Editorial: Removal of teachers from the QCT board will be resisted

On 1 September, the Queensland Government released an issues paper for a review of the Education “College of Teachers Act” 2005. One of the three key areas for consideration concerned the governance structure of the college. 

As was the case with the Queensland Studies Authority, the issues paper questions the size of the board (the governing body) of the college, quoting the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Corporate Governance Guidelines on the optimal sizes of the boards of public companies.  It also queries “whether members should be selected as representatives of relevant organisations, or as persons with specific expertise in high level governance.”

What is at risk then through this process is the notion of a representative board, representing stakeholder organisations and practising teachers, and a board on which the majority are practitioners in the field.

The potential consequence is registration, approval of teacher education courses, and disciplinary functions being operated by a politically appointed board whose members may not have been practitioners of the profession they regulate.

That proposition should be resisted by teachers across the state.  It will be resisted by the Queensland Teachers’ Union.
On 13 September, the QTU State Council rejected any changes to the governing structures of the college that result in practising teachers no longer making up the majority of the board and that exclude key representative organisations.  It also rejected any dilution of the standards of registration, suitability to teach or permission to teach in relation to school teachers.

It is the hallmark of any profession that the profession itself establishes the standards for entry, sets the standards of conduct of members of that profession and enforces them. The current structure of the Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) already represents a compromise compared with the professional association associated with, for example, lawyers and medical specialists.

And it is important to remember that the Queensland Government contributes not a cent to the operation of the QCT.  The costs of its operations and functions are met from the registration fees of teachers. “No taxation without representation”, the rallying cry of rebellious Americans in the late 18th century, springs to mind. 

Queensland teachers should not accept justifications that the issues paper is “merely floating ideas”, nor should they wait until concrete proposals emerge removing their say in the QCT.
The QTU and the Independent Education Union (Queensland and Northern Territory Branch) have prepared a joint submission in response to the issues paper, and will campaign against possible changes to the legislation from the start of term four.

Education Accord

On 25 September, the Queensland Government held an Education Accord summit at the Gap State High School in Brisbane with the aim of contributing to a 30 year bipartisan accord concerning the direction of education in Queensland.  As well as representatives of stakeholder bodies like the QTU, the summit included a parent, a teacher and a principal from each of the 89 state electorates nominated by the sitting Member of Parliament. 

A number of QTU members participated in the summit and many more took part in local area round tables or seminars in the lead-up.

I attended, together with QTU President Kevin Bates and many other members of the QTU.  We agree with the often repeated statement of the Minister for Education, Training and Employment that education in Queensland is not in crisis.  We also agree with the amazing value, if it can be achieved, of a long term and bipartisan perspective on future directions in education. 

However as Ken Boston, most recently a member of the Gonski review panel, said at the QTU Education Leaders Conference early this year: “The eight-year-old child in a classroom today will only ever be eight-years-old once.  We owe it to them to do the best we can now.”
As well as a long term perspective, a sense of impatience and urgency on our part in pursuing those future directions will also be required.

Graham Moloney
General Secretary

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 119 No 7, 3 October 2014, p5