Page 790 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Secondary School Courses
MR MOORE: I refer the Minister for Industry, Employment and Education to an article in today's Canberra Times by Stephen Boyden, a professorial fellow in human ecology at the ANU, recommending the introduction of a core subject of biohistory to all secondary schools. Biohistory, according to Stephen Boyden, is "an integrative and coherent system of knowledge that reflects the sequence of happenings in the history of the biosphere and of civilisation from the beginning of life to the present day".
Will the Minister give serious thought to the introduction of such courses which attempt to expand students' intellectual understanding rather than concentrating their learning on courses simplistically calculated to respond to economic interests and pressures?
MR WHALAN: I thank Mr Moore for the question. It continues a series of questions which demonstrate his interest in the education part of my portfolio. A feature of the ACT schools system is excellence. Only yesterday or the day before I had the opportunity, in response to a question from Mr Humphries, to indicate the achievements which have been made by students from our ACT schools system under the ASAT procedures, and compared with the rest of Australia those results in the ACT are quite excellent.
But the system is also a dynamic one; it is one which is subject to constant change and constant review. The earlier question from Mr Wood, which I answered, is an indication of that ongoing process of continually reviewing the education system and attempting to improve it. It is one of the advantages of a relatively small system and a relatively flexible system, which we have in the ACT. I am not familiar with the particular issues that the member has raised, but certainly I will get a more direct response in relation to that issue from the Schools Authority and let him know.
Water Recycling
MR PROWSE: Mr Deputy Speaker, I address my question without notice to the Minister for Housing and Urban Services. I refer to the need for a substantial increase in the water storage facilities of the ACT, which is required in order to match the increasing demand for domestic water supplies in the Territory. Based on the fact that advice presented at numerous forums on water treatment shows that the water leaving the lower Molonglo sewerage treatment works is of a very high quality and also based on the fact that other dry nations such as ours - for example, Israel - effectively conserve this precious commodity by recycling, is the ACT Government not in a position to take the lead in Australia and install a water
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .