All school pedagogy put should put children first. When the Northern Territory took on responsibility for education in 1979, our first director was Dr Jim Eedle.

In March of that year he gather all Principals of Northern Territory schools to a conference in Katherine. He said to us in his inimitable way of speaking, that we should always remember that “schools are for children”.

This he said was the prime function of schools. He went on to say that structure and organisation should always be about supporting function, the looking after of education for children. He suggested that if structure became the all important thing, that the quality of function would diminish.

Fast forward 40 years, and I think that the function of education is now well and truly in the shadow of structure. How I would love to have a revisitation to the words and sentiments of our first Director.