Edited TRANSCRIPT
NATIONALLY CONSISTENT SCHOOLS
Date: Thursday 26 June 2003
Subject: Doorstop,
Parliament House, Canberra
MINISTER
I would just like to announce that the Commonwealth
Government and I as the Federal Minister for Education will be
starting a process which we envisage will take six or seven years
our target being 2010 to drive Australia’s eight different
educational jurisdictions to one education system for Australia.
While in the past there have been people who have had this kind of
ambition we need to recognise as parents of children whom we love,
that we want to see that we live in a world where we have one
nationally consistent education system in Australia which prepares
them to be world citizens.
At the moment we’re in a situation where we have
different starting and completion ages , in eight different
educational jurisdictions. We have eight different curricula. We
have eighty thousand children who move interstate or across
Australia throughout the course of a year and of course with their
families. Parents increasingly – not only in Defence but in
business, are increasingly reluctant to move because they are
worried about the disruption it will have on the education of their
children.
The Commonwealth Government this year will invest
$6.9 billion in school education and I think it is our
responsibility to see that we start to use the leverage of that
money to help work with the states to develop national consistency
in education. We will not be upholding our responsibilities to the
future of our children if we any longer simply allow an education
environment in Australia which means we have eight different
education countries within the one continent. It is unacceptable.
JOURNALIST
So will you be (inaudible)
MINISTER
Well firstly this is an issue which needs to be
progressed in collaboration with the States and Territories and
there will be a Ministerial Council meeting with all the State and
Territory education Ministers in mid July and this will be an issue
which will we will have on the agenda.
I have put forward a paper for the State and
Territories to consider. I understand already that the Queensland
Government from the previous meeting is interested in working
towards national consistency. I would be wanting also work with the
states to (inaudible) that reading and writing and numeracy skills
that not only do we test children against national benchmarks but
also that parents have a right to know that their child, in whatever
state they are being educated, is meeting the national benchmarks
and where they meet up against them. Not only in literacy and
numeracy but increasingly we need to be looking at science as well.
JOURNALIST
So are you talking about controlling state schools
federally or just that each school has the same curriculum? Are you
talking about taking the power of running state schools away from
the states?
MINISTER
Certainly not. Under the Constitution of course
state governments are responsible for administering regulating and
principally the funding of state schools, and it would be absurd if
the Commonwealth even thought about taking over that responsibility.
What we are talking about is taking up the leadership responsibility
of the Commonwealth to ensure we have much more national consistency
in education. That we start to deal with the national rail gauge
problem we have in education where if you move from New South Wales
to South Australia or West Australia to Queensland educationally you
could be forgiven for thinking that you’re moving to a different
country.
Parents are increasingly worried in a mobile world
that their children are going to be disadvantaged simply by moving
from one part of Australia to the next . What we need to do is to
work with all the State and Territory Governments to set some long
term objectives in terms of national consistency. At the moment for
example children sit 330 different exams to get into university.
Some kids for example in the states of Queensland in Western
Australia, get the same tertiary entrance score as a child in NSW or
South Australia but miss out on a place in university.
JOURNALIST
Will you withhold funding from the States to force
compliance?
MINISTER
Well that will be one of the issues I will be
discussing with the States. What we need to do is to recognise …
JOURNALIST
Are you prepared to go that far?
MINISTER
Well I certainly would not be considering
withholding funds from the States at this stage in relation to
education but at the moment we invest $6.9 billion in school
education. We have a responsibility as the Federal Government, the
Commonwealth Government, to see that we prepare Australian children
for a world that is increasingly competitive and I think that it is
unacceptable to the average parent that we have eight different
educational frameworks in Australia.
JOURNALIST
How will you get them to agree then?
MINISTER
Well I think any sensible State Minister, whether
they be proudly Tasmanian, Victorian or Queenslanders, would equally
recognise the importance of moving towards National consistency and
I think that most, in fact I would be surprised if any of the States
or Territories were not prepared to work cooperatively with the
Commonwealth and other jurisdictions to set some long term
objectives or consistency towards which we now need to do.
JOURNALIST
So what inadequacies do you see (inaudible)
MINISTER
For example, it is staggering to think that only in
Western Australia the ACT and the Northern Territory, do parents
actually find out how their children are going in reading and
writing and numeracy in Years 3 and 5. We have two other
jurisdictions, Victoria and Queensland which have indicated that
they will move towards reporting to parents but how much longer can
we go on with a situation where one State Minister said to me that
the reason that State would not support parents receiving
information about how their children were going on National
benchmarking because she felt the children and parents might not
feel as positive about themselves as they should because they were
not doing as well as the rest of the country. That is not in the
interests of those children and certainly not their families. It is
time that we started to get some national consistencies.
JOURNALIST
(Inaudible) Based on one particular States current
standards or would it be a complete overview.
MINISTER
Well that is obviously a matter that we need to
discuss with the States and Territories and one of the problems that
you come up against of course is that whereas each one of the States
and Territories might agree in principle to move towards National
consistency they want the rest of the country to be like their
State, so they are matters that we need to be discussing and we will
be discussing in the context of leading to the next quadrennium of
funding and priorities of school education.
JOURNALIST
Will you be accepting the position of unions on this
(inaudible)
MINISTER
I would think that providing this is done in a
collaborative and cooperative way and ultimately has the best
interests of children at heart I would be surprised if anyone would
be opposed to it. It is not about reducing resources or anything of
the sort, nor is it about seeing that we have a cookie cutter
approach to school education. We don’t necessarily want children in
every part of the country reading the same books and doing precisely
the same curriculum, but we surely need to move to National
consistency in outcomes and let’s at the very least start with
literacy, reading skills, writing skills, numeracy and perhaps
science. Let’s at the very least see that we have children who begin
school at a common age where in whichever part of the country they
are in and finish at a common age.
JOURNALIST
So that means a nationally consistent tertiary
entrance exam does it? Would everyone have to sit the same leaving
certificate or HSC whatever you call it?
MINISTER
One of the issues that needs to be put on the
Agenda, is some kind of National consistency in terms of tertiary
entrance exams because at the moment there are many parents and many
young people who have expressed the view to me that if they are
sitting an exam in Victoria they wonder just how comparable that is
to the exam that is being sat in South Australia or Tasmania. These
are things that are very important for our future, its time that we
upheld the responsibility that we have to see that we prepare the
next generation of young Australians, not just to be proud News
South Welshmen or Queenslanders but Australians ready for an
increasingly competitive world.
JOURNALIST
How much of the seven billion dollars will go
towards this program do you think?
MINISTER
Well the Government, as I have said, the Government
is certainly committed to the $6.9 billion that is has budgeted for
school education in the next financial year and we certainly are not
suggesting for one moment that we will be with holding funds to the
States but I think that Australian families, Australian parents and
tax payers, they expect the Federal government to start to, to take
leadership in preparing Australian for the 21st Century. That is
what this is all about and if we were talking about as I say,
national roads or railway lines or anything of similarly important
infrastructure, I think Australians would be totally behind it. I
would be surprised if people don’t get behind this.
JOURNALIST
Just with the nuts and bolts, how would you envisage
this – the States and Commonwealth, what a committee to rewrite the
curriculum or how do you deliver consistent curriculum?
MINISTER
Firstly, that is a matter that we will be working
through with the States and Territories and teaching professionals
organisations and educational academics. The Australian Primary
Principals Association, the Australian Secondary Principals
Association and numerous other educational bodies have been talking
to me over the last year advocating that the Commonwealth take up
this position and as I say in the end its going to be a long and
potentially slow process if we do this in the right way but it is
time now that we set a 2010 objective of bringing Australia’s
educational system to National consistency with – we will be
abrogating our responsibilities to the future if we any longer allow
a situation where families feel that they simply cannot move from
one part of Australia to the next because their children are going
to be disadvantaged. That might have been acceptable a hundred years
ago, it is certainly not acceptable today.
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