Subjects: Education in the Australian context
E&OE..................
Well thank you very much Mr Paul Sheehan the Headmaster of Melbourne Grammar, to James Newton the Captain of Wadhurst, Your Grace the Archbishop, Chairman of the School Council, my parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
This is for me a real pleasure. I enjoy immensely the opportunity of visiting the great variety of schools throughout Australia on a regular basis. And I'm happy to say that in the course of the last month I've successively participated in the New South Wales Education Week commemoration or observance by returning to Earlwood Public School where I was educated between 1945 and 1951 before going to Canterbury Boys' High School. And in one of life's coincidences, His Grace and I not only grew up in the same suburb but we were in fact educated two years apart at the same high school.
But I've also had the opportunity in the last few weeks of visiting a number of schools here in Melbourne- different schools both government and independent. And it's an opportunity therefore to remark upon one of the sterling characteristics of the education system of this country and that is that we offer to our young men and women a remarkable range of choice.
In many respects I believe that Australia has the best mix of any western country when it comes to the right balance between government provision and independent contribution to education. We've had over the years many debates in our society about the respective roles. I have come to a very firm conclusion, and I arrived at that conclusion long before I became Prime Minister, and that is that we need both streams and each in their unique ways makes a very special contribution.
The history of this school is a very special one. It's contributed over the years in a quite remarkable way students into all aspects of Australian life. Three Prime Ministers of Australia went through Melbourne Grammar. Many people in the professions, law, medicine. One of the distinguishing characteristics is that Flack was the first person to win a gold medal at an Olympic Games is an old boy of this school and that is of special consequence at a time such as this.
But most important I think the school has demonstrated a capacity to change with the times yet preserve its basic traditions and values. And that in many ways is one of the hardest things to do in life. I think we all want to hang on to those things about our past that are valuable and important but at the same time we want to remain contemporary, we want to remain in touch. And don't we all find that in dealing with our own children as they grow up and become young adults. We seek to have a common bond with them based in values and the sort of things that we hold dear as a family and as a community. But by the same token we recognise that a young person leaving school from Melbourne Grammar or Canterbury Boys High School or indeed anywhere in the Year 2000 it's a very different experience from leaving school as I did at the time of the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956.
And the responsibility of schools and the responsibilities of parents is to do what they can to maintain that synthesis between the inherited traditions and values of the past yet try to constantly express them in contemporary terms, in a contemporary setting and in a contemporary language. It's not always easy and those institutions in our society that do it best are the more successful. And from what I've learnt of this wonderful school, it's doing it better than many and doing it in a very impressive fashion.
There are a lot of myths about the cost of education in this country. There are a lot of careless remarks made about elitism and about wealth and about privilege. Of course societies have always had some people who are better off than others but society has always had, and particularlyr the Australian society, has always had a desire to provide people with equality of opportunity.
I think it's important for me to salute the fact that every last dollar of this wonderful facility that I'm about to declare open was contributed by the parent body and was contributed by the supporters of the school- the whole -what- four or five million dollars of it. And that is a very impressive achievement and it speaks volumes for the commitment and the dedication of the parents and the old boys and the supporters of this magnificent school.
Educating our young is an enormously important responsibility of governments at both a state and a federal level. And in many ways it's no exaggeration to say that the quality of the education that we provide to our young people at primary school, at secondary school and at university will more than probably anything else shape the capacity of this country to survive and prosper, to maintain a civil and cohesive community internally and to properly present itself to the rest of the world.
And in order to achieve the best education outcomes we not only need standards of academic rigour, we not only need the right balance between personal responsibility and freedom of expression and freedom of thought but we also need a vigorous amount of competition and choice.
I don't like monopolies. I don't like monopolies in commerce. I certainly don't like monopolies in politics- but you never get them, there's always change from one side to the other. And I certainly don't like monopolies in education. The idea that all education should conform to a particular stereotype is wrong. It is important the education meet particular standards and communities have a right to lay down certain benchmarks in relation to those standards and the achievement of them. But the reason why I am such a passionate supporter of a diverse and pluralistic education system in this country is that it does provide parents with choice and it's a fundamental right of every Australian parent to have as much control and choice in the education of their children as society can possibly give them.
And that's one of the reasons why in May of this year the Government altered the funding formula for independent schools within our country. And the change in that funding formula is designed to provide more resources in a more accurate way to those communities in the independent sector that are more deserving of assistance. And contrary to some of the things that have been written about those changes in the funding formula it was not designed to produce an opposite result.
And one of the things that has pleased me greatly under the funding policies of the Government over the last four and a half years has been the development particularly by the Anglican Church but not just by the Anglican Church but by others of low and modest fee paying skills in some of the less affluent parts of the country. And I think that is a wholly welcome development and it means that we are adding to the rich variety of the education system within our community.
Ladies and Gentlemen the boys who attend this school do receive a wonderful experience in life. They receive a good education, they receive valuable pastoral care. They are also the recipients of one of the most important elements of school education in Australia and that is the partnership between the staff, the headmaster, the actual. the boys who attend the school and the broader school community constituted by the parents, old boys and general supporters. And schools such as this have a great history of that and much of their strength and much of their success has been due to the tremendous support that you receive in a broader school community. And the roll up this morning is an eloquent statement of the community support for this school.
It is very important in our lives to mark excellence and achievement. It's important to recall the great history of institutions and this school does have a great history and you have every right to be very proud of it. You should of course take care to ensure that the traditions are constantly renewed and updated, maintaining what is really good from the past and treasuring it but also recognising that traditions are only valuable in so far as they provide us with a guide for today's behaviour and for future experiences. And to the extent that a school can achieve that balance and that synthesis then I think it makes a remarkable contribution.
My last words are of course to the students. I know all of us in our lives wonder on occasions just precisely what contribution, in the more difficult moments that schooling is really making to our lives. But as we grow older and we leave school we reflect with great pride and gratitude on what you have achieved.
Can I say to you boys that your teachers care for you a great deal. Teaching is a very noble profession. I think the teachers of Australia today carry more burdens and more responsibilities than they did several generations ago. There's a broader responsibility thrust on the shoulders of teachers now than used to be the case. And I think they do a remarkable job whether they teach here or they teach in any of the thousands of schools both government and independent throughout our community.
You will when you leave the school look back I know in the main with great affection and gratitude for the education you've received. It is a priceless endowment. It is a priceless endowment to have been born in this country. It's a priceless endowment to have the opportunity of a good education in Australia. You are certainly receiving it here. You are receiving it here by courtesy of a great school, the support of your parents, their sacrifices on your behalf and they are immense in so many cases and the dedication and loyalty and scholarship of your teachers. It will give you a magnificent start in life and it's important that you bear that in mind. I wish all of you well. And as a great lover of sport which is so close to the hearts of so many millions of Australians, of course it is just not scholarship for which Melbourne Grammar is famous, it makes a wonderful contribution to developing the whole person through sporting activity. And that is a very important part of your lives and I know that it's a very important part of the school activity.
Mr Headmaster thank you very much for inviting me here. I am honoured to have had the opportunity of addressing a few words and conveying a few of my thoughts about education and the structure of schools within the Australian community. I wish the school well and I have great pleasure in declaring the new invigorated Wadhurst School well and truly open.
Thank you.
[ends]