Page 4786 - Week 13 - Thursday, 28 November 2019
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Education Amendment Bill 2017
Debate resumed from 26 October 2017, on motion by Ms Berry:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (4.15): I rise to speak on this bill in the absence of Ms Lee today, but it is fitting because as the shadow minister for education I moved that debate on this bill be adjourned some two-plus years ago. The bill was introduced in October 2017 and was designed to produce three major objectives: firstly, to restrict the eligibility of ACT home education registration to those who live in the ACT; and, secondly, to provide for further restrictions and qualifications to be required through regulations. These are abundantly fine, and although the devil is in the detail the opposition will support the amendments that have been circulated by the minister.
The third major goal of the bill is to do away with provisional registration. Under the act the fundamental is that the grant of provisional registration is non-discretionary. Further, whether it is due to a flaw in the drafting or not, there is the possibility of a child being perpetually re-registered for provisional home education without any oversight from the Education Directorate. This clearly is not a sound policy provision and may be open to being misused.
We admit that the possibility of a child’s registration being in some kind of recursive loop is problematic. This is far from unsolvable and in our opinion could have been dealt with other than by the complete abolition of this provision. The government has, however, chosen to abolish provisional home registration in its entirety. Regardless, throughout our consultation on this bill home educators have repeatedly raised this change as a major concern.
They are concerned that considering the limited consultation they had prior to the presentation of the bill in 2017 the government was, whether on purpose or not, making it harder for parents to act in the best interests of their children when considering home education at short notice.
Although the government insists that the decision to remove a child from school and into home education is not a snap decision, we have heard stories of at least one mother who felt it necessary to withdraw her child overnight from an ACT school and that provisional registration allowed her to do so in a lawful fashion. What followed was a period of three months in which this parent could prepare an education plan and then proceed to apply for full registration.
What also became clear was that the government had not nearly done enough to gain the trust of home educators in the ACT. We can all understand the concern of parents. It is important to recognise that many parents choose home education for their children as the best option for education. However, some are driven to it as an option of last resort, and this comes from a failure of the education system to cater for their children’s needs.
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