Page 837 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 2 April 2008
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
contributing to the shift away from public schools. This question really goes to the heart of the question of management. The purpose of managing any service enterprise is surely to provide the best service possible and to attract people to that service. The fact that the public schools are failing in this endeavour is cause for investigation and some analysis.
The report prepared by the Australian Council for Educational Research in August 2004—I think the minister cited it earlier—examined the question of why parents choose public or private schools for their children. The study used statistical methods as well as surveys of parents to determine the various reasons for school choice and the strength of these various reasons as determinative factors of school choice. Interestingly, that study found that 34 per cent of parents of children in government schools said that they would change their children to private schools if there were no additional cost. The most common reasons given for this desire to change to private schools were the view that there is better discipline in private schools, the view that children receive a better education or have better teachers in private schools, and the view that more individual attention is paid to students in private schools.
Whether these assertions are backed up by evidence is a separate matter, but these results are the reported views of parents who have children in public schools and who would change to private schools if there were no additional cost. These results are, at the very least, representative of the perception of these parents. Of the various factors that influenced school choice, the study found that the strongest effect on the selection of private over public schools was the desire by parents for traditional values in the school. The report concluded:
In so far as this research was able to pin down reasons for the selection of a private or public school, one factor stood out: the extent to which the school was perceived to embrace traditional values to do with discipline, religious or moral values, the traditions of the school itself, and the requirement that a uniform be worn.
This report examined the whole of Australia; the ACT formed only a small part of the total data used. But it is an incredibly useful indicator of the sorts of things that influence parents’ decisions.
The study gives empirical confirmation of a matter that I have heard raised anecdotally many times before; that matter is poorer discipline in the public school system relative to the level of discipline in private schools. I know that Mr Seselja is tiptoeing on this—I think he is worried he might brand himself as a right-winger like Mr Pratt if he talks too much about discipline in schools—but the reality is that it is a major issue in the minds of parents. I hear the issue raised by parents. People have said to me that they have sacrificed the additional cost to get their kids into a Catholic or non-government school because they are worried about these issues.
The day before yesterday, I spoke with an education department official in a non-official environment—I just happened to be chatting to somebody within Mr Barr’s ministry—and I raised this issue. I said that it seems to be something that comes through. This person said to me that one of the problems with perpetually troublesome students is that if you take them out of one school and put them all in one particular school you are going to have an impossible job to find teachers to manage them. I said,
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .