By Norrian Rundle
Despite promises of no more cuts, the Victorian government has announced another round of attacks on state schools. This time, no dollar value has been attached to the cuts.
One hundred and thirteen schools have been targeted for closure or merger with neighbouring schools. While no official list has been released, names of schools have been published in the media. The targeted schools have been given until November 29 to decide what to do.
The government claims that it is only offering incentives to merge. However, only when school budgets are released in mid-November will schools know what sanctions will apply to those that refuse to co-operate. If the government is successful, clusters of suburbs will be left with few primary schools and no secondary schools.
The government is offering more voluntary departure packages. Again, no number has been specified, though the estimate is more than 600. This will take to more than 9000 the number of teachers cut from the state education system since 1992 — a cut of 20%.
In the weeks before the announcement, Phil Gude, minister for education, said in parliament that there were 1500 teachers in the state system doing not one iota of work and contributing not one bit of added value. When managers in his own department stated that 900 of these teachers were constantly being shuffled from school to school filling short term vacancies, and another 300 were acting as relief teachers, Gude tried to amend Hansard claiming that he really meant that these teacher were doing low work.
In a memo sent to principals, it is clear that Gude also intends school budgets to absorb so-called "excess" salaries, resulting in money for literacy programs and relief teachers being used to pay for "excess" teachers. If a school has "excess" teachers overall, but does not have a teacher in a specialist area, the school must either cut this subject or have an unqualified teacher take these classes. Recent reports reveal that literacy levels have fallen in Australia over the last 20 years.
The memo also announced that teachers employed on short term contracts will be denied the right to apply for ongoing positions. This means these teachers can be pulled in and out of the work force at the government's whim, without any consideration of their livelihoods.
All this is occurring alongside increasing government subsidisation of private education. Private schools are being allowed to open with far fewer students than many of the targeted state schools. The government has openly acknowledged that if primary schools close, the affected students will go to the local Catholic school.
The facilities and resources in many private schools far outweigh those in government schools. At Scotch College, the school attended by Jeff Kennett, there is a three-floor language centre. Most government secondary schools are lucky to have three language rooms. At Wesley College there is one teacher to every eight students, compared to one teacher for every 15 students in state schools.
The budget cuts are forcing schools to accept corporate sponsorship, thereby allowing private companies a say in school curriculums. Gude recently claimed that schools would be better run by business managers than educationalists.
The cost of schooling is also being passed on to parents via increased "voluntary" levies, fundraising demands and having more of the expensive books and equipment needed added to students' book purchase lists.
There is a clear intent to privatise primary and secondary education in Australia. By under-resourcing government education and increasing the funding to private schools, the state system will simply become a residual system for those who cannot afford a private education.
The Australian Education Union has called a state-wide stop-work on November 21. At the October 26 AEU state council meeting, the union leadership proposed a publicity campaign leaving any industrial action to the targeted schools. An alternative motion calling for the state-wide action was hotly debated, then overwhelmingly endorsed.
Many union members feel that the response of the AEU leadership is too little, too late — typical of their response to four years of Kennett cutbacks. A campaign is needed that provides an immediate and escalating industrial response to the cuts and school closures. Such a campaign would include state-wide and regional stop-works, rallies, bans and strong community action. Motions calling for such a campaign will be put to the November 21 stop-work meeting.