Noreen Navin, Sydney
Across NSW, 40,000 public school students with a language background other than English (LBOTE) are being denied English as a second language (ESL) support because the NSW Labor government refuses to prioritise their needs.
A public forum was held at Bankstown Girls High School on August 29, initiated by Bankstown Public School and the Canterbury-Bankstown branch of the NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF), to discuss the crisis. NSW education minister Carmel Tebutt, federal education minister Brendan Nelson and federal Labor's shadow education minister Jenny Macklin were invited but did not attend.
NSWTF senior vice-president Angelo Gavrielatos told the meeting that a NSW education department briefing paper has confirmed the extent to which successive state and federal governments have neglected non-English speaking background students' needs. The paper highlights the scandalous decline in the provision of ESL support for students in need.
The briefing paper revealed that:
- Since 1983, the number of students assessed as requiring ESL assistance, but unable to receive it, has trebled to 41,158 students.
- Students who are not receiving ESL support are at risk of not developing English literacy sufficient to enable full participation in the curriculum.
- From 1983 until 2004, the face-to-face ESL teacher to ESL student contact ratio increased from 1:55 to 1:110 for primary schools, and from 1:42 to 1:78 for secondary schools.
"While state and federal governments continue to engage in political blame-shifting games, non-English speaking background migrant and refugee students are suffering", Gavrielatos told the 80 teachers and counsellors attending the meeting.
While the forum allowed teachers to express concern for their students, and Gavrielatos urged teachers to fill out postcards to be sent to the education ministers and local politicians, it was disappointing that no call for action was made. An ESL teacher from a neighbouring school unsuccessfully tried to propose that, in the event that a school's ESL allocation is reduced, the entire staff should be encouraged to take immediate strike action.
Schools will receive notice of their ESL teacher allocations by the end of term three. The allocation is decided on the basis of an annual survey conducted by the ESL department in schools and forwarded to the NSW education department. The NSW pool of 876 ESL teachers has remained static despite the increase in the number LBOTE students. If a particular school's allocation is increased one year, it will be at the cost of a reduction at another school.
The forum was also addressed by the assistant principal and principal of Bankstown Public School, as well as the ESL teacher at Bankstown Girls High School. They spoke of how students in the Bankstown area are not only being supported inadequately but are also victimised and vilified in the wider community by the mainstream media and politicians.
NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon condemned the NSW Labor government's funding of elite private schools. She noted that with this funding alone, 100 extra ESL teachers could be placed into public schools. Rhiannon pointed out that the Greens recently moved a motion in the upper house of the NSW parliament calling for an extra 100 ESL teachers. However Tebutt voted against it.
Tebutt is the ALP's candidate in the September 17 Marrickville by-election. Rhiannon said the students, parents and teachers in Marrickville should be made aware of her irresponsible action. In June, Tebutt also banned anti-homophobia material developed by the education department in a knee-jerk reaction to hysterical mainstream media reports.
From Green Left Weekly, September 7, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.