ISBN 0 7241 2955 3 (set) ISBN 0 7241 2964 2
Issued by the Minister of Education for public information and discussion
1983
In Ministerial Paper No. 1, Decision Making in Victorian Education, the Government outlined its commitment to providing a State education system of the highest quality.
The Government believes that a system in which schools are responsive to the needs of their local communities, and are given adequate resources and support, is more likely to ensure that the children of this State are properly assisted to meet the challenges of the world around them.
To achieve this, in a way which is consistent with the principles outlined in Ministerial Paper No. 1, it is necessary that there be-
• genuine devolution of authority and responsibility to the school community;
• democratic and collaborative decision making processes;
• a responsive bureaucracy, the main function of which is to service and assist schools; and
• action by Government to provide positive discrimination for the disadvantaged.
It follows that if schools are to be the focus of education then school councils will be the focus of school-based decision making.
This paper sets out the Government's proposals on the role and composition of school councils.
Robert Fordham, MP Minister of Education April 1983
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BACKGROUND From the earliest days of the State system, schools had local committees which supported the work of the school. These committees were, for the most part, advisory in nature and rarely exerted much influence on the curriculum decisions of the schools. Schools were provided with resources and directed from the Education Department. As the system grew, decisions became increasingly centralised and bureaucratic.
Teachers and parents in schools were remote from the decision making and powerless to bring about change.
During the decade prior to 1975 the school grant system was introduced. This enabled schools to make decisions in relation to priorities for the purchase of equipment and other items.
Also, schools were increasingly made available to the community for educational, social and recreational activities out of school hours. These changes strengthened the need for a legally constituted body representative of the school community which was able to accept responsibility for financial decisions and the use of premises by outside bodies.
In 1975, the then Government passed legislation to respond to this need. Although the School Councils Act of 1975
strengthened the power of existing councils by changing their composition and by making them legal agents of the Government, it did not change their function on such educational issues as the development of school policy. They remained advisory bodies on such educational matters.
Meanwhile, there have been major developments in
educational thinking. No development has been as rapid or as far-reaching in its implications as the growth in understanding of the educational importance of school-community relations.
We have come to understand that participation is an objective to be sought for more reasons than simply local control. The educational value has become paramount; involvement in the exercise of responsible power over their own affairs makes the work of the classroom relevant to the life and problems of the community for members of the school community.
GOVERNMENT POLICY Accordingly, the Government has as a major objective of its educational policies a shift in the focus of education to the school.
Therefore, school councils will have major responsibility for deciding the educational policies of their schools.
The Government will amend the Act and Regulations to make the school council responsible, within the framework of overall State policy guidelines, for the educational policies and plans of its school. This increase in responsibilities of councils will be of fundamental significance.
The Government sees genuine school-community interaction as essential to the development of collaborative educational processes which are supported by the community.
To enable this school-based policy development process to be democratically representative, the legislation will provide for
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council membership to be shared among the elected
representatives of the chief interest groups affected by council policies, that is, parents, teachers and, where appropriate, students. The principal, as the school's chief executive, will be an ex officio voting member of the council.
The provisions on membership will give formal expression to the Government's belief that the most effective educational program depends on a process of consultation and
negotiation among those vitally affected, so that the policies adopted will reflect their values and goals, thus increasing the prospect of wholehearted support.
Representation of the community, additional to elected parents, may be increased by cooption. Those coopted on the grounds of personal expertise or to represent special interest groups will be limited to one-fifth of total elected membership (counting the principal as an elected member for this
purpose).
SNARED CENTRAL AND LOCAL RЕSPONSIBILITY
The fact that the government is deliberately departing from a tradition of centralised policy control should not be
interpreted as moving to the opposite extreme of absolute local control.
It is the Government's philosophy that the achievement of desirable State-wide educational and social goals requires a number of broad, but firm, State policy guidelines. To take a simple example, school council involvement in educational policy determination will not give a school council the option of asking the school staff to ignore the Government's multicultural, nonsexist or such other policies.
Similarly, as the essential purpose of the school council policy is to ensure that schools enhance the educational
opportunities for all students, the commitment of each school's educational program must be to the success of all students.
Within this broad framework of government policy direction, which will not go beyond establishing the most important and general issues, there will be wide scope for councils to determine school policies that are relevant to local needs, problems and values.
A SCHOOL POLICY What is a school policy? The Government intends that school councils will decide the major directions of the school program by their involvement in the determination of curriculum objectives, the use of resources available to the . school and in broad organisational policies. Strong support will be given from regional and central levels to assist councils to become actively involved. Principals and staff also have a responsibility to help school council members to become involved in policy formulation in all major areas of school policy.
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It is a matter for each school council to determine how much of its responsibility is to be delegated to full-time staff.
Whatever the delegation, the final responsibility for approval of school policies, within the Government's guidelines, remains with the council, as does responsibility for any necessary changes in future to meet changed circumstances.
Such a brief outline of responsibilities as the foregoing cannot cover all eventualities. It is the Government's intention that, in cases of doubt, councils should be expected to exercise the decision-making function.
THE ROLES OF
THE SCHOOL COUNCIL AND THE PRINCIPAL
PLANNING
The Government is confident that school councils, principals and teachers will see this change as providing an historic opportunity for enhanced professional effectiveness; providing shorter lines of communication; real local responsibility and accountability; and greater educational effectiveness through parent and community support, both psychological and material, for agreed policies.
Each school council will need to be aware of the boundary between policy and operations and accept that it is the role of principals and their staff to choose the educational means of realising council policy. Policy would include the development and review of a statement of the school's aims, values, general principles and an overview of the arrangements being made to achieve them.
For their part, principals and their staff will need to be conscious of their obligation to report on, explain, and advocate their educational approaches to their communities, and students and their parents. It is only in this way that professional autonomy can be reconciled with client confidence and support.
It will take time for any school council to realise its potential.
At the outset, however, it is important to stress the planning responsibilities of school councils. No council will work effectively and escape the futility of ad hoc, month-to-month policy decisions unless it gives early attention to longer-term policy objectives. It should seek to develop three-year or longer-term plans to give operational form to its policies and to provide a basis for the staffing, budgeting, building, curriculum and resources decisions necessary to bring educational policies to fruition. The School Improvement Plan (Ministerial Paper No. 2) will provide a framework for planning processes.
COLLABORATIVE PROCESS Parents and teachers share a common concern and a common responsibility for the education of children. Thus, it is essential that parents and teachers work to develop an understanding of each other on a basis of trust and respect.
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Students, too, must see evidence of that mutual respect, and they themselves must be equally respected, if their school experience is to meet their needs and aspirations.
The measure of this mutual respect and trust will be reflected in the processes and quality of decision making in the school.
Broadly representative councils of the type now proposed will provide the scope for genuine negotiation of differences, avoiding entrenched and opposed positions. They will provide
for the development of a consensus on goals and means in preference to the false security of authoritarianism.
Of course, members of school councils will have to learn the skills of participation which will enable realisation of the Government's policies. This will be by no means easy and much assistance will be needed and will be provided.
Legislation can never define the boundaries of roles in a way which will cover every situation in every school. The new policy makes it clear that community, teachers and students are dependent on each other for the realisation of their respective goals.
ACCOUNTABILITY School councils are accountable in two main senses of the term.
In the familiar financial sense, councils must satisfy the auditor. This formal responsibility exists under the present legislation which provides for the council to be a body corporate and requires periodic financial reporting by qualified auditors. The new policy role will not increase the formal accounting requirements of councils; rather it is hoped to make this task less onerous. Attention will also be given, in amending the legislation, to such matters as the need for indemnification of members of school councils when exercising their statutory authority.
In the less-familiar accountability sense, school councils constitute the mechanism chosen by the Government to increase the strength of the relationship between each school and its community, the mechanism designed to increase each school's accountability to the community. The council will be responsible to its broader community for the development of school policies that suit the needs of that community. As a predominantly elected body, the council will necessarily periodically account electorally for its stewardship of the school, providing an opportunity for the community to indicate any wishes it has for changes.
Beyond such formal devices, the Government sees a need for school councils to actively involve both the school community and the wider community in their decisions, to consult widely and to report back periodically by any means which achieve effective two-way communication. The means will vary; the need is for a strong bonded relationship which makes the school very much a part of its community.
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One other aspect of accountability is important. The essence of the change in the role of the school council is that it makes the principal and staff educationally accountable directly to the school community rather than to distant departmental senior officers. Councils will not have delegated authority which may be overruled by appeals to the centre; they will have authority in their own right.
MEMBERSЮP The Government's intention is that the proportion of membership of the reconstituted councils will be as follows.
(а) Parents (including representatives of parents' clubs) shall constitute no less than -
. half of a primary school council; and
• one-third of a postprimary school council.
(b) Staff shall constitute no more than - . half of a primary school council; and
• one-third of a postprimary school council. (Members of staff with children at the school at which they teach shall only be eligible for election through this category.)
(c) There shall be adequate student representation in postprimary schools in relation to school size and structure.
‚,4) Up to one-fifth of the total membership may be coopted by the elected council, to represent wider community interests.
(e) The principal shall be a voting member of the council and, for the purposes of cooption, shall be considered as an elected member.
IMPLEMENTATION 1. Scope for Local Adaptation of Policy
In keeping with its general policy of collaborative development of policy the Government wishes to encourage school councils to propose changes in their own constitutions and to consider local needs in reforming them.
The size of the council and the exact make-up of its membership within the Government's membership requirements is a matter for local decision. Should parent representation be the exact minimum specified or more? What provision will be made for official school parent
organisations? Will the arrangements ensure representation of all sectors of the school community and a reasonable balance of the sexes?
What subgroups of teachers and postprimary students will be represented and how will their representatives be chosen?
What steps will be taken to educate students to the representative process?
How will representative elections be arranged to provide for stability and continuity of council direction to school affairs?
Each school's council is invited to consult with all groups involved to redraft its constitution in a way which, while
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conforming to the Government's education policy and membership requirements, reflects the needs of its local community.
The Government will respond to individual suggestions on these matters.
2. School Councils Services Unit
To assist councils in their new task, a School Councils Services Unit has been established within the Education Department. The Unit will take initiatives to help council members and Education Department staff to develop those new attitudes and skills necessary for a whole new style of school management.
In order to provide specialised support to regions in the development of school councils, the Unit will recruit staff with skills in the management of inservice training, communication, research, and financial and legal requirements.
Inservice training workshops will be a major means of developing new attitudes and skills. These activities will be organised largely through the regional offices and the senior education officers. There will be ready responses from regional directors to school council requests for assistance.
As the need arises, the Government will give consideration to providing additional staff at regional level to help establish effective school councils on the new bases.
The School Councils Services Unit will provide consultancy services to school councils, regional education boards and groups of schools. It will also provide an information and advice service to parents, teachers and the community at large. This education "shop" will have an advisory committee drawn from parent and school council groups as well as from principals, teachers and administrative officers.
The Unit will be responsible for -
. establishing and maintaining a central registry of school council constitutions and membership;
• providing an information service to school councils, parents, teachers and the community;
• preparing and publishing materials to support the work of school councils;
• conducting and assisting with inservice activities relevant to school councils; and
• liaison with regions and other sections on matters relating to school councils.
3. Timetable
The process of restructuring school councils will commence immediately. It is expected that the reconstitution of school councils will be completed before the end of the 1983 school year. This timetable is necessary because regional education boards cannot be formed until school council electorates have been defined.
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For its part, the Government expects to complete the passing of the necessary legislative amendments, and the
promulgation of the consequent regulations, well before the end of the current school year.
Of course, full implementation of the changes, in the sense of school councils being fully prepared to carry out enlarged responsibilities, will take much longer. The School Councils Services Unit will be a permanent feature of Departmental organisation, and will be of particular assistance during the developmental period.
4. Further Developments
A further development under consideration is the involvement of school communities in the selection process of the school principal. The Government has requested the State Board of Education to consult appropriate organisations, and to report to it on this matter as soon as possible.
CONCLUSION The Government believes that school councils should play a vital role in an education system which has schools as its primary focus. With the support of the teaching staff in schools, school councils will be able to articulate the needs of their school community and to apply the available resources to achieve their objectives. The Government believes that school councils have already demonstrated their capacity to blend creatively local and State-provided resources more effectively. The challenge for us all is to ensure these further developments will achieve the best possible education for all children in the State.
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