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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 12 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 4396 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

I commend the overall approach of the government on this, although there are some issues of resourcing. And I commend the government for recognising what I think is one of the important things to say on this issue, which is said in this report: that so much of the government's approach at the moment is tied up in the Within reach of Us All strategy. It is claimed to be about inclusive education, but it is really very focused within the schools.

Personally, I do not think that is where the focus was originally intended to be when we started this serious conversation about what it means to have an inclusive system of education in Canberra. It may have come up a long time before this, but I became aware of it when I did the committee inquiry into services for kids at risk, then for the students in the disability inquiry, then for the students at risk of not completing school inquiry and then for the inquiry into the closing of the School Without Walls. That was the other opportunity the committee here had to look at how to deal with kids in our community who do not fit into the mainstream.

What came out of those conversations were the need to have alternatives, the need to recognise that for some kids it won't work in a mainstream school and the need to have other ways of dealing with it. That means you have alternatives. I think it is a tragedy for Canberra that we lost the School Without Walls. Fortunately, we still have the O'Connor Cooperative School, and we have the special program at Dickson College and another one at Canberra College, Eclipse.

There are two alternative programs, and they certainly have some value, but we need to be prepared to provide extra and alternative ways to support students who may not fit in with the mainstream. There was a good example at Gungahlin Youth Centre, which was not re-funded, that engaged kids at risk and provided an alternative setting. Those programs need to be given much more focus than they are getting.

The current paradigm the department of education is working in, and which is described in Within reach of Us All, claims the language of inclusivity, saying it is about making our schools great for everyone. Yes, we need to aim for that and it is a good ideal, but we also have to recognise the reality, which is that it does not work and probably never will work for all students.

The question of indigenous education comes into this because different environments and settings can make a huge difference to kids who are dealing with particular social issues. Small schools have been interesting to look at. Even if you have a smaller school you can see much better outcomes for kids who are marginalised, or at risk of being marginalised, within a school system.

At the 40th birthday of the suburb of Watson recently, there were some snapshots of the Watson High School. I can remember, when that was going, that some kids were actually dropping out of SWoW and going to Watson High School. The reason Watson High School worked was that it was very small, which enabled a relationship between the students, the community and teachers that was socially constructive. Under the more economic rationalist approach taken that went, as did SWoW. That is a real disappointment, and I would encourage the government to rethink that and to challenge themselves about what they are doing to really push Within reach of Us All into schools.

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