Education
The State government has failed to address falling retention rates, large
class sizes, alarming teacher shortages and poor facilities in government schools. Its
insistence on benchmarking and testing has also ignored students with learning disabilities
and other disadvantages.
The Democrats are committed to:
- An extra teacher for every 100 students
- A learning disability unit in teaching courses
- Free and universally available preschool for three and four year olds.
Preschools
Those children from lower socio-economic backgrounds, who have been shown to
most benefit from a preschool education are missing out due to the high
cost. In fact it is estimated that 4000 Victorian children each year are
missing out on a valuable preschool education.
The Australian Democrats are committed to:
- Improved pay for preschool teachers by providing parity with primary school teachers.
- Free and universally available preschool for three and four year olds.
- Reducing the administrative and management burden from parents back to state and local
government.
- Centralising curriculum and teaching support.
- Providing a funding model for smaller class sizes yet also allows
flexibility for reasonable fluctuations in preschool populations.
- Ensuring that preschool becomes a part of the Department of Education, rather than the
Department of Human Services where it now resides.
- Providing better linkages with:
- Maternal & child health services.
- Childcare and primary schools.
- Other childhood development services and networks that can provide educational support for
parents in helping their children.
- Providing additional funding to improve preschool facilities, many of which are currently
sub-standard.
Public Secondary & Primary Schools
Fairness for public students is being destroyed by governments directing funds to private
schools at the expense of public education.
Public education teachers are undervalued, overworked and lack the resources to tackle the
complex range of social problems today?s students face from family breakdowns to financial
difficulties. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds or those with challenging behaviours
need to be encouraged in their schooling to prevent them from dropping out or continually
disrupting classes.
Secondary Reward Program
The Australian Democrats are committed to encouraging success in public education by funding
a means tested secondary students reward scheme that provides quarterly spending vouchers
to students who:
- Have a sound attendance record at school.
- Have not required formal disciplinary action.
- Regularly complete homework assignments or attend a local homework network.
Reintroduction of Technical Education
The Australian Democrats are committed to providing students with the choice to explore
varied educational opportunities, including:
- Reintroducing technical and trade subjects for middle school students.
- Expanding the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning.
- Promoting programs for students to mix academic studies with business skills.
- Promoting alternative timetabling and accommodation for rural students to attend courses
in regional centres.
Additional Primary Specialist Teachers
Primary schools are where children should develop the skills and enthusiasm for life-long
learning but emphasis on benchmarking and testing and too little social and curriculum support
is hampering progress.
The Australian Democrats are committed to:
- Providing increased numbers of specialist primary school teachers for subjects such as music,
sport and languages.
- Reviewing Languages Other Than English to improve resources for and effectiveness of language
teaching.
- Providing literacy and numeracy specialists in primary schools.
Additional primary school programs include:
- Funding smaller class sizes in the first three years of primary schooling.
- Training primary school teachers in IT.
- Providing early intervention programs to change the culture of bullying in schools .
Changing the Culture of Violence Program
The Australian Democrats are committed to expanding the Solving the Jigsaw program that has been
trialled in Victoria and shown to reduce incidences of bullying in schools. Solving the Jigsaw
program involves parents and children tackling the link between violence at home and bullying at
school.
Other Schools Programs
The Australian Democrats are committed to:
- Increasing teacher undergraduate places over the next three years.
- Introducing programs for succession planning for school leadership.
- Encouraging flexible learning programs for gifted students including university study
opportunities.
- Establishing homework networks in disadvantaged areas to be run by qualified social workers
and volunteers to provide students social and educational supports to complete their secondary
schooling.
Tertiary Scholarship Program
Increasing numbers of Victorian students pay up front fees for their courses or leave
university with more HECS debt than is required for a house deposit.
At the same time rural regions are suffering from a lack of qualified professionals, namely
medical professionals and teachers.
The Australian Democrats are committed to:
- Introducing a tertiary scholarship program to pay outstanding HECs debts for teachers and
medical professionals willing to be bonded to work in rural regions for 5 years.
- Extending the payment of outstanding HECS debts or repayment of TAFE course fees to bond
students for 5 years in occupations that are facing a critical shortage of qualified staff.
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