Page 2571 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 23 August 2006
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have people who ask, “What happened back in 1990?” We are not talking about 1990. What we are talking about today is 2006 and the 39 schools that this government is proposing to close, plus the one that is already committed to closing.
But further than that, we are talking about the real future of education in the ACT. It is worth reminding members of the Assembly and members of the public that the last comprehensive inquiry into education in the ACT, called the Campbell inquiry, was conducted in 1972. This inquiry was held because at that stage education in the ACT was at a crossroads. The New South Wales government was going to pull out of the provision of education services in the ACT and, as a community, people sat down and worked with a board of experts in looking at the future of education in the ACT. The ACT Schools Authority was formed and the notion of the introduction of the college system in the ACT was considered. As I suggested to the minister the other day, it might be informative for him to read the findings of the Campbell inquiry and to look at the painstaking manner in which this inquiry was conducted—the painstaking manner in which this inquiry engaged with the community and took note of the community’s views.
Recently I had the privilege of having a conversation with one of the officials who worked with the Campbell inquiry and was involved in the setting up of the ACT interim schools authority and the implementation of the college system in the ACT. He would be known to Mr Stefaniak. I understand he was the deputy principal at Narrabundah high school when Mr Stefaniak was attending that school. He went on to become the principal of Narrabundah high school and eventually the founding principal of Narrabundah college. Perhaps the minister could draw on the considerable expertise and knowledge of this gentleman—I can give you his contact details, minister—so that we might learn from what went on then. There needs to be a real study of education in the ACT.
The Campbell inquiry took a painstaking approach. If you talked to the people involved in this you would find that they took the community with them. The real message to come out of this inquiry is that because the community was involved we have been able to develop a world-class education system with a fine, independent, free-standing secondary college system which has, and has had for many decades, the best retention rates in the country.
The community wanted a change. The community wanted to see a better education system than the one that had hitherto been provided by the New South Wales education system. They wanted a change and this was achieved through the process of inquiring and engaging with the community. It was not a case of saying, “Here is our plan and we will implement it—we are just telling you how to do it” but of almost starting with a blank sheet. The approach should be: “We have to change our education system, we have to change the structure. How do we do this as a community?” Mr Barr is proposing to pull apart what we have.
As a result of that painstaking process we have an education system that, on most of the measures that you can look at, provides a superior system to any education system in the country. The people in the ACT have an above average education system—the best education system in the country. The minister is saying, “I came in on 18 April and by 6 June I came up with a whole new system of how to run the education system, even though I probably do not even know very much about how the current system is structured.” Notwithstanding this, the new kid on the block, who has no educational
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