchwords; it is a complex task requiring the application of professional discretion. Standardised A-E grades are not "Plain English". "Consistency" does not equate to uniformity. "Rigour" must be applied honestly and with a view to keeping a student motivated to learn. In all of this the age and social development of the individual child must be one of the critical factors.

Congratulations to those schools who have already voted on the resolution.

Both levels of government have used this issue for political gain rather than acting in the best interests of children and students. Schools have had to withstand the pressure of:

• contemptible funding blackmail by the Federal government;
• lies from the State Government and the Department of Education and Training (DET) about what the federal funding regulations actually require;
• intransigence and political pragmatism by the State Government;
• confusion from the DET about its actual reporting requirements. Since the first memorandum in February 2006, each DET Student Report Bulletin has provided new and/or different information about the reporting requirements;
• the hasty and confused DET implementation process. The implementation process has been rushed despite educational concerns and opposition from teachers and in the face of the obvious failure by the government to provide appropriate and comprehensive professional development and software packages that work.

In contrast to its stand on student reports and annual school reports, the NSW Labor Government has strongly opposed the Federal Coalition Government on the issue of industrial relations. Federation congratulates Premier Morris Iemma for announcing on August 30, new state laws to protect young people from the extremes of the Federal Government's WorkChoices legislation. In NSW, there are more than 150,000 young people under the age of 18 who are in formal employment. The WorkChoices legislation allowed employers to set pay and conditions lower than the applicable state or federal awards.

The Federal Government's radical and extreme industrial relations laws continue to hurt workers across Australia. In Western Australia, workers face court and fines of up to $28,000 for exercising their democratic human right to withdraw their labour. Heinemann Electrics have allegedly docked its workers one week's pay because of the imposition of overtime bans in support of collective bargaining. These workers undertook all their normal duties but will not be paid for them. Radio Rentals have locked out workers who, on the expiry of their collective agreement, have refused to sign individual contracts (Australian Workplace Agreements).

The Federal Government's industrial laws are insidious and designed to provide employers with more and more power over time. Workers under the federal system can be confronted with "take it or leave it" individual contracts (Australian Workplace Agreements) at the point of employment, at the point of promotion or when collective agreements expire. Workers' rights to undertake industrial bans or industrial action have been neutered.

Prime Minister John Howard continues to ignite the flames of xenophobia and racism in Australia. On 2GB on August 31 and in theDaily Telegraph on September 2, he chose to single out the Islamic community in Australia and castigate the "tiny minority" resistant to "integration". The complaint that they had failed to learn English was despicable hypocrisy. Since 1999, the Howard Government has deliberately denied English lessons to at least 8900 mainly Muslim refugees who arrived by boat from 1999. Teachers in public education must name the Prime Minister's racism and stare it down.

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September 2006 contents