Adjudication No. 843 (February 1996) [1996] APC 17

AADJUDICATION No. 843 (February 1996)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint against The Age over its reporting of a survey of parents' opinions of the Victorian Government schools system.

The newspaper ran reports on page 1 and page 6 on 4 September 1995, headlined "School reforms get top mark" and "Most parents happy with state schools".

The page 1 report, expanded on page 6, claimed: "Victorian parents are overwhelmingly satisfied with the quality of education after three years of momentous school upheaval, according to a special opinion poll conducted for The Age on the state of education." The newspaper said the survey showed at least 80 per cent of parents believed government schools were meeting or exceeding their expectations and nearly seven parents in ten thought education was better than, or no worse than, when the Kennett Government came to office.

Mr John Glazebrook complains that:

1. The headline and theme of the reports were not justified by the survey's results.

2. The questions asked in the survey made no specific reference to education reforms introduced by the Victorian State Government yet the reports presented the poll results as an endorsement of these changes.

3. The population sample in the poll was biased because it included parents of private and tertiary students whose children were not affected by the changes.

The Press Council finds that while the survey's questions did not mention education reforms, the newspaper was entitled to relate parents' level of satisfaction with the education system to the changes that had taken place. The newspaper says reforms were not referred to in the questions because it did not want to politicise the responses.

The newspaper published prominently in a panel on page 6 a breakdown of the poll results giving, as well as totals, the separate figures for government and non[Dhatch]government schools and tertiary institutions. Thus the newspaper cannot be accused of deception. It published another panel setting out details of the questions asked, the poll sample and how it was split between state and private schools.

In the days after the report was published The Age ran many letters to the editor expressing sentiments similar to Mr Glazebrook's including two lengthy ones from State Opposition Leader John Brumby and former Premier Joan Kirner.

While there was no guarantee that a letter from Mr Glazebrook would have been published, given the obviously heavy correspondence on the issue, he did have the opportunity to seek to air his views in this way. He chose not to do so.