Page 2768 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 September 2014
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Last summer, Canberra saw a particularly hot summer. The winter before, we had some savagely cold days. In many of our classrooms, temperatures were as high as 43 degrees; in winter some classrooms were at sub zero temperatures. Parents and teacher unions alike have been calling for a proper policy. The direct response has been that it does not have a set temperature at which schools would close and, in response to parents’ complaints, suggests that schools were managing appropriately. If only people would listen to what the parents and teachers are saying!
If the only strategies available are to move students into a cooler space or send them home early, that has its limitations. If the only air-conditioned space the school has is a library, there is a limit to how many students can fit into that one space. And sending students home early is not always possible when working parents and bus timetables are involved. We are about to move into another summer, and still there is no formal policy and little evidence that appropriate cooling and heating systems have been installed in the worst of our schools. And does this include the various transportable options that appear to be the directorate’s approach to overcapacity at our schools?
The minister was recently quoted as suggesting that the government spent more than $20 million annually in planned and unforeseen school repairs and maintenance, an average of $230,000 per school per year. But we all know that this does not mean that each school gets that amount. If they did, we would not have faulty switchboards, leaking roofs and dodgy lighting, not to mention blocked drains and unsafe playing surfaces. Here we have an ACT education system that is severely overrepresented by ageing and inadequate buildings, many of which have no heating and cooling, many of which have asbestos, many of which have outdated toilet systems, poor lighting and old glazing, with a minister who appears to suggest that $250,000 a year should be enough to solve the problems.
We then opened the Canberra Times a couple of weeks ago to learn that there are five schools currently operating with more students than they are designed to fit, and this number could rise to 25 by 2017. Canberra Times journalist Markus Mannheim is to be congratulated for his research into this because it highlights what many parents have long suspected. I note that the directorate has since corrected and modified some of his assessment, but the fact remains we have some pretty tightly packed schools.
Only last month I spoke with a parent who was worried that her child was in a class of 29 students, while at another school a parent advised her child is in a composite class of 38, with two part-time teachers. We learned that there are particular pressures in the north of the territory and in the inner south. Coincidentally, it is in the Belconnen area that the ACT Labor government closed five schools, dating back to 2006-2007.
The government’s response is that schools are not at overcapacity; they are merely experiencing enrolment pressure. However, when you read down the list provided by the directorate, schools are clearly overpopulated. One of the oldest schools, North Ainslie Primary School, built in 1958, has a capacity of 400 with an enrolment of 418 now. Garran has a capacity of 475, with a February 2014 enrolment of 534. Ngunnawal is similarly pressured. Amaroo is a new school but already it is bursting at
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