Independent Public Schools Opportunity Lost

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Last night, the Nyabing School Council voted on the option to become a pilot school in the Education Department's Independent Public School programme.

Over the time I've been discussing this issue with parents and community members, I felt that most people were in favour of this exciting opportunity. Some had a couple of reservations, but could see the benefits of becoming an IPS due to ample consultation and information being provided by the administration staff at Nyabing Primary School.

This feeling has since changed since the State School Teachers Union campaigned P & C's with their own special brand of scare-mongering. The SSTU's comments played on people's fear of change and uncertainty in the future. A very one sided notice went out to parents with no time for the Department or the school to counter their argument before the final decision had to be made by School Council on Monday night.

The vote last night had to be an absolute majority. With a couple of members abstaining, this already made a positive outcome less likely. The final vote was a 'no'.

I'm very disappointed in the result as I thought we had a proactive parent community. The School Council had a really difficult time deciding which way they should vote due to the lack of response from the parent community. I don't envy them in having to make this choice and I imagine that they chose 'no', as it was a safe choice.

It appears that less than half of the families even bothered to complete a survey, which is disappointing in itself. Does this show apathy? I believe so. Some people feel it shows that people don't understand the concept or didn't have enough information, so didn't want to complete a survey. Information was readily available from the website, the registrar and the principal at school. No one rang or emailed for more information.

I certainly hope that this apathy doesn't exist in the wider community when it comes to our Local Government Survey. I'm hoping that people will see this as an important decision to make and will help Council in making that decision.