Greens hold education forum

An education forum was held by The Greens at Woy Woy Environment Centre on July 18.

State Greens MP Dr John Kaye told the meeting that, as Minister for Education for the last three years, Prime Minister Julia Gillard had overseen what was in effect a continuation of the Howard Government's policy of putting public money into wealthy private schools at the expense of public schools.

He said that more than $432 million dollars was being allocated to private schools in many of which the students were already having twice the money spent on them as those in public schools.

"A strong public school system is central to creating equality of opportunity in modern democracies, but both Labor and Coalition governments have chosen to follow the example of the United States and UK in allowing the school system to increase divisions in the population, between different religious communities and between rich and poor," Dr Kaye said.

"In the crises ahead of us in the 21st century, it is only the secular public school system which can supply the glue needed to hold modern democracies together.

"It is ironic that our nearest neighbour Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation in the world, seems to be more interested in developing its state secular school system than we are.

Mr Fred Dumbrell of the NSW Teachers Federation argued that the most successful modern democracies, such as the Scandinavians, were those that had strong public school systems and the most equitable sharing of educational resources across all communities.

"The problem in Australia is primarily the amount of money going to the wealthiest schools, which simply do not need it.

"But the moment any politician mentions cutting the funding for private schools, they all band together, from the wealthiest to the poorest, and resist it as a block."

Greens candidate for Robertson Cr Peter Freewater said that Australian university teachers had suffered years of attack under the Howard government, and the decline in funding per student had resulted in unacceptable loads on teachers.

He said an important goal was to abolish university fees and end the HECS system.

"Universities must also be protected from the interference of managers and bureaucrats," Cr Freewater said.

"As institutions they must be primarily about teaching and research, with academics having the freedom to pursue non-commercial lines of research."

The forum canvassed other issues such as the merits of the selective school system, the MySchool website and the development of the National Curriculum and the National Registration of Teachers.

Press release, 19 Jul 2010 Peter Freewater, The Greens