Page 3563 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 12 October 1994
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I heard Mr Connolly or someone say something about closing schools. Let us set the record straight. The Alliance Government, which you so readily knock, closed four schools, two of which were reopened. Under this current Government, which promised not to close any, Griffith Primary has been closed. Mrs Carnell's article says absolutely nothing about closing schools. It most likely offers a real chance of no schools being closed, because it offers a number of options which can make them viable and which can do a lot more than has been done to date in relation to that particular issue.
In a press release in May 1992, Mr Cornwell stated:
Despite various attempts to reduce or fudge the numbers, surplus student spaces in ACT Government schools continued to grow.
He said that in that year there were some 10,418 surplus student places. So, this has been a continuing problem, which this Government has not addressed.
Mr Moore: What do you mean by "surplus spaces"?
MR STEFANIAK: You can actually fit a lot more people in there. If there are 10,000 surplus spaces, you can put 10,000 people in there. There are peak enrolments for new primary schools in new areas; for example, in Gungahlin and Tuggeranong. These will jump from 600 to 750 pupils. High schools will go up to 1,000. Compare that with the older schools, where there are very few students indeed. This Government's policy seems to be that, where you have too many students, you put in a few demountables. This Government does not seem to have any real answers when the numbers are dropping. I can appreciate the demographic argument. I can appreciate all those issues raised there. But you people might like to look a little more closely at Mrs Carnell's article, because that shows you a few things you can do to even out this problem of schools, especially where there are lots of spaces available and underutilisation of resources.
MR MOORE (4.29): Madam Speaker, in speaking to the matter of public importance, which is the failure of the Government to effectively manage government school enrolments, I will begin by taking up the issue of surplus spaces, which Mr Stefaniak raised. I think that Mr Stefaniak should look at the surplus spaces around him here. Should we close down this Assembly? I know how Mr Stevenson would respond to that question. Of even greater concern than surplus spaces in schools is the surplus space in the heads of the Liberals, who think that there are 7,000, 9,000 or 10,000 surplus places in Canberra schools that you can fill in some way. They do not exist. If we had the same educational philosophy as we had 20 years ago, there might be some argument for having some extra space in schools; but we have an entirely - - -
Debate interrupted.
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