PDC: education insert

Existing policy: http://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policies/Education_and_Skills

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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.

Provide a stronger platform for skills-based, secular school education
 * Include a solid founation 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, culture 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.''

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Education is a powerful determinant of well-being. It is 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". At all stages of our education system, Pirate Party Australia will support forms of accountability that link closely to the community and public good, and which remove centralised and corporatised structures.

Early childhood education

Early childhood education is crucial to a child's development in later life. We will seek to provide a means for parents to play a greater role in childcare by trialling a system of childcare cooperatives based on successful overseas models. Willing parents will be able to combine resources, providing low-cost or free childcare through a roster system in which parents take turns as carers and volunteers. This will provide social opportunities to new families and also reduce pressure on the existing corporate childcare system.

School education

The principle of free, secular and compulsory schooling held sway for decades in Australia, but has been recently undermined by changes to school funding. These changes have shifted the funding balance away from public schools, and towards private and religious schools. Justified in the name of choice, this change has actually reduced choices for many by leaving entire postcodes lacking any comprehensive public schooling. Private school fees exclude students from low socio-economic backgrounds, concentrating them in the under-funded public system. Australia's recent approach to education has resulted in a low and falling ranking in global measures of performance among disadvantaged students.

Private schooling also divides students along religious lines and has led to cases where taxpayer-funded schools are actively refusing to meet educational standards in areas such as science education. Religious indoctrination (whether through organised schooling or chaplaincy programs) is a fundamentally inappropriate use of taxpayer funds in a secular country.

Pirate Party Australia believes that accountability, not false choice, should be the guiding light in allocating taxpayers' money. While private schools are entitled to exist, we believe they should return to a traditional funding model, with federal subsidies gradually withdrawn and used to sponsor a truly effective, needs-based funding system in public schools. To ensure accountability and create real choice, the Pirate Party will seek to abolish existing paperwork-based accountability and instead vest control over administration, hiring and funds in principals and school boards, which will be open to parents. This will add vitality and independence to the public system.

Pirate Party Australia supports the National Curriculum, but believes a stronger emphasis on life skills will add value. We will also seek to trial a funding mechanism to allow schools to 'bulk-bill' costs of after-school instruction so that qualified experts can be engaged to teach in areas of interest chosen by students and parents. This will sponsor genuine choice and diversity, offer niche and special-interest education, encourage social mixing and provide more tools to overcome disadvantage.

To improve teaching standards, Pirate Party Australia advocates extensions in supported classroom time for trainee teachers in conjunction with a rise in top-end salaries for teachers with significant experience. We will also seek to reduce some of the institutional pressure placed on students to remain at school after Year 10, since forcing unwilling students to stay ultimately leads to the disruption of more engaged students. Students wishing to study at TAFE after Year 10 should be free to do so, with per-student funding following them.

Supporting research

Fundamental research is pure scientific research, and is the source of most technological and scientific advancement. Fundamental research in Australia has led to the discovery of wi-fi technology among other advances. Around half of long-term GDP is driven by research, and we believe far more should be conducted to provide the progress our economy needs. Accordingly, we seek the creation of a permanent fund to foster basic research. This fund will support research across all educational and scientiic institutions, providing reliable, long-term grants without political, administrative and managerial interference.

Applied research is research conducted for the purpose of meeting an immediate business need. To stimulate better collaboration between business and educational bodies, Pirate Party Australia will seek to offer 'innovation vouchers' to small businesses. Vouchers will provide credit of up to $50,000, which businesses will be able to use to purchase R&D services from educational and research institutions, who may then redeem the vouchers to obtain the funds from the government. Vouchers are a way to increase research funding while ensuring priorities are driven from the grassroots. They offer a way for small businesses to overcome relative disadvantage against large firms who have far more capacity to engage in R&D. They will also help business to build trust and partnerships with education and research sectors.

Improve provision of community based childcare
 * Provide certification processes and a one-stop information service for the setup of childcare cooperatives.

Foster well-funded, responsive and secular public schools
 * Reallocate federal education funding:
 * Progressively withdraw funding to private schools over 10 years, with allowance for private schools to transfer or sell land and assets into the public system.
 * Abolish the school chaplains program.
 * Direct funding towards full implementation of Gonski reforms as part of a needs-based funding system.
 * Change school accountability frameworks:
 * Abolish existing paperwork accountability systems.
 * Provide schools with control over finances including management of bank accounts and full control over purchases.
 * Support the establishment of principal networks to encourage the spread of effective systems.
 * Allow students 16 and over to transfer to TAFE and provide vouchers to offset fees.
 * Trial a bulk billing scheme for extracurricular activities including tutoring from outside experts in areas determined by students and parents.
 * Provide stronger support and incentives to teachers:
 * Ensure trainee teachers receive a minimum of 12 weeks supported classroom time.
 * Allow ongoing salary progression for teachers with more than 10 years experience.
 * Include a solid foundation of life skills and personal development within the National Curriculum:
 * Grades 1-4 to cover behaviour 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.
 * Limit religious study to comparative religion in the context of history, culture and literature.
 * Enact a pilot program to distribute open source, low cost, 3D printers to interested high schools.

Develop Australia's research and scientific potential
 * Establish a $5 billion endowment fund to support fundamental research across all scientific disciplines.
 * An independent panel of scientific experts will oversee grant applications.
 * Grant periods will be determined based on the requirements of the research.
 * Patents generated through funded research will enter the public domain.
 * Trial an 'innovation voucher' scheme to support applied research.
 * One thousand vouchers with a value of up to $50,000 will be released.
 * Vouchers will provide businesses with credit to procure services including applied research, product development, design, and engineering from educational and research bodies.
 * Reverse funding cuts to the CSIRO.

Under "Increase public access to education outputs",

WITHIN HIGHER EDUCATION SECTION, THIS TEXT GETS DELETED:
 * Reduce HECS fees by 25% to support enrolments.

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 * Regulate university fees such that no Commonwealth supported student pays more than 30% of the average cost for a degree.
 * Charge a zero real interest rate for HECS debts.