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Alternative programs campaign
- Call to Minister for investigation of all schools offering specialised programs
- Unsubstantiated claims - give us the evidence!
- Private school education for free
- Pseduo-scientific material floods school
- Why you should oppose schools offering specialised programs
Call to Minister for clear action - take up the challenge!
PFSE is calling on the Minister for Education, Bronwyn Pike, to undertake a state-wide investigation of all schools
offering an alternative curricula. The Department's own Executive Memoranda makes it clear that schools must comply with these new guidelines. Where is the independent analysis, Minister? Where is the research? Where is the compliance with new guidelines?
Where is the consultation with the broader community?
The government has failed to protect the state school system from competing philosophies and has failed to
ensure compliance with legislation, policies and guidelines.
PFSE would like the Minister to answer the following questions:
- Why have these "specialised curricula" been introduced into government schools when many of them already have schools in the private sector?
- Why has there been no public consulation regarding the introduction of these programs?
- Who is ensuring these specialised programs comply with legislation?
- The Minister has said "it is up to individual schools" and indeed has opposed the introduction of the stream in writing. With no clear guidelines, what's to stop any fly-by-night
philsosophy such as Scientology, or indeed, Catholic, Muslim or any other philososphy with a strong lobbying group, opening up in public schools?
Private school education for free
Why should the public school system provide a private school education for free? Many of these alternative programs already have a well-established network of independent private schools. Steiner parents at one Victorian school pay a mere $500 towards the specialist extras they need as part of their operations. This is nothing compared to the $5000 plus they would have to pay in an independent
Steiner school. (See the Steiner guidelines on how to set up in a government school.) The same goes for
Montessori, Reggio Emilia and any other method with established independent schools.
Unsubstantiated claims - give us the evidence!
Steiner, Montessori and Reggio Emilia educators make a number of claims in relation to the benefits of their teaching method. One of these, by Steiner educators, is that delayed reading is beneficial to children. Where is the independent research into the benefits of Steiner and other educational methods and why is the
DoE allowing these streams into government schools without such evidence being provided?
Pseudo-scientific material at school 'dangerous'
Promotional material from a branch of Steiner philosophy, Anthroposophical medicine, is
flooding Footscray City Primary School in Victoria. The material promotes Steiner "curative therapies", for everything from "clumsiness" to "autism". The brochures, which are openly available in the school foyer, and promoted in the school newsletter 'The Vine', are "downright dangerous" in the words of one parent. "There is no cure for autism and the fact that the school is promoting this material, which has never been subject to peer review and has no credence in the medical or psychological spheres, gives the material an imprimatur it would not otherwise have had".
Why you should oppose schools offering 'specialised programs'
- Competing philosophies - The alternative philosophy and the values of the government education system
compete, creating dysfunctional schools. As a result, the school community is divided, resulting in bitter conflicts and an inability to move forward.
- Two-tier system - A two-tier system is created with the 'haves' in the specialist alternative stream, (such as Steiner
with its compulsory music program) and the have not's (state school - with no compulsory music program).
- Schools carry debt - Alternative programs cost the school money to set up due to to the cost of special materials,
changes to buildings and so on. Many schools carry debt as a result, a debt shouldered by taxpayer's and mainstream parents at the school.
Shouldn't this money be spent on other things in the cash-strapped public education system?
- Fracturing of community - The local community is fractured as many parents choosing this alternative education come
from outside the local area.
- Captured/hijacked schools - With uncapped enrolments in the alternative program - part of the criteria that should exist, but doesn't - there is a
danger of the school becoming a "captured school" and no longer a government school at all. Collingwood College in Victoria has now been hijacked, where there is no regular state school program running in the primary school. According to The Age: "Half the 250 primary school children are in the Steiner stream and the remainder in a program based on the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy." Congratulations DoE! You've just made a public school disappear by providing 100% funding to a private school.
- Religious and spiritual influences - Teaching of religious myths as fact and other "spiritual" practices can influence the children in the state school system. This is not
what parents expect in a secular government school. If religion is going to be taught then they should meet the criteria set down
by the government and not "sneak in through the back door".
- Reading and writing in peril - Some alternative streams do not teach writing or reading
until children or older. When these children are transferred to the state school program, they put undue pressure on teachers to
get them to reach the level of the rest of the class.
- Crossover without consultation - In an effort to bring the school together, some alternative teaching methods cross-over into the state school system. Parents of children in the state school system did not choose these methods and should not have them imposed on their children.
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