From the President - Their past is our future (part 3): lessons for Queensland schools

The last two columns I have penned for our Journal shared experiences from Sweden (Vol 119 No 5) and the UK (Vol 119 No 6) on the impact of the politically and economically driven school autonomy agenda on schools, students and teachers. This final instalment in the series will bring these experiences together to map some of the potential dangers for our own schools: dangers that we cannot ignore.

“Education reform” has been a catch-cry in this country for generations. In preparing speeches on the history of our Union (as we celebrate our 125th anniversary) I came across articles in the predecessor of The Courier-Mail from around the time of the Union’s creation (1889) that lamented the quality of education, especially the failure to adequately address the basics of literacy and numeracy.

In more recent times, we have seen almost two decades of “reform” of schools aimed at delivering greater autonomy and allegedly designed to improve outcomes for students. At a glance the following programs stand out: Better Schools (Western Australia – 1997); Schools Renewal (New South Wales – 1989); Schools of the Future (Victoria – 1993); Directions for Education (Tasmania – 1996); Leading Schools (Queensland – 1997); Independent Public Schools (Western Australia – 2009); Empowering Local Schools (Commonwealth – 2010); Local Schools, Local Decisions (New South Wales – 2012); Independent Public Schools (Queensland – 2013).*

School autonomy reforms are not about student outcomes or breaking the shackles of bureaucracy to allow innovation in education. To believe so is to fall into the age-old trap of believing good will triumph over evil. Two public commentators central to the debate on school funding, David Gonski and Ken Boston, have highlighted the primary cause of the greatest opposition to the school funding reform model they helped author: fear by the elite of the establishment of a true meritocracy where the postcode you are born into does not determine your educational outcomes and life chances.

If we are to practise as educators what we rightly teach our students then we must strive to critically evaluate the motivations of the politicians who have come to dominate education policy like no other area of essential public services. In reclaiming our profession we must first strive to regain the right to steer policy on education as a key stakeholder motivated by student good rather than underlying political and economic factors. Parents are our partners in education and the other key stakeholder motivated by student good. We must continue to embrace parent engagement as a source of great strength in education.

It is in this sphere that we stand the greatest chance of restoring public confidence in education and educators and relegating retrograde policies on school autonomy to the dustbin of history.

Kevin Bates
President

* Mulheron, M. 2014 "If we forget history: The thirty year war against public education New South Wales Teachers’ Federation"; Sydney; pp 44-45.

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 119 No 7, 3 October 2014, p7