Second Report

SECOND REPORT JULY 2002 INQUIRY INTO THE PROVISION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN NSW ISBN 1875699 511 SPONSORED BY: NSW TEACHERS FEDERATION & FEDERATION OF P&C ASSOCIATIONS OF NSW INQUIRY PANELLISTS Kathy Esson - Senior Inquiry Officer Ken Johnston - Senior Inquiry Officer Tony Vinson - Chairperson INQUIRY PERSONNEL Joan Brown - Inquiry Officer Greg Eliovson - Inquiry Officer (part-time) Trudy Wiedeman - Secretary RESEARCH ASSOCIATES Neville Hatton - University of Sydney Alan Watson - University of New South Wales PREFACE The Second Report of the Inquiry into the Provision of Public Education in New South Wales follows a First Report, released in May 2002, that comprised three chapters on the following topics: 1. Teacher Professionalism 2. Curriculum and Pedagogy 3. The Foundations for Effective Learning. The present report adds a further four chapters on the following topics: 4. The Structure of Public Education and Social Values 5. Student Welfare and Discipline 6. Buildings and Amenities 7. Rural and Remote Education. The remainder of the Inquiry’s report will be released in late August / early September 2002. It will cover a number of additional topics including the governance of the education system; the integration of students with disabilities; TAFE and public education; school, community and social disadvantage; teacher preparation; the cost of public education; and planning for the future. PAGE CHAPTER 4 THE STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION AND SOCIAL VALUES 1 INTRODUCTION 1 - The centrality of social values 1 - An outline of the issues 6 AN OVERVIEW OF THE RESTRUCTURING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN NSW SINCE 1988 6 - Dezoning 6 - Selective schools 8 - Opportunity classes 9 - Specialist high schools 10 - Stand-alone senior colleges 10 - Multi-campus colleges 10 - The changing educational landscape 11 THE IMPACT OF THE RESTRUCTURING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN NSW SINCE 1988 12 - Dezoning 13 - Academic selectivity - Selective high schools 14 - Arguments put forward in support of selective schools 16 - Arguments against selective schools 20 - Academic selectivity: Partially selective high schools 27 - Academic selectivity: Opportunity classes 29 - Academic Selectivity: Conclusions 30 - Specialisation 32 - Stand-alone senior colleges 34 - Multi-campus colleges 37 - Rationale for establishment 37 - Efficacy 40 - Implementation 42 - Impact on secondary schooling in general 44 THE STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES - CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 45 - Principles governing the structure of public education in New South Wales 45 - Administrative presumptions arising from the guiding principles 46 CHAPTER 5 STUDENT WELFARE AND DISCIPLINE 52 AIMS OF THE CHAPTER 52 PART 1 - PROBLEMS IMPORTED INTO THE LEARNING SITUATION 52 - Evidence presented to the Inquiry 52 - Scale and impact of misbehaviour 53 - Responses to misbehaviour/behavioural problems 53 - What should be done? 55 SYSTEM RESPONSES TO BEHAVIOURALLY DISTURBED AND DISENGAGING STUDENTS AND YOUNG PEOPLE 56 - School level services 57 - Special programs and facilities for students with behaviour problems 58 - Mental health services 61 THE NEED FOR ADDITIONAL SCHOOL-LEVEL SUPPORT FOR TEACHERS IN HANDLING STUDENTS WITH BEHAVIOURAL DIFFICULTIES 61 - School counsellors: need for a longer term plan 64 DISTRICT LEVEL SUPPORT FOR TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS: A CASE STUDY AND IDENTIFICATION OF ADDITIONAL NEED 65 PART 2 - INDISCIPLINE AND HOLISTIC APPROACHES TO CHANGING THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 70 - Proactive schools 73 CHAPTER 6 BUILDINGS AND AMENITIES 83 AIMS OF CHAPTER 83 BACKGROUND 83 SUBMISSIONS TO INQUIRY 84 - Provision of general resources 84 - Staff working conditions 86 - Inadequate maintenance 87 - Appropriate teaching spaces 87 - Cleaning 88 - Temperature control 88 - Demountable classrooms 89 INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS 89 THE NEW SOUTH WALES PUBLIC EDUCATION ESTATE 92 - Primary school standards 93 - Standards for staff rooms 94 - Communal facilities 94 - Secondary school standards 95 - Funding of school capital works 97 - School asset management 98 - Facilities maintenance 100 CHAPTER 7 RURAL AND REMOTE EDUCATION 104 - Additional educational expenses 104 - City-country gulf 105 - Professional development 106 - Small country schools 106 - Bus transport 106 - Attracting staff 106 - Additional issues 107 EDUCATIONAL DISADVANTAGES FACING RURAL TEACHERS AND STUDENTS 107 SCHOOLS, RURAL COMMUNITIES AND CHANGE 109 TEACHER ALLOWANCES AND INCENTIVES 115 APPENDIX CHAPTER 4 THE STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION AND SOCIAL VALUES I fear for the future of the country when we’ve got public schools that, maybe in the future, will only be there for people who can’t afford to go to some other school. We’ve got Catholic schools for Catholics, Christian schools for Protestants, Jewish schools for Jewish people, Islamic schools for Muslim kids, Seven-Day-Adventist schools for Seven-Day-Adventist and so on and so on. What we’re doing is we’re dividing the country. … I believe that if we continue to do this - I’m not knocking the right of people to have private education, that’s accepted as a right - but if we keep on going down this path, we are going to reap the whirl-wind. … How are people going to learn to accept Jews and Muslims if large sections of the Jewish and Muslim community are in separate schools? How are we going to learn to live together if we are educated separately? Are we going to have a situation like Northern Ireland, like Lebanon, where people are divided along sectarian lines and we see the results? And this is the thing I fear for. When we’re talking about public education, we are talking about the cohesiveness of the whole society. Teacher, Public Hearing, Sydney Metropolitan area We deplore the ever more common usage of the term ‘marketplace’ by educationalists and politicians alike in reference to Our Public Education system, which we see as an absolutely essential cornerstone in our democratic society. It is a right, to be defended at all costs. It is not a commodity to be contracted off to the provider with the best price or eloquent promises. Public primary school, regional New South Wales All businesses and service providers [including public education] wishing to remain successful in the long term must involve themselves in continuous improvement and continually refocus on the needs of the market and stakeholders. P&C District Council, Sydney North Shore ___________________________________________ INTRODUCTION The centrality of social values The way in which public education is structured depends ultimately on the weight assigned to competing social values. Is it better that students of diverse backgrounds and degrees of talent should study together in local, comprehensive public schools, or is more to be gained by admitting the most academically able to opportunity classes and selective high schools? Should there be more, or fewer, selective classes and schools? Do the advantages of concentrating senior high school students within senior colleges outweigh the possible disadvantages caused to the junior high schools from which the students transfer? Where high schools and senior colleges co-exist in a region, is it appropriate that they compete for students? When, if ever, is it legitimate that considerations like stabilising the population of public school students, should determine policy decisions? These matters go to the heart of the future of public education in 1 this State. They are germane to the two major terms of reference of the Inquiry1 and to most of the focus issues proposed at the start of the Inquiry. Some data are available that throw light on these and related questions. However, in the experience of the Inquiry, the polemics that surround these issues often reflect hardened value positions that pay little heed to varying circumstances or empirical evidence. The purpose of this section is to identify some of the contending values that ordinarily confuse debates about the structuring of public education, as a prelude to examining the issues in more detail. Social policy serves us well when it gives expression to key values in meeting the generality of individual and communal needs, while recognising and providing for some patterned variations in the needs of groups and localities. At the general level, public education has long aspired to provide all children with an equal opportunity to cultivate their talents to the limits of their individual abilities. It has also aspired to be a force for social cohesion, for building mutual understanding between people of different ethnic, religious, vocational and socio-economic backgrounds. This disposition towards social cohesion has advantaged Australian society in the past, by contributing to the peaceful co-existence of different groups and the maintenance of social arrangements and communal services that help to preserve the dignity of all Australians. The challenges of the present era (such as growing sectarianism) make its preservation doubly important. Equally challenging to the preservation of a cohesive and caring society is the widening gap between the economic fortunes, and consequently, educational and social opportunities, of different sections of the Australian community. Addressing these issues is not the sole responsibility of public education. A range of social institutions including the family, polity, economy and the value generating institutions, including religion, are involved. However, the joint education of young people of diverse backgrounds provides a most helpful basis for fostering mutual understanding

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