Page 1957 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2011
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education minister confirmed their position clearly in the chamber yesterday when they and the Greens joined together to vote down an opposition motion supporting current funding arrangements for the non-government schools sector.
I wonder where that leaves the ACT Department of Education and Training’s strategic plan 2010-2013 Everyone matters. Everyone matters? Obviously, “everyone” only refers to the 59 per cent of students in public schools. Clearly, those in non-government schools do not matter and presumably neither do their parents. I urge non-government school administrators in Canberra to remember this next time their school is asked to host a visit from the education minister or a Greens or a Labor MLA.
But let us be fair. This same disregard from this minister, this education minister, was clearly evident in his approach to the government school sector as well. Let us not forget that it was only last October that the minister was perfectly happy to offer up efficiency dividend cuts that were arrived at without any consultation with the government school communities and would have placed significant additional burdens on student and teacher support services and resources.
The cuts were as wide as they were deep: two early intervention preschool support teachers, two support teachers for early childhood English as a second language program, an early childhood support teacher for behavioural mismanagement, two hearing support positions, one of four vision support teachers. The list is endless.
There were roughly speaking 40 proposed reductions in departmental branches with support and/or student responsibilities. The support services targeted for cuts affected disabled and marginalised students. The minister called these efficiency dividend cuts a sensible measure. A sensible measure—so what is in the budget for the educational sector? We apparently have to be full of forelock tugging gratitude that the Education and Training directorate has been unable to meet the efficiency dividend due to the risk to delivery of front-line services and therefore it is excused from meeting such targets.
Let us not forget that government inability to control spending has been the key driver of the need to find savings and even this government could not be so insensitive to slash and burn education at a time when universally it is recognised that Australia is losing ground internationally in numeracy and literacy standards. Or could it?
The Canberra Institute of Technology is expected to find savings of $1.44 million this year and $1.6 million for each of the next three years at a time when vocational training is seen as critical to addressing skills shortages in the workforce. There is a total of $33.4 million in new initiatives over the next four years, the bulk of which is to support students with disabilities in public education and to reward high-performing teachers. Other initiatives include improvements to administration and accountability in primary schools, increased access for students to the arts, and to encourage secondary school innovation and sporting excellence. Let us wait until the estimates to find out what all that really means.
In capital works, we have a bit of everything. We have new schools scheduled for Bonner and Franklin and upgrades to Macgregor and Majura, and some money—
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