Details and budgets remain unknown, but the Government is thinking along sensible lines.
Not all schools are equal. The governing principle of state education may be
equality of opportunity, but the reality is different. Every principal, teacher,
parent and pupil knows more or less where their school stands. Some schools
have waiting lists, many applicants for teaching positions and their pick of
principals. Success fuels success, as better-off families with ambitions for
their children move into particular schools' zones, pushing up property values
and turning such schools into a selective elite. Other schools in less-favoured
suburbs increasingly struggle to attract pupils and staff, compounding their
difficulties. Families that have the money are also opting for private schools,
another exercise of choice that leaves the poorest, and often educationally
weakest, with no choice but to fend for themselves. They are struggling. Auditor-General
Wayne Cameron reported this week that spending $662 million on literacy programs
in the seven years to 2002 produced little overall gain in skills despite gains
by participants. His report said resources should be better targeted according
to the relative needs of students. This conclusion is true of state education
in general. Remedial measures can have only a marginal effect while the system,
in its structures and funding, fails to take adequate account of the deep-seated
causes of inequality among schools.
Radical reform is needed, and it may be on the way, as The Age reported yesterday. A draft policy document prepared for Education Minister Lynne Kosky recognises that there is "an unacceptable level of variation in student outcomes" and that underperforming or, to be brutally frank, failed schools bear some but not all the responsibility for this. It concludes that the present model of global budgets based on enrolments "has at its core competition between schools" as it gives strong schools an incentive to poach students and jealously guard resources and expertise. Competition promotes excellence in some schools but also creates perennial strugglers (a frequently overlooked feature of the private system). The document proposes that, from 2005, funding take account of externally assessed "impairment challenges" at individual schools and that incentives be offered for well-performing principals and teachers to work in "challenging schools". This would reflect the reality that teaching is harder work in some schools than in others. In return for more tailored funding, schools would have to be more accountable for performance. While the document does not go into detail on budgets and governance models, the thinking behind the reforms appears sound. It remains to be seen how school communities and education unions respond, but they should be aware that defending the status quo amounts to defending entrenched inequalities. The Bracks Government must not be timid about such badly needed reforms.
A new front opens in the fight for freedom
Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, is central to hopes of creating a democratic Middle East.
It is a kingdom named after and ruled by an absolute monarchy since its founding in 1926. Its citizens have never voted. Its women are forbidden to drive, or travel without a male companion. Public meetings to discuss political or social grievances are prohibited. This corrupt autocracy has been a source of funds for terrorism and spawned terrorists itself, including Osama bin Laden, the architect of al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks, and 15 of the 19 hijackers. Even so, in the two years since US President George Bush declared war on terrorism "in the name of freedom" and dubbed it Operation Enduring Freedom, Saudi Arabia has largely been spared public censure, as it supported the US-led coalition. Meanwhile, the Taliban have been ousted in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom has toppled Saddam Hussein. But Saudi Arabia couldn't defy the winds of change forever and this week announced its first concrete political reform, a plan to hold municipal elections. The next day, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Riyadh to call for greater reforms and the release of political prisoners. Police broke up the march as it headed for the country's first human rights conference, but both events spoke of a change in public mood. Human Rights Watch, which in January was the first such agency admitted to Saudi Arabia, said Riyadh had undertaken to improve standards and begun judicial reform. Limits on the press have also been eased - as a Saudi analyst noted, "one year ago, just writing about elections was considered an offence".
The municipal election plan, which provides for half the councillors to be appointed, might still prove to be insignificant if that is as far as political reform goes. Yet the fate of the repressive regimes of Eastern Europe illustrates how the interaction of modest reforms from above and public agitation from below can create its own momentum. Saudi Arabia is also confronted by a change in attitude of its most important patron. The US, despite its public restraint, has applied pressure in the knowledge that the oil-funded rule of the Saudi princes undermines the push for democracy in the Middle East. In January, de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah called for reform in the Arab world, and the Saudis' response has shown that the "Arab street's" desire for freedom is real, not an American invention. Public debate was galvanised by last May's suicide bombings in Riyadh. Last month, in the third petition this year, Saudi reformists condemned "terrorism in all its forms" but said the causes of extremist violence included "the delay in adopting radical reform and the absence of popular consultation in decision-making". The House of Saud has been forced to open a door to democracy, albeit by a chink, but the forces of conservatism are strong and the Saudi people, no less than Afghans and Iraqis, need continued outside support. If they get it, an announcement of modest reform could turn out to be a transforming moment for Saudi Arabia and the Arab world.
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