THE AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION UNION HAS DELIVERED A SCATHING ASSESSMENT OF SRI AND MINISTER MARTIN DIXON HERE: aeuvic.asn.au/267102_11_88394848.html This is the strongest statement yet issued by the AEU against SRI, it accuses the Minister of putting the interests of religious groups ahead of what is best for education and demands that he put a stop to the program. FIRIS applauds this clear message and strong leadership by the AEU. the separation of church and state is not a peripheral issue and that it should never be open to sectarian interests of any sort, religious or otherwise, to commandeer parts or the whole of public education. After much public outcry from faith based groups, a mere five weeks later, Minister Dixon reviewed MD 141 and the related policy resulting in school communities having the third set of SRI provision policy and direction in only nine months. These changes have resulted in restricting the decision making authority of school principals and school communities and allowing volunteers to have broader reaching influence in our schools. The Napthine Governments rhetoric is that Victoria is the most autonomous State in terms of school governance and has released policy after policy outlining their view to make Victorian government schools even more autonomous. However when it comes to SRI, the government is denying school communities and principals the authority to make decisions in relation to allowing volunteers into their schools to run SRI during class time. The AEU is extremely concerned about the ever increasing workload impacting our school principals under the guise of the autonomy agenda. The changes to SRI have compounded this by changing the goal posts three times in nine months. AEU Joint Primary and Secondary Council condemns Minister Dixon and the Napthine Government for putting ideology and the interests of faith based groups above those of our public schools and their communities. The AEU Joint Primary and Secondary Council calls upon Minister Dixon and the Napthine Government to halt the provision of SRI in Victorian Government schools until full consultation with the education profession and school communities can occur.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 02:43:41 +0000
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