Page 418 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 21 February 1990
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The cornerstone of the ACT school system is the conviction that schooling is optimised when responsibility for the educative process is shared throughout the community.
The Government shares very much that sentiment and indeed would like to strengthen and broaden the application of that principle in our education system. That foundation referred to was well and truly laid from at least the early 1970s onwards, when the people of the ACT moved spontaneously to establish a separate education system which, in my opinion and doubtless in the opinion of others in this place, continues to move forward in many respects in the front ranks of Australian schooling structures.
We are by no means complacent about that achievement by the parents, citizens, teachers and students of this community. Members will recall that I was able to announce a series of policy initiatives late last month in matters such as the monitoring and assessment of literacy and numeracy, a continuous review program for all ACT public schools, and the formulation of strategies and changes for the improvement of our public high schools. In addition, we were able to see the enrolment of the first full fee paying overseas students in our public school system, a development which should enhance both the financial standing and the national and international reputation of our school system.
Fittingly, with the approach of ACT self-government the growing role and status of the Schools Authority had already been recognised by the leaders of State education systems in this country and New Zealand. In November 1988 they agreed that the authority should host the main meeting of the Conference of Directors-General of Education in Australia and New Zealand, and that happened in Canberra in March 1989. The Authority's Chief Education Officer, Dr Willmot, now Secretary to the department, became chairman of the conference at that time.
The aspect of the change from Commonwealth to ACT responsibility which I want to emphasise today is that, if the education system was marked in the former period by its closeness to the needs and aspirations of this community, it is more so now than ever. This is the message that I want to convey in the tabling of this report. I think I can promise you that that theme will emerge even more strongly in the next report. That document should at least be in a position to deal with the inception of our proposals for initiating community participation, not just in the governance of individual neighbourhood schools but also in consultation over the broad conduct of the overall system.
The Assembly will notice that the report before it surveys a great deal of preparation and change, which has effectively prepared the ground for policy developments to
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