BIRMINGHAM'S BATHSHEBA

 

 

Barnaby Joyce is not the only politician who is a victim of his own desires. Federal education minister Simon Birmingham this week announced a bold new initiative to add to the impressive ‘suite’ of recruitment strategies for the great nation’s teaching ranks. Tradies are now being targeted as potential new whiteboard warriors in our quest for world domination…or, at least, some improvement in our international PISA ratings.

Minister Birmingham has again displayed a long held affection for securing the right stuff when talking about new teachers entering the game. Further, he seems to be intoxicated by- and obsessed with- solving all of our schools’ woes by loitering around the pointy end of teacher education and induction. If teacher education was to be personified as something of a temptress, young Simon would be first in line as a suitor.

To be fair to the minister, the federal government’s powers regarding school education are relatively limited. But while the feds don’t run schools, they are in a position to apply a full nelson to Oz’s tertiary bodies which, of course, includes teacher training institutions. In a nutshell, Birmingham figures that if he can raise enough dust around the entry point of teaching careers, then it may well settle further down the line and, presto, school land will get the shot in the arm it so badly needs. Well…..that’s the theory. But it’s a flawed one.

For starters, the minister’s initial strategy of attracting the ‘brightest and the best’ for a teaching career certainly appears to have fallen short of the mark. The Teach for Australia campaign remains at ‘boutique’ levels only throughout the nation and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere fast. The huge hordes of super graduates from universities itching to take their place in the Monday morning photocopying queues just aren’t happening. What would make Minister Birmingham think that a subsequent attempt at wrangling together a group of tradies might be any different?

With accreditation of teachers now in ‘Go’ mode and the five year university pre-service training juggernaut appearing on the horizon, one has to question the timing of the minister’s latest fast-tracking proposition. Perhaps it’s his one last chance to kick the teacher quality can before events and processes make that much more difficult.

Simon may also be overestimating the pulling power of our public education system for Einsteins and ex-sparkies. Here in New South Wales, the Local schools, local decisions claptrap has led to decreased working conditions, more administrivia, greater demands on teachers to ‘make do’ and an ever-increasing casualisation of the teaching force. Most of the schools around my area resemble the backlot of a Hogan’s Heroes production site with demountables reigning supreme in neat and ordered arrangements on what was once playground and garden space.

But what is most infuriating about Birmingham compulsively putting his name on teacher training’s dance card is that it ignores the very thing that can most change the educational landscape in this country. Everyone knows what it is and so does the minister. If Simon Birmingham is to- yet again- engage his Bathsheba in an intimate dance, then he’d better have even more moves than a complicated tango requires.