Public education issue taken to Iemma’s doorstep

By Noreen Navin

Public education was the focus of a speak-out held outside Premier Morris Iemma's Lakemba office on March 15.

Canterbury-Bankstown Teachers Association invited Morris Iemma to attend the event but he did not respond or attend.

Socialist Alliance Upper House candidate and Indigenous rap artist Jakalene X-treme conducted a welcome to country and performed a rap highlighting the need for public education to be a serious priority of all governments and condemning the political hesitation on the part of the Iemma government to invest in the public sector. The rap was met with enthusiasm from the onlookers.

Supporter of public education Paul Patten performed songs about youth living in the inner city and aptly, Janis Joplin's "You don't know what you've got till it's gone" and Wiley Park Girls High drama teacher Lindy Nolan injected political satire into the event with a street theatre performance portraying the diminishing budget available to public education.

NSW Greens Upper House candidate and education spokesperson John Kaye invoked the memory of Henry Parkes, who was accorded the epithet 'Father of Federation' and whose legislative and secular reforms strengthened the public education system in 1880. Kaye told the speak out that Henry Parkes would be appalled today at the Federal and State Governments' lack of political will to maintain and develop a viable, well funded public system.

"Henry Parkes would be worried about the ageing of the teaching workforce, the failure of both governments to invest in public schools to secure its future, the growth in funding of private education and the so-called values debate," Mr Kaye said. His comments were met with applause from the audience which consisted of Mr Iemma's constituents who stopped to listen to opposition parties' policies on public education. John Kaye went on to elaborate on the Greens policy in each of these areas. He stated that the Greens were opposed to the increased growth in annual funding of the private school system. He condemned the $60 million state government annual pay out to the private system from the public coffers.

Whilst the Greens are committed to stop funding to the wealthiest private schools it was refreshing to hear Canterbury-Bankstown Vice President Rob Cullen state that no private school -- wealthy or not -- should receive funding from the public purse, particularly those schools who discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation and religion. He also spoke about the issue of private education contributing detrimentally to the social fabric of Australia and causing divisive effects on society when society is divided along ethnic, religious and socio-economic lines.

Canterbury-Bankstown Teachers Association President Nola Edsall said teachers struggling on behalf of their own working conditions were doing so not just for themselves but for those of the students they teach, particularly in the Canterbury-Bankstown area, who are some of the most disadvantaged in the state. Nola Edsall summarised some of Federation's demands, including those pertaining to students in Morris Iemma's electorate:

• the location of free, universally available pre-schools to be attached to public schools thereby ensuring quality, well monitored systems run by educators who understand how children learn
• ESL provision to be increased in all schools especially in the Canterbury-Bankstown area
• increased counsellor services
• increased mentor provision and additional time allocation to new and beginning teachers to gain maximum benefit from support from experienced teacher mentors
• an urgent audit into maintenance, replacement needs and capital works in schools that are in need of upgrading. Many Canterbury-Bankstown schools were built in the 1950s and 1960s and are a considerable drain on localised school budgets.

Nola Edsall said fighting for working conditions was tantamount to fighting for learning conditions.

The event was successful in attracting local media as well as an ex-Bankstown Girls High school student currently studying journalism at University of Technology, who recorded the event and intended to use it as a case study in her course.

Testimony to the fact that street gatherings, speak-outs and protests are a highly effective way of elevating the issues is the immediacy with which the community can be involved and participate directly in action, Mr Iemma's constituents stopped to listen to opposition parties' policies on public education and to the experts on the issue, the teacher activists themselves.

Noreen Navin is a Canterbury-Bankstown Teachers Association Vice President.

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Last Modified: 29 Mar 2007