An audit of the 13 government inquiries held into education over the past decade should be conducted to determine whether the federal Government has implemented their recommendations.
Justine Ferrari, Education writer
June 01, 2007
The Australian
The Independent Education Union, representing 65 per cent of teachers in private schools, argues a first step in the Senate inquiry into academic standards of school education should be assessing the Government’s follow-up to research undertaken.
“A comprehensive audit of the reports and recommendations … would give insight into whether well-founded recommendations by serious researchers have been implemented,” the IEU says in its submission to the Senate inquiry.
“Rather than scapegoating teachers and schools about falling standards, governments must take responsibility for implementing the recommendations from the inquiries and commissioned reports.
“Quality research over significant time has been provided to governments about critical areas of the curriculum which need to be strengthened if Australia’s economy and productivity are to have the benefit of highly educated communities.”
The submission notes maths and science teaching has been the subject of considerable research and policy debate for many years, with recommendations made in a 1995 report echoed almost 10 years later.
“Critically, the shortage of science and mathematics teachers remains the subject of much debate, with ad hoc solutions often put forward,” it says. “It is this failure on the part of government to develop considered public policy on workforce planning in a timely way which will impact negatively on teacher quality and student learning.”
The IEU accuses the federal Government of politicising the education debate and creating a crisis in public confidence in the standard of education. “More than ever before, education – and in particular curriculum and student performance – has been politicised,” it says. “The federal Government has given a tone to its statements of an educational crisis in the country because, it alleges, schools are failing in their task of educating students.”
A major problem was the Government’s emphasis on national standards and external testing, “a narrow accountability approach”. The IEU also calls for an overhaul of funding arrangements to the non-government sector, arguing private schools should be publicly accountable on the same basis as government schools and funded on the basis of “genuine need”.
source: The Australian
Contact details
Chris Watt
Assistant Federal Secretary
Ph: 03 9254 1830
Fax: 03 9254 1835
ieu@ieu.org.au