Page 1976 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 23 June 2021
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anything publicly. In some cases, they say that they are too scared to do so, but I will quote from one who said, “I have organised to see Jeremy Hanson and Elizabeth Lee as soon as possible and the Liberal Party regarding Education ACT. It is spot on. It is my lived experience.” So many people have come to me and said, “Thank you for saying what many of us have been saying on the front line of education in the ACT.”
There has also been public commentary in the editorial of the Canberra Times, which said:
The ACT’s education system has encountered some snags and now needs some well-informed navigation to reset the course.
The editorial said:
It is wholly accepted that education must always be an evolving space, and new ideas are always welcome—but in the all-important moulding of young minds, surely it’s prudent to hasten slowly.
An independent inquiry, not stacked with political insiders but those with knowledge and hands-on experience, could embrace not just this issue, but a range of them confronting Canberra’s education landscape.
That is exactly what I am calling for. Ian Bushnell, from the RiotACT, wrote a pretty comprehensive piece in response, saying that the ACT government needs to learn from its mistakes on schools. In that article he said:
The Canberra Liberals’ new Education Strategy will resonate with the many Canberra parents who have growing misgivings about the direction of ACT Government schools.
It covers many of the sore points and suspicions held by parents that all is not well despite the efforts of teachers, principals and their school communities, and calls for a review of the system.
The article goes on:
Much of the Strategy’s language would not be out of place in the Directorate’s own documents, but the Liberals have highlighted enough to support its call for an overhaul of the system and a recalibration to a more uniform governance of schools and a more instruction-based, direct teaching model, at least in the early years.
I make two points very clear. Firstly, this is not in any sense a criticism of our very dedicated, hardworking teachers at the front end of schools, the other staff that work in schools and the school principals. It is not. This is a critique of the system in which they work. I am sure that we would all agree that we want to support those teachers to do what they do best. That is what this is all about. The criticisms that we have levelled—I have been very clear on this—were not assertions of the Canberra Liberals—Jeremy Hanson or Elizabeth Lee. The strategy—you can go through it—deeply references academics and experts, and what front-line people, including parents and others, are saying.
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