Schools' power to run affairs a matter of trust

WHEN millions of Australian parents drop their kids off at the school gate for the first day of term three over the next few weeks, they're demonstrating confidence that the school principal, teachers and other staff will educate and look after their child.

Put simply, parents trust their schools to do the right thing and make the right decisions.

But too often, governments in Australia have not shown the same level of trust. They've pursued a one-size-fits-all approach to running our public schools, with decisions made at a central level and then implemented across school systems.

The Gillard government wants to change this. We want to put more power in the hands of school principals and leaders; to devolve decision-making from the central to the local; and give parents and the wider community a greater stake in their local school.

That's why, starting next term, principals, staff and parents at almost 1000 schools across the country will have a greater say in the day-to-day running of their school as part of our Empowering Local Schools initiative.

Every state government, except Western Australia, has signed up to this reform, as have the Catholic and independent systems in every state and territory.

Of course, each school and every system will do things slightly differently depending on its circumstances. Some states, such as Victoria and South Australia, have already significantly devolved their decision-making capacities to local schools. So the Baillieu government in Victoria is using our funding to help schools develop specialised teaching in their field of choice, and to renew and expand the Local Administration Bureau in Horsham to give a helping hand to many of Victoria's small regional schools.

In South Australia, the Wetherill government will develop "confederations" of schools that will share staff and make collective decisions. Rural and regional schools will partner with schools in the city to give students a greater choice in the subjects they can study. Other states, such as Queensland and NSW, have highly centralised decision-making. In many cases this has led to some pretty absurd situations.

I've heard of school principals who have to put up with a shortage of pens while waiting for an order to arrive, because they don't have authority to pop down to the local shop and buy some. Others wait weeks for minor repairs because they're not allowed to hire their own local handyman to fix a leaking roof.

So in states such as NSW and Queensland, our reforms will give school principals a greater say in things such as the maintenance budget and purchasing decisions.

It will also give them more say in the selection of staff. If they need a specialist literacy coach, for example, they can make the decision to hire one.

Catholic and independent schools already have greater local decision-making powers, but here we are looking at new ways to improve their autonomy to suit their local needs.

Our reforms will help schools set up new school board structures, so parents and community members have more involvement in the school.

Or they can be used to pay for help with things such as governance and financial management.

We're investing $475.5 million over the next seven years to implement this reform. Eventually, we want to see most schools in Australia -- government, Catholic and independent -- have more power over these types of decisions.

This isn't driven by some ideological conviction. Nor is it about cutting costs or sacking staff.

This is about trusting school leaders to make the best decisions for their students and for the overall direction and operation of their school.

There is evidence both here and internationally that greater school autonomy, as part of an overall package of school improvement reforms, can have a significant impact on attendance, behaviour and results.

A key finding from the trial of self-management in 47 schools in NSW was that every principal taking part agreed "that the new decision-making authority provided by the pilot led to concrete improvements at my school".

And Andreas Schleicher, who leads the OECD Program for International Student Assessment, says that self-management is one of the elements of a suite of approaches that together will help lift school improvement.

He says that the world's top performing school system, Finland, has moved from a "a focus on provisions to a focus on outcomes; from managing inputs and a bureaucratic approach to education, to devolving responsibilities and enabling outcomes".

We know that education is one of the most important investments a nation can make in securing its future. That's why we've doubled funding for schools and have pursued reforms to lift education standards and reduce the unacceptable gap between high- and low-performing schools.

Putting more faith in the knowledge and expertise of school leaders is a vital piece of our overall agenda to give every young Australian a great education.

Peter Garrett is School Education Minister