Tuesday (July 24th) was declared National Gonski Day by the “I give a gonski” campaign driven by the The Australian Education Union.
The day called for support for the implementation of the recommendations of the Gonski review. The campaign has recently been endorsed by federal labor MPs Laura Smyth and Darren Cheeseman as well as and by former High Court Justice Michael Kirby.
The day saw an outpouring of support from both teachers and students. The campaign currently had over 36 thousand supporters and nearly 10 thousand ‘likes’ on facebook.
There are growing concerns that Gonski is getting increasingly sidelined and that the government will not pursue the recommended reforms.
Recently Christopher Pyne has stated that if elected the coalition would repeal any implementation of the Gonski reforms.
The Gonski report was the most comprehensive survey of education in 40 years. The report called for a five billion dollar increase in government spending with three quarters directed towards government schools. The report found that our education standers were slipping on average and that there was a divide in education standards.
To update us on the campaign we were joined by the Australian Education Union’s Howard Spreadbury.
