Judged by the Australian Labor Party’s education policy and subsequent comments by Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Julia Gillard, the answer is straightforward. In a recent interview in this paper, Gillard, on being asked the core purpose of her portfolio, replied: “So while my portfolio can be a mouthful, I’ll be happy to be referred to simply as ‘the minister for productivity’.”
Such a utilitarian view of education is mirrored by Labor’s policy document entitled Establishing a National Curriculum to Improve Our Children’s Educational Outcomes, released last February.
The opening paragraph, in justifying the need for a nationally consistent curriculum in core areas such as mathematics, the sciences, English and history, argues: “For Australia to succeed in a highly competitive global economy, our children need to have the best education possible.
“Better education outcomes deliver a real and tangible benefit to our nation’s economy, lifting productivity and allowing people to get better jobs that pay more.”
Referring to a speech by Productivity Commission head Gary Banks, Labor’s national curriculum paper justifies investing more in education by linking raised standards to increased productivity and building human capital. Another paper released early this year, Federalist Paper 2: The Future of Schooling in Australia, written on behalf of state and territory governments, also justifies the needto strengthen standards by linking education to higher economic efficiency and workforce participation.