|
.
Education
INDEX
Home
* Contact * INDEX *
Current Issues * Priority Issues *
Reference Index * Selwyn's
Profile * Your
Comments
.
Education
- Every Child's Right
One would feel forgiven for thinking that part of
our taxpayer dollar is being utilised for the education of our children.
Not so, it seems!
Depending on which sources you care to believe, at a minimum, approximately 30% of our
children are leaving school... illiterate!
We must have a literate population who can speak,
read and write the English language. It is not good enough that most Australians progress
through life with a vocabulary of only a few hundred words. Basic English is not enough.
It is impossible to utilise the best qualities of our young Australians if they are unable
to express themselves clearly and precisely, understand written correspondence and prepare
well-drafted letters.
The Education Department must initiate strategies
as a matter of urgency to facilitate whatever it takes to ensure our children are equipped
to enter the business world with the highest possible level of literacy.
Our children have a right to quality education and
care that provides knowledge, skills and understanding that will enable them to
participate effectively in culturally and linguistically diverse societies at national and
international levels.
Home
* Contact * INDEX *
Current Issues * Priority Issues *
Reference Index * Selwyn's
Profile * Your
Comments
.
Education and the National
Competition Policy
"National Competition Policy" (NCP) and
"competition policy reform" refer to the Federal Government's agenda of
microeconomic reform in the public sector which is designed to open up public agencies to
competition with other public and private sector organisations. This agenda is implemented
through two major mechanisms:
 |
Amendments to the
Federal Trade Practices Act 1974 and related legislation, to broaden their purview to
cover public sector bodies; and
|
|
Two inter-governmental
agreements through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), mirroring the Federal
legislation at State and Local Government level - the Conduct Code Agreement and the
Competition Principles Agreement. |
The Government apparently intends to implement
competition policy across most areas of the public sector, but initially in the clearly
commercial areas of public sector activity. This will affect both higher education and the
Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.
A competition policy system is likely to:
|
Drive down wages and
conditions in response to competitive pressures, in particular through contracting out.
|
|
Deregulate and
destabilise public sector planning and provision of tertiary education.
|
|
Undermine quality of
educational provision through the emphasis on cost cutting and through contracting out to
organisations and companies not accountable through normal academic and collegiate
processes.
|
|
Reduce access to, and
equity in, tertiary education.
|
|
Force educational
institutions to make available to private providers their infrastructure, services and
resources.
|
|
Subject universities and
colleges to prices surveillance laws, the general provisions of the Trade Practices Act,
and a broad range of taxes and duties, in line with the private sector.
|
|
Rigorously enforce
requirements that consultancy and commercial research be conducted on a full-cost recovery
basis, removing the competitive advantage of universities and colleges, which not only
benefits the institutions but provides a crucial public subsidy for research and
development in the Australian economy.
|
|
Force institutions to
adopt internal competitive tendering procedures for the provision of services between
units and departments, causing job dislocation and increasing workloads for staff.
|
|
Encourage a commercial
approach to education among public providers.
|
|
Encourage and facilitate
privatisation.
|
|
Threaten the provision
of educational services in non-metropolitan areas and in discipline areas, which are not
commercially viable.
|
|
Provide a climate
conducive to the introduction of up-front fees for all students. |
The processes of accountability already in place
provide effective means for ensuring that institutions are efficient and effective in
their use of public funds and also that they maintain quality of educational provision.
The application of a competitive
system will
undermine these objectives rather than enhancing institutional performance.
Therefore, Australians must strongly oppose any
moves to subject higher education and public TAFE educational provision to National
Competition Policy. All concerned Australians must call on the Government to explicitly
exempt these sectors from the application of the Competition Code at both State and
Federal levels.
Home
* Contact * INDEX *
Current Issues * Priority Issues *
Reference Index * Selwyn's
Profile * Your
Comments
.
Education
- A National Disgrace
The
Education of our children has become a national disgrace! Overcrowded
classrooms, a lack of qualified teachers and a curriculum that lacks the basic
'reading, writing and arithmetic's' essentials, now sees some 30% of our
children leave school totally unprepared for adult life.
The
rate of youth suicides in Australia is also a national disgrace, and increasing
at an alarming rate, as a result of political failure by successive Governments.
Again,
taxpayer's money collected to provide essential public services including
education MUST be allocated in sufficient amounts so as not to discriminate
against those disadvantaged by a lack of teaching resources.
RETURN TO: PAGE INDEX
| 
