PUBLIC EDUCATION DAY AND COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC EDUCATION TEST.

Congratulations to New South Wales Teachers Federation on their promotion of Public Education Day.

In New South Wales public education has been unambiguously promoted by

• The New South Wales Minister for Education, John Watkins

• The Director of Education, Ken Boston

• Academics like Professor Vinson

• The New South Wales teachers in primary, secondary and TAFE sectors

They organised a Public Education Dinner, a radio publicity campaign and even a few political supporters

The New South Wales Teachers Federation inform us on their website that the Public Education Dinner held at Parliament House on May 22 was a "defining moment in the history of public education."

Contrast the above with Victoria. There was an Education week, but the uninitiated would have assumed that this celebrated private as well as public schools. There was no promotion of Public Education as such by the Minister of Education, Lyn Kosky, and certainly no definition of its crucial part in our civil democratic society.

Many  local schools were scarcely aware of Education Week, let alone Public Education Day. Teachers were too busy with their everyday tasks

DOGS promoted it on their  3CR Radio program, but where was the Victorian branch of the Australian Teachers Union?

DOGS however, noted that there was an advertisement in the Weekend Australian (May 25/26) for  a Director of Catholic Education which stipulated "a strong commitment to the teachings and practice of the Catholic Faith " and the requirement of "an exemplary career in Catholic Education."

DOGS suggests that it is time for a seven part public education commitment test for any job in public education. In summary this eight part test is:

1.     Commitment to the strongest possible public education system

2.     Commitment to sending one's child to a public school at all levels

3.     No membership of private school councils

4.     No  private school apparatchiks fleeing that system

5.     Commitment to public education must have precedence over:

                        a)     party/political ambitions

                        b)     own ego

                        c)     career prospects

                        d)     particular party/political success

                        e)     decision making processes rather than objectives (committee addicts)

    6.    Commitment shown by past actions and words

     7.     Commitment to the future of public education in word and deed.

When DOGS talk about public education it is not a hybrid system proposed by Victorian academics or certain union leaders. The public universal education system which should be supported is one which was introduced by the free, secular and compulsory acts in the nineteenth century.  It can be defined as :

•     public in purpose

•     public in benefit

•     public in access ( to pupils, teachers, administrators, parents )

•     public in accountability

•     public in control

•     public in ownership

•     public in funding.

and which is available to all children regardless of their geographical situation - country or city.