Queensland Education Reforms
A recently proposed bill by the
Queensland State Government, The Education Legislation
Amendment Bill 2013, seeks to provide more power for the principal of a school for “...managing discipline in schools, widen the grounds for expulsion, makes provision for community service and Saturday detention and allows for students who have been charged with a criminal offence to be excluded before their case is heard by the courts. “
There is an implied unrealistic view that the Bill takes of the students' circumstances. The writer of the article briefly mentions this by suggesting that schools should adopt alternative behaviour management programs rather than 'sweeping the problem under the rug' by simply suspending students. Ignoring the underlying issue causing the students' behaviour that warranted the suspension is hardly addressing the problem correctly and shows an irresponsible attitude of 'It's not my problem'.
Gewirtz' summary of Distributive Justice as among being an Equality of Opportunity and Equality of Condition/Circumstances can be applied to the philosophy behind the proposed Education Reforms. The Bill does not take into account that the students' in a school have vastly varying Circumstances, with an obvious potential for varying inequality. The subtle problem that then arises is that this Bill does not encourage addressing the inequal circumstances of the students. With students being given harsher and lengthier punishments for infractions this then translates into an inequal opportunity at an education for those students. Thus, by not recognising the existence of an inequal population of students the system then denies equal opportunities in education to the students.
A Bill like this tends to strengthen peoples' view of the government as completely disconnected from the problem at hand and appearing to make uninformed decisions on the matter. The question to then be asked is; Why is this change necessary? And, What warranted this change?
Story from the Queensland Times:
http://www.qt.com.au/news/fears-student-rights-education-bill-reforms/2027153/
A copy of the Bill can be found at:
https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/Bills/54PDF/2013/EducationLegAB13.pdf
Gewirtz, S. (1998). Conceptualizing social justice in education: Mapping the territory. Journal of Education Policy, 13(4), 469-484.
Amendment Bill 2013, seeks to provide more power for the principal of a school for “...managing discipline in schools, widen the grounds for expulsion, makes provision for community service and Saturday detention and allows for students who have been charged with a criminal offence to be excluded before their case is heard by the courts. “
There is an implied unrealistic view that the Bill takes of the students' circumstances. The writer of the article briefly mentions this by suggesting that schools should adopt alternative behaviour management programs rather than 'sweeping the problem under the rug' by simply suspending students. Ignoring the underlying issue causing the students' behaviour that warranted the suspension is hardly addressing the problem correctly and shows an irresponsible attitude of 'It's not my problem'.
Gewirtz' summary of Distributive Justice as among being an Equality of Opportunity and Equality of Condition/Circumstances can be applied to the philosophy behind the proposed Education Reforms. The Bill does not take into account that the students' in a school have vastly varying Circumstances, with an obvious potential for varying inequality. The subtle problem that then arises is that this Bill does not encourage addressing the inequal circumstances of the students. With students being given harsher and lengthier punishments for infractions this then translates into an inequal opportunity at an education for those students. Thus, by not recognising the existence of an inequal population of students the system then denies equal opportunities in education to the students.
A Bill like this tends to strengthen peoples' view of the government as completely disconnected from the problem at hand and appearing to make uninformed decisions on the matter. The question to then be asked is; Why is this change necessary? And, What warranted this change?
Story from the Queensland Times:
http://www.qt.com.au/news/fears-student-rights-education-bill-reforms/2027153/
A copy of the Bill can be found at:
https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/Bills/54PDF/2013/EducationLegAB13.pdf
Gewirtz, S. (1998). Conceptualizing social justice in education: Mapping the territory. Journal of Education Policy, 13(4), 469-484.
Hi Harrison,
ReplyDeleteA really interesting article! One thing I do agree with the Government is that the current school suspension punishment does not work. Most of the time behavioural issues stem from a student's private life and attempting to dole out punishments at school will not get to the root of the issue, just make it more manageable 9am to 3pm. Schools and government should do more to change the attitudes of troubled students and make sure students really know the value of education in getting where they want to be in life. When these students grow up and start families it would be unlikely that they instil the value of education in their children, creating a cycle of issues not just in school but society. Social justice is not being met for these students.