Page 932 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 1990
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Mr Collaery: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.
Question resolved in the negative.
SCHOOLS AUTHORITY - 1988-89 REPORT
Statement and Paper
Debate resumed.
DR KINLOCH: The second point is the role of languages in the ACT. There is concern about the decline of languages. It is good to see in the report this commitment to not only European languages but also Asian languages, history and culture. One hopes that that will be on the increase in all our schools.
The third, but less obvious, point - I think most of us could easily miss it - is very intriguing. Yes, we are a city State, but we also are in a rural environment. In that opening section, Dr Willmot rightly points out the importance of enhanced rural studies. One hopes that the students of the ACT learn to be involved with our local environment, not just in rhetorical terms but also in direct terms.
Over the past year, especially during the past three months, I have had the very welcome opportunity to see ACT schools at first hand. So far I have visited schools in all sectors, except for preschools which are on the agenda for future visits; I am going to Waramanga preschool this Friday. What the report tells us so positively is certainly borne out in my observation of the schools that I have visited, and I select some examples.
I went to Koomarri, the area of special education, and there is a section in the report, at pages 44 to 45, on special education. I was very impressed by the high standard of the staff, the sense of devotion and the sense of loving care in that school. I have not visited the other special schools, but I am well aware of that particularly important area in the Department of Education, through which we serve people across the community, who might otherwise be in a non-government situation. But the non-government schools do not offer special education; we do.
The second area reflected in the report, and of which I have direct knowledge, is remedial English for students from non-English speaking backgrounds, and that is also very impressive. At Ainslie Primary, Turner Primary and Higgins Primary, for example, there are these special programs for students, to help bring their English up to the standard of all the other students. I subsequently saw some of the graduates of this supportive program in regular
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