Education Act and Children's Services Act Review

This year the SA Government is seeking the views of the community through a series of discussion papers as part of its reform and review of the Education and Children's Services Acts.

On the 31st March 2008 the Minister for Education and Children's Services released Legislative Reform Discussion Paper 2: the Registration and Regulation of Schools and Children's Services.

Public consultation on this paper will run until Monday 30th June 2008.

This paper and more information, including a feedback from, can be accessed through the Discussion Paper 2 which can be found on http://www.edlawreform.sa.gov.au

The paper contains eight proposals:

Proposal One Summary : Integrate the Children's Services Act and Education Act

Proposal Two Summary : Improve and further formalise the system of regulation and registering education and care services such that minimum standards are compelled to be met.

Proposal Three Summary : Bring all services under the one Act - private and state schools, homeschools, early childhood services, child-care services, before and after school care services, etc.

Proposal Four Summary : Apply the principles of 'co-regulation'...

Proposal Five Summary : Consistency in regulation arising from establishing a single entity (Authority or Board) overseeing all of the above areas.

Proposal Six Summary : Sharing the costs of effective regulation - charging schools, teachers, etc., for licensing and registration costs...

Proposal Seven Summary : Looking at different approaches to charging regulatory fees...

Proposal Eight Summary : Ensure smooth transition to new regulations an conditions.

Please make time to read through the Discussion Paper and fill out the Feedback form and have a say: the proposals will impact on how education is delivered in South Australia. Apart from tinkering every now whatever Bill gets passed in Parliament will stay in force for decades. The current Education Act was legislated in 1972!

Comment by Beverley Paine

A very brief read of the SA proposals for legislative change gave rise to me cynically thinking that this is an attempt to privatise education completely (via the back door, in the same way as water and electricity). There seems to be an emphasis of shifting responsibility for the cost of delivering education to a 'separate entity'. 

Regardless of whether this happens, it is clear from the tone of the document that regulation is set to get tighter across the board. I am concerned that if the direction that these proposals appear to be heading is adopted, then home educators can expect a push to be not only registered but to have qualifications too, as well as having to pay for the privilege of being 'registered'.

The future looks dark and I hope I'm wrong. However, the proposals seem extraordinarily radical to me and it's rare that radical proposals get up... It's imperative that home educators make their desires known throughout the separate consultation periods.

I just spent a couple of hours reading Discussion Paper 2 and answering the feedback form online. You can find the links to both here:
http://www.edlawreform.sa.gov.au/

In a nutshell the government wants to combine the Education Act and Children's Services Act into the one Act.

On the surface the Discussion Paper says a lot of things that seem to make sense - who wouldn't want a streamlined, efficient Act that makes use of best practice and doesn't cost a fortune to implement and regulate? And why wouldn't we want to combine these two, often overlapping, areas of societal responsibility.

Because the discussion paper talks about regulation, licensing and registration of children's services and education, and home schooling is mentioned, then it's probably a good idea to take a look and if you feel inclined, pop in a reply or two on the feedback form.

Last time the government tried to merge the Acts submissions from home educators just about out-numbered all the others - not many parents or teachers took the time to make a submission and we were well represented at open meetings held around SA.

Having your say at this early stage of the review will send a message to those writing legislation that we're interested in the future of home education provision in South Australia.