Schools are the focus of expertise in learning. This expertise and these relationships combine so that the learning program for the students at the school is a locally negotiated response to the needs of students. Living with the increasing complexity of society, rapid social and economic change and the diversity of the student population mean that schools have to be flexible in organising their learning programs. They need authority over their own affairs to have the flexibility to respond to the unique needs of their students. Schools, in partnership with parents, have a social role that comes from the pursuit of the public interest, equity and their responsibility for the welfare of students.
Schools are community assets, central to community learning and development.
This is a multi-faceted relationship, shared with parents and community, cooperative with business and coordinated with other government and community services. Schools are now complex administrative units, with marketing, resource management, accountability and business functions to support their educational role. The competitive market they operate in requires professional skill in these functions. It also requires schools to ensure that the public interest is not overtaken by the operations of the market. Small schools and isolated schools will solve these problems indifferent ways to larger metropolitan and regional schools.