Mechanisation and Automation Are Changing the Problem

Men and women, youth and children, are living in a very different world from that of 30 or 40 years ago. This has already affected education and will continue to do so, even more, in the future. Mechanisation and the beginnings of automation mean that mankind is being freed, or will be freed, from the more onerous kinds of physical labour. The unskilled labourer will become substantially obsolete as these developments go on. [5]

At the same time, the developing machine age should give men and women more opportunity for leisure, both by reducing the heaviness of toil, and by making more leisure time available. In this situation, the task of education is twofold: to raise the educational level of the whole working population to that of the technical specialist; and to develop his culture so that increased leisure becomes not a curse but a blessing.

In socialist society this task is being undertaken.

Already, in the U.S.S.R., a cultured community is emerging which has evoked the warmest enthusiasm of Sir Bernard Heinze, Professor Manning Clark, and other recent visitors. Music, drama, the reading and discussion of serious literature are the property, not of a tiny group of intellectuals, but of tens of millions of people. Within the foreseeable future this will be the pattern of life for all men and women living in socialist society.

Already facilities for education to matriculation level, combined with training as technical specialists, have been established for the rising generation. Over and above this, increasing numbers are proceeding to full tertiary education.

On the other hand, the advance of mechanisation under capitalism is one element in the growing economic crisis, and is already leading, not to a fuller development, but to the wastage of human resources. In the coalfields, in N.S.W., mechanisation has already resulted in dismissal for thousands of miners. As the process develops, vast numbers are certain to find themselves in this position, a state of affairs already evident in the 5-6 million unemployed in the U.S.A. and Canada.

The socialist world is preparing for the era of mechanisation and automation and, in the plans, the educational system has a basic role to play.

No such plans exist in any capitalist country. Without a completely new approach based on a planned use of the national resources, including the talents of young people, a very large percentage of the pupils in the schools today will be social and economic derelicts before they have reached middle age.

Such a perspective is, of course, totally unacceptable to the working class, and to progressive people in general.

The formulation of a national educational policy that will prepare for life in the age of automation becomes an immediately urgent and pressing matter.

Why Have We Fallen Behind?

Fifty years ago, Australia, in education and literacy, was amongst the most advanced countries of the world.

Today, with our schools turning out a large proportion of poorly educated pupils, and with only about 10% of each school year successfully completing the full five year- secondary course, and less than 5% proceeding to full tertiary education, [6] there is obviously a serious decline in Australia’s position, relative at any rate to the socialist countries.

The unsatisfactory material requirements already described are part of the explanation. However, there are other, more fundamental questions.

The U.S.S.R., forty years ago, had a population over 80% illiterate. Its school buildings were few, its teachers in many instances poorly trained. Subsequently, during the Second World War, a great number of its schools and universities were destroyed and had to be rebuilt. Yet it has surpassed in its educational achievements, not only Australia, but the more industrialised communities of Great Britain and the U.S.A. as well; and is on the verge of another revolutionary surge forward that will put it still farther ahead.

Educationists in all countries are asking how it is that the U.S.S.R., generations behind in 1918, now leads the world in educational and cultural standards.

Part of the answer is to be found in the class-privilege of the social system of capitalism, which is in sharp contrast with full and equal opportunity afforded by socialism.

Class Privilege Limits Efficiency

Approximately 72 per cent of all pupils embarking on secondary education in N.S.W. do so in public (State) secondary schools; the remaining 28 per cent in private schools, a proportion 2½ to 1. Many of the latter come from prosperous middle class and upper class families, who have no difficulty in maintaining their children at school for a lengthy period.

As a result, by the time the Leaving Certificate is reached, only 50% of candidates come from public (State) secondary schools. Clearly a high percentage of talented children have left school because of economic pressures; whilst such pressures do not exist on the children of the higher income groups attending private schools.

Put in another way, these figures mean that of every 100 students proceeding to the University, approximately 27 are of lower ability than boys or girls from lower-income homes who have left school earlier mainly because of economic pressures. Owing to this lack of equal educational opportunity the whole community suffers. Some of the worst effects could be overcome by extending the Commonwealth scholarship scheme, making finance available without restriction or with a liberal means test to all wishing to proceed to higher, secondary or tertiary education. The cost would run into millions of pounds, but who would say that it is not better spent than in purchasing obsolete military aircraft for “defence”, or withdrawing hundreds of young teachers from their work to engage in so-called “national service”, whilst their pupils remain untaught.

The fact is that there is no national planning, no clear statement of aims, to ensure that education is given its proper place in national life; finance is not available to enable talented young people to receive the fullest education of which they are capable, whilst the slow learners and the socially handicapped are being allowed to go to the wall.

The waste of human material is a national disgrace and a national calamity.

Free Education

What is needed is that genuine “free education” be made a reality for all. Every parent knows that the beginning of each school year means a constant monetary drain to equip the children for school: uniforms, books, sports wear, fees for extras.

In many cases it is the strain which this imposes on the family resources, rather than the prospective new wage he will bring in, that determines that many a capable child leaves school at the earliest possible moment.

Under present conditions, to equip a child to commence secondary education requires an initial cash outlay of £50 or more, whilst the cost of maintaining a child of secondary school age is several pounds weekly.

Parents in the middle, and especially the lower, income groups, find the strain excessive, even intolerable. Free education must mean the shouldering by the community, the state, of the major part of the burden, to ensure that potential talent is not dissipated, and that the community, in fact, accepts the responsibility for the adequate training of its young people.

Inequality of Opportunity

The need for higher standards of education for all is, gradually becoming an accepted part of community thinking. However, at the same time, reactionary views are being expressed that run counter to this progressive trend.

Such views have this in common, that they call for sharp discrimination between the “bright child” and the remainder of the population. A particularly definite statement of this opinion was given recently by the Governor-General, Sir William Slim, to the effect that “a quicker and more economical way to get the scientists who are needed to improve scientific education would be to eliminate unsuitable students before entry.” (to university.)

Such proposals are, of course, completely undemocratic. Their effect would be to create a privileged elite, with an inferior education for the majority. Even more, they arise from a basic misconception of the nature of the problem, which has been well stated by the former chairman of the C.S.I.R.O., the late Sir Ian Clunies Ross, “Australia needs more scientists as well as better ones.”

The completely reactionary and impractical character of this emphasis on “the bright child” is demonstrated by the experience of the U.S.S.R., which provides the same education for all citizens, without economic burdens for the parents. As a consequence, Soviet education is producing both quantity and quality. Not only is it graduating several times the number of scientists, proportionate to population, of any capitalist country; but, in addition, their quality has been clearly shown by recent successes in various fields of science, not only, though most spectacularly, in rockets.

Equality of opportunity in a period of secondary education for all, must mean the same basic education for all primary and secondary school pupils, and also provision by the State to ensure that extended education does not add to the economic burdens of the parents; in particular of parents in the lower and middle income groups.

As matters stand, at present, in Australia, as in all capitalist countries, inequality of educational opportunity is a major obstacle to educational advance.