ABC News Radio

SUBJECTS: School autonomy

E&OE…………… 

Marius Benson: Christopher Pyne good morning. 

Christopher Pyne: Good morning Marius. 

Benson: These changes are being characterised as giving power to the principals.  Is it the right direction in your view? 

Pyne: It most definitely is and the Coalition has had a policy for more autonomy for principals and more power for governing councils for many years; certainly in the time I’ve been Shadow Minister for Education and we applaud the work that Adrian Piccoli and Barry O’Farrell are doing in New South Wales.  The more autonomy a school has the better the outcome for students and that’s what matters, the outcome for students. 

Benson: So on this occasion you appear to be in the rare position of being in agreement with the Federal Government? 

Pyne: Well, the Government has come to the party late in the piece and belatedly began supporting principal autonomy.  I think once they realised it was a freight train that was impossible to stop they have now made baby steps towards supporting principal autonomy and we welcome that. 

Benson: The Federal Government is actually putting in money; it points to $12.5 million being put to New South Wales on this occasion.  Would the Opposition were it the Government also be providing extra funding to states? 

Pyne: We’ve already announced our policy with respect to principal autonomy and more local power.  There are funds, transition funds that are available to the states if they move in that direction.  We support what the Government has done and obviously the Government has followed our lead, but primarily it’s a responsibility of the State Governments and we welcome the moves that they’re making.  Western Australia is well down the track in introducing independent public schools and New South Wales’ announcement will give that great impetus in the Eastern states as well. 

Benson: Principals appear to be broadly in favour of this.  There is a range of reactions though.  One misgiving expressed by principals is they’re concerned it may be a method of introducing a cut to education funds to a state level in disguise.  Is that a concern in your mind? 

Pyne: I don’t think that’s the case.  In fact I’ll think there’ll be at least the same amount if not more funds required because the Federal Government is putting money in.  So there will at least be the same amount of funds required because there are students that need to be educated and taught.  So I don’t think it is a fear that’s well grounded.  The only organisation that is opposed to principal autonomy is the Australian Education Union because I think they’ll discover soon enough that the union has been warning against a – running a fear campaign against principal autonomy which will soon be found not to have any base. 

Benson: One of the central parts of this policy is that pay rises for teachers will be based on ability, on performance, not just seniority, but this won’t be tied to anything objective like exam mark results.  How easy is it to test the ability of a teacher? 

Pyne: It’s just as easy as any other profession and the Gratten Institute produced an excellent paper last year, which went through a three stage process, but peer review, parent review, self review and student review of a teacher’s performance.  All of those elements together, given their appropriate weighting and the involvement of the principal can tell you without any difficulty whether the teacher is performing at their best and if they’re not steps can be taken to ensure we get the most from our teaching profession.  This is a revolutionary change; a real revolution in education because it means the most important cog in the wheel, which is the teachers, are going to get the absolute highest priority.  We can have a school under a gum tree Marius, but if it has a marvellous teacher, then the teaching staff make the difference to students. 

Benson: Christopher Pyne, thank you very much. 

Pyne: It’s a pleasure. 

ENDS