The future of public education:

reaffirming the primacy of comprehensive education

As stated in the Vinson Report (p155), "in recognition of the centrality of the role of public education in preparing students to live in an inclusive democratic society, the public education system should seek to retain the maximum degree of comprehensiveness compatible with meeting the needs of a diverse range of students."

The value of comprehensive education

"It is the socially representative nature of a genuine comprehensive school which delivers the ultimate socio-political benefits of public education. It is the socially representative comprehensive school that creates a tendency, a disposition towards broadmindedness, liberalism and a tolerance of and indeed acceptance of diversity." (Lyndsay Connors, Chairperson, Public Education Council, December 9, 2003)

Failed government policies

Consistent with the prevailing socio-economic orthodoxies of recent years, which has included the elevation of economic imperatives above sound educational policy, politicians and compliant education administrators have undermined the core of our universal public education system. Furthermore, by creating a hierarchy of schools, they have reinforced a social hierarchy contributing to a fragmentation of community.

Under the guise of "choice", allegedly aimed at maintaining student numbers and stemming the flow of students to private schools, the ongoing restructuring of comprehensive high schools has created an insecurity which has contributed to increased enrolments in private schools. This has included the economically driven restructuring of local comprehensive schools into collegiates, senior and junior high schools and campuses, which have been largely educationally unsound. Significantly, private schools have remained largely immune to restructuring and never ending change.

As noted in the Vinson Report (p127), "each set of structural responses to challenges facing public education in New South Wales has contributed to the need for another set. So, for example, the decision to increase the number of selective high schools (and to a lesser extent, specialist high schools), while enticing more able students to stay in the public system, depleted the ranks of academically oriented students in many comprehensive high schools. This resulted in a change in the composition of those schools from a balance of academic and other students, to a predominance of non-academic, ambivalent students, whose retention rates were lower. This reduced the number of students at the HSC level, and the range of HSC subjects available to those who remained. This in turn contributed to the development of some of the stand-alone senior colleges, and more recently, multi-campus colleges, which can again offer a wide choice of subjects to the full range of students."

Out of approximately 400 high schools, about 100 are specialised or selective. A further 30 are single sex.

Instead of stemming the drift in enrolments from public to private schools, the cumulative effect of the ideology of "choice" has been as destructive to the comprehensive nature of public education as government funding of private schools.

Between 1990 and 2003, student enrolments in government schools in NSW decreased by approximately 4.5 per cent from 72.1 per cent to 67.7 per cent. This decrease was more evident in secondary schools, where enrolments fell by nearly six per cent from 69.2 per cent to 63.4 per cent. In the senior secondary years public school enrolments are even lower.

The future of comprehensive education

Within the context of a state-wide policy framework, Conference calls on the Government to endorse the following conclusions from the Vinson Report:

Principles governing the structure of public education in NSW

• In recognition of the centrality of the role of public education in preparing students to live in an inclusive, democratic society, the public education system should seek to retain the maximum degree of comprehensiveness compatible with meeting the needs of a diverse range of students.
• In recognition of the need to enable the most talented students to develop to the fullest extent possible, opportunities should be provided for them to learn together in appropriate contexts in all schools.
• In considering structural arrangements for public secondary education, in general, year 7-12 high schools that do not differentiate on the basis of ability or age, should be considered the norm, and any departure from this form, such as selective and specialist schools and multi-campus colleges, should be based on cogent and explicit justification of the values and evidence supporting the change.
• In the absence of an explicit justification to the contrary, multi-campus colleges that take the full range of students are preferable to stand-alone, quasi-selective senior colleges.
• Permeable forms of selectivity, where students learn in special groups some of the time but also join together as an integrated community, are preferable to 'two-track', exclusive forms of selectivity.
• An essential consideration in any decision to restructure schooling arrangements should be the likely impact the change will have on the standing and wellbeing of surrounding schools, school districts and towns.
• Any decision to change schooling arrangements should seek to minimise the dislocation of affected students and their families.
• Change management procedures should include a genuine and transparent consultation process, a realistic timeline for consultation and implementation, and guidelines for handling industrial issues.

Administrative presumptions arising from the guiding principles

• Priority should be given, in the first instance, to retaining local comprehensive year 7-12 high schools, and to addressing the problems some of them encounter (academic outcomes, retention and absentee levels, numbers of senior students, failure to meet the needs of particular groups of students) through adequate resourcing of buildings, equipment and staff. For example:
• where academic outcomes and retention and absentee rates are problems, priority should be given to the revitalisation of the school as a learning community, through whole school initiatives, pedagogical and curriculum reform and appropriate professional development of staff.
• where lack of a good-sized senior student cohort and limited HSC subject choice are problems, the following hierarchy of options should be considered prior to any assessment of the need for structural change: i. cooperation with surrounding secondary schools, either physically or technically;

  ii. itinerant servicing to a range of schools (for example, a roving economics teacher);

  iii. provision of subjects in a community centre to students from a range of schools (for example, languages);

  iv. distance education.

• Where a school is failing to attract or to meet the needs of academically talented students, an academic extension (gifted education) initiative should be instituted, involving professional development and the accessing of appropriate resources.
• "Where a school is failing to thrive more generally, the introduction of a special focus area based on existing school expertise (such as a 'soft' specialisation in sport, music, science, gifted education, vocational education) should be considered to provide a focus for revitalising the school. More formal specialised status should be avoided unless compelling reasons for seeking it can be advanced". (Vinson report, p155)

Comprehensive education (preschool -year 12)

Preschool - Year 6 education

Whilst the government announced the establishment of 21 new public pre-schools in the 2003 state election, government commitment in this area remains inadequate. Children with diagnosed disabilities who enrol in DET pre schools cannot currently access funding support. Access to such funding must be made a priority.

Conference supports the recommendations contained in the AEU National Preschool Education Inquiry report, 2004. In particular:

• the provision of high quality and accessible pre school education in the year before commencing school [which] is free for all children...and is acknowledged as a universal right; and
• [that] the Commonwealth reintroduce dedicated funding for preschool education and that Commonwealth and state and territory governments jointly provide the full costs of preschool education.

Conference reaffirms Federation's policy on the school entry age, that is 5 years [old] by 30th April, and will argue this position when a common national school starting age is debated.

Kindergarten-Year 6

Consistent with the findings of the Vinson Inquiry the Federation is to continue to pressure the government to end the establishment of OC [opportunity class] classes and implement a timetable for their disestablishment. Any expansion could threaten the successful P-6 local public school in the same way as the expansion of selective and specialist high schools have negatively impacted upon the comprehensive high school.

Primary-secondary linkages

The negligible funding and support of these programs makes a mockery of the Government's commitment in this area.

To support educational continuity (P-12), well resourced linkage and transition programs between feeder primary schools and the local high school are critical. As such NSW will pursue the restoration of the linkages consultancy position and program to all school education areas.

To date the Government and DET have been negligent in this area. The Federation will continue to pursue the development by the DET of a systematic approach to analysing retention rates from year 6 into 7, and to developing programs that ensure retention rates from feeder primary schools to the local high school remain strong. Recognising that a comprehensive school is defined by a comprehensive student demographic offering a comprehensive curriculum, where retention rates have slipped to unacceptable levels and a high school is at risk of becoming residualised, the Federation will support the development of a range of strategies aimed at revitalising and/or rebuilding a comprehensive student demographic and curriculum. Conference notes that "on the face of it schools that combine a local and selective intake look like an answer to concerns at the loss by comprehensive high schools of their more academically talented students. Some teachers in such schools have argued that their schools are once again genuinely comprehensive because they have the full range of students." (Vinson report, p138)

The Federation will continue to pursue additional staffing/resourcing for years 7 and 8. This additional resourcing would allow schools to introduce strategies such as reduced class sizes or collaborative team teaching programs to address "middle schooling" issues during these critical transition years from primary to high school education.

The Federation will continue to advocate the adoption of additional staffing resource approaches by the DET to overcome particular short term difficulties faced by individual schools.

Federation will campaign for the re-introduction of the appointment of mobile teachers to hard to staff areas, experiencing difficulties in attaining casual teachers.

Post compulsory education

To ensure curriculum continuity from year 11 to year 12 and to meet the demands for appropriate courses created by increased retention rates, the provision of a senior school "curriculum guarantee staffing supplementation" is endorsed by Conference.

Consistent with Annual Conference policy (1998), the Federation will continue to support greater cooperation and coordination between schools and TAFE colleges within geographically identifiable areas as a means of enhancing educational opportunities within local communities. Given the decline in enrolments in public education in the senior secondary years, Federation will commission/conduct a research project on the nature of the student cohort in the senior secondary years, identifying factors in public education's diminishing share of enrolments and make recommendations for improving the share of senior secondary enrolments in public education.

Further research

In respect of evaluating existing strategies, review the recommendations of the Vinson Report including doubling of counsellor numbers in the next 10 years in order to "meet the needs of a diverse range of students", that an audit of the current delivery of school counsellor services across the state be conducted, that will look at many issues such as, but not be limited to the following:

• work space -- workload
• impact of daily travel requirements
• accessing professional learning funds
• CIT (Counsellor In Training) study leave
• availability of resources, and test equipment
• access to technology such as computers, internet access, mobile phones
• designated and acknowledged RFF
• mentoring for career pathway
• counsellor role statement while acknowledging the constantly evolving role

Distance education

Conclusion

Federation should consider that students who travel beyond their local public school shall pay the full cost of transport from their local school to the school of their choice.

The appointment of an additional fully qualified teacher librarian with access to additional financial resources to enable the fostering of improved access for students to relevant information resources.

Council will consider implementation strategies to achieve these policy objectives.

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