We recently contributed a national parents’ perspective to the Melbourne Declaration consultation, the latest step towards updating our statement of Australia’s goals for the education of young people.

This statement, and the Hobart and Adelaide Declarations which came before it, has been an important guide for all educational authorities, educators, policy makers and parent organisations over the past 10 years.

It’s important that we engage with Minister Dan Tehan and others seeking to bring the current Melbourne Declaration into this decade – a time when Gonski 2.0 is at the forefront of most of our thinking.

Highlights

We have since captured our concerns in a joint letter with the Australian Parents Council to the Minister.

Below are some highlights for school parent bodies and principals, including our belief that:

• We must act on the evidence that respectful and authentic parent-school partnerships have significant outcomes for the education and wellbeing of our children.
• A copy of the newest Declaration should be shared with every family as their children enter both primary and secondary school.
• Wellbeing needs a stronger focus in the new Declaration, which should also emphasise tangible, easily understood actions and outcomes.
• The prime responsibility of families for their children must be recognised and supported so they can best prepare their children for formal schooling and throughout their learning journey.

It is important that we as a nation have some clear, commonly held understandings of our goals in this most critical aspect of Australian life, the preparation of our coming generations for their role as Australian citizens. 

Agreement in essence

Parents, along with students are the largest stakeholders in education. Parents have a vested interest to ensure that the goals are reflective of the aspirations that they hold for their children.

A nationally agreed definition on the educational goals for young Australians (and this is perhaps why it should be called, “the National Declaration”), is always going to be tricky to effect and somewhat broad in the stating.  But hopefully it can contain the essence of some real and agreed substance, because anything less is an unfortunate exercise in wordsmithing to little effect.

In February, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Education Council said it would aim to have a revitalised Declaration by the end of 2019.  We are, of course, in interesting times politically speaking, but revisiting our vision for Australian education is very timely if not overdue. 

Declared goals

The current Declaration articulates two central goals:

1. Promoting equity and excellence in Australian schools
2. That all young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens.

These could hardly be expressed more succinctly! The central goals provide a valid starting point for the broad conversation that must be had. Through this conversation we will find the key elements that become part of the new and revised notions of the way forward.

Equity and excellence

Promoting equity and excellence in our schools is hardly arguable. The real issue is we have adopted the noble shibboleth but, despite Gonski and a plethora of policy initiatives, we have not gone far enough to making it a reality over the last decade. We are still immersed in funding wars that speak to politicians failing to put education above the mire of party infighting and point scoring.  More on this in the coming months!

Resolving differences

‘Successful learners becoming well rounded citizens’ also rolls easily of the tongue and should be analysed for new meanings. ‘Soft skills’ - an unfortunate term for an array of essential personal attributes - are now seen as the heart of achieving this goal and their significance was expressed eloquently by Verity Firth recently in the Sydney Morning Herald

In all cases, the capacity to work with others across differences to solve problems, and competence in ethical reasoning and empathic decision making are key.  These skills are at the heart of collaboration.

It is of course a truism that if we are to take the second of the two goals as a departure point then the shape of the Australian curriculum must speak strongly to it.  I conclude by congratulating David de Carvalho as he takes up his role as the CEO of ACARA and we look forward to working with him and his team as they progress this significant work.

Kevan Goodworth 
President and Chair
Australian Council of State School Organisations
March 2019

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