It was interesting that the Education Minister is quoted as saying that “everyone in the education system, right up to the department’s secretary, needed to shoulder responsibility for student success” (“State to intervene in failing schools” , December 6). The minister excluded herself from this list, which at first seemed a little strange to me. However, on reflection, I see that this is in keeping with the Berejiklian government’s new policy of ministerial irresponsibility. The Health Minister takes no responsibility when the Health Department messes up the Ruby Princess quarantine and the Premier takes no responsibility when she turns a blind eye to the questionable business dealings of her MP and boyfriend, or bribing electorates with public money, so why should the Education Minister take any responsibility for student success? John Croker, Woonona
Illustration: Matt GoldingCredit:
Education Minister Sarah Ferguson is playing politics with the state education system and students’ lives.
On the one hand she has offered support to schools that are not reaching their educational “targets”. But on the other hand, her government has axed support staff who could provide this service. Geoff Black, Caves Beach
Now that the NSW government has admitted failure with its Local Schools, Local Decisions model that axed departmental support staff, it does a 180 degree about face and has to find staff so that it can go back to the old model. The ideological basis for Local Schools, Local Decisions was anti-teachers’ unions and small government thinking, so beloved of our neo-liberal Liberal governments. They even had to find a way of including the word “aspiration” in their slogan. In NSW, government funding of public schools is constantly below the Schooling Resource Standard. It’s well past the time that our governments drop their ideological nonsense. Private schools are not held to account and should not receive public money. David McMaster, Mosman
