Young eyes school reform

THAT STUART Young’s first public-facing engagement as Prime Minister was a meeting with several religious leaders at Whitehall on March 19 to discuss education reform was both a statement of intent and an expression of leadership style.

“It is about education,” Mr Young declared to reporters one day later, on March 20, at his first-ever post-Cabinet media briefing as he addressed the rationale for the composition of that meeting.

While representatives of the Spiritual Baptist community were not present, he will meet with them, on separate matters, on March 22. His focus, first, on speaking with denominational school figures, strongly suggests a desire to address the 1960 Concordat.

The PM does not have the benefit of the Parliament.

However, much of the education system is regulated by policies. A great deal of the work of education reform will involve setting out new approaches on paper. Mr Young seeks to bridge the gap between idea formulation and public discussion, doing so as he seeks an election mandate.

But even before appointment, the PM had hinted, in January, at a clear desire “to shed ourselves of the colonial curriculum.” His meeting on March 19 placed additional emphasis on the need for social workers, counsellors and upgrades to infrastructure. Tackling cyber-bullying is also something he wishes to have more planning and consultation on.

All of this comes at a vital moment in the education sector, when there are cries for reform and when there are increasing signs that the system is not serving students as it should.

Court battles between commissions and boards keep holding up appointments. Post-pandemic student performance seems scattershot. A parliamentary joint select committee in February heard a litany of complaints, one of which came from an independent senator who questioned the existence of so-called “elite secondary schools.”

The PM would like to tackle curriculum reform head-first. But he is not the first official to express a desire to do so.

The Rowley government’s official Education Policy 2023-2027, published exactly three years ago, outlined as a strategic goal a wish “to revise the curriculum to support the holistic development of 21st century skills and values, attitudes” among students.

There is a clear tension between this goal and the Concordat, which gives religious interests an absolute veto over teaching materials and which awkwardly regulates how diverse faiths interact in the classroom.

In a multi-cultural society such as ours, there is no reason systems cannot be formulated to update the way schools are run while preserving varied interests and religious rights. That update is badly needed. It will fall to Mr Young to articulate, after his talks, a compelling and bold vision for how things can be better run.