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| PREPARATION: Education Budget Cuts Protest (Photo credit: infomatique) |
An unprecedented coalition of 11 education groups representing public, independent and Catholic schools has accused the state government of evading its legal and ethical responsibilities to provide a quality education to all children.
A strongly worded letter with 11 signatures was sent to the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, as more than 4000 people gathered in Sydney on Sunday to protest against the government's $1.7 billion in education cuts.
The joint letter accuses the government of exercising a ''determination to evade its legal and ethical responsibilities of providing the highest quality of education to its young people''.
Signatories include John Collier, the NSW chairman of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, Maria Pearson, the president of the NSW Association of Catholic School Principals, and Lila Mularczyk, the president of the NSW Secondary Principals' Council.
Parents' organisations from all sectors, the NSW Teachers Federation, representing public school teachers, and the Independent Education Union, representing teachers from private schools, are also among the groups represented.
''The fact that these very divergent groups have come together to endorse this letter should suggest that our concerns are deep-seated and widely shared in our schools and communities,'' the letter said.
''The proposed cuts to NSW school funding will accelerate the erosion of NSW and Australia's international competitiveness … the recent announcement of a state budget surplus undermines any credibility of the need for cuts to the education portfolio.''
At Sunday's rally, the president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Maurie Mulheron, called on the NSW government to reverse its education cuts, saying that it had given school principals greater autonomy ''to self manage the decline of their schools''.
The Education Minister, Adrian Piccoli, said he was glad the rally was held at the weekend to avoid disrupting students during the week. He said the government was boosting teacher numbers. ''The government has been clear that savings in public education are coming from efficiencies in the back office and will not affect students in schools,'' he said. Mr O'Farrell declined to comment.
The NSW Opposition Leader, John Robertson, who attended the rally, said the O'Farrell government was facing a ''community groundswell'' against the education cuts. ''At a time when the Gonski review has called for an additional $6.5 billion funding injection so our students can compete with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, it's disgraceful that Mr O'Farrell is ripping away investment,'' he said.
The opposition education spokeswoman, Carmel Tebbutt, said: ''You have to go back 20 years to when Terry Metherell was education minister to see cuts that come close … these cuts will affect everything from [curriculum and] class sizes to special needs programs to opportunities for gifted and talented students.''
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