Debunking The 'myth' Of A Decline In Education
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday July 24, 1991
Eastwood Public, says it principal, Mr John Payne, is the ugliest school in NSW.
But thanks to a recent Government $250,000 maintenance program, it has had painters and roofers crawling all over it lately, and is even starting to look chirpy.
Eastwood is 108 years old, and it suffers the "ailments of the aged".
"It's terrible, it's all bitumen, it could have been translocated from the city," Mr Payne said. "It would take a disproportionate amount of money to make our school physically a top one, but I believe the current administration ought to be given credit for at least putting it on a tolerable basis.
"You can always put cosmetics on ugly people. It's been painted in federation colours."
What the school lacks in physical attractiveness is more than made up for, Mr Payne says, by its "superior clientele".
"It's a very special place, Eastwood. Parents are what you'd probably call self-employed people, above middle management people who are generally very, very concerned about quality education and supportive of the school.
"They're very eloquent and well educated and we have an extraordinarily close relationship with them."
The school, Mr Payne said, had a close relationship with PLC Sydney and other private schools.
"It's a challenge for us as teachers to deliver the goods ... I'm not suggesting that it's a better school than any nearby, but it's almost an urban myth that it's superior."
Eastwood usually has one composite, but doesn't this year by virtue of good luck, Mr Payne said. The most difficult thing about composites was convincing parents of their worth.
Class sizes, he says, are not appreciably bigger. "It's a bit like a balloon full of water. Squeeze it here and it pops out there. The odd class may have 31. Some are just under 30 and some just over. If we lost anything(as a result of the cutbacks), we certainly didn't feel it."
Basic skills tests, he says, have been beneficial in terms of de-bunking the public perception that education is not what it used to be.
"People like their whipping boy ... but the tests have proved that that(the decline of public education) is not true, that children are just as numerate as they ever were. The overall perspective is good for State education."
At school level, he said, the tests were a "whole lot of expense for very little outcome".
"We as a staff use the information to benefit the children as best we can. But it's like a dog chasing its tail," Mr Payne said.
"We knew what was uncovered to us, and parents probably did too. We have a close rapport with them and try to keep them as abreast as we can about progress of our children.
"I think perhaps we're all worried that the tests could be abused. Perhaps some schools could sell themselves on the basis of 'look how good our results are', while others where the teaching is just as good but the clientele are different could suffer."
While "most fair thinking people" believed the changes the Greiner administration had introduced were long overdue, the way they were introduced had not been well orchestrated.
"The administration wasn't just thrown into turmoil, it was eradicated," Mr Payne said. "There was discontinuity, and a concomitant lack of communication across the whole system.
"The whole team wasn't abreast of what was happening, despite being deluged in publications, Scott reports and schools renewal.
"Everyone was drowned in publications. But the only people who mattered in the game - children and teachers - kept saying: 'How is this affecting us?'
"Teachers were asking: 'Who am I, where am I going, am I going to be on a contract next year?' There was a feeling of insecurity and a lot of teachers, good ones, left the system then and there.
"They could see all the edifices recognisable and symbolic of some kind of security and old way of life being abolished."
Now teachers were "holding their breath, waiting for something to come to them in the classroom", Mr Payne said.
He welcomes global budgeting. If he is "lucky and super-clever", he says, he can save and invest money left over from day-to-day running and spend it on programs in the school. He is also pleased by the independence inherent in local selection of staffing.
"I honestly don't believe we're in the grip of a monster being shaken to death. We're getting closer and closer to being master of our environment," Mr Payne said.
"The kind of co-operation I enjoy leads me to believe that with the resources and the authority to use them coming from our masters, we will thrive at Eastwood.
"I believe my role is to guide my staff through a minefield of uncertainties so we get the very best there is to offer in this change."
At Turramurra High School, Mr Grahame Marr is just one of the many principals of large schools who are seriously concerned by the additional workload imposed by the introduction of global budgeting.
While grateful for the new-found sense of financial autonomy and flexibility at school level, he is adamant that there is a need for more resources and staff to take some of the load off teachers and principals.
"One of the things I've been keen to promote is the idea that we need an extra body in school ... a manager, a bursar, whatever. When you get involved in things like payment of rates, electricity, the management of casual teachers, there is a lot of investigation, checking and re-checking to do," he said.
"There ought to be someone else in the school to take over these sort of duties. In the independent school system there are one or more people playing that role."
Mr Marr, who presides over a school of 1,060 children, said he would prefer to be devoting his time to providing educational leadership rather than the management of services and accounting.
Turramurra has not chosen to seek corporate sponsorship aggressively, although its links with the outside community - and its parent body - are strong.
And although a school council has not been established formally, the school is moving in that direction and a number of committees, including a finance body, have already been set up.
Mr Marr says that the freedom to make decisions at school level is a major plus of the Government's reform strategy - the ability to run simple programs such as excursions without the need for head office approval has simplified the life of the school significantly.
He is also enthusiastic about the closer interaction and relationships between schools which has been fostered by the creation of clusters.
Mr Marr believes that the beneficial effects of the reforms have not yet filtered to children in the classroom. Curriculum change, for example, has merely given the school a slight expansion in course choice.
"What really concerns us is making kids' learning a priority ... that teachers not get sidetracked or dominated by various sorts of demands for documentation. We are trying to preserve the focus of personal interaction in schools," he said.
© 1991 Sydney Morning Herald
Share This