Education Amendment Bill 2009
The object of the Education Amendment Bill 2009 is to change the school leaving age from 15 years by requiring children to complete year 10 of secondary education unless they have already reached the age of 17 years. If they have completed year 10 and are under 17 years, they will continue with school or participate on a full-time basis in approved education or training or paid work until they are 17. Such approved education or training includes apprenticeships, a TAFE or other vocational course, or a university course. Dr John Kaye will move an amendment concerning TAFE schooling for those struggling and unlikely to pass year 10, an amendment which I will support.
The changes would come into effect from the start of the next school year, 2010, and will apply to government schools, non-government schools, and home schooling. It is important to note the theoretical framework of children’s right to education. On an international level, literacy is recognised as every girl’s and boy’s right. Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that States “shall promote and encourage international co-operation with a view to contributing to the elimination of ignorance and illiteracy throughout the world, and facilitating access to scientific and technical knowledge and modern teaching methods”. This “right to literacy” is also emphasised by UNICEF with its Education for All and Millennium Development Goals.
We note the low literacy rates in Australia. A report published in 2003 by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] titled “Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society” reported the disturbing statistic that more than 40 per cent of all Australians did not have the necessary literacy skills to effectively participate in daily life. And the International Adult Literacy Survey found that 6.2 million Australians were functionally illiterate. Those figures reflect upon the past inability of our State educational systems to fully prepare young people for life in a modern economy. Will simply adding another year or two of the same really help matters very much? Yes, I think so. Literacy means more than knowing how to read, write or calculate; it means grasping information effectively, then in turn using or communicating it, in order to function effectively.
Every day people face a variety of written information that requires them to perform different tasks and make decisions based upon their prose literacy, document literacy and quantitative literacy. According to education experts, prose literacy is the knowledge and skills that are needed to understand and make sense of texts, including newspapers, editorials, poetry and fiction. Document literacy is the knowledge and skills that are needed to locate and use information contained in various formats such as payroll forms, transport timetables, appliance instructions, job application forms, maps, tables and graphics. Quantitative literacy is the knowledge and skills that are required to apply arithmetical operations to numbers embedded in printed materials in order to perform functions such as balancing a chequebook, completing an order form, or determining the amount of interest on a loan.
The reading and writing skills obtained at school need to be at a level that will allow every young person to be prepared to meet the challenge of living and working in today’s complex, technological, information-based and knowledge-intensive society. There is a movement in the developed nations worldwide for governments to raise the compulsory minimum school leaving age because of the perceived need to better prepare their young people for full functioning in society as citizens and employees. Our technologically advanced societies need to develop people who are able to master the complex tasks of modern life, and not inadvertently create a population of under-equipped people who will be dependent upon public charity or end up in correctional facilities because they cannot cope.
The European Union school leaving age is generally 16, but many of the countries within the European Union set their preferred school leaving age at 18 for most of the population. The United States of America’s school leaving age varies from State to State between age 16 and 18. England currently has 16 as the school leaving age, with attempts over the decades to raise it to 18 scuttled, mainly due to cuts in public spending after both World Wars. England’s increase in the school leaving age to 18 may finally pass by the year 2013, as is proposed. It is likely, however, that Ireland, Scotland and Wales will keep their school leaving age at 16.
In Australia, the States and territories have currently set their school leaving age at 15 for New South Wales, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, 16 for Victoria, and 17 for Tasmania, Western Australia and Queensland. New South Wales is the only State that allows 15-year-olds to leave school. That law, permitting students to drop out at age 15, was enacted in 1943 when the country was at war, with its workforce depleted to meet the needs of Australia’s armed services. It was enacted in an Australia with a smaller population, without computers, with no sense of the global village or the need for international cross-cultural networking, and without all the complex technology used in our societies today. It was probably fine in a setting where the school leaver could find work on a farm or in a factory in one of the major towns, or driving a truck. But is it really appropriate now? It has led to New South Wales having the highest school-leaving rate in the country, and people who only finished year 9 are the most likely in the State to end up on unemployment benefits.
Employer groups have been pushing for changes to the school leaving age for some time, because they are frustrated with the serious skill shortages, poor literacy, numeracy and computer skills in the pool of people from which they hire. An Australian Industry Group report estimated that $2.7 billion of value would be added to the New South Wales economy if the number of school leavers were halved by 2050, which demonstrates how costly it is for us to waste the human resources that we are not properly developing. The OECD estimates that for each additional year of education the level of our productivity would increase by between 3 and 6 per cent. It is a disservice to the economy, as well as to society and the children themselves, not to have them fully prepared to be functional adults with something to offer.
Research shows that in general the more education students get the more they will earn throughout their lives, the more opportunities they will have to choose from, and the better informed and more responsible they will be as citizens in a democracy. For each additional year of schooling it has been estimated income increases by 10 per cent. The lack of a sufficient education has many repercussions. One study found that 16- to 18-year-olds who were not in school, training or employment were far more likely to experience depression and ill health by the age of 22. They are also more likely to end up involved in criminal activity or in jail or to abuse alcohol and drugs. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in his 14th century Canterbury Tales, “Idleness is the root of mischief.” Other people have translated that as “The devil finds mischief for idle hands to do.” The bill may especially be of benefit to indigenous young people, in particular where trades and vocational skills can be learned and used by people who have frequently left school even earlier than 15 years.
Parents face prosecution and a hefty fine if their children do not participate. That will encourage parents to be responsible for ensuring they do keep their children on track, although that may be assuming more parental control over the teenagers than often really exists in many households. The plan of the Government for students to complete the year 10 School Certificate and then stay on for further schooling or training is a good one. It will prepare students with the firm foundation of being employable throughout life. Competition is a fact of life and in the new economic climate it has to be faced that Australia is now competing against the rest of the world. We have to have people who are up to the task.
Principals, teachers and parents groups have expressed their concern that unless there is increased funding for additional teachers to handle the expected increase in the number of students staying in the system as of next year—which the Premier has estimated to be about 8,900 additional students per year—it could be a negative experience for all concerned. Overcrowded schoolrooms will lead to pressure on teachers and students alike, leading to less time and resources available for each student and an environment less conducive to learning.
The need to fund extra school councillors is fundamental because a lot of these students will go through great difficulties extending their school life beyond what they had anticipated. At present there is only one school counsellor for every 1,500 secondary school students. There will also be a need for more resources for the delivery of the vocational training as that will be one of the options available for the students staying on. With the increase in TAFE college costs, as well as the reduced funding and lowered qualifications needed for TAFE teachers, there appears to have been a devaluation of the TAFE option in recent years. Substantial additional funding and infrastructure will need to be in place if vocational training is to be utilised in the way envisaged by this legislation. Financial assistance to disadvantaged students also needs to be made available, if this option is to be a viable one. Fee exemptions may be one way to address that potential barrier to participation.
The teen years are notorious for being full of crises: emotional, psychological, social, and sexual. Sometimes young people imagine that the best way to get away from one’s problems is to drop out of school and go away where things are bound to be better. Being required to stay in school under this bill will keep that option less inviting and help them make the right decision to stay, work through their problems and keep learning. It will offer an enforced stability that they would not otherwise have—and that is a good thing. But while they are unhappy about staying, I am concerned about what supports will be in place to keep them from sabotaging or undermining the efforts of their teachers and fellow students who do wish to learn. Will there be course options for them in non-academic subjects? Or perhaps career counselling and referral to appropriate vocational courses, such as the under year 10 course in TAFE colleges, apprenticeships or traineeships?
Disruptive or angry young people can create a misery for everyone else and this aspect needs to be taken into consideration well in advance. There is not much time if this is to start at the beginning of next year. What also comes to mind is the suggestion that perhaps additional attention should be given to the earliest years of schooling in order to prepare people for making the most of their educational opportunities, instead of waiting until the last days of their schooling. More focus on early childhood preparation for literacy and numeracy would likely result in more capable and engaged students 10 years later.
We in this House can support this commendable legislation but to create a literate society will require more than this. It will require real partnerships between schools, employers, workers, governments, communities and the students themselves. If all of this is going to start in 10 months time we really have to get a wriggle on. Most of all it will require a change in behaviour by society and in what we as a society expect for each other and ourselves. The goal of increased literacy should be addressed across the whole range of policy areas such as early childhood, youth services, employment preparation, human resource development, health, social welfare and crime prevention. But today is a good start and I gladly support the bill.