Principal favours more autonomy

NSW Secondary Principals Council executive member Chris Mason has given qualified support for a federal government plan for more autonomous schools.

Ms Mason predicted the plan could only work with union support and the Australian Education Union, representing public schools, this week accused the government of trying to privatise the public education sector.

In a briefing paper submitted to a meeting of state education ministers at the beginning of the month, the federal government outlined a plan for autonomous schools to become the standard by 2018 in the government and non-government sectors, News Limited reported this week.

The first phase of the implementation process would be in 2012 and 2013, and a third of the 1000 participating schools would come from regional areas.

Ms Mason said it was a complex question and the fine detail was important.

“Generally speaking I think principals and school communities would benefit from greater autonomy but to say that without having full information on the resourcing is difficult,” she said.

“The concept of greater autonomy and accountability must be matched with appropriate levels of resources.”

Ms Mason said she understood the concerns of the Australian Education Union that it was privatisation and “to be done well” it needed to be “a co-operative venture between all parties”.

Former Dubbo public school principal Jim Carey agreed with Ms Mason that “a high degree of local input and local control in schools” was good because “schools (could) then react to local issues and local problems”, but showed some doubts about the plan working in practice.

He warned that adequate resources were essential and that meeting extra responsibilities must not take away from teaching students.

“The selection and hiring of staff is a very lengthy and time consuming task which must not take teachers and principals away from their core business of ensuring the best possible educational outcomes for students.”