The Wheelers Hill Secondary College (WHSC) issue became a major battlefield in the struggle for community languages and led to the first ever case in Australian history when ‘ethnic’ children took their school to court for denying them the right to study a subject – the Greek language – which was part of the Education Department’s curriculum and offered in other schools. Wheelers Hill is a south-eastern suburb of Melbourne where a very large number of Greek Australians reside. Greek was taught in that school for almost eight years to VCE level. Between 80 and 130 students, most of Greek origin – more than 10 per cent of the school’s population – were doing Greek in the 1990s.
Not since the 1970s had Greek parents in a single school been able to mount a campaign that attracted so much support
The school leadership, had, unfortunately, a principal not sympathetic to the school’s multicultural make-up, and decided to phase out Greek in 1997 in favour of Indonesian and French, without any consultation with parents. The parents fought back and in cooperation with the Greek LOTE (Languages Other Than English) Committee carried out a very successful public and media campaign, often capturing headlines in ethnic, local and even the mass media. The school leadership’s argument that the numbers weren’t there to support a viable program, and the school had now committed itself to Indonesian and French, was convincingly countered by the committee and the parents. More than 100 students, including 15 of non-Greek origin, indicated their wish to study Greek. Hundreds of letters were sent to the school and the press in support of the campaign.
Jillian Georgalis, the aunt of a Year 10 student, wrote to the principal on 10 June 1998:
“I am Australian and have been married for 26 years and speak Greek fluently. My reasons for wanting Greek are many: of Greek, French and Indonesian, Greek is the only language that is likely to be used on a regular basis away from school. I learned French for six years at high school and three years at university and, in the following 22 years since I graduated, I can honestly say I have never used French. My children attended Caulfield Grammar School, and while they received a wonderful education there, our one regret is that Greek was not offered. The children, now a trainee pharmacist and a medical student, wish they knew more Greek, as they would be able to communicate better with patients and customers. Contrary to some people’s beliefs, Greek is not difficult to learn. I taught myself from a ‘Teach Yourself’ book. I mastered the alphabet in about half an hour as many of the letters are identical or similar. Greek is phonetic, so is easy to read. French grammar and spoken French are much more difficult.”
Mrs Georgalis concluded with the hope that the principal would conduct a survey to see which languages are requested for the school.
The school’s belligerent and contemptuous attitude towards the Greek parents and the association reminded many that the resistance to multicultural and multilingual education still had deep roots in many schools. Pauline Hanson of the infamous One Nation Party had recently made her ‘triumphal’ entry onto the Australian political scene and the Liberal prime minister, John Howard, instead of condemning her racist policies outright, provided comfort and support.
The Wheelers Hill school leadership, in locking horns with the parents, seriously underestimated their strength and determination to do battle for their just cause. Not since the 1970s had Greek parents in a single school been able to mount a campaign that attracted so much support. They had taken on the controlling school bureaucracy as well as the state government. When the school rejected out of hand a submission by the Greek parents to the school council to reconsider their rejection of Greek (the school council actually did not allow any of the Greek parents to be present or to argue in favour of their submission), the Greek Parents Association took the matter to the Equal Opportunity Board, on behalf of 33 students.
Bill Gabriel, a solicitor of Greek background, in taking the case on said: “The Equal Opportunity Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race and the school has discriminated against Greek-speaking students, because it has denied them tuition in a language the Education Department offered in other government schools.”
In 1992 Aboriginal children and their community had taken similar action when the Kennett government closed down the Northland Secondary College where indigenous languages were taught. Three years later they won and Kennett was forced to reopen the school.
Mrs Nicky Pavlis from the WHSC Greek Parents Association said in the local press and in a Neos Kosmos interview on 12 July 1999 that “students were angry at the school council’s decision to axe Greek with the excuse of insufficient numbers”, when the numbers attending French and Indonesian were no higher than those doing Greek.
The Greek LOTE Committee in a press release (8 July) declared: “The axing of Greek is an obvious breach of government policy and a denial of equality of learning opportunities … The demand for Greek at WHSC has been constant and strong.” The committee called on “all people and organisations that believe in a free, democratic and secular education and the benefits of our multicultural society, to support the 33 students in their effort to access the language of their choice. The teaching of LOTE should be a right, for the alternative will be more so a privilege for the very few who can afford it in private schools.”
The committee had consistently supported the teaching of commercial non-community languages, but it insisted this should not be done at the expense of community languages.
Central to this dispute was also the power given to individual schools for ‘self-management’, in other words, for the state to be less responsible for the welfare of its schools, forcing them to restrict the curriculum and to turn principals into business managers. The WHSC, in essence the principal and school council president (the latter elected at a meeting of no more than a dozen parents, whereas the Greek Parents Association elections had over 60 parents), invested themselves with all the power under this policy. Teacher unions were opposed to such break-up and business chasing of the state education system, where clearly the poorer schools would be worse off and teacher salaries and conditions would be determined by the market. Education technocrats whose political masters want less spent on public education and have a long-term agenda for privatising education, with a ‘safety net’ for the poor, would make sure any challenge to a school council decision by communities would be costly and protracted.
The fact that a lot of money was needed to mount a legal challenge did not deter the Greek parents. They took up a collection and their lawyer was very supportive. The same cannot be said of the paragons of Greek learning. In a letter to the Greek LOTE Committee, dated 22 October 1998, the principal of WHSC was pleased to announce that, “to assist the Greek parents, the college has reached an agreement with the Maraslios Greek Academy of Melbourne (a private school), that students from WHSC can attend his school at the college on Saturday mornings …. This provides a wonderful opportunity for students.”
This was a classic case of adding insult to injury. Even the Education Department could not accept this, and found the will to tell the school to drop it. Sometime earlier, Anne Davidson, principal of Moreland City College and a leading member of the Greek LOTE Committee, whose school taught Greek and another five languages (more than any other school in Australia), had been approached by the proprietor of the Omiros private school to allow him to set up an after-hours Greek school in her college.
At the WHSC Greek parents meeting, one could hear constantly their preference for Greek to be taught in the children’s day schools and their inability to afford money and time to send their children to after-hours fee-paying Greek schools. They were, after all, working class people.
The Equal Opportunity Commission found it could not proceed with the case as the claim had been made against the school and not the Education Department that was the legal authority for public education. The case was referred to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
The Greek LOTE Committee and the parents decided to make this matter and ethnic education in general an issue in the coming state elections, making common cause with the forces opposed to the Kennett Liberal government that was expected to win easily. The Greek Australian right wing were well and truly with Kennett, pushing the myth of ‘his love for Greeks’, while the opportunist establishment was too busy with what it could get out of him to spare money or time to help oust him. However, the unexpected happened and Labor won the elections. Within days, the Greek LOTE Committee asked the new government to make good its promise on ethnic education, starting immediately with WHSC, so planning could proceed for the 2000 school year.
The Minister for Education asked her Parliamentary Secretary, Theo Theophanous, to ‘fix the problem’. But it appeared that neither the LOTE bureaucracy in the Education Department, nor the school, especially the principal, would give any ground, and the government was not prepared to override them. The parents then decided to proceed with the case at the Victorian Civil and Administrative tribunal (VCAT). When it commenced, the courtroom was full of parents and students, there to defend their rights, this time before the law. The government’s legal team, realising the government would lose, asked for an adjournment. Theophanous said the government did not wish legal action initiated under a previous government to proceed, admitting that the money needed for such battles would be better spent on educating children. Intense discussions between Theophanous, the Greek LOTE Committee and the Greek parents and their legal advisor resulted in an agreement to return the teaching of Greek in WHSC. The government’s commitment was conveyed in writing to the committee on 24 December 1999.
The agreement provided for the reinstatement of the Greek language at all levels from the commencement of the 2000 school year, for a period of three years, funded by the government. The program was to be reviewed as to its viability at the end of the three year period when, if the student numbers fell below a minimum level, the school council might decide to discontinue the program, but students could continue their studies of Greek until they completed their VCE.
A Steering Committee, with representatives of all interested, but excluding the militants of the Greek LOTE Committee, would oversee and guide the project. It was a qualified victory, as the onus for success was put on the parents and students, a difficult task at any time, but a herculean one in this instance as the ‘school’ had no interest in making it work, and government appointed committees, even with the best of intentions, are not noted for doing the job for the people.
The LOTE Committee and the parents had realistically envisaged linking with local primary schools to develop language program continuity. There were three such schools with significant numbers of Greek students and principals who were willing to cooperate if given support. But nothing happened. The ‘school’ effectively boycotted the program, refusing to even tell all parents that Greek was reintroduced. The parents engaged in an admirable campaign to make it work, including social and fundraising activities to benefit not just the Greek program, but the school as a whole, fundraising on a scale that had never happened before in the school.
Sylvia (Argyro) Dionissopoulos had been a tireless and inspiring worker and leader. The Greek communities of Clayton and Monash also provided support and hosted a public solidarity meeting. But ‘school’ resistance was eroding the program. When the time came for the review in 2003, the report acknowledged difficulties in cooperation, and pointed out some realistic possibilities for the maintenance of the program, but it provided enough room from one of its conclusions – insufficient numbers – for the school council to refuse to take over responsibility for the program when the special funding had ended. The government washed its hands of it, hiding behind a new policy decision to review the delivery of LOTE and make it better. This case has not been forgotten and is still a concern for some parents.
The battle of Wheelers Hill Secondary College is in many respects symbolic of what it takes for ethnic minorities to obtain their rights, and this is a never ending battle. Ordinary people took on a stubborn school hierarchy and a right-wing, anti-public-education state government and won, only to be rolled by the lack of will of another government which professed support for the ideals of ethnic rights. It proved that, unless public schools are adequately funded, even good ones cannot ignore the pressure of making ends meet, and the first casualties are minorities and the ‘dispensable’ subjects such as community languages.
In 2014, and whilst all academic, educational and social justice criteria and evidence clearly indicate the child’s day school is the best environment for teaching languages and the current ‘Gonski’ better schools legislation provides the policy and funding for this to happen, the Abbott government is hard at work to undo it. Education Minister Pyne, in a Neos Kosmos interview, February 22, would not commit to Greek being in the national curriculum. Instead he pushed the proposition thatr the after-hours and fee paying schools, in some kind of ‘accommodation’ with ‘independent’ public schools, can better perform this role. He thinks that the teaching of Greek should be for Greeks only and not in the national curriculum for all students who may wish to learn it. No Mr Pyne, the teaching of languages, and indeed humanities in general, should be an integral part of what schools should be teaching, not pushed into the periphery to wither away or into the hands of profiteers. This is an issue worth fighting for.
*George Zangalis is a former Trade Unionist and the Secretary of Melbourne’s ethnic community radio 3ZZZ-92.3FM. This article is derived from G. Zangalis’ book Migrant and Ethnic Communities – their struggles for social justice and cultural rights – the role of Greek Australians, published by University Press and Common Ground Publishing.