Former principal and Public Education Party candidate for Murray Kevin Farrell says he knew he had to run after witnessing the “disastrous” consequences of more and more schools merging in Murray.
Mr Farrell grew up in Griffith and has now settled in Beelbangera, about 10km from the centre of Griffith.
An active member of Rotary, he has been made president twice during more than 15 years of service.
He was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship primarily for his involvement with Rotary Youth Exchange.
He has taught at countless regional NSW schools and his brain is like a goldmine when it comes to issues surrounding schooling.
Although he officially retired from his career in education after 11 years as the principal of Ardlethan Central School in 2005, he has never truly hung up his hat and still advocates for better student outcomes.
Mr Farrell said he was first motivated to run after it was announced in 2016 by former Member for Murray Adrian Piccoli that two high schools in Griffith — Griffith High School and Wade High School — would be merged.
“That merger of those two schools has been a total disaster,” Mr Farrell said.
“The merger was evaluated by University New South Wales, commissioned by the government itself, and the evaluation said that there had been reputational damage to public education in the district as a result of the merger.
“One principal had even said (in the report) that ‘the kids at one site were getting a better education than the kids on the other site’ — how disgraceful is that?”
Mr Farrell said making the decision to merge or consolidate schools was not to the benefit of students and could result in students slipping through the cracks — completing their entire schooling without ever being noticed by the school faculty.
He said there was no research to suggest that consolidated schools benefited or advanced students.
“I taught at four different schools with over 1500 kids and I can tell anybody from that experience that big schools do not work for the benefit of the kids,” he said.
“I sat at a Year 12 presentation at one of these schools and I had head teachers alongside me saying, ‘who’s that?’ as the kids walked across the podium. They had no idea and yet they’d spent six years in the same set of buildings as these kids.
“It's all money-saving thing by the state government, and they are trying to do it right across the state.”
Having spoken to many teachers from merged schools, Mr Farrell said he was concerned that teaching faculties, parents and students were not being fully consulted by the NSW Government about the decision to merge.
“In a lot of cases, these decisions are being made without any consultation,” he said.
“When Adrian Piccoli announced the merger of the two schools in Griffith he said the merger would improve student outcomes, but the local principal and local head of the education department in Griffith refuse to provide the HSC results to the community. Why is that?
“A school that was merged to improve student academic outcomes doesn't have to be judged on whether it has improved academic outcomes. It’s a disgrace and it’s also why I’m running.”
Mr Farrell’s desire for better public education existed long before 2016 and the consolidation of those two schools.
About 25 years ago, he started suggesting to his teaching colleagues that there needed to be political candidates for public education at state and federal level.
With that in mind, he set up his own Public Education Party of Australia, although it was never registered due to insufficient member numbers.
When he was invited to join the Public Education Party just a few months ago, Mr Farrell just could not say no.
As to his key policies, Mr Farrell will be calling for a royal commission into the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, an expansion of the Independent Commission Against Corruption to combat corruption at all government levels, de-merged schools, more incentives for prospective school teachers, full staffing at schools and more funding for all public schools.
“School funding for public schools has been undermined for years and funds have been diverted to private education,” Mr Farrell said.
“Of the Commonwealth Government’s budget for secondary schools and primary schools, 80 per cent goes towards the 30 per cent of schools that are private and 20 per cent goes to the 70 per cent that are public education schools.
“Public education has been downgraded by politicians for the last 40 years since politicians decided they knew how to run education, rather than educators.
“The state government just does not care about public education. It’s a common theme right across the state.”
Disappointed that teaching salaries had barely increased despite inflation and frustrated that teaching shortages were so overt, Mr Farrell said the NSW Education and Early Learning Minister Sarah Mitchell was “failing”.
“How can you be a leader in the Department of Education and have 3000-plus vacancies in your state when your government has been there for more than 10 years?” he said.
“If you’ve been there more than 10 years and you haven’t got fully staffed schools across the state, you are failing. You can’t just say ‘oh, that was the people before me’, because it’s your responsibility.
“She’s also failed in the sense that people with education backgrounds have been gutted from the Department of Education. I have been told that of the top 12 people in the Department of Education, only one has a background in education.”
During a visit to Moama, Mr Farrell said he was stunned there were no public high school in town, despite there being a population of more than 7000.
“That again, is contempt for the public of NSW who want to send their kids to a public school run by their state,” he said.
“Why should they have to choose between going to an Anglican school to pay fees or a public school in Victoria?”
As to what he would like to achieve if elected, Mr Farrell said he aimed to facilitate a far better public education system in the state.
“I'm concerned about every school and every public school in this state,” he said.
“That’s my focus, that’s my speciality.”