May 15, 2007
John Howard in his speech to the Centre of Independent Studies made an interesting comment when countering Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd's call for an "education revolution in the second of his 'Australia Rising' speeches . Howard condemned Labor for an excessively economically based approach. Labor's mantra pressed education "into an almost soulless and narrow form of national economic service. Invariably, this ends up producing not just bad education policy but even worse economic policy."
Huh? That sounds like a Hayekian attack on the grand plan, state coercion and crushing uniformity doesn't it? Julie Bishop on Lateline did decode 'souless and national economic service' in terms of numbers. The ALP only thinks in terms of numbers (eg., increasing school retention rates so that Year 12 retention rates are 90 per cent by 2020) whereas the Coalition thinks in terms of the individual and values such as quality, choice and opportunity.
So what does quality mean? It pretty much means a back-to-basics education traditionalism: basic academic standards, competitive examinations, teacher-directed lessons based on traditional disciplines, clear and readable curriculum material and strong but fair policies on school discipline. Anything progressive--eg., 'no exams--is seen as soulless national economic service. Its not very convincing argument, given the decade of neglect of public schooling by the Coalition in favour of private schooling and its neo-liberal mode of governance.
Educational conservatives hold that English lessons should teach grammar, history is History, not Society and the Environment or Time, Continuity and Change, that geography is Geography, not Place and Space. They are not in favour of diversity of courses or educational approaches.
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The industrial definition of quality means 'minimum of variation'.