Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd loves the big announcement. He is also partial to a fair bit of international travel, where he can make those same big announcements, but with a much larger cross section of international media present. However, what I am finding is, he seems to like to announce, but is spending very little time actually doing.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Kevin Rudd can’t be expected to perform miracles in less than a year. But come November, he and his government will have been in power for a year, and I have not seen even a glimpse of anything actually happening. It’s like waiting for a bus, but no matter how long you wait, and look down the road in anticipation, that bus just ain’t coming.
One thing is for sure about Kevin Rudd. He has quite a healthy opinion of himself. That’s probably why he loves to tell us about his grand plans. But like a former colleague of mine who just adored the term ‘big picture’, I would like to see Kevin Rudd get out from behind a podium, out from behind a slogan, and away from a ‘launch’ of one policy after another. That was what the election was all about. He has made the promises, now its time to keep them. He was at pains to tell us after he won office, that his ‘agenda for the future, is now an agenda for work.’ Well, Kevin, get on with it. The only tangible thing I have seen him ‘do’ since he gained office, was apologise to our Indigenous people. However, he only said the words. What remains to be seen is if our indigenous people are better off at the end of the Rudd government’s time in office, or was it all smoke and mirrors.
Former Prime Minister John Howard destroyed Australia in many ways. But, he did do something. None of it was good, but at least he got off his arse and did it. He didn’t spend his time merely making grandiose announcements and promising a better tomorrow.
Rudd’s latest ‘announcement’ is nothing but a threat to the education system, and I as an educator can only hope that this time it stays as talk, because if this is to become the norm, then struggling students all over the country are going to find themselves brushed off by the system, because they are dragging a school down.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a plan to improve teacher quality, including higher pay for teachers in disadvantaged areas and the power to sack principals in under-performing schools.
It’s the under-performing schools bit that I don’t like. Rudd calls it his ‘education revolution.’ I see it as Kevin Rudd kicking the strugglers in the head and pushing them aside, so he can grandstand yet again in front of the media and say we have the best educational system in the world…look at our results. He will then pat himself on the back, and say it was all due to his education revolution. No, it will all be due to his educational ‘cleansing’ of the weaker students in our community. Schools, and especially school Principals will see that their jobs are on the line, and target education towards the students who can achieve the highest results.
Schools already do this. Students are selected in some schools because of their academic ability, thereby providing top scores when it comes to releasing Year 12 results. Rudd wants that style of selection right across the board. He is sounding more like Howard every day. The good life for the smart and the rich; scraps off the table for the poor and the disadvantaged. This is not traditional Labor party policy, and I would like to ask which Labor party supporters agree with this very right wing shift in policy. Not many I would presume.
So, thank you, Kevin, for developing this form of human selection. A certain German chap had a similar idea on a grander scale, as did a British lady with an iron hairdo that matched her personality.
But, I am probably over exaggerating. Kevin’s talked about it now. Nothing more will probably come of it.
Enjoy your day.
