The changing profile of state education: school reorganisations
Overview
Since October 1992, after making expenditure reductions and downsizing of administrative and over-entitlement teacher numbers, the government has initiated massive reforms to the government school education system through the Schools of the Future program, devolution of responsibility for school management to the local level, the establishment of a Curriculum and Standards Framework and a greater emphasis on assessing school performance.
An integral component of this reform was the introduction in May 1993 of the policy document, A Quality Provision Framework for Victorian Schools. Through implementation of this policy by the Directorate, the school system has been consolidated by closing, merging or re-structuring those schools assessed as not providing access to high quality curriculum and facilities.
The overall audit objective was to review the implementation of the Quality Provision Framework by the Directorate of School Education and to assess: the Quality Provision decision-making process in terms of the extent to which effective levels of accountability and consultation were maintained; the extent to which the expected results and goals of the Framework had been achieved; the extent to which the student, parent, staff and school guarantees under the Framework had been fulfilled; and whether returns from the sale of closed school sites had been maximised by the Directorate and managed with due regard to matters of probity and equity.
On balance, audit concluded that the Quality Provision Framework has provided a sound foundation for improvement to government school education through the Directorate's innovative Schools of the Future program.
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