08 July 2011
Peter Garrett AM
Federal Member for Kingsford Smith
Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth
Schools across Australia will benefit from two major reforms endorsed today by the Federal, State and Territory Education Ministers at the Standing Ministerial Council on School Education and Early Childhood.
School Education Minister Peter Garrett said the Gillard Government’s initiatives – National Professional Standards for Principals and Empowering Local Schools – will be rolled out nationally.
“Today is another milestone on the national schools reform agenda. For the first time, we’ll have a unified national understanding of professional practice for our school leaders, setting out what they are expected to know and the standards expected from them in their work,” Mr Garrett said.
“School principals have one of the most important jobs in the country, guiding the education of our students and playing an important leadership role in the wider community. Now they have a set of best practice standards guiding how they will work, manage their staff and lead their school communities.
“The Empowering Local Schools Initiative will see schools given greater powers to better respond to local needs and provide the services that suit their students – this could include greater autonomy over staff recruitment and retention, over school budgets, and over infrastructure and governance.
Ministers also viewed a presentation by Kerry Jones and Thomas Keneally from the Constitution Education Fund Australia.
“I was pleased that Ministers had the opportunity to learn about the AusCivics campaign, which uses well-known Australians to spread the message about the value of democracy and the importance of civic engagement,” Mr Garrett said.
National Professional Standard for Principals
The new National Standard has been developed by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership following pilot projects earlier this year.
It sets out five key professional practices in leading teaching and learning, development of staff, leadership in innovation and change, school management, and engaging and working with the community.
The Standard has the support of all States and Territories and professional associations, and is released today.
The Australian Government is investing $38 million in professional development for principals.
Copies of the standard are available at www.aitsl.edu.au.
Empowering Local Schools
Ministers today endorsed the decision to begin Phase One of this initiative, subject to the negotiation of a National Partnership and implementation plans.
For most states this will mark a major shift away from centralised decision-making and into a more localised, community-based school governance.
Schools in States such as WA and Vic which already have some degree of autonomy may use the initiative to introduce greater flexibility in areas such as operational models, within the national framework.
Phase one will take place over 2012-13 and involve 1000 schools across the country, just over 10 per cent of all schools in Australia. One-third of schools will be in regional areas.
The Australian Government has invested $69.1 million in the first phase of the initiative, including start-up money for schools who take part to help them manage the transition to greater autonomy. All schools funded will be required to participate in an evaluation study.
AusCivics Project
This project uses well-known Australians such as Steve Waugh, Kylie Kwong, Georgie Parker and Michael Caton to spread the message about the importance of democracy and civil engagement.
They star in a short film, ‘The Australian Way’, which following today’s decision will be promoted in schools around Australia.
Other elements of the project include a feature-film, which will be seen by Australian students during special school excursions, school parliaments, curriculum material and competitions.
The Australian Government has contributed $600,000 in support of the project.