Dr Nelson's Vehicle to Drive for the Top -- Review and Conquer. (September 26, 2005)

    It's a safe bet that when Brendan Nelson, the current Minister for Eduction, Science and Training moves or is removed from the Department he will have instituted more reviews or quasi-reviews than any of his predecessors.

Credit: Nicholson in The Australian

It's also a pretty safe bet that he will have been the instrument to inflict more damage to Australian tertiary education than any of his predecessors.

His most incisive weapon has been his incessant barrage of reviews of the university and research sectors which have led to keeping them off balance rather like being the object of guerrilla attacks, but orchestrated by a central government.

Dr Nelson in his attempt to realise his ambition of eventual Liberal Party leadership and the Prime Ministership has in recent times besides stepping outside his portfolio to air his views on nuclear power generation and migrant behavioural etiquette also taken to direct intervention into matters of primary and secondary education. Most recently he confirmed reports that he intends to assess the adequacy year 12 English, maths, physics and chemistry courses.

He told The Australian's Samantha Maiden, "I am concerned that standards are being dumbed down. These rankings, if you like, will not be done by me. I expect the experts in mathematics and physics to tell me, and tell Australia, what is the highest standard in Australia down to the lowest... All students need to be taught contemporary literacy, film and television, but we are in an environment where increasingly the kids are studying Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Big Brother instead of Jane Austen and Bronte."

This latest salvo is inline with Dr Nelson's recent proposal for a new Year 12 exam, to be known as the Australian Certificate of Education. But more to the point is this week's preliminary inquiry into teacher training. Ms Maiden reports,

Chairman [National Party MP] Luke Hartsuyker said it was clear good teachers needed a strong background in subject areas, as well as practical experience.

    "You can't take someone who doesn't have a strong educational background themselves and make them into a good teacher by basically teaching them teaching techniques or pedagogy teaching," he said. "You need subject experience, you need classroom experience and you need teaching expertise."

The fact is that the cheap option is to hold inquiries and reviews into matters to which you've long known the answers, but addressing the problems requires significant injection of additional resources which you are unwilling to provide -- budget surpluses or no.

Now the states' ministers of education have risen to Dr Nelson's accusations of the dumbing down of secondary curricula in English and the enabling sciences. The Australian's reporters did a ring around and got the following comments from two of the most outspoken:

Queensland's Rod Welford joined the call [for a meeting of state and territory ministers of education] saying Dr Nelson achieved little by "wandering around denigrating the education process in any state. There are thousands of highly professional teachers and he ignores that as his comments become increasingly feral. It's becoming a matter of increasing concern that Nelson's antics are not consistent with what is needed to improve the system. I'm interested in working with him towards consistency in what is taught across the nation but he won't achieve effective outcomes simply by grandstanding through his denigration of students or professional education."

 

[West Australian Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich said,] "I'm sure, like me, the other ministers have had a gutful of Brendan Nelson undermining our education system. We need a federal minister who has confidence in the system, not one who is trying to tear it down for his own political gain."

Certainly stealth attacks don't seem to be one of Dr Nelson's WMDs.