"Public Education — Quality Worth Fighting for"

The NSW teachers' strike on February 9 was part of the NSW Teachers' 
Federation campaign "Public Education — Quality Worth Fighting for". In 
pouring rain, over 5,000 teachers gathered demanding their right to next 
state government's plans for public education.

The coming state election in NSW (March 27) is only a few weeks away and 
neither major political party has so far been prepared to release its 
education policies.

"The public are sick of politicians either failing to release their 
policies or releasing them too late to enable adequate scrutiny", said Ms 
Sue Simpson, President of the NSW Teachers' Federation.

The 24-hour strike should not have come as a surprise to the politicians. 
Skychannel meetings across the state on December 2 last year endorsed 
industrial action if the politicians failed to provide an adequate response 
by January 22, 1999.

There has been plenty of time for the politicians to concentrate their 
minds on education issues.

Of course, it's not so appealing to their sense of responsibility as 
sensational "law-and-order" announcements about the police, for example 
catching truants.

A group of teachers we seldom read about in daily papers was also on 
strike. They are education staff in prisons where face-to-face teaching has 
been slashed by 10 per cent in the last financial year from $3.3 million to 
$2.9 million.

"Law-and-order" is being sold by both major parties as their priority issue 
in the coming election.

Teachers, among others are dealing with trying to rehabilitate and prevent 
young people from becoming "law-and-order" statistics.

"We teach many of the poorest and most disadvantaged in the community", 
said Peter de Graaff, President of the Corrective Services Teachers' 
Association.

"Over 80 per cent of inmates have never completed Year 10, which is the 
basic entry-level qualification for employment seekers. Truancy sweeps are 
not the answer to such disadvantage", he went on to say.

Mr de Graaff also pointed out that the cost of incarcerating one person per 
year is equivalent to the salary of an experienced teacher.

Mr de Graaff's advice to political parties is "to commit more resources to 
the public education system as part of their law and order strategy".