PDC: Education working group

This Working Group (WG) was established by the Policy Development Committee (PDC) on 29 May 2013.

Working group report
This working group was tasked with developing policy to support a stronger and more secular education program. This policy is in the development stage, so if you want to contribute email policydev@pirateparty.org.au.

Recommendation
That the following proposals for educational reform be adopted.

Preamble
Education is a powerful determinant of well-being, being not just a source of wealth, but also a provider of life skills, an enabler of participation, and a core component of civil society. The 2000 Dakar World Education Conference noted that all young people have the right to an education that includes “learning to know, to do, to live together and to be". This philosophy is best applied within a secular system which grants every student access to the life skills most essential to participation and overcoming disadvantage. In addition to a robust and well-resourced public school system, students should have access to alternate schooling solutions that best suit their own unique circumstances: this will help to encourage social mixing, allow greater scope for alternative approaches, and provide more tools to overcome disadvantage.

Tertiary education is also increasingly important as we shift towards a more knowledge-based economy. While student numbers continue to rise, growing evidence exists of a troubling deterioration in standards and academic morale in universities. This manifests in various ways: approximately half of academics have been assessed to be at risk of psychological illness due to insecurity and overwork, while two thirds believe academic freedom is being curtailed. Higher education has suffered from efforts by successive governments to force it into a top-down, corporatist structure. This is an inappropriate form for an education system and one which has led to increasing stultification and surveillance, with demands for corporate style messaging eating away academic freedom of speech. The drive towards pseudo-measurement of educational outcomes has imposed unprecedented administrative costs, with administrators and managers now outnumbering academics (who nonetheless face increasing demands to conduct administration).

The impacts of corporatised education are uniformly contrary to what is intended. The narrow emphasis on vocational education is creating graduates unfit for many jobs - employers have raised issues with serious deficits in team work, creative thought and communication. Administrative burdens imposed in the name of quality assurance are driving down quality by drawing resources out of teaching and research. Attempts to quantify educational outputs obscure more than they reveal. And the lowering of standards to accommodate overseas students is reducing Australia’s attractiveness as an international student destination.

Genuine transparency means accountability to the general public, not to a corporate structure. We believe that publicly funded academic research should be made freely available to the public and no longer locked up behind publisher paywalls. We also believe in enhancing the quality of academic work by following the advice of academics themselves, who urgently seek fairer funding arrangements and greater autonomy. Education should be viewed as a pillar of civil society rather than a money making commodity, and we believe campuses should be encouraged to play a greater role in the community. Passion, curiosity and freedom to speak and question are key curbs to unhindered power, and a successful university system should embody those traits.

Provide a stronger platform for skills-based, secular school education

 * Include a solid foundation of life skills and personal development within the National Curriculum.
 * Grades 1-4 to cover behavior towards others, people skills, and exploration of science and critical thinking;
 * Grades 5-6 to develop earlier material and additionally cover sex education, conflict resolution, and ethics;
 * Grades 7-8 to develop earlier material and additionally cover accidents and emergency response, civics and voting, budgeting, basic IT skills, careers and starting a business.
 * Set additional curriculum benchmarks as preconditions for federal funding.
 * Require teaching of a rigorous and credible science curriculum.
 * End religious indoctrination in government schools - encourage study of religion in the context of history and literature.
 * Abolish the school chaplains program and redirect funding to employ trained counselors.
 * Grant schools and principals authority to choose software packages (including open source software) independently and according to localised needs.
 * Enact a pilot program to distribute open source, low cost, 3D printers to interested high schools for Design and Technology classes.

Support academic autonomy in tertiary institutions

 * Impose benchmarks to guarantee the use of public funds for academic salaries, teaching material and research.
 * Expand full-time academic positions targeting a maximum student-teacher ratio of 20:1.
 * Study leave, research time, and fieldwork to be guaranteed in academic contracts.
 * Restore academic control over course and research funding, course design & outcomes, unit guides, marking, workload allocation, hiring, and teaching choices.
 * Defund administrative functions and organisations associated with monitoring, surveillance, government reviews and data collection.
 * Abolish standardising and rigid templates.
 * Abolish the Excellence in Research for Australia initiative.
 * Abolish code of conduct restrictions on academic speech.
 * Limit the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency to an advisory role.

Increase public access to education outputs

 * Institute Open Access provisions for publicly funded academic, peer-reviewed, journal articles produced within universities.
 * Universities and publishers to make all articles freely available to the public without paywalls or publisher restrictions.
 * Promote increased use of campuses for community seminars, live events and public debates.
 * Increase provision of free online courses.
 * Establish a fund to support groups and facilities providing free intra- and extra-curricular activities and content.
 * Restore previously planned funding growth and reverse the mooted $2.3 billion reduction.
 * Reduce HECS fees by 25% to support enrollments.
 * Reform the lifetime limit on total allowable debt under FEE-HELP to improve flexibility.
 * Universities to fund counselling and childcare without compulsory service fees.
 * Restore funding to access and equity measures assisting students from lower socioeconomic and indigenous backgrounds.
 * Increase course-driven interaction between students and businesses or community groups.
 * Full whistle-blower protections to apply with regard to Unileaks and similar outlets.