Page 2780 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 12 August 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
This leads me to my second point, and that is one of capacity. Again, it is a topic that I have asked several questions about. The minister has advised that the ETD works closely with the environment directorate and the Land Development Agency to plan for future school sites. For Gungahlin and Molonglo—identified future growth areas—that is a responsible approach. I note the ETD’s remarks in estimates that there is sufficient capacity in Gungahlin at the moment. For how long? We do not know.
Similarly, there was acknowledgement that there was also growth in enrolments on the south side primary schools, similar to what is occurring north of the lake. In other words, we have schools that are full. The work undertaken by Canberra Times journalists less than a year ago to highlight this issue has not been disproved, although much was said about its apparent inaccuracy. Markus Mannheim reported that an internal government document indicated that almost a quarter of Canberra’s schools could be overcrowded within three years. The same report suggested that 10 schools, mostly primary, are already over capacity.
There are a number of schools in this area that we commented on at length when this debate was going on. A very topical one at the moment is the Telopea Park School issues, where land has been taken away from education uses and made a community usage. I guess it will be interesting to see how this is going to be handled, but early indications are that already the promise that Mr Barr made was fairly hollow. The community is just now starting to come to grips with what was said this morning.
Telopea Park School is probably one of the most congested schools in terms of student ratio to land availability. If any of that land is taken away from Telopea Park, it will cause severe problems—if not this year, then certainly next year or the following years. The long-term planning by the education minister for this particular school just on its own is something that deserves quite a bit of attention from the community. Of course, this minister was so interested in Telopea Park School that she could not be bothered to attend a fairly robust debate that took place this morning. Both Minister Barr and the Greens minister, Mr Shane Rattenbury, took part, but the education minister, whose portfolio it is, was nowhere to be seen.
Since these early reports on primary schools and school capacities, the report on government services earlier this year showed that the number of children aged between one and five attending an approved childcare service had increased by 15 per cent in the last two years. This will inevitably lead to increases in primary school enrolments, and more schools will get to capacity.
The minister is at pains to assure the Assembly that ACT schools are managing, and capable of managing, capacity issues. However, building demountables is not the best solution and not always possible. Changing the priority enrolment area or excluding students from out of area is not always optimal, and eventually you run out of schools to push children into. If you keep moving the boundaries, the boundaries will soon run out.
I know from conversations I have with parents that at least one primary and one high school in the inner north is currently at capacity. In older suburbs, there is no
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video