I teach in a school where the principal has been told that
the education grants for terms three and four are being withheld. It is a small
school in a relatively inner suburb of Melbourne. This school had a poor reputation many years
ago. This perception has changed in the last few years. Some good teaching staff and a principal, who
are passionate about quality education, have turned this school around. Its
good reputation has evolved and the school is on the road to achieving very
positive goals both academically and in terms of extracurricular activities.
So I was amazed
when the Principal announced to us in a staff briefing that grant money which
should have come to the school in terms three and four is being withheld for no
real reason.
Imagine if you were
a mother and suddenly one night your partner tells you, ‘sorry dear, can’t give
you the money for January, February and March’s housekeeping.’ ‘But dear’, you protest, ‘the children need
to eat and they need clothes and we have education costs. Their football and
their basketball, their Maths and
English tutors need to be paid.’ Your co-parent scratches his armpits
momentarily then says, ’Ok I hear you. Kids have to eat. You will have to go to
the market though, because I am cutting your food budget and clothes. There are
op shops. As for the tutors, they will have stop now.’ ‘But, but’ you protest, ’Jamie’s English is
so poor, he just cannot get the attention he needs from the teacher to do well
in a class of 20 other students. He’ll fail Maths. He also gets much a much
needed confidence boost from his football because it is one of the few things
that he is good at. Julie has to have English tuition as she has VCE in two
years and she also needs extra instruction that she cannot get in the
classroom. What are we going to do?’
Your co-parent
shrugs and says, Well it can’t be helped there isn’t any money at the moment
for education. I have to buy myself some new guns for my gun club, also fees
for the international clubs, I belong to have gone up. The company has decided
to produce some glossy brochures and booklets to raise the company profile
again in several areas, plus security has to be upgraded. Oh, yes and we are having few managerial
conferences. They all cost money. We may have to take the kids out of school
and send them to work.’ ‘But dear,’ you protest, ’the kids are too young to
leave school. They need an education to do well in life. A good education stays
with you forever.’ By this time,
co-parent is extremely frustrated at the mother’s failure to understand that he
just has to balance the books. Education has to come second to the ‘more
important aspects of life’. He tells her
‘Dear, some very successful people left school at grade 8. Some of them can’t
even read and write. They pay someone to do it for them.’ By this time mother
has her arms, eyes and legs crossed and is looking down gun barrel sights at
her spouse.
‘In what Century
are we living? The nineteenth century had literacy rates at better levels in
some areas then today. Kids left school
earlier, but then life was simpler. Education is needed today because life is
far more complex and young people do need to be better educated to deal with
the issues that they will come across in their life. We need to give them
values and they need to be able to learn effectively in schools. How will they
do that, if they are not taught and supported in their learning ?
‘Oh, dear, you are
taking this to heart, aren’t you?’ At
this retort, the mother is visibly upset. She replies ’the education of
children is our insurance for the future. We need to put money into children’s
education, because it is money well spent. The children we educate today are
going to be the decision makers in governments’ of the future. They are the
builders of tomorrow’s nations and communities. If we sell them short today,
then we will pay a price in the future.’
And there you have it. The mother is the education
department and her principals that constantly get squeezed for budget cuts and
get less of a share of the taxpayer’s money when they should be getting a far
larger percentage. The irresponsible parent is the government that expects
education departments to run on shoestring budgets and schools to be under-resourced,
understaffed and over loaded with administration work requirements that have
little to do with the actual teaching of students.
In 1993 I was at
Flemington Secondary College, which was closed during the Kennett government reign
of terror on schools. Interestingly enough, Flemington Secondary School backed
onto Flemington Racecourse. It seemed odd that they picked that school to
close. Springvale Secondary College was another school that was ideally placed
near a railway station and it too, was closed. Both schools were on prime real estate land. Budgetary
concerns seem to take priority over the education needs of young Australians. That is reflected at the moment in the
general education perspectives of the society at large. I once had a principal
waffle on about the corporatisation of education and he told some astounded
teachers and non teaching staff that we should see the students and their
parents as clients or customers to whom we are providing units of education at
maximum effectiveness and minimum cost. In other words, we had to be cost
effective teachers.
Unfortunately, you
cannot produce and buy quality education like some product in the super market.
It has to be built up over time and it is a combination of sweat, inspiration,
dedication and passion by unique individuals who are supported, praised and
valued as professionals in their workplaces. Most good teachers I know have had
to have hearts like Phar Lap and the constitution of Carbine and Makybe Diva
combined to survive in Australian schools lately.
Even if a school
has a small student population; it can grow with the right principal leading
staff to produce amazing results. Dedicated teachers inspire students to want
to learn and that is what it is about. If teachers feel devalued and
under-supported, how are they able to convey a sense of confidence and value in
the students they teach? They cannot. Again in some schools, the Education
support staff are vital to the progress of many students and they provide much
needed support for helping students achieve learning outcomes at a much higher
level than they would have been able to without such support.
Education is not just for the gifted or the academically
average. It is for all students and schools are a community where all students
should thrive in a productive, nurturing environment. If we devalue our schools
and what they do, we run the risk of producing mediocrity in our future
citizens and our country. Australia used to be a clever country. That is no
longer true. The way we are ripping
money out of schools and education departments and putting it into bureaucracy,
mismanagement conferences and glossy brochures to alert us to the threat of
terrorism or drug education instead of teachers in classrooms is perilous in
the lack of commonsense displayed.
Money has been spent on buildings for schools that are dodgy
to say the least and definitely not designed for teachers and students, but by those
who think they know how teachers should teach and think. In a new school
building with an open plan space that has terrible acoustics, another teacher and
I counted twenty two lights with huge energy saving light bulbs in a space that
has good natural lighting and could have been lit by maybe eight or ten at the
most. Did the builder get these lights in bulk at a discount price and did he
want to use them all up at once?
At the same school
they have to fund raise for a new roof and floor for the ‘new sports building’.
The workmanship on some of these ‘new buildings’ that were part of the Rudd
/Gillard government initiative is shoddy to say the least.
When is sense going to be a common element in the planning
and running of schools and education departments? Give education a decent
budget and let principals be allowed to administer it autonomously. They are
usually the people at ground zero and with the odd few exceptions, I have to
say, they know what to use if for and where to use it. Holding Principals to
ransom over funding and not allowing them to do the job that they are hired to
do is ludicrous. What has happened to the days in Australia when kids and their
education were valued as they were perceived as the future? A smart government
educates all sectors of society and teaches the value of compassion and caring
for others. If financial considerations have priority in education, you might
as well close every public high school tomorrow and send all the kids out into
the workforce, except those who can pay full fees for their education at a high
school level, of course. Is that the ultimate aim of the governments, both
federal and state? It will put us back a century or two. Raising the retirement
age, is fine, but lowering the education standard will just drive more students
into the workplace. There you have the answer that the more short sighted in
government budget management are perhaps looking for - a larger number of
younger, unskilled, lowly paid people in the workforce. Most countries want to
raise their standard of education and we are working at lowering ours. Ironic indeed, for a clever country that is,
with clever pollies running it, of course. Just stupid voters who elect these clever
people to misuse taxes entrusted to them to run the country correctly and for
future generations.
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