EDUCATION POLICIES FAIL COMMUNITIES

EMMA MACDONALD'S article about teacher cutbacks (CT, 12 May, p.11) touches
on alcohol and drug abuse, learning disabilities and other social problems
which have significantly risen since older teenagers were forced to go back
to school in order to receive welfare benefits.

In reality, the problem is far greater, and anyone with close contacts in
the teaching profession could tell her that there is barely a school in
Canberra without a significant drug problem, with all the other flow-ons
that are associated with drugs.

With the feminisation of the profession there are fewer male teachers to
provide role models and back-up for when matters get out of hand.

The brunt of discipline falls back on mostly middle-aged female teachers,
who often find themselves up against young, alienated thugs.

God knows how fresh, younger female teachers will cope, or even want to
become teachers, when they gain an inkling of what lies ahead.

Perhaps some of the Treasurer's extra spending on education should have been
ear-marked so that every school could have at least one bouncer on duty in
school hours.

That is what is going to be required once politicians stop trying to hide
the extent to which their short-term strategies in the educational and other
social fields have failed the community.

DON BELL
Yarralumla