Page 2264 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 August 2006
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some of these schools, it was a kiss of death, or almost. Given the disruption that the plan offers the whole public system, one can only presume that the non-government sector is getting many of those extra enrolments from those families that can afford to choose.
I feel sorry for the ACT department staff who care about education and who have to impose this half-baked plan on teachers, children and families, especially seeing as they are about to lose a very significant number of people in the department. There will be fewer people to do a lot more work.
What might well be particularly distressing is that the department and the previous minister seem to be quite a long way down the path of a much more considered process which was called Education 2010. As Mr Barr mentioned, there are a series of seminars starting next week on shaping the future of public education that were part of that original plan. I wonder how much they had to change to fit the 2020 process rather than the 2010. It is ironic and frustrating that a community engagement process such as this should be overwhelmed by a slash-and-burn strategy which may result in a flight from government schools by many of the more motivated parents whose input is so important to our schools.
We should bear in mind that staff in the department and teachers throughout the system have been working on a new curriculum framework which has been welcomed by all sectors of education in the ACT. But I am worried about the ability of schools to implement that under these cuts and threatened closures. There have been many bitter jokes made that the government had planned ahead for these changes by putting money aside for a jail and choosing to neglect the kids who might end up in it. Yes, early childhood intervention is important, but our schools are the places where we have the chance to intervene in children’s and families’ lives. Especially for those children who are at risk, schools are incredibly important.
One of the things that are not being noticed, because there is no social impact analysis, is that what is being left out is the role those schools play in community development. I visited schools where parents are an integral part of the way that school runs. I met a principal who said that she has a program of empowerment of a lot of those parents who come in. They are not brave. A lot of people have had bad school experiences. Getting them into a school in the first place is difficult enough. Let us acknowledge the role that schools play. Some communities really do not have any other institution where people can meet and gather, and that is particularly so in those disadvantaged areas. Of course, there are issues about fitness and wellbeing.
I have a question, finally, on the vision in 2020. What is the world going to look like then? We already know that it is going to be harder and harder for people to drive their cars. We know that in some cities they are already making that adaptation back to the neighbourhood plan that Mr Corbell decried both yesterday and this morning. We are going to need to go back there half foolish if we cut off our options now and close and then sell schools, which means there is no turning back.
We have to have a 2020 vision. Where are the studies that look at Canberra in 2020 to justify this? We have got old demography statistics; we have not even got up-to-date statistics, as the Chifley community showed us. People want a revision. If people had been asked, they would have said that education mattered to them; health matters;
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