Education program fails to make the grade - Opinion Piece for the Sydney Morning Herald

THE HON CHRISTOPHER PYNE SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, APPRENTICESHIPS AND TRAINING, MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS IN THE HOUSE | 24/01/10

To read Sydney Morning Herald article - click here.

Labor's ambitious schools policy has good intentions but falls short on a practical level; at the expense of taxpayers.

Kevin Rudd's promise of an "education revolution" formed the centrepiece of Labor's policy at the last election – promising a computer for every secondary student was a clear a vote winner.

He also promised to lift standards, the quality of outcomes and the outputs of our education system. Last election was considered by some commentators to be the "education election".

But instead of supporting choice in our schools and making provisions for more autonomy, especially in public schools, Education Minister Julia Gillard's delivery of the so-called "revolution" is bureaucratic, centralised, and scores, overall, a clear D-minus on her report card.

Let's take the promised computers, for example. The original election promise was $1 billion to give a computer to every student but they "forgot" to include necessary related costs such as software, network support and staff training.

To appease the states, Julia Gillard had to put more money on the table to cover these costs and the program blew out to $2.2 billion.

So was this enough money to speed things along? Apparently not, because as of October we know that only 150,000 of the 1 million computers had actually landed on the desks at schools.

At this rate, it would take seven years to deliver on their promise – with the computers becoming obsolete as most need replacing every four years.

What's worse is that parents are now being asked to pay for computers in some states to speed the process along. In some South Australian schools, parents are being asked to pay up to $1350 over four years to take the taxpayer-funded computers home.

So what other elements do Labor claim will help lift standards and improve educational outcomes? If we turn our attention to the Building the Education Revolution program, based on the history to date, the score is again a D-minus.

The roll-out of the school infrastructure program, like computers in schools, provides a clear picture of why the education revolution policy is in a shambles.

Instead of having choice and flexibility, schools are told by federal and state governments what they can build, who to hire to build it and how the money should be spent.

Many schools have been forced to accept off-the-shelf plans for libraries and halls from expensive contractors procured by the government departments while community needs are ignored.

The cost of program has blown out by $1.7 billion, with the Auditor-General investigating the apparent waste and mismanagement. One such example is the case of Abbotsford Public School in NSW – where they were told to knock down four classrooms to build four classrooms.

Interestingly, the changes that may raise educational outcomes, such as the implementation of a national curriculum and nationwide school testing and reporting of literacy and numeracy, are reforms that started under the Coalition.

While I welcome the adoption of the Coalition's policy to increase transparency within schools, education outcomes cannot improve without the Government giving principals and school governing councils the power to act on the information reported on the website.

So, again, I give a D-minus, given the frustration of parents and principals who remain bound by their state education departments from being able to initiate effective reforms in their schools.

The reality is that Australian schools are facing a barrage of different policies, programs and requirements under the "education revolution", which as a package bog them down in red tape, driven by a regimental and top-down approach.

This is typical of the Government's approach to public policy: big flashy soundbites, tons of taxpayers' money thrown at the problem, a shambles in implementation and no idea if the program will work or whether it's the best spend of money.

The Coalition will have education policy announcements this year that will support the fundamentals such as providing the best possible education standards for students, giving principals and school governing councils the authority to act in their own schools and allowing parents to make choices that are right for their families. These are the critical areas if you want to lift the standards, quality of outcomes and outputs of our education system.