Students Rally Against Education Cuts
By Nathan Laurent
BRISBANE — A rally of more than 600 student teachers at Queensland University of Technology on July 28 expressed anger at proposed state education cuts.
The rally was organised in response to announcements by the Goss government that there would be 500 fewer secondary teaching positions next year, that teachers would spend longer time in rural areas and that teaching graduates would not be guaranteed interviews for rating.
From now on, the few positions which are available will be advertised in newspapers. This means that the 1800 new teachers expected to graduate this year will have to compete with the 10,000 others already unemployed in Queensland. Only 10% of graduates can expect to be short-listed.
"This is an insult to students who have committed themselves to a career in teaching", said Shaun Mitchell, a fourth-year education student.
A representative of the Union of Australian College Academics, Donna Mogg, described how rhetoric about higher standards in education was being contradicted by overcrowding and under-funding.
"I find it astounding", she said, "that it was a Labor government which coined the phrase, 'the clever country', urging students to stay in school and go on to university, and it is a Labor government that now says a large number of these students will not be employed".
Mary Kelly, president of the Queensland Teachers Union, told the rally that a cut of 500 staff would be the biggest since 1987. "It will wipe out in one go all the extra teachers this government has put on in their three budgets to date", she said.
Kelly urged the students to focus their anger on ALP politicians and step up the campaign against Goss'
public sector cuts. She invited the students to join teachers at a rally in Festival Hall on Thursday August 5, 10 a.m.