The Australian School System

Sydney is a small place. Last night I went to Stir Crazy in Kirribilli (north shore, by the Harbour Bridge), which is a very small, always busy, Southeast Asian restaurant/take away where the tables are very close together. I found myself sat next to one of the tutors from UNSW, which was awkward to say the least. Now I know what it's like for one of my students to bump in to me on a night out...


Nothing on the job front so I'm off to the State Library to write an essay on global terrorism, as one does. I thought I'd write something about the Australian school system - for those of you that are bored / do want to know why this whole enterprise is tricky for me but switched off when I've tried to explain it in the past.


State governments have responsibility for education provision; schools are either 'state' (or 'government'/'public') which are free, or 'private' (or 'independent') which are fee paying. Unlike in the UK, private schools must adhere to the same requirements as state schools. For example, all teachers must be 'accredited' by the NSW Institute of Education, which assesses their qualifications (my teaching qualification is not recognised anywhere in Aus, NZ or Canada). Bizarrely, the federal government provides funding for private schools, which cater for about 14% of children. Some of them charge very high fees, and have world-class facilities, especially in sport - the All Blacks train at King's School Parramatta when they're here, for example.


Religion was taken out of state education because no-one could agree what form it should take, so the vast majority of private schools have a religious affiliation; a significant number are members of the Catholic school association, but there are many other Christian denominational schools. Interestingly, the government is currently being lobbied to introduce some form of ethics based education in state schools - the St James Ethics Centre, which also sponsored several of the talks I went to at the Opera House the other week, is a prominent organisation at the forefront of this campaign. 


So as an RS teacher, and without an officially recognised qualification, my options will always be limited - hence one of the reasons for my diversification in to Modern History as a supplementary subject I can offer (as well as the fact I really enjoy it!). Only in one State, NSW, is it possible for private schools (only) to employ someone who is in the process of gaining accreditation to teach (which is how I am able to be given a job). Given the denominational character of most private schools there are very few that conform to my philosophy of religious studies education (the Anglican Church in Australia is also among the most conservative in the world). The HSC (Higher School Certificate) for Studies of Religion is also more akin to how RS was taught in the UK in about 1985. So there have been a number of obstacles for me to overcome, and still a huge amount of paperwork yet - I need to enroll on a Graduate Diploma in Education which I will be doing part time once I start work in the new year. I am hoping that the extra units of History I have been doing will enable me to have it as a 'secondary subject'.


Incidentally, before anyone says 'why didn't you just apply to migrate?' the answer is that I can't, because the federal body responsible for qualification assessment would view me as 'unskilled'. I need to be sponsored for a business visa (for which I am applying next month) and could only apply as a migrant once I'd completed the necessary teaching qualification.


Oh, and in reply to the question "why not just do a PGCE, which is recognised in Australia?", the answer is that I can't - because once you are qualified to teach in the UK (and have "Qualified Teacher Status") you are not permitted to undertake another teacher training qualification! There are of, course, a lot of very angry people who, like me, did the Graduate Teacher Programme in the UK not knowing this would leave us stuck with a qualification that would not be recognised in much of the world (jncluding even Scotland, for goodness sake), and powerless to do anything about it short of re-qualifying abroad - there is a long running campaign underway to try to get this ridiculous state of affairs changed, called Recognise GTP.