Page 3567 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 12 October 1994
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advertising and changing fads and fashions. Our schools must have both the freedom to respond to their communities' needs and the ability to plan, which comes from a knowledge that they will be influenced by the changing demographics and their priority enrolment areas. We cannot totally protect schools from these factors. What we can do, and have done, is to seek a balance. It is because of this balance that, over the past 20-odd years, the ACT has developed an education system which is the envy of other Australian States and Territories.
We can be confident that our schools are offering courses which will equip students with the skills and knowledge to fulfil their individual potential. Our colleges, in particular, are recognised as being leaders in the education of young adults. Retention rates here in the ACT run at well over 90 per cent and reflect the ability that colleges have to respond superbly to the needs of a very wide range of students. It is important to note that our colleges prepare students for further education and for the workplace, and hence provide students with academic, vocational, employment and social and recreational options. They are vibrant institutions which, like other sectors of the education system, respond to the needs of their community. This responsiveness encourages the development of specialist courses and facilities and makes each one different; but they all operate within a solid framework of policies and procedures which ensures access and equity for ACT students. Each also has the full support of the Department of Education and Training.
As I mentioned earlier, Madam Speaker, students do not lightly make the choice to attend a college outside their priority enrolment area. Strong cluster links, continuity of friendships and travel time must all be taken into account, along with subject choice and availability of places. The excessively restrictive rules on who may go where, that Ms Szuty and others seem to be advocating, would undermine student and parent choice. The ability of, and capacity for, forward planning is important to our education system; so guidelines which set down schools' maximum capacities and enrolment procedures are both necessary and desirable. This becomes more apparent when we recognise that, in the next six years, it is anticipated that six new government schools will open in new areas of the ACT. That is a mammoth planning task. We must retain the ability to plan sensibly for the future so that we can provide, in a timely and cost-effective manner, the education facilities to which our students are entitled. However, we must also retain some degree of flexibility if we are to respond to a changing society.
Madam Speaker, this Government and the Department of Education and Training are working with all sectors of the community - unions, teachers, students, parents and schools - to ensure that a consistent management policy continues to provide ACT students with the best possible education opportunities. We are taking a balanced and sensible approach to enrolment issues, to ensure that school and college programs are viable and that the best possible use is made of educational resources. In doing this, we are weighing the needs of all stakeholders and ensuring that we retain a cohesive and coordinated education system which helps students achieve positive outcomes.
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