This, my last blog entry, is about a media coverage that
calls for a need to have a better education system which does justice for all
Australian students. Just as I often get reminded of one of my lectures about
social justice and market-based views of education, this article grabbed my
attention avidly, with hoping for finding some useful suggestions towards
achieving social justice side of education without too drastic sacrifice of
market-competitive side of it, well… if there is something that sounds too good
to be true, vast majority of the time it probably is…
But Michael Hewitson, a founding principal of Trinity
College, came up with a set of some productive and constructive ideas in a book
he penned due to be released soon, which
he have been learning lessons for through years of his experience and expertise
as an educator , that any education industry-related personnel should arguably
bear in mind with. They are as follows:-
- Parents are the best
evaluators. Monopoly schooling can fail. Parents in poor areas need choice.
- Schools may not be
the best place for some students to learn. Teenagers over the age of 14 should
be able to take up full-time apprenticeships.
- Any community group
can sponsor independent state schools.
- State education
departments should fully fund independent state schools with enrolment open to
all.
- Existing state and
non-government schools should be able to apply to become independent state
schools. New independent state schools could open in poorer areas if parental
demand exists, and accept all students.
- Public student
performance testing for all schools should be mandatory and results made
public.
- New schools are
needed that offer more than just core academic skills. Schools need to offer
values for living.
- To ensure a diversity
in publicly funded independent state schools, there should be a separation of
church and state. Proselytising of any faith system (including atheism) should
not be allowed in state schools.
- New schools that
parents wish to choose for their children are needed in lower-economic areas.
Values matter, and schools need to overtly state their value systems for
parents to choose.
How Will Our Children Learn? Choosing Better
Schools: Educational Excellence in Every Postcode, by Michael Hewitson, is
published by The Publisher's Apprentice
These ideas are what
portray the underlying problems as for why relative standards are declining
regardless of how much money governments spend and also, these are underpinned
by three fundamental principles which he identified.
"That
more money thrown at a non-performing system of schools does not, and will not,
increase student access to quality schooling.
"That
school governance is the core problem which must be addressed.
"That
all parents, both rich and poor, must have access to a choice of schools."
One of the central point to look at, as the
article presents, is about how the schools are to be managed and controlled. He
sees the current way of operating schools- whether them be state or private
schools- is problematic in terms of maintaining cost-efficiency therefore he
argues that state schools should be allowed to choose between remaining as part
of the state system/independent state school, run autonomously by a board with
professional support from the department. And likewise, independent school
should be able to choose to become independent state schools. His idea of
independent state schools is something not to be overlooked in a sense that it
is one of scarce ideas to be able to target underperforming schools yet sucking
money like juice and those parents who are disadvantaged SES-wise so that
parents from virtually any address can access to a school that is appropriately
quality controlled. The economic factor is often argued as a vital factor to
good quality education as Apple (1996) states “a good education is only one
that is directly tied to economic needs” (p. 5).
Funding
should be going to the right place, and school should be more dependent on
people who know what they are looking for from education- parents and
principles. These are the reminders to suggestions to the solution that we are
all longing for.
Michael
Apple (1996) Cultural Politics and Education, Teachers College, Columbia
University, New York and London.
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