Australian teachers succeeding; governments lagging

By Maree O’Halloran

Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop's address to the National Press Club was an attack on teachers and the standards of the profession.

Australian 15 year olds ranked third among students from OECD countries in reading, maths and science. The UNICEF report Child Poverty in Perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries released on February 14, uses this as a key indicator of educational wellbeing. Teachers (with parents and students) are behind these successful results. Teachers, however, also recognise that despite Australia's success, we still have low equity outcomes for specific groups of children. Federation has initiated many of the equity programs in NSW designed to address this problem. It cannot be ignored but nor should Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop selectively use the results as she did in her address to the National Press Club on February 7, to argue that "standards have declined, particularly in the teaching of fundamental areas of literacy and numeracy". Nowhere in that address did the Minister acknowledge the successful work of the teaching profession as a whole.

Read in its totality, Ms Bishop's address was an attack on teachers and the "standards" of the profession (ironically in a speech about standards Ms Bishop also argued for unqualified teachers in classrooms).

Other measures of child wellbeing included in the UNICEF report show that Australia is lagging behind other OECD countries in areas that have a direct impact on schools and the quality of teaching and learning that is achievable.

Nearly 12 per cent of Australian children fell below what UNICEF considers the poverty line -- a household where the total income is less than half the country's median. This figure shows relative poverty; that is, it speaks to inequality and exclusion within a country. On this scale Australia falls roughly within the middle of the group with the United Kingdom and the United States second last and last respectively. Given that John Howard's industrial relations legislation is more extreme than laws operating in many of the American states, this figure of relative poverty will be one to watch if WorkChoices becomes entrenched after the next federal election. WorkChoices will exacerbate inequality within this country. Research by Professor Peetz of Griffith University showed no significant benefit of the new laws and widespread disadvantage for low-income earners (Australian, February 14).

Relative poverty, often debunked by right-wing commentators, is important in that it demonstrates the "contrast, daily perceived, between the lives of the poor and the lives of those around them" (UNICEF report).

Relative poverty says little about absolute material deprivation. The countries studied in this report are, of course, the rich ones of the world. According to the UNICEF report some measure of deprivation can be gauged by looking at households with no employed adults. On this measure Australia lags.

Nearly 10 per cent of young Australians live in households where no adult is employed -- the highest rate of all OECD countries except Hungary. "Australian children are growing up in poorer households and faring worse on key health indicators than other rich nations." (Sydney Morning Herald, February 15)

One week before the UNICEF report, we witnessed an orchestrated and concerted attack by John Howard, Julie Bishop and their apparatchiks on public education, teachers, the curriculum and the standard of education in this country.

Australian Associated Press reported on February 8: "Australian public school curriculum contains 'incomprehensible sludge' and new-age fads that are robbing children of their cultural heritage, Prime Minister John Howard says." What a calculated and massive insult clearly designed to manufacture a crisis in public education.

To my knowledge the Prime Minister never corrected the reference to "public education". After all, if the curriculum is "sludge", it's "sludge" in the private schools too. This is the language of extremism; it is the language of a party steeped in power, arrogance and affluence.

Drawing extensively on an opinion piece released as research by the Centre of Independent Studies on February 5, Julie Bishop used her address to the National Press Club to call for the deregulation of teachers' working and employment conditions, the dismantling of the staffing system and the devolution of authority and responsibility to individual schools. In the Metherell era in NSW it was known as the "Scott agenda" and "Your School's Right to Choose". Federation has successfully opposed these dangerous policies before and will do so again if the Federal Government is re-elected and ties funding to that platform. In the interim, despite Deputy Director-General Trevor Fletcher's flagrant support of such policies, the State Government has written to the Federation upholding its support for the staffing agreement.

Is it too much to hope that governments might do their job and support the efforts of teachers, parents and students in schools? Australian public schools need an immediate increase of $2.9 billion to allow them to meet the National Goals of Schooling. Both levels of government have a responsibility to contribute. The Federal Government, however, is sitting on an $11 billion surplus and deliberately and disproportionately favouring private schools when it comes to funding.

Congratulations to all our members at Port Macquarie who attended the protest on February 9 against the Prime Minister at a Catholic school re-badged as an Australian Technical College. Federation urges all members to be visible in the campaign against the Federal Government's education and industrial relations policies and to attend the rally in Hyde Park on April 22.

In this state election year the State Government is rightly proud of the K-2 class size reduction program, (a campaign won by teachers and parents). What it should not trumpet, however, is the introduction of "new A to E" reporting (Premier Iemma, media release, February 18). In NSW "A to E" reporting has not been implemented because of the concerted opposition of teachers.

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February 2007 contents