Education ambush is on!

The following is an abbreviated version of a bulletin sent to DSE, TAFE and DTEC, delegates and offices by Greg Shaw, DSE Industrial Officer, and Sally McManus, TAFE/DTEC Industrial Officer.

On December 3 the Minister for Education, John Aquilina, announced the creation of a new agency - the Department of Education & Training. It's to be an amalgamation of Department of School Education (DSE), Department of Training and Education Co-ordination (DTEC) and the Technical and Further Education Commission (TAFE).

Mr Aquilina said the changes would combine three central office administrations into one to provide better economies of scale and eliminate waste . It’s hard not to be cynical but such statements are obvious code words for Public Service job cuts.

The Association wishes to make it quite clear that it had NO prior warning of this announcement and NO consultation in relation to this proposal. Minister Aquilina’s office telephoned the Association at 2.30pm on 3 December to invite the President and other officers to the announcement scheduled for 3pm on the same day.

Even more insulting was the fact that the 3pm announcement was made by Mr Aquilina’s Chief of Staff and not the Minister himself, with no time for questions or detailed discussion.

The Association has no other details of any proposed new structure or timeframe for implementation.

Delegates will be contacted shortly in relation to the need for an urgent meetings of the Departmental Committees and meetings of members.

The Association will provide further advice as it becomes available.