Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation

Call Number
Nef 331.8809944 EDU
Created/Published
Sydney : The Federation, 1919-2021
Issue
Vol. 85 No. 12 (8 Nov 2004)
Images
20
View Catalogue

Contents

EDUCATION JOURNAL THE NEW SOUTH WALES TEACHERS FEDERATION 1
Futures Project redundant and dangerous 1
Plan aims to dismantle staffing system 1 , 2
Federation seeks extra time for consultation 1 , 2
NEWS Synergy between local government and local schools 2
Advertising 2
Officers 2
Executive 2
Dear Federation members 3
Repercussions flow from computer uncertainly 3
Howard’s free rein on industrial relations laws 3
Cleaners secure their hours 3
New Aerospace agreement 3
The President Writes Whose Trojan Horse? 4
LETTERS to the Editor No consideration 4
Thanks Ted 4
TAFE teachers stop work at Wollongbar 5
Mentor program to continue 5
Advertising 5
ADMINISTRATION Election to fill casual vacancy for City Organiser 6
Biennial Council elections 6 , 7
Council to consider super in salaries claim 7
Advertising 7 , 8
Incremental credit rules to change 9
Private pUBLIC school purse 9
Qualified teachers important 9
Advertising 9
Travelling overseas this summer? 10
Smart travelling tips 10
Advertising 10
VIEWS Plan needed to end native forest wood chipping 11
in BRIEF 11
Advertising 11
RETIRED teachers Association 12
Meetings 12
Advertising 12
REVIEW Theatre Living theatre 13
Advertising 13
Up, up and Away Old names for new places 14
Cork screw The old and the new 14
FILM So much to see, so little time... 15
Computer Corner Easing the burden 15
Advertising 15
Breakfast serial Mr Yen’s World 16
good vibrations Hernando’s Hideaway 16
Advertising 16 , 17 , 18
DT SMITH 18
THOSE WHO CAN’T 18
Surrealistic Nightmare 19
Advertising 19
INSIDE 20
You shouldn’t have to hide to be safe TWENTY 10 20
Advertising 20

Text

EDUCATION  

JOURNAL THE NEW SOUTH WALES TEACHERS FEDERATION  

PP255003 00104  

Vo 1. 85 0.12 November 8. 2004  

Futures Project redundant and dangerous  

The Government’s consultation deserves the closest interrogation and scrutiny.  

by Maree O’Halloran  

The Department of Education and Train-  

ing's (DET) Futures Project is not benign  

and it must not be ignored.  

The community consultation process  

entitled “Excellence and Innovation”  

is part of the Department’s long-stand-  

ing agenda to deregulate staffing and  

devolve responsibility to schools. It is  

process designed to give legitimacy  

and currency to 4th term election tilt  

by the State Labor Government based  

on school “reform” plan.  

Recently delivered to public schools  

and TAFE colleges across the state,  

the Department’s consultation docu-  

ment contains issues papers and 58  

apparently unobjectionable questions  

for consideration.  

However, the document has to be  

considered in political and historical  

context. Federation’s hope was that the  

consultation process would be genuine.  

However, media statements by Director-  

General Andrew Cappie-Wood, when  

the document was launched, undermine  

any such hope.  

The Director-General made state-  

ments about:  

• not ruling out performance pay for  

teachers  

• local selection for teachers (deregu-  

lated staffing)  

•junior high schools and middle  

schools.  

In the Sunday Telegraph on Octo-  

ber 31, the Premier confirmed that the  

State Government has plans to further  

deregulate the staffing system.  

For over decade plans under the  

guise of “local autonomy” and “school-  

based management” have been put for-  

ward to deregulate staffing, employment  

conditions and pay scales. The Scott  

“Schools Renewal” report in the early  

1990 is the most obvious example as  

is the latest attempt by the Government  

to introduce contract employment in  

schools.  

The idea of widespread consultation  

with teachers, parents and community  

members appears on the face of it to be  

sound. Indeed, the Federation and the  

P&C commissioned the Vinson Inquiry  

in 2001/2002 for that very purpose.  

However, the Vinson Inquiry was com-  

pletely independent. The Department’s  

Futures Project is not.  

Professor Vinson and his team pre-  

pared well-researched and costed plan  

for the future of public education. The  

Department is now ignoring that plan.  

The following report from the Man-  

ning River Times on October 26 sums  

up the cynicism that surrounds DET's  

project:  

"It’s about working together, accord-  

ing the director-general of the Department of  

Education and Training, Andrew Cappie-Wood.  

It is ‘the most extensive and comprehensive con-  

sultation process undertaken by the department’,  

Mr Cappie-Wood informs us.  

"But at what cost does this project come and  

only few short years ago, similar study was  

undertaken and fully funded by the NSW  

Teachers Federation and the Federation of Parents  

and Citizens. From that study, Professor Vinson  

recommended far-reaching changes and called  

on the State Government to inject an extra $3OO  

million per annum into public education.  

"So most of the hard work has been done, if the  

director-general cares to do his homework.  

“Now what is needed is the funding."  

Federation will:  

□ call for the DET to extend the timeline for  

the consultation process to the end of term 1,  

2005  

□ call for an independent analysis of all submis-  

sions  

□ prepare central Federation response  

□ provide advice to schools and TAFE Colleges  

about key issues to address  

□ request Professor Vinson to provide an independ-  

ent submission to the Futures Project.  

Maree O'Halloran  

is the President.  

Plan aims to dismantle staffing system  

The Futures Project will be used to  

increase managerial prerogative in  

the staffing of our schools, writes  

ANGELO GAVRIELATOS.  

Recent reports and statements attributed to the  

Director-General Andrew Cappie-Wood, indicate  

that the Department of Education and Training  

(DET) Futures Project will be used by DET and  

the Government to increase managerial prerogative  

in the staffing of our schools.  

Under the guise of flexibility and accountabil-  

ity, DET will seek to pursue change that will  

ultimately undermine and dismantle our statewide  

staffing system.  

Mr Cappie-Wood is quoted as saying, “We want  

greater capacity for principals to be able to choose  

their staff." Local selection is the antithesis to  

statewide staffing system.  

Federation's submission to the Futures Project,  

and in negotiations on the staffing agreement (due  

to commence this term) will pursue the maintenance  

of the statewide staffing system and in particular  

its centrepiece, system of transfers which is the  

essential element in ensuring the appointment of  

teachers in every school across the state.  

Critics of the statewide staffing system who  

advocate flexibility and local selection too easily  

dismiss one of the most important principles of  

public education. The right of student to be  

taught by qualified teacher, in all parts of the  

state, must always be higher priority than desire  

by particular school to locally select particular  

teacher. Geographical and socio-economic factors  

across the statewide system do not constitute the  

‘level-playing field’ upon which such misguided  

theories of choice are based.  

The highest responsibility must be to ensure the  

right of every child to quality public education  

through the provision of qualified teacher.  

All members are encouraged to articulate, by  

way of submission to the Futures Project and other  

means, the importance of ensuring the maintenance  

of transfer rights for all classroom teachers and  

promoted teachers including principals.  

Federation is aware that teachers continue to feel  

disappointed and demoralised by limitations that are  

placed on transfers by what are meaningless staffing  

codes. The belief that codes are being abused to  

manipulate the staffing process continues.  

While Federation was successful in achieving  

dramatic decrease in the number of staffing  

codes in the last round of negotiations, the need  

to review codes to ensure the maintenance only  

of relevant codes as discriminators for schools is  

high priority for Federation.  

The union will also pursue the importance of  

building on existing incentives aimed at attract-  

ing and retaining experienced teachers in dif-  

ficult to staff schools. Federation has been able  

to achieve:  

a) significant gains in rental subsidies for Teacher  

Housing Authority rentals in eight and six point  

schools;  

b) the introduction of personal leave for teach-  

ers in schools which attract the incentive transfer  

benefit; and  

c) the maintenance and partial extension of  

▼ continued on page  

Federation seeks extra time  

for consultation  

by Jennifer Leete  

Federation has written to the Minister to seek extra  

time for four major consultations with teachers that  

are planned to occur during term 4.  

In addition, Federation has asked for hard copies  

of all the consultation papers to be provided for  

each teacher.  

While Federation sees the Department of Edu-  

cation and Training's (DET's) Futures Project as  

little more than an attempt to legitimise pre-deter-  

mined tired old right-wing agenda for devolution and  

deregulation of our system, active input by teachers  

into the consultation could be vital if teachers are  

to defeat the agenda.  

In addition, two different but related consulta-  

tions are occurring which arise from the report and  

recommendations of Professor Ken Eltis’s Time  

to Teach Time to Learn. The first is Board of  

Studies document which was sent out to schools  

▼ continued on page  

Cite

Citation options:
Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-685738785

APA citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation & New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. (1919). Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation Retrieved June 4, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-685738785

MLA citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation and New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation Sydney: The Federation, 1919. Web. 4 June 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-685738785>

Harvard/Australian citation

N.S.W. Teachers' Federation & New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation. 1919, Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation The Federation, Sydney viewed 4 June 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-685738785

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=N.S.W. Teachers' Federation.
  | author2=New South Wales Public School Teachers' Federation.
  | title=Education : journal of the N.S.W. Public School Teachers Federation.
  | year=1919
  | section=volumes.
  | issn=0013-1156
  | issue=Vol. 85 No. 12 (8 Nov 2004)
  | location=Sydney
  | publisher=The Federation
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-685738785
  | id=nla.obj-685738785
  | access-date=4 June 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

Citations are automatically generated and may require some modification to conform to exact standards.

Download

Select the images you want to download, or the whole document.

Available formats
TIF high resolution
Include
All
Current

Or select a range of images:

Selected: 1 - 20 (20 Images)

Order

You can order a copy of this work from Copies Direct.

Copies Direct supplies reproductions of collection material for a fee. This service is offered by the National Library of Australia

Include

Or select a range of images:

1 - 20 (20 Images)

Share

Share on Twitter

Share on Facebook

What can I do with this?

Copyright varies by issue and article

Reason for copyright status
Serials have an open range of dates.

Copyright varies with each issue and article. You may have full rights to copy, or may be able to copy only under some circumstances, for example a portion for research or study. Order a copy where circumstances allow or Contact us for further information.

Copyright status was determined using the following information:

Material type
Literary, dramatic or musical work

Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply.

For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Article
Share Close

Copy and paste one of these options to share this book elsewhere.

NOTE: We've tested EMBED on blogspot.com blogs as well as self-hosted Wordpress blogs. This feature will NOT work on wordpress.com blogs.

About this book Close