Press Releases

Public Education in Australia; A Failed Experiment?

Press Release 537

The following paper was delivered by Jean Ely to the ANZHES Conference in Brisbane on December14, 2013.

In it she questions determinist doctrines of progress or evolution accepted by many Australian educational historians. For children of the Enlightenment things may not necessarily be getting better. She wonders about another interpretation of Australian educational history, an interpretation that sees the development of Enlightenment values in the Antipodes as an ongoing battle for survival. Perhaps ‘progress’ in Australian education is not and never was - inevitable. This paper looks at the failed Irish ‘experiment’, an unlikely contribution of the Scottish Enlightenment to the successful Australian experiment in 1844-48, and the failure of secondary education in Queensland 1899-1964.

PISA Results: Failure for Countries with Market Ideology ( 7.12.2013)

Press Release 535

The 2013 PISA results have been released and Australia’s international standard has fallen even further. Australia saw a precipitous fall in its maths ranking, from 15th in 2009 to 19th in 2012

The results were a disappointment for those countries that have embraced a market ideology with charter schools and ‘independent’ public schools.

Pyne and the Private School Interest (28.11.2013)

Press Release 534

Gonski did two good things.

1. Gonski uncovered the ongoing failure of any Needs policies invented by Australian Governments by exposing the over-weening greed of the private sector.

2. Gonski mobilised the public school sector throughout Australia to live in hope – of crumbs or even bread from the Federal Treasury table. Thanks to Angelo Gavrielatos and the AEU, this led to a politicisation of the public sector. Public school parents, teachers, and administrators are now disinclined to die in despair.

Framing New Zealand’s funding of religious schools (8.11.2013)

Press Release 532

Churches are tax-exempt by virtue of the ancient category of religion as a form of charity. This was initially formalised in the 1601 Statute of Charitable Uses, during the reign of Elizabeth I. Partly as a consequence, the major churches in New Zealand today, as elsewhere, are very wealthy. The Anglicans and Catholics are billionaires, the rest are merely rich.[1]

Despite this wealth, New Zealand continues to fund religious, mainly Catholic schools.

Murdoch Claims Egalitarian Australia has Left Behind 'Stuffy' Elitism ( 31.10.2013)

Press Release 531

In his Lowy Lecture on 31 October at the Sydney Town Hall, Rupert Murdoch made much of the religion of the Prime Minister and his fellow religionists in his Cabinet. He claimed that this heralded the end of stuffy elitism and lauded our egalitarian nation. In one breath he said that we must educate our children In the next he advocated importing clever Asians. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-31/rupert-murdoch-delivers-lowy-lectu...

Victorian State Government Should Evaluate Its Own Performance before it Fails Public teachers

Press Release 530

Napthine government should evaluate its own performance, and in particular its failure to provide a quality public education for every child before it looks at ‘performance’ criteria for public school principals and teachers.

They are imposing a ‘performance test’ upon schools that would fail up to 40% of teachers across the system. And if Principals cannot find the ‘failures’, then, presumably, they, too will ‘fail’ the test.

As Mr Sal, the President of the Secondary Principals Association said:

‘Introducing an internationally discredited , dollar-driven and hurried process’ can only result in conflict and disharmony. ‘It will not lead to better performances or improve the teamwork that is essential in all schools. This poorly timed, resourced and sold process will undermine any credibility this government might have had around trust in schools or notions of school autonomy.’ (The Age, 21.10.2013)

State Aid Bad for Relgion: Uniting Churches Sold Off

Press Release 529

As the State Aid bill has soared since the 1960s, attendance at church has plummeted. The pews are empty. “For Sale” notices appear on crumbling churches. Church schools are no longer about religious belief. They have descended into the market place of consumer aspiration, the plaything of insecure parents.

The Uniting Church of Victoria is currently proving the point.

Sectarian Education: Unintended Consequences. Sharia Law?

Press Release 528

SECTARIAN EDUCATION : UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
STATE WITHIN A STATE: SHARIA LAW?
16 October 2013

When State Aid to sectarian schools was re-introduced in the 1960s in
Australia, it was done to the tune of ‘Poor parish Catholic Schools.”
It did not take long for the Protestant and all kinds of private religious groups
to line up for taxpayer funds.
DOGS warned of religious division and the setting up of a State within a
State. This has been most obvious in the growing political influence and power
of the Roman Catholic church which has always believed that the Church has
the right to dominate the State in moral matters.
But what happens when a religious group has a different religious and legal
code altogether? What happens when the secular, democratic State funds
religious schools which adhere ,not to the Rule of Law but Sharia Law?
This is happening in the UK with the privatising of public schools.The English are upset because teachers in Islamic schools are required to wear the Hijab. But this is already accepted practice in Australia. No hijab. No job. And this applies for student teachers. No Hijab. No teacher training.
The Abbott Government with Christopher Pyne as Minister for Education is interested in imitating the British experience. So what happens to the Rule of law and basic democratic freedoms when Islamic schools enter big time into the privatisation equation?
The following information can be discovered in this article by Soeren Kern October 3, 2013 at 5:00 am at http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3999/uk-education-sharia