Sunday 13 June 2010

Read this and weep

From Maralyn Parker's education blog in the Tele (which I now link to) - this is a comment from someone was has worked in the Education Dept for 15 years:


The whole top bureaucracy of the education department has been politically appointed and controlled. There are many many consultants etc working in the Assistant Directors Generals office all with links to the labor party and it filters down from there. I have worked for the Education Department for 15 years and have always been proud in the work I do and difference I make in educating our kids and no I am not a teacher. I ahev alwasy said once we loose site why we are here which is for the students we may as well shut up shop and I am afraid we have reached that point. I know of many long serving staff who have just had enough and are retiring or going on leave which I am doing now. I will not go back and i know of over 10 staff in the same boat that have over 200 years combined experince. The first thing that should happen is Tafe and Schools seperated, Regions obolished and focus put back on kids

  • Directors Generals?
  • I ahev alwasy said once we loose site
  • 200 years combined experince
  • Tafe and Schools seperated
  • Regions obolished
  • focus put back on kids (no full stop at the end)
Oh dear God.........

By the way, Maralyn's blog is always worth a read, and if you like a good fight, there is always one to be had in the comments.

4 comments:

1735099 said...

This person was obviously tired and emotional when he/she wrote her comment.
Some of what is contained in this rant has merit, even if the person writing it is not a teacher.

Boy on a bike said...

I so hope you are right....

I get the point of the rant, and can understand that this person was not a teacher. Although they might have been one once, many moons ago.

Scary to think though that they were a bureaucrat in charge of tens of thousands of educators... I hope they weren't writing policy, or the curriculum!

kae said...

There's some crankies over there, BOAB.
And some (justifiably) stabby people, too.
I might put something up about a question I had from a PG student a few weeks ago.

1735099 said...

BOAB
There is a great deal of misunderstanding about the power of the bureaucracy. The people with clout (at least here in Queensland) are the principals. Many of them don't realise how much power they wield. They will always be in a strong position to influence for the good if they are leaders rather than managers.
Unfortunately, as the Senior Public Service has become more politically aligned from the top down, there are a few principals who put their own career advancement ahead of their school communities.
This has always been the case - I was a principal through the days of both the Coalition governments, (Bjelke-Petersen & Borbidge) and a range of Labor administrations (Goss & Beattie) and this creeping cancer of political affiliation was always there.