Page 3341 - Week 09 - Thursday, 22 August 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
I will not speak too much longer; I was very clear in my earlier remarks. I will be joining the students on 20 September this year. I think that it is important that we stand with them and that we demonstrate that we stand with them. I look forward to inviting them to the Assembly. I hope that all members will be able to find the time in their diaries to come to listen to why the students are taking the position that they are taking. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
ACT Teacher Quality Institute Amendment Bill 2019
Debate resumed from 6 June 2019, on motion by Ms Berry:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (11.05): The ACT Teacher Quality Institute Amendment Bill has a few minor amendments to the act, one of the big ones being the inclusion of the removal of hyphens from the word “pre-school” throughout the act, and modernising the definition of “Indigenous person” to “Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander”. These are fairly minor amendments and need not be mentioned again.
On the other hand the bill does have three major key objectives. Firstly, there is the pre-service teacher register. The bill establishes a mechanism to create a register of pre-service teachers to be administered by the TQI. This register will contain various pieces of information about pre-service teachers, including their qualifications and the details of the education program in which they are enrolled, the pre-service teacher’s contact details, information about their working with vulnerable people registration, and where the pre-service teacher will be placed for professional experience.
This register for pre-service teachers brings them into line with other teachers whose information is contained on a separate register and will allow the TQI to better know who is teaching or training within any school in the ACT.
I note that in the minister’s presentation speech, and in the explanatory statement, the minister described this as helping to deliver high quality practicum to pre-service teachers. Our interpretation of the change is that it is just a mechanism to ensure that the TQI knows where pre-service teachers are—aside from setting an almost unattainably lofty ambition, as described in her presentation speech. Similarly, under the bill, a pre-service teacher would be expected to seek “approval” from the TQI to begin to seek placement for pre-service training.
A concern which has been drawn to the opposition’s attention is the use of the term “approval”. It is intriguing and a little concerning that this term exists to describe the situation. The bill makes it very clear that as long as the applicant has a working with vulnerable people card and provides the relevant details to the institute, they must be included on the register of pre-service teachers. That is to say that the role of the TQI is not active or discretionary; it is simply a matter of including pre-service teachers on the register.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video