Murat Dizdar is the Secretary of the New South Wales Department of Education, and the son of Turkish migrants raised in council housing. On this week’s Australian Story, the ABC follows Murat as he embarks on a very personal mission – to stem the flow of students to private school and claw back funding from the federal government for the public sector.
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00:00A former teacher is now the head of the Department of Education in New South Wales, and Murat
00:12Dizdar has quite a life story to tell.
00:14He joins us now.
00:15Good morning, Sarah.
00:16He got an incredible HSC mark and thought, oh, I'd better do law with that 99.95.
00:23We all make mistakes, Sarah.
00:24I wish I had pursued what I was passionate about.
00:29The Secretary of the Education Department is one of the toughest jobs anyone could find
00:33themselves here in the state.
00:34Good morning.
00:35How are you?
00:36Good morning.
00:37Very well, thank you.
00:38What's your name?
00:39Jack.
00:40The challenge is really huge.
00:41The Secretary really does have the ability to make or break the success of the education
00:44system.
00:45How are you, darling?
00:46I'm very well, how are you?
00:47Yeah?
00:48Good.
00:49There's an enormous challenge before us.
00:50Unfortunately, we've dropped about 25,000 enrolments across the last three years, but
00:56I'm determined to win every one of them back.
00:59Who was her name again?
01:01Jacinta.
01:02Good morning.
01:03Good morning.
01:04Hello.
01:05How are you?
01:06Murat cares really, really deeply about what he's doing, and he channels that through an
01:10extremely strong work ethic.
01:14He just does not stop.
01:16So I used to have a regular 7.30 a.m. meeting with him.
01:18It was his third meeting of the day.
01:20He's like the energiser bunny, and you put some kind of nuclear propulsion in it.
01:26Your challenge is to see if you can do the maths faster than this, Murat.
01:31Murat's job is driving change across an entire system, and this is the largest education
01:36system in the Southern Hemisphere.
01:38All right, ready to go.
01:40Mark your boards.
01:41I have been to 1,600 schools out of the 2,216 in this state.
01:47I don't consider it a job.
01:48To me, it's a life passion.
01:50Hands up if you're on track.
01:52Amazing.
01:53Let's go.
01:54It would be highly offensive if people thought I was a cardigan-wearing bureaucrat, and I'm
01:59determined not to be.
02:00And one.
02:01Even if you're not finished, let's see.
02:03I feel like I owe the lift to the system that I've experienced myself, and I won't stop
02:11on that.
02:12All right.
02:13And that is enough maths for today.
02:14Good job.
02:15Can I have a recess now?
02:16I'm exhausted.
02:17That was delicious.