Temporary Exemption Application -Catholic Education Office

Catholic Education Office
- Application for Exemption from certain provisions of the Sex Discrimination
Act 1984.

Summary of Notice of Decision

The Catholic Education
Office ("CEO"), Archdiocese of Sydney, applied to the Human
Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission for a temporary exemption to allow
the CEO to discriminate against women by offering primary teacher training
scholarships to male students only.

The CEO stated that
the aim of the proposed scholarship scheme was to increase the number
of male primary school teachers so that boys have male role models. The
CEO also suggested that having access to male role models will help improve
the 'substantive equality of boys and girls' in primary schools.

The Sex Discrimination
Act 1984 (Cth) makes it unlawful to discriminate in employment, education,
the provision of goods, services, facilities or accommodation, and the
administration of federal government programs on the grounds of sex, marital
status, pregnancy and potential pregnancy.

The Commission has
the power to grant temporary exemptions from the Act. It does so rarely.
The Commission's guidelines for granting exemptions can be found at: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/legal/sda_exemptions.html.

Because the application
involved issues of broader public interest, the Commission sought submissions
through its website and considered other material including the House
of Representatives' Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace
Relations' inquiry into boys and education entitled Boys: Getting It
Right and relevant statistics. Eleven public submissions were received.

The Commission declined
to grant a temporary exemption in relation to the relevant provisions
of the Act on the basis that the CEO had failed to demonstrate that the
exemption sought was "reasonable". Reasonableness, in the context
of the Commission's guidelines on temporary exemption applications, involves
weighing the nature and extent of the discriminatory effect against the
reasons advanced in favour of the exemption.

The reasons for concluding
that the "reasonableness test" was not made out were as follows:

• " The reasons
  for the lower number of male than female primary teachers are varied
  and complex. In fact, the Boys: Getting it Right report said
  significant factors raised by teachers for the low numbers included
  "the status of teachers in the community, salary, career opportunities
  and child protection issues". It also found "salary progression
  and promotional opportunities for teachers do not keep pace with the
  opportunities available outside teaching";
• The CEO provided
  insufficient evidence to show that the underlying causes of the gender
  imbalance in the primary teaching profession might be addressed through
  a scholarship scheme. For example, the CEO did not show evidence that
  the gender imbalance in the primary teaching profession was caused by
  financial hardship suffered by male students seeking to obtain qualifications
  to enter the primary teaching profession or the lack of financial inducements
  available to males considering entering primary teacher training courses;
• The CEO did not
  identify any reason why the scholarship scheme could not be provided
  on a less discriminatory basis (for example, the proposed scheme could
  have provided equal numbers of scholarships to male and female primary
  teaching students). A recommendation for such a scheme was made in Boys:
  Getting It Right.
• There is insufficient
  evidence before the Commission to support a finding that the gender
  imbalance in the primary teaching profession will have adverse social
  or educational effects or will detrimentally affect school culture or
  the education of boys enrolled as students in primary schools.

The Commission has
encouraged the CEO to:

• conduct further
  investigations into the reasons underlying the gender imbalance in the
  primary teaching profession; and
• to the extent
  that a scholarship scheme or other recruitment strategy is pursued,
  consider means of implementing such strategies in a manner that does
  not discriminate on the ground of sex.

Last
updated 3 March 2003.