News & Views item - February 2007

 

 

Did Anyone Mention Improving the Numbers of Properly Qualified Maths and Science Teachers. (February 19, 2007)

    You might think that with the Labor Premier of New South Wales, Morris Iemma, facing an election on March 24, and the Prime Minister John Howard to call an election for no later than the fourth quarter of 2007 when they came to find some extra funding for public education, the lack of qualified teaches for mathematics and the enabling sciences might be taken into serious consideration seeing as there's been increasing yammering on the subject now for the past four years or more.

 

Try again.

 

Over the weekend Mr Iemma announced at the launch of his election campaign that a re-elected Labor government would spend $2 billion over four years on improving infrastructure in public schools. Every primary school with more than 500 students would get a school hall and every high school with more than 900 students would get a hall or gymnasium. Two hundred toilet blocks would be upgraded, 200 new security fences would be installed and 800 science labs would be rebuilt. Even here most of that funding had already been announced so the amount of additional funding is around $280 million.

 

Worthwhile, certainly, but when the kids are not entertained in their properly furnished auditoria or dribbling basketballs in the gyms, or enjoying their renovated loos or working on experiments in their upgraded science labs, will there have been a significant improvement to the quality the the teaching of the enabling sciences or mathematics to which they'll be subjected?

 

So far no mention.
 

And the Prime Minister, John Howard, is reported to plan to raise the stakes somewhat in the education debate today, directing an extra $181 million in Commonwealth grants to 1500 schools, both government and private. Under the program the schools may apply for grants for special purposes including new playgrounds, toilet-block upgrades and computer labs.

 

Meanwhile, Treasurer Peter Costello yesterday said he expected to deliver another budget surplus in May. "It is important that we have a surplus, and there will be a surplus."

 

Of course as the federal election draws closer and matters get serious, the situation may change, but over the past decade education and research that effects the tertiary sector has been of no consequence as an

election issue apart from occasional lip service. Certainly so far as parliamentary backbenches are concerned it's rarely if ever the deciding factor as to whether or not incumbents retain their seats so they're unlikely to rattle the cages of the cabinet on that account.