Page 930 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 1990
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MR MOORE: Exactly. When we read annual reports we ought not necessarily see them as glossy reports to be considered as being wonderful. But we should look at them with a critical eye and try to work out some of the undertones that are carried within them. In this instance the undertone is about moving away from a positive relationship between the department and parents to breaking that down so that the department is telling parents, their clients, what they should have and what is best for them.
DR KINLOCH (9.25): In a minute I will go back to a text that I have, but I would immediately like to pick up this matter of the culture of service project, which was referred to by Mr Stefaniak and Mr Moore. It is one page only, at page 37 of the report, and I commend it to members. I notice, for example, that the working party is very concerned about developing customer-friendly systems. It will develop a plan by involving all parents, students, schools and sections in discussions about ways of providing the best possible service. I believe there is very good intent behind the culture of service project, but I will say to both Mr Stefaniak and Mr Moore that the Minister for Health, Education and the Arts and I will be looking with great care at this area of the Department of Education.
Mr Moore has mentioned a number of people who are referred to on that page. I have known some of them for a very long time indeed. One of them is a former student, others I have met only this year, and I do not know one at all; I have not met that person yet. Of the seven, I can speak with only the highest regard of the six whom I know, including one person who is a principal of a high school and who is doing a doctorate on the history of the ACT Education Authority. Others are principals with whom I have worked; one person who was a chairperson of one of the accreditation committees. I can speak only highly of them. If we can measure the excellence in the education system by the kinds of people who lead it, I am happy with the people mentioned there.
That does not mean that, as Mr Moore says, there are not legitimate criticisms of it as a glossy report. Of course, one should look for those. My reactions to the ACT Schools Authority annual report are both personal and, I hope it may be fairly said, professional. Over many years I had direct and steady involvement with the then authority, not only as a parent of three children who went through the system from preschool to year 12 but also, more to the point, as someone who had a professional relationship with several branches of the authority, especially the accreditation division and other divisions which maintained a liaison with tertiary institutions. I have long admired the system whose work is so well represented in this report.
The report is both intriguing and historical because it reflects the ACT Schools Authority's functions, first under the Commonwealth Government and then, for a few months in
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