Bracks' education recipe like a souffle

BY MANDY PEARSON

MELBOURNE — The Victorian Labor government's Blueprint for Government Schools, released on November 13, is notable for what it does not say, more than its recipe to fix the ailing public school system.

It falls far short of redressing the cuts suffered by the education system under the previous Coalition government, and preserves some of its tenets such as "self-management". It says nothing about teacher recruitment and the parlous state of teacher training.

A teacher at Geelong High, Sue Bull, told Green Left Weekly that the debates at her school are typical of those occurring in every school in Victoria. "The Blueprint for Government Schools is largely irrelevant to current problems", she said. "Every teacher is working harder, and some are working outside the union agreement (which caps the number of periods taught per week), otherwise it would be impossible to implement programs.

"Teacher training is another major deficiency. Some investment has occurred in this area under the current government, but not enough has been done to redress the cuts in training positions under former Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett, and the blueprint does nothing to assist."

Victoria has the smallest intake of all states of training positions per capita.
Teachers have another reason to be concerned about the blueprint, in the context of the government's announcement that it intends to cap public sector wages to 2.25% per year, plus 0.75% for productivity. This will be used across the board in enterprise bargaining with public servants, nurses, teachers and others, mirroring the approach of the Western Australian state Labor government, which is also attempting to cap wage rises at 3% per year.

Through its unique relationship with unions, the ALP in government often acts as a brake on wage claims by promising to improve the social wage, i.e. the proportion of investment in public infrastructure. This is the context for the Victorian Blueprint for Government Schools. It is an exercise to show teachers and the voting public that Labor is doing more to support public education, at the same time as playing the three-card trick with public sector wages and teacher numbers.

Like so much from the ALP's spin doctors, said Bull, the Blueprint for Government Schools is "a souffle", initially appealing but simply full of hot air.

From Green Left Weekly, December 10, 2003.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 565